Top 4 Virtual Solutions

1. Virtual Office

Most people assume that virtual office is just an address where your office is registered. However, virtual office can be much more than that. A virtual office can also be a real office but with out all of the associated costs. For example if you wish to meet a client then you can usually book a meeting room and a day office. The meeting room gives you the professional look you need when meeting your client and a day office simply makes it look like it’s your office. All of these services are paid for as you use them rather than lengthy contracts. Depending on which service you use, you can even use conference facilities if you’re looking to meet more than one client.

2. Virtual Assistant

This is a new innovation in the Virtual office world. There are many PA’s, secretaries and assistants sitting at home and looking for work that suits their time scales. As long as you’re not after someone sitting in an office then a virtual assistant can do all the normal secretarial work you need. The only difference is that they work remotely, do it within your time scales, but only charge you for the time it took them. This is a great money saving option if you need letters dictating, report typing up, travel arrangements organising, meetings scheduled etc, allowing you more time to concentrate on the operation of your business.

3. Virtual Reception

A virtual reception is a great compliment to a virtual office. A Virtual Reception is when a client is looking to get hold of you, they dial your number and would be greeted by a receptionist, who would then attempt to transfer your call or take a message. They would answer the phone in your business name and would give the impression that the caller has come through to the company receptionist. Again you would pay a nominal monthly fee and then a small amount for each call transferred there after. This is a great feature if you have 2 or 3 employees within the business and your all working either from home or on the road. The business appears to be a lot bigger to the outside world and no one knows where you are. This service is usually very flexible and there’s a varied range of services from just answering the phone to full outbound telemarketing.

4. Virtual PBX

Virtual PBX works in many different ways. For example if you have 20 people working globally for you, but you want to advertise 1 number, the pbx system will divert all calls as required and in some cases VOIP is used which keeps the cost to a minimum. Again no one ever knows where the team is based and gives your company the unified look. A lot of businesses use this facility not only because of the unification but the cost savings on a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system. This system work in the same way as skype Voice where you can call people over the internet either on their internet system, Mobile phone or Landline.

Written By Richard Smith

Virgin Media upgrades is good news for Virtual Office users

Using the internet to support your home business, either through Virtual Office services or Internet services, requires quality, hi-speed internet communications. Virgin Media's press release below is great news for all virtual office services.

Virgin Media the UK’s only provider of fibre optic broadband services across the country, makes history this month with the completion of Britain’s first next-generation broadband network. Having spent the last 18 months conducting significant upgrades using the latest DOCSIS 3.0 technology, Virgin Media has tripled its network capacity and is the first company to offer ultrafast speeds of up to 50Mb to over 12 million homes across the UK.

Virgin Media will also start a new pilot to trial a range of upload speeds of up to 10Mb – much faster than the download speeds of most ADSL connections. In addition to trialling the technical capabilities of the DOCSIS 3.0 network, the trial will explore the demand for higher upstream speeds for bandwidth hungry families, on services such as video conferencing, multiplayer gaming and home working.

This week the company will also launch the “Freedom” netbook, its first ever branded laptop. The bespoke laptop, available in black or Virgin red, has been optimised for 50Mb speeds and will be packaged with top of the line software. Both new and existing customers will be able to get the laptop at no additional charge when they take selected great value bundled packages.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media said, “As the first company to bring broadband to the UK ten years ago, the completion of our next-generation network marks another pioneering moment for internet access in the UK. We are delighted with the performance and reliability of our 50Mb service, and with the customer feedback. Now the roll-out is days from being complete, we’re ready to take 50Mb to the next stage of development and reinforce our leading position in the broadband market.”

Virgin Media is currently piloting the real-world deployment of 200Mb speeds in Ashford, Kent.

This is great news for all businesses in the UK looking to use Virtual Office facilities as this means that they can access their virtual office services including VOIP services quicker and cheaper than ever.

Press Release from Virgin Media

Virtual Office - the Green Solution

Eco office is the way forward. Or so it seems! Most people are becoming more conscious of the eco damage that we are doing to the planet. From recycling household waste to children in school recycling paper and plastic bottles, the impact on the planet will hopefully ensure a brighter future for generations to come.

Our carbon footprint doesn’t stop at home, but continues in the work place. Not all business are set up for recycling or reducing their carbon footprint and frankly most of them are not interested because of the costs. For example if we wanted to recycle paper we would simply put it in our recycle bin and this would we recycled for free, whereas a business would have to pay for this facility.

One of the advantages of a Virtual office is that you are reducing your carbon footprint. How????

You don’t have to drive to an office, thus you don’t have to use fuel for your car. You will also have a reduced mileage, which means that you will have less wear and tear on the car and on the tyres, thus less production costs for replacements and thus less carbon footprint.

You don’t have to light, heat and maintain a real office, again reducing the carbon footprint not just in the utilities but also in the maintenance,.

This also extends to the waste you create as a business. Paper is one of the biggest waste products from any office and 76.4% of paper in business is not recycled. I am sure someone will do the calculations but if you think the average box of paper is 1 tree then you will soon get an idea of how much paper is wasted and how many trees could be saved.

Its inevitable that business will soon be taxed if they do not actively recycle or reduce their carbon foot print which is why you should consider a virtual office solution right from the outset. A virtual Office solution is one of the best options to make your business operate greener.

Eco offices are a thing of the future and buy looking to the future and making the decision now to go green, may just save you a lot of time and money in the future. Virtual offices are becoming more and more popular as the outlay costs are minimal, you can set most of the costs as a fixed monthly cost, thus allowing you to budget better and as its all done online, contracts, agreements, statements and invoices can all be done online which reduces postal mail and the carbon footprint that generates.

Written By: Nicky Smith (Business Futures UK)