Since the expenses on running offices have been increasing sharply in the context of high inflation, many businesses now think of using virtual office services.

Phan Van Dung, General Director of Huu Lien Company, once used the shared office service provided by a foreign company. However, Dung has become the service provider.

He said that the business has been prospering thanks to the increasingly high demand from many companies. In fact, the services appeared on the market several years ago, but the market has been considerably expanded and become bigger. Small and medium enterprises and big companies which have factories located in other provinces that want to set up offices in the central areas, prove to be the biggest clients of the company.

Sharing material facilities, sharing money

An Australian university has become a big client of a shared office service provider at the building at No 37 Ton Duc Thang Street in HCM City.

The client has to pay less than 500 dollars a month for the office service. Every year, the university organizes several enrolment and overseas study consultancy programs in Vietnam.

The transactions in Vietnam have been authorized to the office service provider. The calls through automatic connection systems would be forwarded to the office in Australia, while letters and fax messages would be sent via emails. The office service provider also comes forward and organizes events for the university which takes responsibility for arranging venues, renting cars, inviting guest and other things.

Tran Hoang Thong, Director of Smartax, a tax consultancy firm, said that the main characteristic of the service is to work regularly with clients; therefore, he needs an office in the central area for easier contacts. Smartax has been using G-Office’s service and has set up an office at Indochina tower for the last year.

Thong said the service is really professional which cannot be undertaken by small companies. Smartax is now using Economy service package of G-Office for which it has to pay 50 dollars a month. With the service, the company can use the address for contact, and use reception and telephone services.

Thong has revealed that he is satisfactory with the service and he plans to extend the contract. Especially, when Smartax develops to a new level, the company would rent more room in order to take full advantage of the existing facilities.

Once the number of workers of the company increases to 30, he will set up a head office, but he will continue using the shared office service. “The current beautiful address allows small companies to share modern logistics services, which will cost a lot of money if we set up services ourselves,” Thong said.

Virtual offices compete fiercely with orthodox offices

The shared office services have been provided in Vietnam for the last six years, since Regus, the biggest service provider in the field arrived in Vietnam.

To date, besides several foreign service providers, who can take full advantage of the global clients to develop business; there are 20 Vietnamese service providers. Domestic brands like G-Office, PSO, Fimexco, eOffice, eSmart, vOffice, SOffice have become well known together with foreign Regus or Levelone.

Regus’ network has been expanded with five big centers in HCM City and Hanoi which provide services to 1000 clients. Meanwhile, Levelone, located at Kumho building, has also quickly got a large number of clients. Dometsic G-Office has got 500 clients.

Analysts say that the market has been developing rapidly over the last few years. Especially, the services have been prospering in the crisis period, when businesses have to cut down their expenses.

Service providers now compete fiercely with each other, and the competitiveness of every company lies in the logistics services. The more professional they are, the more clients they can attract.

According to Dung, in order to have a 50 square meter office at advantageous positions, a business would have to pay 5000 dollars a month. Besides, it will also have to pay for officers, telecom infrastructure. Meanwhile, if using shared offices, it would have to pay 200 dollars a month only.

KC