Virtual offices for real business

Instead of spending millions of dollars in equipment and employees, companies would consider outsourcing the office task by connecting to a virtual office provider. Through a virtual office, a company would have physical representation and presence in order to effectively communicate with their clients.

A virtual office would usually have the following:

• Local business address
• Local phone number/Fax Number
• An assistant
• Office equipments

These office equipments are offered in two options: the first option is to have a “shared” virtual office. That means the virtual assistant will be working for other clients as well. On the other hand, you can ask for a dedicated virtual assistant so that the employee will concentrate on a single project only. Of course, a dedicated assistant will mean additional payment.

Selecting a virtual office could be a bit challenging especially when a company tries to seek assistance online without any physical contact. However, they can ensure the legitimacy of the operation by asking documentation that ensures that they operate a legitimate business in the area where they operate. In terms of security, be sure to ask the virtual office provider to sign a non-disclosure agreement or NDA. This document will be your protection against illegal information selling in the future.

A virtual office could save a business considerable amount of time and resources. A business just has to make sure they select the right provider who could do the task while ensuring the business security.

Wireless storage devices

Network Attached Storage or NAS is a highly recommended device for home and small business use. This device will service as a small server wherein networked computers could immediately store important data to prevent data loss in case the computer crashes or will not be accessible. NAS is also useful for small businesses to ensure availability of data in the network.

A few years ago, NAS is only limited to USB or network connection. However, Wireless NAS is increasing in popularity as powerful wireless connectivity is now available. Leading the group in Wireless NAS is the Time Capsule by Apple. With storage capacity of up to 1TB (Terabyte) users could wirelessly transfer and extract data from the storage device.

There are also manufacturers who ventured in wireless NAS for PC users. Manufacturers such as Iomega, MediaGate and D-Link are currently offering wireless NAS for PC. The storage capacity is almost the same with Apple as well as its price (up to $350 for 1TB of storage). Set-up is also straightforward but drivers are needed in each computer before it could detect the wireless storage device.

The speed of data transfer varies per wireless NAS. These storage devices use the standard 802.11 a/b/g/n for wireless connection. However, it’s highly recommended that wireless network devices in each computer would have the capability for 802.11n which is the fastest wireless connection. If you’re wireless connection is not “n” Look out for “Dual Band” feature of the wireless storage devices so that it could accommodate slower connections.

Office communication and Twitter

Twitter is an increasingly popular online service that allows users to post updates up to 140 characters. Its popularity came to a point of crashing the website a few times when it was first introduced but it eventually gained stability because of increased interest and investment.

At first glance, Twitter can be considered as a fad for younger generations as it only offers 140 characters (not words) or less. But when you take a look at it from a business perspective, you’ll realize its purpose could mean increased efficiency in communication not to mention savings.

The main selling point of Twitter is through its various channels for updates. You can update you Twitter directly from the website, your mobile phone and a Twitter client which is basically a small instant messaging application but only for Twitter. That means any massage on the road could be posted automatically via Twitter.

Twitter will allow users to “follow” each other. This means you’ll be able to subscribe to the updates of a Twitter user. In your business, you can ask everyone to follow your updates for messages as you follow their updates for additional information as well. Through your Twitter client, you’ll see their real time messages which could be seen by everyone. It’s like an instant message board that you can monitor in real time.

Aside from inter-office communications, you can also use Twitter to follow other businesses. There are experts who use twitter to reach to their readers so you can use this to get a little bit of information every now and then to help your business prosper.