Many of the world’s workers are expected to commute to a bricks-and-mortar office premises every weekday in order to undertake their various jobs. But are business owners wasting their money by spending thousands of pounds each year on such work spaces?

Think about it – how often do you find yourself glued to your desk these days? It is quite likely that you are more often off-site, meeting with clients, giving pitches or attending industry conferences. Even those employees who are in the office most of the time probably make use of a few key rooms in the building only, potentially meaning much money is being lost by businesses through the costs of (unnecessary) real estate.

Thanks to advancements in mobile technologies over the years also, theoretically office workers could complete many tasks relating to their job from almost any location, negating the necessity of their office desk. These thoughts are mirrored by Peter Job, founder and CEO of a Dubai-based IT optimisation consultancy business Intergence. Job’s has estimated that by the year 2020, around 80 % of workers globally will work from virtual offices.

Job’s claim is largely driven by the advent of cloud computing:

“Employees can use cloud services to share files, access business services, talk to each other or collaborate on shared documents in real time.”

The lack of a need to invest in real estate in the proposed virtual future will save business owners money but we have to ask; at what cost?

Whilst a largely virtual office-future is no doubt achievable, going completely virtual might not be as popular as Jobs has suggested, since many employers will want regular face-to-face contact with their employees. This could be much harder to ensure when it comes to virtual office operations which more easily allow employees to be geographically diverse.

The shift into virtual office operations is also dependant on business owners and their members of staff learning how to use various cloud computing technologies and establishing new protocols for processes that would usually be conducted in person, offline. A large investment in training then would be required to ensure a business’s transition from physical to virtual goes as smoothly as it possibly can – mistakes could see precious profit and/or new business lost!

Companies that implement several virtual office services – such as mail/call forwarding – now will also be better prepared for this supposed virtual future (and certain operations will run more smoothly in the present too!)

What do you think of Job’s claim? Will most of us be working from a virtual office by 2020? Share your thoughts with us below.

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