by Doreen Martel

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: February 13, 2012

The term virtual office has changed dramatically. With the increase in technology, many would not even recognize the former meaning, which was originally the term for a shared service that would include a business address, mail service, phone and fax service, web hosting as well as meeting and conference facilities. These "virtual offices" are very different from what we recognize them to be today.

Today a virtual office has many definitions including:

Telecommuting

More businesses are discovering the value in having employees work from home one or more days a week. It has been determined by the Department of Labor that doing this with only one (1) employee can help cut costs up to $10,000 per year. The telecommuter's home typically becomes the companies' virtual office. Tasks such as data entry, sales, telephone calls, etc., have become commonplace tasks that may be accomplished from home.

Small business owner

For many small businesses, the virtual office has taken on an entirely new meaning. Let us consider for a moment the small website developer that wants to be able to provide their clients with not just stunning website designs but search engine friendly content, blogs, and even articles for bait link. For those business owners (many of whom work from the comfort of their homes) they can offer these by hiring a virtual staff. By taking advantage of sites such as Helium to purchase articles or use the marketplace or sites like oDesk where they can hire writers, graphics artists and others, they might have a virtual office that is something like this:

Primary Owner - California

Graphics Designer - India

Website Content Provider - Massachusetts

Blog Developer - Texas

Blog Content Provider - Florida

This is a virtual office environment that is perfect for the small business owner.

Other virtual office schemes

There is another type of virtual office that is often overlooked that has become a great boon to many small businesses. Websites such as Google and Zoho have made applications available online that allow for document sharing, database creation, virtual meetings, and other handy tools for those who want to do their business across many team members without the added expense of a brick and mortar establishment.

The added benefit of these types of systems is that it will not matter if all team members have the same software systems available to them. Systems like Skype also now provide extremely low cost (or free) internet phone calling systems that allow the virtual team members to come together and discuss projects.

Nearly all of virtual offices will be required to have the basics on hand such as a computer, an all in one system that allows for fax, copy and scan abilities and other supplies such as desks, staplers and some of the other gadgets typically found in a brick and mortar office. In addition, today's virtual office will need a high speed internet connection to ensure that the virtual office runs smoothly. Virtual offices today are not the same as they were prior to the advent home-based businesses and of course, the Internet.

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