DALLAS, Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Further extending its holistic approach to meeting the needs of small businesses from coast to coast, AT&T announced today an alliance with The Regus Group (LSE: RGU), the world's largest provider of workplace solutions. Under the alliance, Regus will provide AT&T small business customers with affordable, convenient and flexible office space, featuring administrative, communications, printing and technology services.

The new alliance offers AT&T small business customers benefits and discounts at Regus business centers, including:

-- Six months complimentary membership in Regus' Businessworld Gold
program, which provides users with access to more than 1,000
Internet-equipped Regus business lounges in 450 cities worldwide
-- Two complimentary months on any Regus Virtual Office package, which
includes a business address, personalized telephone answering services,
and a local phone number

-- One-free month rental on any full-time office

"We're committed to helping small businesses succeed by helping them stay productive, wherever their business takes them," said Alicia Dietsch, Vice President of Marketing Communications, AT&T. "The freedom to conduct business anywhere is increasingly a requirement of our customers. Affordable, virtual office space extends this freedom to entrepreneurs on an as-needed basis, and is a great addition to the suite of values we offer to enable small business success."
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Regus is celebrating 20 years of business in the serviced office / executive suite business.  According to Wikipedia: In 1989 while on a business trip to Brussels, an English entrepreneur, Mark Dixon, noted the lack of office space available to travelling business people; they were often forced to work from hotels. He identified a need for office space that was maintained, staffed, and available for companies to use on a flexible basis and went on to found his first business center in Brussels in Belgium.

Today Regus rents office space with services in over 1,000 centers in 450 cities and 75 countries serving 200,000 clients daily. In the US they operate over 400 centers.

Mark Dixon was a true visionary. He saw a need for flexible office space filled it and expanded the concept. As we move farther into the  21st century, the concept of on-demand offices is likely to see even more acceptance. As the workforce becomes even more mobile in a technology driven workforce, demand will continue to increase.

Executive Suites are an excellent option for a mobile workforce, smaller companies or branches.  Many companies, large and small, choose to operate their business or satellite offices from an Executive Suite. Executive Suites are shared offices with services provided by a management firm. They are also known as an Office Business Center or serviced offices and are a great way for small companies to get off to a fast and low risk start and a great way for a fast growing company to have the flexibility for rapid growth. In an Executive Suite, you can focus on your business, while the Executive Suite operator handles the details of managing your office. Most Executive Suites also offer a Virtual Office Program, as well. More on Executive Suites.

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I made a short presentation yesterday for our Office  Business Center Association International (OBCAI) Local Member Network on Social Media and how to get started. It was an overview and among the sites I visited was Wikipedia. As I am sure most of you know, "Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by its readers. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki." Since this was a group of executive suite operators, I thought  it would be interesting to look up the definition of "Executive Suite" according to Wikipedia.  Here is what I found:

"Executive Suite is a 1954 MGM drama film depicting the transfer of power in a corporation in trouble." No mention of a form of office space.

Needless to say, the industry has some work to do in improving name recognition. Is it an Executive Suite or a Service Office, an Office Business Center or a Ready to use Office? Actually, it is all of the above, but the public needs more constancy, especially in the age of Internet searches.  What are they going to be looking for and how do providers make sure they get found?

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A new concept in officeing. Cloud Officing is similar to Cloud Computing in the technology arena, Cloud Officing is all about making an expensive infrastructure available at a reduced cost under a utility model. The idea is to provide a low overhead workplace solution, on a hosted, pay-per-use, and ubiquitous basis. One of our OfficeFinder Members is among the first to offer this new service. They have proven the concept with a grid of 14 locations in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, which is expanding in partnership with landlords. The company has plans to deploy and manage thousands of on-demand locations around the globe and will start expanding out of its initial Northern California market in the middle of this year.

According to them, the average amount of time a worker is physically present in a dedicated office ranges between 25% and 40%, which is a waste of an expensive asset since facilities and corporate real estate costs represent the 2nd largest expense in most corporate books. This utilization ratio can even be worse for sales people or customer service-related professionals. The need to slash occupancy costs, along with a desire to reduce carbon footprint by bringing the workplace close to where people live, are driving corporate interest for alternate means of officing.

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Despite the recession Regus profits rose 25% according to a recent article at telegraph.co.uk in 2008.  Regus, headquartered in the UK, is the largest provider of executive suite space in the world with over 950 location with a total of over 171,000 work stations in 75 countries.

Mark Dixon, the chief executive, said the company's BusinessWorld division, which provides temporary workspace worldwide for business people who work without a permanent office, made more money last month than in the whole of 2008. He said BusinessWorld now has more than 180,000 members across the world.

Mr Dixon said the recession has caused a "fundamental change" in how businesses operate, with even FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies using its offices in an attempt to slash operating costs. The company said it has also witnessed a huge increase in demand for a new range of "recession busting" products, including video conference facilities.

He said the recession has been the "catalyst" in irreversibly changing businesses approach to flexible working. However, he added that the company is not "immune" to the global economic downturn and said "2009 will be a difficult year"