Intelligent Office of Hamilton

Intelligent Office Hamilton - Recent News

DEC3

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 the brand out west.

 

 

 

FEB24

When the economy hands them a lemon, smart Canadian firms make lemonade

When the going is tough, smart small businesses in Canada get going.
INCLUDES VIDEO. http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=52130
2/23/2009 5:00:00 AM By: Joaquim P. Menezes
"When fate hands you a lemon," wrote Dale Carnegie way back in 1948, "make lemonade."
Carnegie offered that principle in his best-seller: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living as a prescription for personal peace and fulfillment in the midst of turmoil.
Today, 61 years on, smart Canadian small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are putting this astute – and abiding – precept into practice...with spectacular results.
At a recent roundtable in Toronto, two such firms shared how they are using today's dire economic challenges as a launching pad for unprecedented growth and profitability.
The event was organized by Mississauga, Ont.-based Microsoft Canada.
Virtual office, real savings
Today's bleak financial climate may not seem overly conducive to corporate success.
But even such widespread phenomena as downsizing and cost cutting can be turned to advantage, as Brian Monteith has demonstrated.
Monteith is master franchiser at Intelligent Office in Canada – a provider of "virtual office" solutions with seven locations across Ontario. The company offers entrepreneurs and businesses shared executive (and regular) office space, intelligent assistants, receptionist services, meeting spaces, and more.
One would expect mainly smaller shops to have a need for such offerings, but Monteith says his clients span the gamut – from small businesses all the way up the totem pole to Fortune 500 companies.
And a tough economy, he said, has actually boosted – and broadened – the appeal of such services.
"Where some see uncertainty, we see opportunity," Monteith said. He explained why.
According to Monteith, in today's tight market, companies are scrambling for ways to lower costs. "Outsourcing to us allows them to reduce their real estate, offering them the benefits of an infrastructure, without the high fixed costs."
Such an arrangement, he suggested, allows small and mid-sized businesses – as well as larger firms that are downsizing – to have their cake and eat it too. They can enjoy amenities such as remote offices, media rooms, receptionist services, a prestigious address and more, at a fraction of the costs of setting up and maintaining all these elements themselves.
It's a value proposition Intelligent Office emphasizes in its marketing – and with remarkable results.
The franchise opened its first Canadian location in Toronto in August 2005 with Monteith as master franchisee. It has since expanded to seven locations across Ontario.
Moving forward, Monteith believes expansion will be even more rapid. "We plan to be in 40 locations by 2015."
Ironically, the current recession is actually fuelling growth by increasing the appeal of the Intelligent Office business model.
"Since September 2008 our leads have actually doubled," Monteith told ITBusiness.ca. "January 2009 was a record month for leads and closes at all locations."
He said today businesses of all sizes – from small firms to Fortune 500 companies – are realizing the current office set up isn't ideal, and services such as Intelligent Office offer them a great way to save on bricks-and-mortar and even staffing costs.
"With the economy in a downward spiral, we're in a great position to target SMBs."
Intelligent Office franchises in Ontario are seeking to further enhance the appeal of their offerings by introducing greater flexibility and choice.
For instance, belonging to one location entitles clients to use all the others as well. "So if you're a member of the downtown Toronto location, you can use an office in Waterloo or Hamilton. But you only pay for it when you need it."
From Monteith's perspective, when offering such a service, size doesn't matter – at least not a whole deal. His own operations are a testimony to this. "Our current location at North York, employs just five people, but services hundreds more."
The reason his business has an impact and reach disproportionate to its size can be summed up in a single word: technology.
"Technology is the driving force behind our business," Monteith said. "We've heavily invested in our tech infrastructure."
A big chunk of this spend is in computer-telephony integration products. The firm will also be investing in remote data backup technology to offer customers – especially small office, home office (SOHO) clients – a one-stop data backup and recovery option.
Microsoft SQL Server – Redmond's relational database management system – will be a key part of this infrastructure, as well as other Microsoft products, Monteith said.
Home run

Investment in technology and new tech processes is also paying off big time at Fusion Homes that builds a broad range of homes in the Guelph, Kitchner and London areas of Ontario.
The company – whose mandate is to "combine the intimacy and quality of the small builder with high production levels" – was named Ontario Builder of the Year in 2008 by Tarion Warranty Corp.
It received Tarion's top rating for customer satisfaction.
"Our product ranges from entry level, to larger homes, to dwellings geared to empty nesters," said Lee Picolli, president of Fusion Homes, which he founded a decade ago.
Picolli said his company is currently rolling out "an enormous IT project" that involves reviewing software applications used by every single department and optimizing those. We're doing this by either implementing new products or enhancing ones we already have, he said.
It may seem strange an initiative of this scope is being implemented at a time of general market recession, when cost cutting is the name of the game. But Picolli is convinced the long-term payoff will make the venture worthwhile.
"When it became evident we were going through a slowdown, we evaluated our company, asking ourselves what we want it to look like once the recession is over."
He cited the three key objectives that emerged from this exercise:
• Don't compromise our competitive position – "We resolved cost cutting can't be at the cost of quality, service and customer experience."
• Keep talent – He said over the past few years when his firm experienced spectacular growth (430 per cent since 2003) it started to recruit and train for key positions. This process, he said, would continue as Fusion Homes wanted to be able to "hit the ground running" once the recession was over.
• Make strategic investments – The firm, he said, decided to invest in items that will catapult it to the top of the pile once the slowdown is over. One of these is land purchase. "Some competitors may be weakened by the recession, allowing us to make purchases on better terms or at a lower price."
The software project, he said, aligns with all three objectives.
Software implementation, he noted, is time-consuming for IT and now – when things are a bit slow – is an ideal time to get the project rolling. "It helps us meet our second objective which is keeping our talent as we have to keep these guys busy doing something."
Three Cs
Canadian small businesses such as Fusion Homes and Intelligent Office owe their success to an unwavering focus on "three Cs", according to Eric Gales, vice-president, small business and midmarket solutions at Microsoft Canada.
He said these are: cash flow, core competency and customers.
As part of his role, the Microsoft executive said, he's interacted with small and mid-sized businesses in every major city in Canada – and has been able to witness first hand the factors that drive success.
"Businesses that survive and thrive understand what they're trying to sell, why they're trying to sell it, and their market – and are able to react to the changing landscape."
He said companies serious about the three Cs can harness the power of IT to:
• Reduce costs – Technology can help companies better manage their costs by improving processes (repeat processes, improve quality, reduce infrastructure management expenses in key areas).
• Drive productivity –This includes the productivity in a broader sense – of decision making, of communications, optimizing existing resources.
• Realize business opportunities – Technology, said Gales, helps new businesses and existing firms expand their core competencies to new markets and domains.
Gales said the Canadian government – recognizing that technology can revitalize business in these difficult times – has recently offered various tax breaks. "They are an important incentive for businesses to invest in technology now."
He said while many SMBs say they will invest in IT after they grow, the fact is such an investment is the pre-requisite for growth.





Carolyn Hurley | High Road Communications
360 Adelaide Street West, 4th Floor | Toronto, ON M5V 1R7
? 416.644.2239 | ? churley@highroad.com | ? www.highroad.com
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