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Alliance Virtual Offices Readies Accounting Services

February 27th, 2012 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

LOS ANGELES–Alliance Virtual Offices is committed to providing a complete virtual office space for its customers—and that means service-oriented bells and whistles.

With that in mind, and just in time for tax season, Alliance Virtual Office is readying to launch a new virtual accounting service in the United States that aims to change the way mobile workers and entrepreneurs do business.

Specifically, Alliance Virtual Office is partnering with ISN Corporation, a major national services provider, to offer accounting services to existing and new clients. ISN is a solid provider. Founded in 1980, the company is well-known for providing technology-driven solutions to agencies and commercial clients alike.

“We are extremely excited about this accounting services product launch, as we see it as yet another way to add immense value to our growing industry,� says ABCN Chairman Frank Cottle. “It is our mission to show the world that the virtual office is, in fact, as valuable as the traditional, full-time office—if not more so.�

Why is Alliance Virtual Offices rolling out this supportive service now? Well, research shows that businesses are traditionally very loyal to their accountants. Alliance Virtual Offices views this new product as a strategic way to improve customer loyalty.

Alliance Virtual Offices new accounting services will let virtual office users tap into certified, professional, U.S.-based resources to close the books each month. Alliance Virtual Offices is offering a variety of plan options with price points starting at $595 monthly.

In case you aren’t familiar with Alliance Virtual Offices, the company provides premium virtual office solutions and meeting rooms for companies all over the world. Alliance Virtual Offices has more than 3,000 meeting rooms and more than 600 locations around the world.

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Jay Suites Rolls Out Three New York Virtual Office Plans

August 3rd, 2011 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

NEW YORK-For all those who believe keeping pace with rapid globalization is an unavoidable challenge for local small business owners, Jay Suites is setting out to prove you wrong—in a good way.

Indeed, Jay Suites is working to show small businesses that they can compete with multinational firms on the international scene without the burden of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars of capital for traditional office space.

How will Jay Suites prove its point? With three New York virtual office space plans that let small businesses establish a larger corporate footprint without the excessive overhead. Jay Suites offers tiered virtual identity plans starting at less than $100 a month.

Juda Srour, president of Jay Suites, answered some real questions from curious clients and loyal readers interested in learning more about Jay Suites’ Virtual Offices.

From a cost perspective, a virtual office is one of the only options for my company to establish a presence in New York, although we are based in Florida. I am concerned that clients will realize we do not have a private, dedicated office space. How you make sure this doesn’t happen?

Srour: First of all, there is no difference in terms of signage and exposure for our full-time office tenants and our virtual clients. All of our clients, regardless of plan type, receive a lobby listing in the building lobby and have private mail box facilities and identical access arrangements, so from the outside, a virtual tenant is indistinguishable from a full-time office rental.

In addition, when calls are received or clients drop in unannounced, our staff ensures that no details of your arrangement with us are openly discussed, and the situation is handled as if you have simply stepped out of the office. With conference room rentals, the same professional code applies in terms of how we interact with you, your staff, and clients. Our service levels are far superior to what you are accustomed to, which, combined with the elegance of our décor and luxurious surroundings, we’re positive your clients will be too impressed to dig into the details.

I am in the process of opening a Web-based business and want to use a virtual office plan for receiving mail and calls, and occasional conference room use. Since I do not have an established company yet, how can I go about doing this?

Srour: The easiest thing for you to do is come preview the location you are most interested in, discuss your goals and business structure with our on-site manager, and determine which plan best fits your needs. Jay Suites’ locations offer virtual plans for individuals, small businesses, and global organizations—no matter how small or preliminary you feel your business is, we provide customized services and individual attention to each and every client, every single time. This is something I stress to my managers, who in turn make sure all of our employees realize that we want everyone to feel as respected as the most powerful CEO.

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Alliance Virtual Offices Adds 35 New Int’l Locations

July 11th, 2011 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

LOS ANGELES-Alliance Virtual Offices is showing why it’s a force to be reckoned with in the virtual office space industry. The company has launched 35 new virtual office locations in cities around the world in 2011.

Alliance Virtual Offices was birthed with a concept to offer the virtual office industry’s highest quality services and amenities at market competitive prices. The company targets mobile professionals with a suite of products and services that help drive productivity and efficiency while slashing overhead costs.

Specifically, Alliance Virtual Offices services include Live Receptionists, address and meeting room services and communication systems that empower users to cut traditional office costs and waste without sacrificing professionalism.

Frank Cottle, Chairman of Alliance Virtual Offices, says the addition of the 35 new locations better enables the company to service its current clientele and attract more new clients based on convenient locations and impressive addresses.

“We also believe that the relevance of the virtual office in today’s economically and environmentally conscientious society is undeniable,� Cottle says. “As the modern, mobile workforce continues to seek out more efficient, technological solutions to its business needs, the significance of the virtual office only continues to expand, and Alliance is a leader in providing solutions to both members and clients.�

With the addition of 35 new locations, Alliance Virtual Offices now has more than 600 virtual office addresses—and prices start at $50 a month.

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Office Edge Inks Davinci Virtual Office Deal

April 1st, 2011 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

Since leaving the Intelligent Offices network, Office Edge has been on the move. The company has rebranded itself, added video conferencing capabilities—and now it’s hooking up with Davinci Virtual Office Solutions.

Office Edge Miami, Office Edge Coral Gables and Office Sunrise just inked an “affiliation agreement� with Davinci Virtual. Essentially, that means Office Edge clients can tap into virtual offices and conference rooms at more than 750 Davinci locations around the world. It also means that Davinci Virtual customers can use the mailing address and conference rooms at Office Edge’s South Florida executive office suites.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our clients,� says Robert Ramsden, president of Office Edge Miami. “Now I can offer my clients the ease and convenience of virtual offices, executive suites and conference rooms on an hourly basis all over the world. Our clients will improve their profitability with a network of affordable virtual offices, conference rooms and branch offices.�

According to Ramsden, Office Edge clients have already seen benefits from the Davinci Virtual hook up. He points to one client that needed to open an office in Mexico City. Because of the partnership with Davinci Virtual, Office Edge was able to offer the client a branch office in a strategic location at pennies on the dollar of what it would have cost the client to rent traditional office space.

And that’s not the only example. Ramsden also called out a client who was traveling to Toronto to meet a prospect. Ramsden says the client booked a conference room for his presentation—and landed the client, in part, thanks to the professional office space in the prestigious location.

Of course, this is also a good deal for Davinci Virtual. Davinci just expanded its South Florida virtual office capabilities by three—and these are all strong locations. This is a great example of the synergies in the alternative workplace world.

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Graduating Attorneys: Rent a Virtual Office Space

May 27th, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

It’s the time of year again. Young men and women are graduating from law school, getting ready to take the bar exam, and either looking to join a law firm or launch their own.

Law.com is targeting on its May articles to the latter group. The article gives young attorneys entering into solo practice some sound advice. The first piece of advice attorney Scott K. Field, the author of the article, offers to young attorneys is to not go into solo practice. But in case the newly-minted lawyer doesn’t take that advice, he offers plenty more.

Let’s listen in to Field’s advice:

“The ultimate priority of a new graduate opening a solo firm is survival, especially through the first six months to a year of work. The best way for a new solo to ensure failure is to spend money on unneeded overhead. For example, the solo must decide whether he needs dedicated office space or whether he can work from home. With available technology, there is not necessarily a need for a traditional office.

“A virtual office can provide staff to answer phones, an address for mail delivery and use of a conference room. A new solo who must have a traditional office should find an existing firm that offers a short sublease. Dealing with most office buildings directly will only lead to a long lease and unnecessary fees.�

Did you hear what Field said? Young attorneys going solo probably don’t need traditional office space. Sure, if they want to have the reception area and a nice place to meet with potential clients every day they can lease serviced office space, which negates the need for a full time staff. But a virtual office might be even more practical for a legal upstart scrambling for clients. With a virtual office, the young attorney can always go to the bricks-and-mortar facility and rent a conference room for a meeting when needed.

The advice that Field is giving to young attorneys rings true for young professionals just graduating college in other disciplines as well. With jobs tougher for graduates to come by, many are forced to bootstrap an entrepreneurial venture. Executive office suites and virtual offices can be the best way to get the new business off the ground.

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Marketing Virtual Office Space the Low-Tech Way

May 24th, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

Do business events drive virtual office rentals? Executive Offices Group thinks so. The company set out to prove it by attending one of the biggest London business events of the year last week.

Held May 20-21, Business Startup 2010 is the United Kingdom’s biggest events for small businesses, start-ups and companies looking for strategic ways to expand. Executive Offices Group decided this would be the perfect venue to exhibit its London virtual office services.

“Our virtual office packages have always been hugely popular with small businesses and startups looking to ‘punch above their weight’, with prestigious office addresses and a myriad of other services available in several different cost-effective pricing schemes,� says Emily Smith, marketing director of Executive Offices Group.

Executive Offices Group offers the typical virtual office line-up, including mail handling, telephone answering, multiple-center touchdown, access to a number of business lounges and pre-pay meeting room packages.

At the show, Executive Offices Group highlighted the availability of virtual office addresses at various locations around London starting at just £50 per month. Executive Offices Group also talked up the “prominence and respectability” of a prestigious office address, without the physical space and related expense overheads, as a crucial cost-saver for new businesses.

Executive Offices Group was wise to attend this event. It was a captive audience of just the kind of customers the company targets for its virtual office services. Marketing is a vital part of any business plan, but even companies in the fast-growth virtual office space need to be cautious about where they spend those marketing dollars. The Internet gives a wide reach, but sometimes strategic events like the Business Startup 2010 can give virtual office companies the ability to do some face-to-face marketing that drives immediate leads.

I am not sure if other virtual office companies were also at the Business Startup 2010 event. If they were, it merely raised awareness of virtual office space. If they weren’t, then Executive Offices Group had the floor to itself and, I imagine, closed some deals.

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Virtual-Office Group Celebrates 30th Anniversary

May 21st, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

We’ve seen a lot of anniversaries in the virtual office and serviced office industry recently. We could hardly leave out one of the virtual office industry’s pioneers—Virtual-Office Group.

Richard Nissen founded the Virtual-Office Group 30 years ago. That’s pretty amazing. I didn’t even know the virtual office concept was alive in 1980. But a visionary Nissen has been operating alternative office space in the heart of Mayfair since for three decades.

“Companies looking to save costs and cut staff numbers—without compromising on the quality of retained managers—will increasingly have to offer flexible working conditions,” Nissen says. “Those who don’t are already losing out to those who do.â€�

As the French would say, touché.

Virtual Office Special Offer
Nissen is celebrating the milestone with a special introductory trial offer on his virtual office services. New customers get one month free for any or all of the company’s London Presence packages when they sign a six-month contract. Virtual-Office Group is also waiting the £100 set up fee for the rest of this year! What is a London Presence package, you ask? It offers home-based businesses a prestigious mailing address in London and/or a dedicated central London telephone number with call forwarding options.

Nissen cites many reasons to use virtual offices:

  • Leverage lower costs to test the waters with a new product or service without committing to long-term fixed asset expenditure
  • Take a business to the next level by projecting a more impressive image
  • Reduce carbon footprints with saved energy emissions
  • Reduce labor costs while promoting staff loyalty and morale

“Flexible working conditions can tip the balance between talented staff going with one employer over another,” says David Pinchard, MD of TopInterim, a long-standing virtual office London client. “Apart from the financial savings associated with reduced staff commuting, an increased loyalty and motivation resulting from the faith demonstrated invariably results in greater productivity.â€�

History of Virtual-Office Group
Virtual-Office Group has evolved over the years. When Nissen launched the company in 1980, it was in the form of serviced office space in Piccadilly that offered entrepreneurs flexible office accommodations and support services. In 1992, Nissen rolled out his version of a virtual office telecommunications solution that let non-resident city professionals tap into the image of a central London address and telephone prefix.

Congratulations to Nissen on this important milestone.

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Phone.com Launches Channel Partner Program

May 11th, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

Phone.com is spreading its sales affiliate wings with a new Channel Partner Program that paves the way for sales agents and value-added resellers to generate income by peddling the companies virtual PBX services.

The Channel Partner Program is offering what Phone.com calls “up-front Success Fee opportunities” as well as a recurring percentage from sales. That means you get an initial fee for winning a customer and an ongoing check as long as that customer continues using the virtual phone service. That latter part is especially attractive and should give incentive to fence-sitters.

Equipping Sale Agents for Success

Phone.com is ready and willing to equip its channel partners with tools, white papers and case studies to help them sell the services. Phone.com also offers access to an automated service ordering portal, as well as a private web portal for Channel Partner Program members so they can track your sale sand revenues.

“Independent sales agents provide an important service to business customers throughout the United States,” says Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com. “Phone.com recognizes that there have been few solutions for IP telephony available for agents to sell to customers with lower-end requirements of two to forty phone lines. This program has been created to address that need and to contribute to their successes.”

A Strategic Opportunity

To be sure, this is a strategic opportunity to partner with a respected brand in the SMB hosted PBX and cloud communications industry. It could also be a major boon for Phone.com, putting plenty of new feet on the street to sell or resell its small business virtual PBX phone system.

The bottom line is, 800 numbers, vanity numbers, and local area code numbers that come equipped with call answering, call routing and other features is becoming bigger and bigger business. Phone.com is one of the best in the industry.

By launching this Channel Partner Program—and by making services that were once only affordable to large enterprises financially feasible for smaller businesses—the company is positioning itself for industry dominance.

Let’s see how the likes of RingCentral and FreedomVoice respond…

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Davinci Virtual Office Solutions Celebrate Four Years in Business

May 4th, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

Has it been four years already? Davinci Virtual is celebrating its fourth anniversary in business. Despite a global recession, the virtual office company is going strong and growing fast, surpassing all of its projected milestones in just its fourth year of operation.

Indeed, Davinci Virtual has emerged as the leading provider of virtual office solutions. That’s an amazing feat seeing as many virtual office companies were alive and well long before Davinci Virtual was an idea in president and CEO Bill Grodnik’s head.

The difference between Davinci Virtual and other providers may be a grander vision, a more aggressive growth strategy, a partnership strategy, or continued innovation. I suppose you could argue for one or all of those points. What is clear is that Davinci Virtual has strengthened its position as a market leader for turnkey virtual office solutions around the world.

“We are very proud to celebrate four years of continued growth, innovation and success,” Grodnik says. “We will continue to grow our worldwide virtual office location network, develop cutting edge technologies and add best of breed virtual office solutions on a global scale. We really truly are enjoying what we do and it shows.â€�

Davinci’s Smart Moves

I think one of the smartest moves Davinci Virtual has made is to build out specific Web sites for each of its core service offerings. Davinci Virtual has invested in an attractive, user-friendly online experience that welcomes would-be customers and current clients to explore the possibilities of virtual office systems and meeting rooms.

Davinci has also been smart about seizing ancillary opportunities. Rather than just renting virtual office space, the company looked at virtual office technologies that help companies work smarter, faster and more efficiently. Davinci added those product lines and thereby added to their revenue stream. Examples include Live Web Chat, one of the company’s latest product announcements. Live Web Chat isn’t directly related to a virtual office space, but it is in line with what companies that do business virtually need in order to provide better customer service.

Davinci’s networking strategy has also helped it expand quickly. The virtual office solutions company boasts more than 750 locations around the world, serving more than 6,000 companies and entrepreneurs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central America, Asia and Australia. Davinci doesn’t own all those locations. It has rather built a network of partners.

At the end of the day, Davinci Virtual has exceeded its financial goals, in part, by setting the stage for its clients to exceed their financial goals through cost-cutting. With services like local and toll-free numbers, unified messaging, voice and video conferencing, live call answering, and virtual assistants, Davinci Virtual helps businesses offer a professional image without high cost of traditional office space.

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Phone.com Partners with TurboBridge to Offer HD Phone Conferencing

May 3rd, 2010 Jennifer LeClaire Comments off

In a partnership of hi-def proportions, Phone.com and TurboBridge are collaborating on a audio and conferencing service that aims to be the premier service in the virtual office industry. This appears to be the next evolution of audio conferencing and distinguishes Phone.com from its competition.

With a little help from TurboBridge, Phone.com is launching a high-definition conferencing service to compliment the HD Business Phone service it launched three months ago. With the two HD services combined, the company is betting it has the industry’s best apps for HD voice. Customers will get their own dedicated conference access number and a speed dial access via their Phon.com virtual office handsets.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with TurboBridge, the company recently launched the a high definition audio conferencing service. The service is based on TurboBridge’s patent-pending TurboSound technology and offers conferencing features like call recording, support for up to 250 conference participants, and lecture and Q&A modes. TurboBridge also claims to offer more access methods than competing conference services, with direct connectivity for IP PBX’s and IP telephone handsets via a public SIP URI.

One aspect of the deal that I think is important for Phone.com going forward is the ability to access TurboBridge HD voice though IP services like Skype. Skype and similar services are wildly popular ways for people to talk, hold video chats, and share desktops. Beyond convenience, with the IP functions, users can avoid extra phone charges. Any competing service that doesn’t include IP options is lacking in important functionality in the virtual office space world.

At launch, Phone.com is offering the TurboBridge functionality at no additional cost. This is a strong value proposition for customers looking for HD conferencing solutions. It’s not clear if the company will begin charging for the service in the future, or if perhaps Phone.com may even acquire TurboBridge to add to its arsenal of weapons in an increasingly competitive virtual office market.

Sure, it may be very early in the game for HD voice and conferencing solutions. I’ve said before that I’m not sure how many companies would opt for it at this time, but Phone.com is building out its infrastructure with innovative technologies that bode well for the brand now and as the market matures.

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