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When Starbucks Doesn't quite cut it

Guest post by: Brian Monteith

Article Overview: Starbucks doesn’t quite cut it – the Intelligent Office story ** Why meeting clients in non traditional office setting is not so desirable.

When Starbucks Doesn't quite cut it

Intelligent Office is a 'virtual office' service that does not live online, but rather in franchise locations across

North America, including seven in Ontario which provide "professional address" and "Virtual Assistant"

services to professionals and small business clients in the province. The company's primary business is the

lease of meeting space, mail management and remote reception services, and clients use the service in lieu

of setting up expensive, dedicated office space.

This workspace model sits at the intersection of a number of recent trends. By offering a professional front

and facilities for teleworkers, Intelligent Office serves the needs of companies that may be looking to exit the

'bricks and mortar" business and improve employee satisfaction through greater workplace flexibility, as well

as the needs of the growing number of home based businesses. According to Brian Monteith, master

franchisee for Canada and owner of the North York Intelligent Office location, leads doubled in 2008 -

coinciding with economic recession, as companies with tighter budgets began to look at outsourcing business

functions (such as reception), and as many individuals moved from corporate employment into home based

businesses and began to recognize the limitations of home office space. The Intelligent Office story also has

elements of green as the service enables travel avoidance - a working professional has to drive into work

only when a meeting is scheduled - and by sharing office space, ultimately reduces the carbon footprint of

buildings.

But more than green, or recession, or trends in corporate facilities management, the Intelligent Office story is

about empowering communications for mobile workers. According to Monteith, in go to market activities, the

company always leads with its communications services offerings, which include reception services, as well

as phone and fax numbers. In brief, the company works off "computer to telephone integration

software:"when a call for a "centre member" arrives, there are up to eight receptionists available and armed

with six pages of client information and instruction on the computer screen to manage that call. Since the

client has informed Intelligent Office in advance about daytime locations, the reception service can forward

calls to the appropriate location. According to Monteith, the Intelligent Office service is more than a call

centre, which is "typically a very large work space with up to thirty employees whose main purpose is to get

that caller off the phone as soon as possible," as it offers a "human component" with high standards for call

answer and personalized service.

A key component of Intelligent Office's communications set up is unified communications. The company has

implemented a Mitel telecommunications platform, and within the Mitel infrastructure, has built the capability

to offer unified messaging, voice to email capability, fax to email, "a messaging portal," as well as a service

that is similar to "single reach" (Bell service) - "Mobile Extension" which will ring through to 3-8 numbers that

the client provides. The company also offers LifeSize video conferencing, and "Teleworker," a handset which

is an extension of the Intelligent Office phone system that can be added to a home location so customers can

receive VoIP calls the company patches through by touching a 4 digit extension. The handset also allows

customers to make inexpensive, VoIP long distance calls through the Intelligent Office phone switch.

According to Monteith, "The IP-based phone system is very suited to our market because we are catering to

that remote professional that is not necessarily using a traditional fixed office location. IP means they can

access anywhere. "

Monteith has ambitious expansion plans for Intelligent Office, which was founded by Ralph Gregory in

Boulder, Colorado in 1995 and first appeared in Canada in 2005: the company is looking to establish

franchises in Vancouver (next year), Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Whistler, Montreal, and Halifax to bring

the national total to 35 by 2016. To drive this ambitious growth, Monteith plans to add new services such as

back up (offered through a third-party), as well as hosting of an Intranet site that will allow members to

promote their services to each other, but will rely on the outsourcing trend, and development of brand name

recognition through networking and through spending on new marketing approaches, such as retention of

franchise brokers to carry brand out west.

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