Virtual offices & mobile devices – is this the next step for a business?

Virtual offices have made it incredibly easy to work from locations outside of the physical office space. Most people using a virtual office will work from home, or perhaps some kind of shared space. However there are a lot of different types of problems if you have a business that requires you to be on the go – can you work as effectively on a plane or train as you can at home?

When you choose a virtual office package, there are plenty of options in terms of handling calls and post – but what about the practical applications of being completely mobile? You could take a laptop on a train or a plane, but what about using mobile devices like tablets and phones?

In this post we will determine how the modern era of mobile devices can be a great way to be even more mobile in a virtual office.

First Off – Is Mobile Really Ready For Work?

Like we said in the beginning of this post, you can easily bring a laptop to most places and use it for work. But, they are not as mobile as we once felt. The convenience of a high end smartphone or tablet really rivals the basic business laptops in terms of accessibility.

The era of smartphones has meant that there are a lot of ways a business can make use of such devices for work purposes. Reasons that mobile is now ready for work include:

• Power – The processing capabilities, not to mention the battery life of mobile devices makes them ideal for work – with many manufacturers focussing on powerful performance. Roger Cheng, executive editor for CNET, wrote in 2012 that “Apple started the trend by focusing on the high PPI found in the iPhone’s “Retina Display,” and other manufacturers have started to stress the amount of pixels packed into their display”. So it’s clear that graphical power will be an enduring feature of mobile technology as more devices arrive on the scene.
• Storage – There was a time when storage was an issue on mobile devices, but with Apple’s mobile devices featuring up to 128GB and Samsung’s featuring removable storage via flash cards it’s clear the even large data files used for things like design can be stored effectively on mobile. The storage capacity along with the graphical capabilities makes mobile devices suited to most types of work.
• Connectivity – 3G and 4G technologies that are enabling mobile devices to access wireless internet results in plenty of opportunity for connectivity. This means that cloud based work is entirely achievable on mobile devices, providing versatility and the ability to switch between laptop, desktop and mobile device as required.

So, the technology is there – as a result, it’s plain to see that mobile devices are a viable option for work when using a virtual office. But what will the future bring?

The Future Of Mobile Offices

One of the coolest things about mobile technology is the implications of what the future will bring. With increased connectivity, it’s likely that we’ll see some major developments that might make mobile devices even more suitable for work.

These developments will likely include:

• Apps – There are dedicated office productivity applications for mobile, including Office 365 and Google Apps for Work, that make use of the technology and create a really dedicated experience for mobile users. We will likely see more of this as time goes on, with Adobe in particular creating a range of mobile apps that are dedicated for tablet use.
• Increased Connectivity – If you’ve seen a lot of the 4G and 3G devices current capabilities you will realise that connectivity is already quite impressive. This is likely to improve, with 5G and beyond looming it’s likely the connectivity even in more remote areas will become a much better.
• New Technologies – We’ve recently seen the first incarnation of what many believe will be a new era of wearable tech, in the form of the Apple watch. This shows us the potential for even smaller devices that could potentially be used for work one day. It’s still early days, but we may very well see an emergence of new technologies that perhaps work in a way we don’t quite expect.

The practical limitations to working are what’s really important about the future. Those limitations will be ultimately overcome to create an era of accessibility and connectivity that will mean work is even more mobile than ever before.

Make Mobile Work For Your Virtual Office

Choosing a virtual office package to take care of the things in a business that require you to have a fixed location, like mail forwarding and phone services, frees you in a physical sense – and it’s easy to see with the points made above that there are opportunities to go totally mobile and use tablets and phones for work purposes, as well as or instead of laptops and desktops.

What do you think the future of mobile will mean for your business? Please do comment and let us know. If you’d like more great information and updates make sure you check out the rest of our blog, especially the ‘Virtual Office’ section.

By Alex Novakovic at MadeSimple – Follow Alex on Google+