A virtual desktop is an operating system accessible via the Internet. In concrete terms, it enables you to open your session (e.g. Windows) from anywhere, and from any device with a WIFI connection. Thus, based on a cloud-based system, it enables you to manage your company and its files directly from a workspace. The virtual desktop is sometimes referred to as DaaS (Desktop As A Service) or VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure).
The Cloud enables you to store all your company's organizational data. Any user can access it whenever they want, securely from any computer, tablet or smartphone connected to the Internet.
There are many advantages to using a virtual office, both for the employee and the company. Having a virtual office improves the flexibility of the working environment for all your employees.
The ability to work remotely means that everyone can organize their day-to-day activities from the comfort of their computer keyboard, in a variety of flexible ways: choosing their workplace, their working hours, their lunch breaks...
It also means more mobile and autonomous employees, who gain in productivity (no more time wasted in transport) and performance , as they choose the work rhythm that suits them best.
Office virtualization also enables companies to recruit from a wider choice of candidates. Remote working makes it possible to recruit talent from all over the world.
Even so, many virtual office spaces offer their customers the use of meeting rooms and offices for physical meetings, such as the annual general meeting of associates. These advantages are attracting more young talent in search of freedom, flexibility and a better work-life balance.
Having a virtual office can come in handy. When you're starting out in business, it's often difficult to combine your private and professional lives. With a virtual office, you can easily distinguish between the two, as it allows you to separate your home address from your business address. What's more, using a domiciliation service company for your company will relieve you of many administrative burdens.
It's also possible to use a business address for tax and economic reasons. For example, the cost of the Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises can be particularly high, depending on the commune in which you set up your business. Also, the dematerialization of your offices means you don't need the services of a secretary or accountant.
You can also customize the services you need, from your customer area or an application, by renting offices or meeting rooms on a one-off basis only, for example, so you don't have to rent premises.
Virtual offices offer a wide range of services. The first is mail management. With a business address service, your mail will be received at the address you choose, and you can choose to have it forwarded or scanned.
You can also benefit from administrative and legal secretarial services. You can take advantage of a telephone secretariat that will forward messages by e-mail and transfer calls directly to your line, or ask the secretariat to take care of your administrative and legal documents to ease your workload.
The social restrictions brought about by Covid 19 have democratized telecommuting, accelerating the emergence of new players in office dematerialization, as well as new applications for profile management, user virtualization and mobile client support. It is therefore important to provide a high-quality user interface, and to simplify IT systems management as much as possible. But what about security?
Whatever dematerialization technology is chosen to build your virtual desktop, it creates a closed system in which any changes made by its user or by an application cannot harm the host computer. However, the virtual desktop user must carefully secure his or her virtual desktop to maintain it for as long as possible.
To do this, you need to protect the virtual office from cyber-attacks with a firewall and antivirus software (an operating system such as Windows is equipped with the Windows Firewall applet, for example). You can also disable remote access when it's not needed, or require the use of a private network (VPN).
Any company can use a domiciliation company to house its head office in a location other than its actual place of work. It can then benefit from a prestigious address that will raise its profile and make it more attractive to new customers.
This means adopting a dematerialized solution for managing mail, switchboard, administrative and legal formalities...
Connecting these two locations is important for business, and can be facilitated by the use of virtual offices.
What's more, itfrees employeesfrom many time-consuming and unrewardingtasks, allowing them to focus on other, higher value-added tasks. Many companies use three key criteria to select the most suitable solution:
- A comprehensive solution with all necessary services and a maintenance contract;
- A la carte services to suit all budgets;
- A solution accessible on all devices, with all operating systems.
Virtual offices are attracting more and more companies because of the cost savings and productivity gains they can generate. In fact, the virtual office cloud makes it possible to improve the creation, storage, backup and sharing of data between a company's collaborators, generating significant time and profitability gains.
They are also solutions guaranteeing better security in the face of the upsurge in computer attacks. Numerous solutions already exist on the market to meet the needs of all businesses.
The adoption of virtual offices is therefore a viable solution for many companies, whatever their size or sector of activity, guaranteeing flexibility, freedom andimproved performance.
Written by our expert Paul LASBARRERES-CANDAU
October 27, 2021
