That is the main selling point of a virtual office. Besides providing facilities in office services, a virtual office offers a prestigious address. Understandably, in business, image and credibility are absolutely necessary.
It is also quality services and facilities in office matters that are offered by CEO Suite, a company run by Mee Kim. Born in Seoul, South Korea, in December 1962, Kim, who has lived in Indonesia for many years, used to be the senior manager at an Australian instant office provider assigned to develop the company’s branch office in Jakarta in 1997. It was then that she became interested in starting her own business under the flagship of CEO Suite.
Learning from the company where she formerly worked, Kim offers a different concept in her CEO Suite. Most instant office providers in Indonesia, she says, come from big countries like the United States and Australia. However, in providing services, they usually stick to the business practices prevailing in their own countries. “There is a gap between the business pattern prevailing in Australia or America and the one adopted in Asia,” she noted.
Therefore, CEO Suite offers not only a physical office service and all the necessities but also virtual office services. A client does not need to rent space but can use the address of CEO Suite as his company’s address. The lessee gets a telephone number facility plus a secretary to handle all the company’s needs. In addition, CEO Suite also takes care of other things for its clients, such as attending to tax matters and visa applications or finding the right local partners. “The pattern we adopt is a one-stop solution,” Kim says.
The occupancy rate at CEO Suite, Kim claims, never drops below 80 percent. “There is a great demand for not only physical offices but also virtual offices,” she said.
Following its success in three locations in the Golden Triangle in Jakarta, CEO Suite expanded its business to major cities of the world where business is flourishing, such as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Seoul.
Unlike Tipuk in the illustration above, there is no longer any need for a businessperson to consider not having an office a constraint. Now that there is the opportunity to rent an instant office, which ranges from a virtual office providing basic secretarial services only to a small office large enough for three to 15 people, not having actual business premises is no longer a problem. You only have to take your laptop and you can have your own office and carry out your business.
It is true that unlike in advanced countries, in Indonesia the trend of the instant office has yet to develop well. However, many see the concept of a small office, instant office or virtual office as an attractive option given the fact that some companies are designed to be small-scale businesses or that some firms have trimmed their businesses for better efficiency. (Burhan Abe)
The Jakarta Post, September 04, 2007
