Service Office or Virtual Office a solution for firms cutting costs

COMPANIES have to be savvy in cutting cost in trying times, and one main area this can be achieved is the rental of office premises.

With the current economic uncertainty and many companies downsizing, one may want to consider innovative office space solutions such as virtual office, said Regus country manager Vijayakumar Tangarasan.

The company, with a presence in 120 countries, provides office space service with over 20% of its clients in Malaysia comprising small and medium enterprises (SMEs). And it says it is seeing an increase from this segment.

These SMEs are mainly in the consultancy sector, from information technology to human resources, with workforce ranging from five to 10 people.

Vijayakumar said this was also an indication that the Government had been focusing on SMEs as the next growth driver while working at reducing dependence on foreign investors.

As office space is growing in price, he said SMEs needed to be clear about what they needed so that they only paid according to their needs.

He noted that a virtual office, apart from being a potential cost-cutting measure, could also be used as a temporary measure for expansion. This is especially true for SMEs which have neither the resources nor the need for a permanent office space.

A virtual office offered an address that could give their clients confidence to begin with, he reasoned.

The office, he added, could always be upgraded to include meeting areas as and when needed.

Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Vijayakumar said, most of the physical office spaces that the company had leased out was still occupied. This, he said, was due to adjustments the companies had made during economic changes.

Companies that engaged in manufacturing and exported their products especially, would be able to capitalise on the current economic scenario, along with those in services such as business process outsourcing (BPO), he said.

“There are still multinationals that prefer our flexible service where their staff travel around the world and have access to the convenience of an office near where their client is,” he concluded.

Source: TheStar