No matter where you are

No matter where you are

Zatni Arbi
Columnist
Jakarta

The word "virtual" is becoming more and more vague. We hear
the word being used virtually every day. And, each time we hear
the term "virtual office", we wonder what it means. Does it mean
an office in the virtual world, or does it mean that we have an
office that is virtual?

There are companies all over the world that can provide us
with a fully furnished office, a prestigious address in the
Central Business District that we can print on our business card
and letterhead, a phone number that will be answered in our
company's name, a high-end computer, professional secretarial
service, meeting rooms complete with presentation tools, a lounge
and a kitchenette -- virtually everything that we need to run our
business.

This type of arrangement is usually offered by establishments
that prefer to call themselves "serviced offices".

In Jakarta, one can set up a virtual office at one of the
serviced offices such as The Executive Center Indonesia in
Danamon Aetna Building, The CEO Suite in Wisma GKBI building,
Plaza Business Center at Menara KADIN tower, HQ Global Workplaces
at Ariobimo Sentral building and the Jakarta American Club in
Wisma Kota BNI business complex. Yet, the office is virtual,
because we may be there for a couple of days and then move to
another city in another country next week.

A virtual office such as this one is a legitimate one. A
reputable virtual office provider will normally ask us to sign
contracts that say that we agree not to conduct any illicit
business on the premises.

The fact that we move around does not mean that we cannot be
reached, as simple or complex technologies such as call
forwarding, cellphones, fax, e-mail, SMS, unified messaging and
other communication tools enable others to contact us at any
time, regardless of our actual location. Any message received at
our virtual office will be forwarded to us, so we can give the
appropriate response whether we happen to be in Sydney, Seoul,
Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore or Jakarta.

In other words, this type of virtual office means that no
matter where we are at a given time, we are virtually in our
virtual office. People still can communicate with us as if we
were there at that address. This is the traditional meaning of
virtual office.

There is a different type of virtual office, though, and we
may define it as an office in the virtual world. Technologies
such as Instant Messaging (IM) and Presence and Availability
Management make it possible for us to have an office in
Cyberspace. A number of companies, which specialize in corporate
communication solutions, are working hard to provide the building
blocks for this type of office.

First, a lot of people may be very familiar with IM, and some
of them may be using the facility on a daily basis. It really
reflects the nature of human beings, who are always asking for
more. For the rest of us, e-mail already allows us to communicate
cheaply and effectively with each other. For many, the word
"instant" should be added to their communication.

Basically, if you have friends or family around the world, the
Internet-based IM may serve as a virtual meeting place for the
entire group. IM does not cost anything so far, and portals like
Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN offer this service for free. Yahoo
calls its IM service "Yahoo Messenger", while Microsoft calls its
own "Windows Messenger".

To use the services, you will have to download the application
from their respective Web sites. Then you register yourself and
add a list of friends that you want to be included in your group-
which is much like Yahoo's e-group. When you run the application,
it will scour the Internet and give you the names of whoever
among your contacts in the group is online. Then you can page any
of these people and send him or her a message. A chat window will
appear with your messages. One is able to read and respond much
like a typical telephone call. It is just like sending e-mail
messages back and forth, only it resembles a real-world
discussion more closely.

Some IM services also add the facility to hold a realtime
voice conversation or even video conferencing. All you need is a
multimedia PC-and a Webcam for capturing images. You can call a
phone from your PC, or you can call another PC anywhere on the
Internet.

Other IM services can be found at dozens of other sites,
including Messenger.com (imessenger.com), Prodigy
(http://pim.prodigy.net/) and, of course, AOL. Efforts are also
underway to make IM a secure place and fit for supporting
business communication, so companies such as imwave (imwave.com),
Bantu (bantu.com) and Jabber Inc. (jabber.com) are working hard
to promote the use of secured IM in the business environment.

Availability and presence management takes instant messaging
to new heights. Take Personity (personity.com), for example. This
company, in which the U.S. telecommunications giant Motorola has
a share, is working on applications that will allow us to contact
other people in the group even though they are not on the
Internet. Personity's Instant Messaging and Presence Services
(IMPS) already enables wireless devices from Motorola, Nokia and
Ericsson to exchange instant messages and presence information
much like what we can do over the Internet.

So, the next time Jakarta is hit by a major flood -- and
unfortunately most likely it will -- you know that your boss will
always want you to report to work.

You may stay home, but you cannot hide from him. The only time
that you may be able to escape is when there is no electricity in
the house or your cellphone network is overloaded.

Otherwise, you had better count on it that he will be using
all the next-generation technologies such as availability and
presence management to keep his office running in the virtual
world.