A virtual office is part of the flexible workspace industry that provides businesses with any combination of services, space and/or technology, without those businesses bearing the capital expenses of owning or leasing a traditional office.

A virtual office is a service that enables employees and business owners to work remotely by providing a range of business functions accessible through the internet. It also enables organisations to create and maintain a presence in a desirable location without the need to pay rent for an actual space.

Some of the features and services you can expect to receive from a virtual office include:

• A professional business address and/or phone number
• Mail receipt and forwarding
• Call answering by a live receptionist and call forwarding
• Access to physical office space, including private offices and conference rooms
• Access to other office locations in the provider’s network Occasional networking and social events

The Top 5 Tools A Modern Virtual Office Should Possess Are:

1. Online backup through Cloud

There are many online backup tools and cloud services for it. With this, you would be able to store all the data and information on just one virtual account instead of keeping several different computers for it. Moreover, this virtual account would be easily accessible by every team member who has the password to it from the remote locations and in real-time.

The best thing about this is that you would not have to worry about losing information due to hard drive crashing or virus. Moreover, the protection and security would be high on the cloud storage service where you would never have to worry about any hackers as well.

2. Virtual Call answering service

Using Virtual services for responding to your clients can be extremely crucial to make sure that the customers are satisfied. Moreover, you would also be able to save a lot more than what you might, by hiring the in-house customer care team. The virtual call answering service is the right one where both you and the assistant in charge for the calling, can take care of talking to the clients and ensuring the customer satisfaction.

3. Facility for web conferencing

It is obvious that for the team to work together towards the same goal, there needs to be meetings and conferences. But with everyone in remote places, this can only be possible with the help of the web conferencing tools.

For this, you would need to download the desktop sharing app and get the team on it by sending invitations to them from that app. And as soon as the members join, you would be able to have a live conference at any point for a face-to-face meeting.

4. Programs of Cloud Storage

In a traditional office, all the information is printed on paper and the file is kept on the shelves from where the employees can take any folder for some information as and when they want it. But for a virtual office, this is not possible. Well, there is an alternative option for those businesses that operate through a virtual office — cloud storage services.

Yes, there are a lot of such services with Google, and Microsoft Azure. They are at the top of offering cloud storage services and many other cloud services. This allows the team to access the folders from any part of the world and at any time. All you need to worry about is choosing the right option where security is a priority.

5. Registered address for your business

The reason why you have a virtual office address for your business is since you wanted to have a prestigious business address for the associates and the clients to take your business seriously and respect your business. Moreover, starting up means you wouldn’t have a lot of money to rent a proper place.

And if you opt for the virtual office, your office would be located at a prestigious location, and this would increase your brand reputation. Moreover, you would need to have an address for your office even to start it. So, instead of spending so much, spend less and get a virtual office instead.