Intelligent Offices

Low-Cost Premium Offices

2012-01-13T07:25:00.000-08:00

The "Your Office Anywhere" conference, held in Lisbon in the past month of December, on a partnership between Avila Business Centers and OJE, confirmed that the new tendencies of work spaces management came to stay, with a special highlight to the virtual Office and the Coworking.

The current recession climate alerted companies and professionals to more efficient models, which allows reducing costs and increasing the productivity levels. In this domain, business centers are clearly leading in innovation, offering Virtual Offices’ integrated solutions, Coworking, plus the turnkey Office rental with shared secretariat and state of the art technology.

These solutions meet the current market needs: recent studies point out that, in average, only one third of the time is passed in the Office. Companies that do not need a permanent physical office and that can work anywhere, using temporary work spaces and punctual use of meeting rooms, besides other facilities, such as the personalized telephone answering, prestige address for headquarters and correspondence management, are increasing more and more.

In a context where the watchword is “costs reduction”, the amounts of this kind of services are quite attractive, varying from 50 to 100 Euros per month, according to the functionality needed. The offices rental, despite more expensive, continues to be a valid solution to many activity sectors and present a balanced cost-benefit relation for those who do not pass without a permanent physical space.

In our market, office centers assume itself more and more as business and networking centers, where companies and star-ups find support in the initial phase, but are also more and more searched by big companies which are downsizing and resizing internally. These companies choose smaller spaces, maintaining centralism and high quality standards of the facilities. “Flexibility” and “Costs Rationalization” are the keywords and these centers have managed to guarantee the desired premium services at low-cost prices.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Centers

http://www.avilabusinesscenter.com/

Grey’s Anatomy and the Virtual Offices

2012-01-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

A recent article from Emily Sokolow published on the blog wixmobile.com highlighted the fact that the virtual office had been declared as Dr. Owen Hunt work space, from the famous American series “Grey’s Anatomy.”

"The way I see it, my office is where I am!" it was with this statement that Dr. Owen Hunt, recent promoted to head of Surgery, highlighted that the his work organization model is not based on a fixed place: what really matters is the works he develops and not place where he develops it. It’s not just about using new technologies in order to make our work easier, like tablets or remote access to office; the main objective is the productivity and efficiency increase of our organizations.

Analising this episode, we conclude that is only one example of how companies and professionals can deal with the challenges of modern economy and with the current recession contect. The new work spaces – whether the virtual office model, Coworking or teleworking – have to respond to two fundamental needs of the 21st century organizations: flexibility and rationality.

In the case of the Virtual offices, they allow professionals to develop their work in full, with more reduced costs and in a more productive way, wherever they are, in case they do not need a permanent office to work in.

A study made this year by the consultant Unwired Ventures concluded that 71% of the professionals of younger generations is prepared to adopt the virtual office, in contrast of the traditional office. Besides the habits we acquire in relation to remote access to information, the main advantages have to do with time spend in travelling, costs reduction, balance between professional life and the comfort of be able to work anywhere. They were, very likely, also these the reasons that took the surgeon Dr. Owen Hunt to choose the Virtual Office solution.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Centers

www.avilabusinesscenter.com

Avila Business Centers wins the 2011 Call Center 2011 trophy

2011-11-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

The Company won in the category of “Costumer Care by Other Channels”, standing ahead of companies like Zon, Optimus and PT. This was the first time an Office Center achieved this award.

Lisbon 18^th November 2011 - The Avila Business Centers, company of turnkey physical work spaces for renting and leader in the virtual offices business, was the grand winner of the prize “Costumer Care by Other Channels” in the 2011 edition of the Call Center Trophy.

In early October, Avila Business Centershad been appointed by the organization as one of the finalists along with the services of Costumer Care by Other Channels by Optimus, CTT Expresso, Teleperformance, Zon, PT Contact-TMN, Liberty Seguros, Lanidor and Nestlé, among others, on a total of 22 companies competing directly with Avila Business Centers.

At the ceremony, held on November 17th, the Avila Business Centers would become the grand winner of the Call Center Trophy in the category of “Costumer Care by Other Channels”. In 11 editions of the Trophy, never a prize had been assigned to a Business Center before, which reinforces the merits of Avila and the recognition of the quality of customer care in the context of Virtual Offices and Office rental solutions.

“This distinction fills with proud the Avila Business Center’s Team and confirms the professionalism of our personalized service, which includes also the contact by mobile component through the virtual offices app myOffice. We weren’t expecting to come out as winners, because the finalists were all very powerful, however the prize is entirely fair. Now all we have to do is keep providing the same quality service and always seek for the best opportunities and technologies in order to progress in the field of customer care," said Carlos Gonçalves, Avila Business Centers’ CEO.

Which is the best choice? Serviced Office, Virtual Office or Coworking?

2011-10-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

LIBERAL PROFESSIONAlS

Which factors have influence on the choice of an office? The answer is simple: all those contributing to our well being and productivity.

We know that the “price” factor is more and more decisive, but more competitive professionals and companies face the office as an investment: the work they develop always passes through the office (whether a serviced or a virtual one) and we know we spend most part of our time in our work place.

Let us star by the location. The ideal solution is to install our office close to home and at the same time close to our clients. Despite the technologies development, the personal contact with clients and partners still continues to be fundamental in many activities, and for those the time spend in dislocations is always important. The choice of renting a place seems to be the right one, facing the current conjuncture and the flexibility this model offers.

Serviced Office, Virtual Office or Coworking? Depends on the defined objectives. Regardless of the conventional office is the most common choice, there is a growing tendency for the Virtual Office choice, not only for the inherent price (average amounts of 70€/80€ per month in our market), but also because it is the most rational choice for those who do not need a permanent office and want to use punctually work and meeting rooms, as well as to guarantee a secretariat support and a personalized telephone call 24h/7 days per week. On the contrary of what you may think, it is not only liberal professionals who choose the virtual office; multinationals use this model for a long time now: they can settle in a country in less than 24 hours insuring a prestige address to establish the companies head office (image and credibility reinforcement) professional secretariat and meeting rooms with state of the art technology.

Responding to the new market tendencies, Business Centres are betting also on the Coworking, which may also be the right choice for many professional who work at home or at the client’s premises. This model consists on renting a work place in an open-space, in a daily or monthly basis, with a turnkey service which may include internet connexion and access to work rooms. Main advantage? The cooperation environment which potentiates the networking among users and the possibility of using secretariat services rendered by the Business Centres.

*Avila Business Centers’ CEO

www.avilabusinesscenters.com

The Office is where you want it

2011-09-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

The new functioning models of work spaces was the central theme of the Annual Conference of the Office Business Center Association International (OBCAI), made this month in the USA, to the extent of being voted the change of its designation to Global Workspace Association.

In practice, it’s just a name adjustment to a new reality: the offer of global solutions, which goes far beyond the traditional office and which contemplates the new solutions: the virtual Office, the shared work spaces (Coworking) and the distant secretariat (Virtual Assistants).

Since a while ago that Office Centers are not just to rent rooms: nowadays they are true Business Centers and of Networking, where companies and professionals find support in the business initial phases, and also in a growing period, by making upgrades and downgrades accordingly to your needs, using a turnkey service, of punctual work spaces and meeting rooms.

Flexibility and costs rationalization are the key words. The latest data published in the USA refers that 40% of the country’s work force may work remotely, being that new technologies have been giving an effective answer to the professionals and companies needs, with a special highlight to the mobile applications which have been appearing in the market, like the American LiquidSpace or another one which is 100% Portuguese – the myOffice – the first virtual office worldwide application for mobile devices, available in the Apple App Store, in the Android Market and soon optimized for Blackberry and Nokia.

Analysing the themes presented at the International Conference and the new consumption tendencies, one concludes that Portugal, despite its reduced market, presents a good performance at this level, not only at a facilities quality level but also in to what concerns the innovation and adoption of new concepts in expansion throughout the world, like coworking, for example. Portugal presents surely one of the highest growth taxes of Europe in what concerns the opening of coworking spaces, not only in Lisbon and Oporto, showing that our entrepreneurs are aware of this market’s evolution, which is no longer an exclusive of the entrepreneurs working within four walls and in one place. Today the Office is where you want it: with all the advantages at the balance level between your personal and professional life, productivity, costs rationalization and mobility increase.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Centers

www.avilabusinesscenter.com

Broadcast Your Brand

2011-07-04T09:20:00.001-07:00

I have found the expression on a Google search to select a photo that might illustrate a presentation of a Workshop we are organizing about Entrepreneurship Communication. In the recent years, brands divulgation through video has had an exponential growth, not only because there are more and more IT technologies which allow doing it in a free and intuitive way, but also because the Internet and the Social Networks came to potentiate the so called viral effect of these contents. From the several known examples, where Apple is a fundamental benchmark, there are several companies from the real estate sector which have been ceased the advantages of the video as an alternative or complement to more “static” contents as texts and photos.

Nowadays the corporate video is within the reach of any company not being anymore an exclusive of the major brands or publicity agencies. A simple search on YouTube or Vimeo allows identifying good practices of companies which, in two minutes, can present effectively a brand, product or service, on a low-cost philosophy, minimalist, and betting on the message authenticity, without major technical productions. Also in this area, the USA has been pioneer. Looking into this market, we face several websites which are genuine television channels, with the major objective of broadcast journalistic plays or interviews to the responsible of small companies which have been highlighted by their products and services innovation. How do target companies capitalise this exposition? Simply by putting the respective videos on the corporate website, broadcasting them on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. In Portugal, one interesting example is the Infofranchising TV from the Franchising Information Institute (www.infofranchisingtv.pt), but, certainly, other channels will arise soon.

Besides the traditional corporate video, the VideoPodcast support is becoming more used, catched on by Apple in 2005, and which may have a major impact for the brands communication. Normally they are opinion articles, small interviews or presentations and their hosting is free on websites like iTunes, for example.

The use of the video as a way to broadcast our brands came to embody the old saying: “a picture is worth a thousand words”. But now internet came to ease that task and any company may put into practice this objective.

Carlos Gonçalves

AvilaBusinessCenters

www.avilabusinesscenter.com

To Franchise in an intelligent way

2011-05-30T04:52:00.001-07:00

This year edition of Expo Franchise, in Lisbon, revealed once again to be an excellent support initiative to entrepreneurship, at a time where there is a crescent tendency of professionals to bet on the start up of their own businesses. “The entrepreneurship does not depend of the crisis nor of economical cycles, depends on good ideas”: This declaration of João Carvalho, CEO of MELOM, start-up brand awarded this year by the Franchising Information Institute, represents the state of mind of companies which do not fear to invest, namely on business models already tested, and as it’s the case of franchised brands.

Nowadays, the labour precariousness is a reality and, according to the Franchising Information Institute, the major part of this year visitors presented a profile oriented towards the creation of their own employment and with a higher qualification level, in comparison with previous years. According with the last Census made by this Institute, the activity sector which has grown the most is Services, representing 52% of the brands (in 1999, this sector represented only 28%).

It is precisely in the Services sector that brands have betted on innovating formats which result in efficiency gains and fixed costs reduction for the Franchisors. Several international case studies demonstrate that the Virtual Office has been a fairly valid option for franchised companies to start up their activity. In Spain, one the success case has been the brand “myCenter”, in the financial advisory area: the franchisors do not need a permanent Office; they develop their work from home and have the support of a Business Center which guarantees them a distant secretariat, personalized telephone answering and occasional use of meeting rooms. These are the major advantages of the Virtual Office: flexibility, costs reduction and focus on the core business.

In Portugal, brands like Home Instead, in the domiciliary support area, and Publipan, in the advertising supports area, are excellent examples of brands which are expanding their Franchising network using, namely, the Virtual Office: this way, they can offer their franchisors a low cost solution, where the major part of the investment is resumed to entry rights and royalties, using a Premium service which allows them to separate their personal life from Professional, use an address for the head Office, meeting and work rooms, as well as a personalized telephone answering 24 hours/day. An intelligent idea which can be applied independently from the times of crisis and economical cycles.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Centers

www.avilabusinesscenter.com

A new cycle: Office, Mobile Technology and Productivity.

2011-05-04T04:43:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I was surprised by a potential client, coming from Japan, who was interested on installing her company in an Office Center in Lisbon. The first thing she made was to put a compass on the floor to see if it had a good Feng Shui, and the second was to ask about aspects related with the Technologies adopted by the Center. This approach is a clear example that the paradigm in the office rental area is changing: besides the physical space (area, common spaces, accessibilities) professionals and companies are more and more worried with the well-being and with the technologies at their disposal in order to guaranty the efficiency of the work processes and, above all, the professionals’ mobility.

The flexibility is in the order of the day and the mobility is increasingly a critical factor nowadays. The sale of half a million iPad2 in the USA, in the first launching day, demonstrates well the need people have to be always contactable, allowing them to access the office wherever they are.

As the executive above mentioned, modern professionals seek more and more Office solutions which assures them an efficient control of their business, mainly at the client relation level – in this area have been highlighted Virtual Office applications for mobile devices, which are being used for companies having a physical Office, besides those adopting a virtual Office: the main advantage is the Access in real time to received telephone contacts, as well as messages and correspondence received. All these data are reported to a secretariat based in the Office Center which gives distant support and makes a telephone answering with a high personalization degree, besides having voicemail-to-email solutions, covering a 24h/7 days a week.

On this domain, Portuguese companies have shown a great know-how in the international market, being pioneers with the launch of the myOffice app, available in the Apple app Store Apple since 2010 and in the Android Market since March of the present year. This way, Business Centers are able to offer companies the better of two worlds: on the one hand turnkey services of Office rental with 24 hours access, meeting rooms and administrative support and, on the other hand, state of the art technology which contributes in a decisive way to the productivity increase.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Center

www.avilabusinesscenter.com

http://intelligentoffices.blogspot.com

The Virtual Offices and the Stress Dynamic

2011-04-01T01:54:00.001-07:00

A study made by the American company Virtual PBX to representatives of more than 600 SMEs, concluded that 61% affirms to choose virtual offices due to a higher mobility and 54% due to costs reduction. Whether for the mobility, costs reduction or for other reasons, the study proved that in 59% of the cases, the inquiries are more effective when working from home.

Nowadays productivity is the word of the day, efficacy as well, existing a huge will to maximize profits. Many companies invest on the well-being of the collaborators, realizing that it will bring profit to their company. Working conditions have improved for many people but they continue to be the cause of stress for the majority.

A reality which is becoming more common is the adhesion of Portuguese professionals to the Virtual Office concept. As a Clinical Advisor and Instructor and the behavior area, I’m essentially interested on the effects this kind of work has on people, in emotional and behavior terms. There are several areas very important to be analyzed and developed, like time management, personal organization, motivation, among others. Today I dispose myself to analyze the effect this kind of work has on stress.

I dare saying stress affect us all. What causes it? Without a doubt the way we deal with the situations is determinant. But external causes also perform a significant role. Many of these causes are connected to work: poor space conditions often aggravate by the open space philosophy; traffic (many people take one hour or more between home and work); difficult relationships in companies where there isn’t the concern to provide for a good training or even coaching; personal look, among others. In the virtual offices situation, many of the causes of stress have already been eliminated or are deeply reduced.

In relation to the work space, one doesn’t have to deal with the discomfort, reduced space, colleagues’ noise or other kind of problem. If you work at home, the work space is your own, personalized according to your taste (and not the boss’s) and organized by you. You also have the major advantage to be able to start working soon after you get up; you don’t have to displace in transports neither having a special appearance. This point outs to another benefit: who works in its own space spends much lesser money on clothes, and what spends is in clothes one likes and not on the ones needed to use in the company. The same happens in relation to transports, which for the majority of people they represent a considerable expense. These advantages will not eliminate stress, but they will reduce it considerably.

However despite its great advantages, the virtual offices still present some difficulties. The companies adopting them will have to deal with other kind of situations, different from the traditional companies. They need to develop new ways of work planning and performance evaluation. The training continues to be fundamental, but in this case it will be more in the motivation, self-control, personal organization, time management, compromise, distant leadership areas, among others.

Analysing the benefits and the difficulties of working at a distance, we may verify that albeit it is not adaptable to all kind of people and demands a reformulation on the way of work by the companies’ leaders, this alternative may reduce significantly the sources of stress, besides stimulating a bigger growth and independence of the person, that will be much more responsible and autonomous.

Filomena Santos
Instructor and Clinical Advisor
Author and facilitator of the course To Reduce Stress, e-learning, Moodle Platform
Facebook: Filomena Santos (Clinical Advisor)

Interview: Vasco Gaspar-ZorBuddha Project

2011-03-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Last January, Vasco Gaspar made an exclusive workshop in Lisbon for Avila Business Center´s Clients about Integral Well-being and High Performance, based on the principles of ZorBuddha Project.
Intelligent Offices Blog decided to interview him, to know more about this innovative tool.

What´s ZorBuddha?

VG: ZorBuddha is a project whose mission is to help people, organizations and society in general to find a happier and more balanced path in their day-to-day, providing "top" knowledges, methods, techniques and tools that contribute to this effect .

How ZorBuddha could be aplied in the companies and what´s the main advantage for the ones that use it?

VG: The main application is through workshops that allow awareness and raise people's awareness to the importance of wellness in their lives to an integral level (personal, professional, social, etc.). Only when the person is well with him/herself is possible that he/she be well with others and be productive. Another application is through coaching, where a professional leads a small group with the aim of improving the well-being and performance at an integral level.

In your opinion, what´s the major problem that affects the productivity of the professionals nowadays?

VG: I think there are several problems but perhaps the principal is due to a lack of sense, of purpose. Many professionals now feel discouraged and bewildered, eager to do things differently, to release their potential, but without quite knowing how. This causes anguish, anxiety and discouragement, which leads to problems in different realms (physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual).

In your latest talk, in Ignite Portugal, you adressed the people in a positive way of life. How can they use it in nowadays?

VG: We know from psychology that the well-being is determined 50% by genetic factors, 40% by our lifestyle and only 10% of what happens to us daily. Unfortunately many people are focused only on what they have no control, neglecting the enormous potential that can activate through the 40% that only depends on them. And here there are several practical things people can do, all of them simple and that not involve financial investment. We talk about things like breathing, eating, moving, learning, facing fears, strengthening relationships, avoiding complaints, developing hobbies, staying "present " and in line with their own values, mission and vision. It is, however, a decision and a path that one must decide to take in a free way.

To know more about ZorBuddha visit: http://www.zorbuddha.org

Office 3.0

2011-02-28T03:35:00.000-08:00

"The new business models are those which bring innovation into the market and the companies of the future will be those selling innovation ". This declaration from Eurico Neves, CEO of the consultant Inovamais, in the scope of Tech Media Europe Conference that took place in Oporto in February 2011, resumes well the new paradigm of the entrepreneurship market and the challenges it is subdue. The Event organized by Europe Unlimited and by APDC – Portuguese Association for the Communications Development – allowed to spread dozens of European projects from start-up companies, where some Portuguese companies were highlighted.

In the estate area, was presented the myOffice app, the first worldwide virtual office application for smartphones from the authorship of Avila Business Centers. This Business Center counted with the partnership of the technological companies Swipe Twice and WATERDOG mobile, which developed the versions for iPhone/iPad and for Android, respectively, this last to be launched in March 2011.

In the Mobile area, the latest studies refer we can assist to a tremendous growth of the number of users. In 2020 it is previewed 50 billion and the launch of 100 new innovating applications every day, accordingly to data presented by Ericsson and which the Barcelona World Mobile Congress came to confirm.

This reality does not leave much space for Business Centers willing to follow the new consumption trends in the work spaces area – more and more business are made at a global scale and the quickness of answer is crucial for their success, as well as Professional mobility – in this point, smartphones and, more recently, Tablets, came to revolutionize the existent habits, contributing to an efficiency increase in organizations and to a change in their organizational philosophy: the principle is the following: it does not matter where companies do it but what they do.

Concepts like Virtual Office, coworking and distant secretariat start to have more and more fans, not only in micro-enterprises but also in medium and big companies searching to rationalize costs and work models in the current economic context. The office of the future will be more and more a support tool for professionals searching to manage better their time, balancing their familiar and professional life, optimizing their work through solutions which offer, not only the temporary use of work spaces and telephone answering, but also in mobile applications representing “Office 3.0”: wherever you are, professionals are in contact with the office and the world.

Carlos Gonçalves

Ávila Business Center

2011: A year of Opportunities

2011-01-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

Recently, Mike Gedye, senior director of the Global Corporate Services Department from the consultant CB Richard Ellis has published a Report suggesting ten resolutions to meet the challenges in the real estate area for 2011.

This Report is particularly interesting because the presented resolutions establish a parallel between situations adopted for daily life and we conclude that any resemblance is not purely coincidental…
Resolution number 9 is inserted in the chapter “Improve Communication” and has as theme” Work Smarter”. Gedye highlights that currently there are flexible work organization solutions and reinforces the importance of companies to focus on their main activity, and for that they should bet on an effective management premises and of work spaces: organizations may effectively take advantage of flexible work organization solutions by adopting a more effective environment which may be tuned with the business needs and equipped to improve productivity and cost efficiency.
According to CB Richard Ellis, if companies adopt these strategies they will increase their productivity levels, taking advantage also of the mobile technology and of higher tendency for the use of wide and collaborative spaces (also named of coworking spaces), in case companies do not need permanent offices to work.
Answering to companies’ needs searching for efficiency in their work places and of costs rationalization without prejudice for the team motivation levels, there are several solutions that can be adopted in our market. Office Centers position themselves as a valid alternative, offering services in outsourcing based on a turnkey philosophy, both at office rental, coworking and personalized secretariat levels.
In practice, a company may install itself on a serviced Office in a Business Center, with leading edge technology, administrative support and meeting rooms, having a monthly fee and working on flexibility optics, namely on what concerns transition to bigger or smaller spaces, accordingly to the market and the company evolution.
Besides physical offices, companies may choose the virtual office solution, with more accessible costs (between 50 Euros and 85 Euros plus VAT per month). The Virtual Office allows the use of temporally work spaces, plus a prestige address, professional telephone answering and correspondence reception with online notifications.
This is an innovating concept where Portuguese companies are pioneer and are at the vanguard at a worldwide level: currently exists an application named "myOffice" which allows access to your office wherever you are, being available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad users. Soon, naturally, appear new versions for Android or Blackberry devices.
These are just some opportunities examples in the real estate and work space management areas, at a time where the access to credit for office acquisition is very limited and companies have a liquidity need to develop their businesses, searching solutions that contribute to improve their productivity.

Carlos Gonçalves
Ávila Business Center
http://www.espacoavila.com/
www.intelligentoffices.blogspot.com

Office Anywhere – A new paradigm

2010-11-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

There are things more predictable than others. Can we easily predict the office of the future? Some of the more futuristic tendencies related with workspaces and new office models have been recently presented in Lisbon, in a Conference promoted by Cushmann & Wakefield and by the OJE journal. Wim Van Hove, from Procos Group, highlighted that the office of the future will have more spaces of human interaction and that, more and more, individual work will be done outside of the company, whether at home, on journeys or simply in public spaces. Accordingly to Van Hove, a work station will only work for tasks implying human interaction, like meetings and presentations; each collaborator will be reachable in any part of the worlds, using remote communications that will be more intuitive and offices will be very different from the models we nowadays know: they will conjugate retreat areas, private areas, small meetings areas and meeting rooms for bigger groups. In reality, there will be a new office concept because there will also be a new work world – more dynamic, more efficient and based on an more open relation between leaders and collaborators, promoting social responsibility and a higher balance between professional and personal life.

After all, all it is needed is to acquire new habits and to manage work in a more rational way, taking advantage of what new technologies have to offer. Currently, some companies have already adopted this model (the more known examples are Microsoft and Google), but also in the SME and micro companies world we have register a major change facing the functioning of the conventional office. In Portugal is already common for a small company with market notoriety to occupy temporarily work stations in a Business Center. Teams may work in any part of the world and workstations are rented only when work or clients meetings are necessary. If to this service we add the Virtual Office, this is, the adoption of a prestige address, distant secretariat support with personalized telephone answering and the online access to collaborative platforms, whether by the PC or smartphone, then we are talking of a new paradigm, synonym of a higher flexibility, costs contention, efficiency and productivity. The “Office Anywhere” concept came to stay and it is one of the company’s main allies.

Office and Technology: A Perfect marriage

2010-10-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

Being alert to the new tendencies in the remote work domain, Microsoft published this year a study involving 3600 collaborators of American companies adopting the telework, in 36 cities. (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/mar10/03-11telework.mspx).
From the several indicators presented, it highlights that 60% of the professional’s enquired state to be actually more productive and efficient then working outside the office. Nonetheless, only 41% of these collaborators works for companies with formal telework policies and only 15% believe that their company supports effectively a flexible work model.
The implementation of telework models in companies is a business area in major expansion in countries like the United States, not only for the need companies actually have of reducing costs and be more efficient, but also because they have at their disposal the more modern technologies: videoconference, VPN, specific applications for PC and cell phones, among others.
For that has contributed also the social responsibility models, aiming for the balance between family and professional life and environmental protection. According to Staffcentrix, consultant in telework programs, the virtualization of work teams may result on an increase of 1 hour of daily work, in average.
Business Centers have also assumed an important role in these processes; insofar they offer an assembly of flexible solutions to companies adopting remote work. Beyond renting permanent offices to companies, these centres offer meeting rooms, coworking and other shared services, allowing to companies that do not need a permanent physical office, to use the so called Virtual Office, that covers secretariat, personalized telephone answering based on collaborative technologies that facilitate contact in real time with the client 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
The focus on the “core-business” and costs rationalization is the common denominator of companies that resort to telework with the Virtual Office support and, although there is a long way to go in this area, not only in the USA but also in Europe, there are more and more companies benefiting from the advantages new technologies have to offer in this domain.

Virtual Office – An opportunity on a recession climate?

2010-09-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Recent studies made by the multinationals RingCentral and Regus allowed taking interesting conclusions on the new tendencies related to the use of work spaces and on the adoption of telework models.
One of the studies, made on December 2009 close to SME in the United States, showed that only 15% of collaborators works on a single place; on the other hand, when working outside the office, and on the phone with their client, 80% of the employers wants to pass the idea that is on the office.
This same study shows that, during the year of 2010, practically two thirds (67%) of SME will hire more collaborators and among these, around 57% would work remotely, from home or from the client’s premises, considering the savings obtained with Offices rental and the possibility to access to a Virtual Office service. This alternative has been a crescent demand both for SME and for big companies, facing the possibility to use meeting rooms and secretariat services provided by Business Centers that are specialized in this kind of solutions, both in the United States and in Europe.
A case-study highly disclosed in recent times has been the one of the “Inc Magazine” based in Manhattan, which allowed an annual saving of 500.000 USD and a 20 % productivity increase through the adoption of telework for the editorial team, by keeping in the headquarters the support departments and meeting rooms for punctual use, in case of need. Factors like the time gained with travels and the family balance were highlighted among the collaborators, besides the technological means that make more and more efficient the remote work.
The implementation of these measures passes not only for the trust in the work teams but also for the consciousness of the advantages of the virtual Office model, both for small companies and multinationals, namely on a business prospection phase.
The current recession climate came to conscious the interest of several companies in this type of solutions, being an opportunity for many of them to develop their activity in a sustained and rational way.

If you’re not fast, you’re food

2010-07-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

The theme of Timberland’s last promotional campaign makes us think about the need companies have to innovate and invest in their goods and service’s quality... or otherwise to be overruned by their competitors. Taking the chance of repeating a timeless cliché, this metaphor applies perfectly to the present economical conjuncture, where more flexible and with faster decision’s organizations are the ones with better efficiency levels, in a world more and more globalized and unpredictable.

The words of order are the bet on technology, on marketing towards the client’s real needs and on human capital to fight or to prevent the attack of more aggressive competition. How many companies have not yet used internet and social network’s potential as a promotional vehicle of a brand or product? How many companies continue focused on themselves, not betting on networking, on construction of confidence relationships with their clients and suppliers and on partnerships reinforcement – these are the organizations that, on Timberland’s commercial language, are considered to be fast and winning – are the ones avant-guard and never overruned.

Some of these companies are thinking about work spaces rationalization as a way to be more competitive. A very recent and spread out case-study, as been the one mentioned in “Inc Magazine”, with headquarters in Manhattan, allowed to estimate an annual saving of 500.000 USD and a 20% increase in productivity if the editorial team adopted tele-work, maintaining in the headquarters the support departments and meeting rooms for a point use, in case of need.

Factors such as the time gained with dislocations and the family balance have been highlighted among collaborators, besides the technological means that make more efficient the remote work.
The present recession climate living in the Media and in other sectors of our economy came to awake the interests of many companies in this kind of solutions, being an opportunity for many to develop their activity in a sustained and rational way. It is also fundamental to be within the spirit of the song of Timberland’s commercial: “Don’t give up!”

Join business to pleasure

2010-06-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

"Your Office Anywhere" – It could be easily adopted as an advertisement for a telecommunications operator or by a brand of last generation mobile phones.
In reality what is to be sell is mobility, real time communication and work efficiency.
In the USA a study made in 2009 by RingCentral with the managers of SME concluded that only 15% of collaborators work in only one place; it is estimated that during 2010 almost two thirds (67%) of the SME are thinking on hiring more employees and of these ones around 57% would work remotely.
Another relevant conclusion: when working outside the Office, receiving or making a phone call to clients, 80% of professionals wants to give the idea of being in it own Office. This is no more than a prejudice imposed by the entrepreneurship culture, what is so curious is how it is still so important in countries like the USA.
The need of give the idea we are working in the enterprise’s office (and not in a home one) is a concern of many professionals that quickly stops being relevant after the first contact when, in a natural way, we start giving value to the software (what the other does) instead of the hardware (where he is doing it). On other words: what matters is what we do and not where.
The implementation of tele-work models has not been easy in our country, being almost an exclusive to liberal professionals and freelancers. The managers feel a great need to control their employee’s work indoors, forgetting that nowadays technology has tools that facilitate interaction among work teams geographically spread. Experiments made show that tele-work, when properly implemented and combined with strategies to avoid social isolation of the professionals, like the Virtual Office solution and CoWorking, increases their level of productivity and motivation, giving a major balance between family life and professional avoiding wastes of time in dislocations between home and work. "And... the last, but not the Least" there are financial and environmental gains to companies.
Many companies working in Portugal, like Microsoft and Jones Lang Lasalle, have already understand the advantages of these new models of functioning and many will pass to adopt them soon, whether by implementation of social responsibility rules or by the need of costs reduction, putting into practice the famous expression - "join business to pleasure".

VO, CW and VA: Three initials to retain

2010-05-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

At a time where costs rationalization is the word of order, enterprises search more and more for flexible solutions at a work spaces and administrative support level.

The initials VO, CW and VA mean, in order, Virtual Office, Coworking and Virtual Assistant. This new models, yet to be assimilated in our market, have been raised to power by the technological boom and by the possibility to work in any part of the world: we can have a Virtual Office, where we can use a work space temporarily and benefit from distant secretariat services; we can adopt coworking, sharing a work space with other professionals and enterprises at a reduced cost, promoting synergies and networking; or we can hire a Virtual Assistant, in case we wish to have a personalized secretariat service, always available online.

Imagine a start-up, with a limited initial financial capacity, which for a fair price can have a prestige address, meeting rooms equipped with state of the art technologies, a personalized telephone answering, as well as professional virtual secretariat service. The Virtual Office, Coworking and Virtual Assistant options came to allow to these enterprises to focus on their core, diminishing fixed costs and adopting a flexible structure.

These concepts can, in an equal way, to be applied to a multinational that decides to open and Office in another country. With minimal investment, these companies take less risks in a business prospecting stage, choosing an Office that by being designated as “virtual” has, in reality, shared work offices (coworking) and a professional secretariat team, reinforcing their image and market credibility.

Independently from when or where they are located, these services reduce physical distance, maintain the enterprise operational and avoid means and resources displacement.

It is also in the organizational restructuring stage that these concepts present themselves as decisive factors in the delivery of a quality service at competitive prices, being predictable that, in a near future, these new initials to be integrated in the daily vocabulary of organizations.

However, it is today, more than ever that they present themselves as innovating resources, facing a continuous challenging scenario imposing intelligent solution with maximum efficiency.

What do Google and Starbucks have in common?

2010-04-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

The article "Work Smarter with a Virtual Office" recently published on the website officetoday.com by Karen Condi, CEO of the American consultant Alliance Office Strategies, came to highlight the importance that big companies have been giving in the last years to the new models of workspaces management.

Recent statistics published in the United States of America indicate that big enterprises like IBM and Accenture have around 50% of their personnel working outside their facilities, and from the 115 thousand employees of the American IBM, 46.000 adopt regularly alternative work places. The Virtual Office concept was born in the eighties of the past century, gaining a greater awareness in the nineties, at a time where the new technologies and the Internet, in particular, contributed to a higher professional’s mobility bringing major advantages to the companies betting on internationalization. In practice, these companies did not need a physical space to settle in a country: it was enough to hire a virtual office service in a Business Center that gave them a prestige address on a central area, professional telephone attendance and meeting rooms for work sessions. Besides the financial amounts involved in this operations, much lower than the traditional option of renting or buying an Office, the “flexibility” and “efficiency” factors were decisive for the wide spread of the Virtual Office concept.

Currently, dozens of multinational enterprises have settled in Portugal trough this service, seizing the competitive advantages herein existent at a technological level, with innovating multichanel solutions that allow an online contact and in real time with clients "anytime-anywhere".

On the contrary of what might be thought, the Virtual Office does not belong exclusively to the universe of SME and independent professionals with limited budgets in the beginning of their activity. As an example, Google opened a virtual Office in Brazil and Starbucks adopted the same strategy in Portugal, being able to fulfil the objective of sustained growth that is a characteristic of these enterprises, following the principle defended by Karen Condi: "Work Smart".

Small is Beautiful?

2010-03-10T09:52:00.001-08:00

Some days ago, someone told me it was safer to have your own business than to work for others.
Effectively the economic recession the country is facing has forced many companies to reduce their structure, fitting them into new market realities. On the other hand, many companies, of smaller dimensions that have bet on a sustained growth have been able to face the current difficulties: adopting a flexible management model with a strong leadership and decision capacity.
If, on the one hand, this crisis has thinned some companies, on the other hand it has also contributed for the assertion of many professionals who decided to assume the role of entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the opportunity in order to develop innovating projects and of great potential. At this stage it can be questioned whether one should create a large business structure or if it’s preferable to manage a small company, controlling the service quality and betting on the product or service specialization and differentiation. Observing the SME market, in our country is very easy to find business opportunities because the progression margin is immense (like in Tourism) and competition is often limited.
The bet on a medium and long term is becoming more and more an entrepreneur’s strategy and one can only achieve it with small and agile structures. Currently there are several tools that allow the disclosure of our brand or company in a simple, effective and cheap way, like the social networks and networking actions organized by chambers of commerce and business associations. The involvement in these initiatives establishes itself an extra motivation factor for the entrepreneur, both from a professional and personal point of view, for the shared experiences and learning they provide.
In this domain, Business Centres have offered to start-up companies solutions like the virtual Office, distant secretariat, Office rental with shared services and co-working. These Centres contribution has been crucial to the development of these companies, maintaining a light structure in a logic defended by the British economist E. F. Schumacher in 1973, when his book was published "Small is Beautiful". This sentence has never been so up to date.

How to have a company without really having it

2010-01-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

A computer with internet access and a mobile phone. All that is necessary to work nowadays. It may be paradoxical but currently it is perfectly possible to have a company without really having it (physically, of course…). The principle that rules the 21th century companies is the following: “It does not matter where you work, what matters is that you work well”, or simply: “It does not matter where you do it, but what you do”. This new philosophy, based on costs rationalization and on a higher efficiency of work processes, taking advantage of the new technologies, represents an excellent opportunity for the companies to improve their businesses in the actual adverse economical context.
Companies like Amazon and Easy jet were visionaries in this domain and were able to prove to the market that the services virtualization does not necessarily implies its depersonalization . The secret relies on the answer capacity and on the orientation towards the client’s needs. How many companies do not complement their virtual presence with the physical one? A recent case of success is the company LentesdeContacto.pt. They have started their activity as an online store with the help of a virtual office for administrative support, namely telephone answering and correspondence management. By taking advantage of the visibility acquired on the internet, the company opened, this year a store in the centre of Lisbon, highlighting even more the brand “LentesdeContacto.pt” and eventually diversifying their activity in the optics branch. This company may adopt the same strategy in any part of the world, needing only the guaranty of the virtual office initial support.

As well as this article is being written down in a terrace, to be sent by email to the newspaper’s edition within 15 minutes, the same could happen with a financial or marketing report to be shared with my collaborators. Many times the difficulty relies on the need to have a physical space for the teams to gather together, as well as on the quality demanded on telephone answering level and the administrative management. Many of the professionals that have a company “without really having it” are currently using the services of distant secretariat and virtual offices solutions given by Business Centres, concentrating themselves on their core and developing their activity with controlled costs.

Back to Basics

2009-11-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

The Workplace Trends annual conference, that took place this month in London, had as a central theme “Back to Basics - Survival & Recovery".
Facing the actual economical-financial conjuncture, this approach could not have been more relevant. The enterprises actual dilemma that, on the one hand try to be competitive and ensure good excellence levels and, on the other hand, develop cost contention plans to face recession, has been subject of strong discussions recently, both in Europe and in the United States.
Quoting the consultant Jones Lang Lasalle - Lisbon Office Overview report: 2nd trimester 2009 – “At the end of the 2nd trimester of 2009, Lisbon’s offices market revealed not so encouraging results: in comparison to the 1st semester of 2008, was noticed an accentuated decrease of activity, allowing to predict that the end of the year will show absorption values far from the ones reached in recent years ".
In the offices renting area, enterprises have revealed a tendency for smaller dimension spaces, following downsizing policies and structure adjustment to the new conditions of a market still without signs of recovering.
Similar to what is seen in other European countries, Portuguese enterprises have been paying attention to new functioning models and organization, using services paid by Office Centres, namely the Virtual Office and Offices renting based in flexible contracts and readymade solutions. The Virtual Office is no longer seen as a poor solution, typical of start-up enterprises, but considered as an intelligent option to enterprises that are restructuring themselves, rationalizing costs and using professional services of distant secretariat, offices rented per day or per hour and meeting rooms for work sessions with clients and business partners.
The usage of new Technologies, secretariat shared services and flexible contracts, allied to the image reinforcement towards the client, has revealed itself as excellent means for enterprises to face the economical recovering challenge with some comfort, being, for many, a return to the origins, as it come to conclusion the conference above mentioned: “Back to Basics - Survival & Recovery" (http://www.workplacetrends.co.uk/).

Companies will hire brains, not bodies.

2009-09-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

A Michelle Conlin’s article, published in the magazine Business Week in June this year, described the following way the future of the businesses functioning model: “Companies will hire brains, not bodies. Work will go to the talent—instead of the talent extreme-commuting to the work. Teams will go transnational, warming the undersea cables with their space-and-time shifting video meetings. The workplace of the future will be no workplace at all.”
As it’s well known, the actual economic context forced enterprises to be more efficient, following policies of cost containment and profiting from the benefits of information technologies on the management of their resources. The virtualization of work meetings, the hiring of distant secretariat services (virtual assistants) and having the head Office of the enterprise on a prestigious area allowed Business Centres to offer a gathering of innovating solutions with a good cost-benefit relation, being one of the sectors of activity that is actually working in a counter cycle, both on the physical offices domain as on the virtual offices and associated services.
In a time where enterprises search more and more for a differentiation based on the service quality and in the image towards the client, Business Centres assume themselves as a valid option to give an answer to these needs, allowing enterprises to focus on their own business, releasing them from the current management inherent to the infrastructure, managing work teams of remote work and saving time and money on dislocations. “Flexibility” and “Ready to Use” are Business Centres key words: in an alternative to enterprises that acquire or rent conventional spaces, the ones occupying Business Centres may start by having a Virtual Office with secretariat support, telephone answering and meeting rooms, changing afterwards to a physical Office, according to the evolution of their activity and the need to have personnel permanently in a place. This way, an enterprise on an expansion phase may maintain itself always in the same space, whether using a virtual office or occupying bigger or smaller rooms, according to the adopted functioning model and to their maturity.
On the other hand, the diversity of sectors of activity that is actually using this Centres, provides excellent business networking opportunities, highlighting business and partnership relations.

Avila Business Center reinforces offices offer

2009-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Avila Business Center has offices available for rental with areas since 8 m2, in the central area of Lisbon, close to Saldanha.
The spaces include private parking, recepcion, administrative support, a state of the art comunication network and metting rooms. The concept, “ready to take” allows to optimize the work space, reducing costs and adapting to the needs of major or minor use. Avila Business Center represents eOffice in Portugal since July 2008. This entity is a business center, with their head office in London, being an international reference on the inovation and business centers management domain.
Besides de physical offices, Avila Business Center has a large activity on virtual offices level. The business model envolves phone calls fowarding to the exterior and a notification in real time about telephone contacts and correspondence delivery, through a Web platform. This system allows a more efficient mobility and task management, even when outside the office.
To add also that Avila Business Center assumes itself as a business networking center, highliting the contact between its clientes and creating sinergies oportunities between the enterprises with their head office in it. This business center has been searched by SME and also by big enterprises, in particularly dued to the potencial they represent on the contact networks domain.

Office Centers: Flexibility and Shared Services

2009-06-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

What are the advantages for the enterprises that occupy an Office Center?
In the past years, Office Centers changed from simple places to rent an office to efficient support structures to the entrepreneurship development. From the several services provided, we highlight the dedicated secretariat, the telecomunications infrastructure offer, mail management and meeting rooms. By doing a simple Google research it’s possible to verify that in the portuguese market already exist solutions quite inovating, both for SME and big enterprises, functioning as pretty interesting business network platforms, reinforcing partnerships.
“Flexibility” and “Shared Services” are the key words and the great competitive advantage of these Centers. A start-up enterprise may iniciate its activity in an Office Center, making use of a virtual office (with monthly costs from aproximadly 50 Eur.), evolving after to a physical office highering a ready made service. Virtual offices allow enterprises to be based in a business Center, giving credibility in an initial fase, being able to use meeting rooms for work sessions, an exclusive phone line and dedicated call answering with call fowarding to the exterior, mail reception and use of head-office address. In reality the enterprises are centered in their core, not requiring hiring administrative personel as the secretariat is of the responsability of the Office Center that keeps a permanent contact with the client through the web and text messages through cooperative platforms, allowing you to be permanently connectec to your office, wherever you are.
These Centers are normaly equipped with technologies that favour enterprise’s moblity: teleconference platform, voice over IP (VoIP) systems and shared informatic networks.
The enterprises use not only the office (physical ou virtual) but also a set of support services to their activity, some of which given in a partnership mode, namely financial advisory, accountting, marketing and webdesign. Welcome to the 21th century offices…

Business Centers: An oportunity for the Entrepreneurship Networking?

2009-04-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought in the advantages of occupying an office in a place where potential clients or business partners also develop their activity?
In Portugal, the entrepreneurship Networking is slightly developed and few are the entities that bet on this type of iniciatives. From the unusual entities that do act in this domain we can enhance the ANJE, the BNI – International Business Networking – and some Chambers of Commerce.
The culture present in our enterprises is not much favorable to networking, nevertheless the new generation of portuguese managers and entrepreneurs has already discoverered that their success goes through the development of contact networks and the establishment of partnerships based on a win-win logic. The good international practices, namely experiences came from the United States, allow to conclude that this ways of commercial contact represent a plus for enterprises, mainly for those that search market awareness.
Why not to develop this networking in our work place? Will it make sense for enterprises to work alone when they might have potential clients and business partners right next to them? It is recognized by everybody that proactivity is a sucess critical factor for any enterprise and unfortunately many organizations end up not to impose themselves in our market due to their apathy and, in the actual context, this question gains an even greater importance.
In Portugal, the Business Centers also start to be networking centers, not limiting themselves to offer work spaces to their clients – they promote the contact between them and create synergies between the enterprises based there. It is an excellent service they are offering to their clients. Examples of this concept have also been the Enterprises Incubators Centers, altought some of them are peripherals, not being located in the cities centers and ending up not to have proper enhance.
In the general context of recession, the Business Centers have revealed themselves to be excellent alternatives for SME and big enterprises, not only for the quality of their services but also for the vast potential they represent on the contact netwrork’s domain.

Your office wherever you’ll be. The Business Center’s advantages.

2009-03-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Business Centers (or Office Centers) Paradigm is changing.Factors like Information and Communication Technologies, professional’s mobility, the downsizing and cost contention plans adopted in recent times, has contributed for a quite advantageous services offer from this companies.An enterprise that chooses to rent an office in a Business Center benefits, besides a physical space, a complete service pack as a surplus from an operational and image point of view. One of the main advantages is the use of a reception service and personalized call center, allowing enterprises to be always present, even when there is no one at the office. Online platforms, such as MyOfficeTM, allow enterprises to contact their office in real time, managing remotely their phone contacts and correspondence, with major efficiency gains. Functionalities such as voice-to-email allow a 24 hours phone answering, very useful for situations where time zone can become a problem for incoming calls out of work schedule and on weekends. This system consists on sending a file with the record of the message left on the office voicemail to an enterprise e-mail address, allowing phone calls, eventually important, not to be lost.

New Offices for rental in Avila Business Center

2009-03-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

Avila Business Center has new offices for rental in Av. João Crisóstomo, close to Av. República and Saldanha, Lisbon. Monthly figures from 500 Eur.+VAT
A complete service pack is included in the rental: reception, access to the meeting room, Internet, fax and voicemail, personalized call center done by a secretary, electricity and other administrative support services as an option.
The offices have sizes between 8 m2 and 18 m2 and are placed in a Business Center with a charm environment equipped with state of the art technology.
For additional information contact cg@espacoavila.com / mobile +351914047304.

Jornal de Negócios: Avila Business Center has already half of the Revenues on the Virtual Office business

2009-03-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

In a moment where economical difficulties have imposed many cost contention plans, for a micro or small enterprise every euro less on their invoices counts. Since 2004, when it appeared as a business center in Lisbon, the variety of services has been widespread and today virtual offices represent already half of the enterprise’s billing. Carlos Gonçalves, Avila’s C.E.O, says that this mode “is a concept that allows an estimated reduction of 70% to 90% of costs”.
Avila Business Center’s target is to capture micro and small enterprises. The interest has grown.

Virtual Offices bet on Innovation

2009-03-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Although very recent in our country, Virtual Offices have evolved favourably in the last years. This is a very wanted concept by enterprises at a start-up point and SME that need to reinforce their visibility on the market by a group of services, namely using their address as a head office, call center, use of meeting rooms and administrative support. In the last years, multinational enterprises based outside the main urban centers have chosen to open virtual offices in Lisbon and Porto business centers, gaining huge advantages both from a financial, logistical and a marketing point of view. The advantages of a Virtual Office in the capital for an enterprise in Porto with clients in the south are evident. The bond of a liberal professional to a Virtual Office as a way to sub contract a complete secretariat service and to reinforce its credibility towards its clients and partners is a wise option! How do Business Centers have reacted to this demand increase? Some have kept an obsolete domiciliation service, this is, they restrain themselves to correspondence reception, call center and few more. Other Centers have adopted a more pro active attitude, betting on innovating platforms of relationship with clients, whether by enterprise networking, or by new technologies integrating voice and data channels for a more efficient response to our client’s needs.