Office Space News
California’s Pacific Business Centers Offers “Cloud Officing”
Published February 13th, 2009 by Jennifer LeClaire
Just the other day, I wrote about Pacific Business Centers. This company is a leader in on-demand offices in California and is coming off record level activity in 2008.
Pacific Business Centers says inquires were up 43 percent last year, with much of that uptick coming in the fourth quarter. In total, the executive office suite provider signed twice as many new customers in 2008 than in 2007.
That’s good news for the industry, demonstrating that business models that offer true value to companies will continue to see sustained growth in a recession. But the big question is this: How is Pacific Business Centers going to top that in 2009?
The general economic malaise may help propel the company forward in California’s serviced office industry. The company, which has serviced offices in 15 locations across California including San Mateo, Sunnyvale and Walnut Creek, is betting the need for flexibility in a down economy will drive driving start-ups, professional firms, and corporate users.
Cloud Officing?
Pacific Business Centers isn’t taking any chances. It’s pulling out all the high-tech lingo marketing stops a new service offering called “Workplace-As-A-Service” or WAAS. Laurent Dhollande, Pacific Business Centers’ CEO, puts it this way: “We call this WAAS, or Workplace-As-A-Service, but you can call it Cloud Officing if you want.”
This savvy California-based serviced office provider is playing off one of the latest trends in technology: Cloud Computing. Cloud computing is an emerging approach to shared infrastructure in which large pools of systems are linked together to provide IT services. It taps into the power of Software-As-A-Service, Web 2.0 and other Internet technology trends. You only use the services you pay for.
On the WAAS front, the idea is to provide a low overhead workplace solution, on a hosted, pay-per-use, and ubiquitous basis. It doesn’t surprise me that Pacific Business Centers uses so many tech terms like hosted, on-demand and the cloud. They have offices in tech hot spots like Cupertino and Palo Alto. The company offers data center services and IT support, which is probably by virtue of its locations.
“We liquefy the most illiquid asset of all real estate and deliver the entire workplace on-demand, embedded with a large array of support services” adds Dhollande. “The model is proven for start-ups and professional firms, and now large corporations are showing a tremendous interest in our approach. “
What’s a Hosted Office?
There’s so many names being tossed around in this industry. Office renters need to know that there’s not a whole lot of difference between executive office suites, serviced offices, flexible offices and hosted offices.
Most of them provide access to support services on pay-per-use basis, though some of them include a bundle of services as part of the office rent. Pacific Business Centers’ “hosted offices” offer a la carte services such as conference rooms , IT services, VoIP telephony, administrative support, bookkeeping, online law library, and furnished private offices.
What Pacific Business Centers is doing is a marketing promotion that to attract attention in the marketplace. Cloud computing is drawing the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon.com. By using this buzzword, Pacific Business Centers may draw additional techie companies and entrepreneurs to its serviced offices.
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Bill Brookshire February 16th, 2009 at 8:47 am
PBC is innovative in its thinking. I’ve never visited one of its executive office centers before, but they certainly give you the impression that they have all your tech needs covered with their marketing speak. The approach is really nothing new, but how they package it is. This sets PBC apart.
Elizabeth Sanchez February 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am
I like the point Jennifer made about the various names for executive office suites. I think at some level, it’s bad for the industry to have so many names with such little distinction. I mean, it can cause customer confusion. Hosted offices, serviced offices, etc. There may be some subtle differences, but just like there are standards in the tech world, there should probaby be standards in the office space world.
Maggie Correta February 16th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Workplace-As-A-Service. It’s an interesting twist. I am not sure how this is more advantageous than other serviced offices. I’m sure there’s something here we’re missing. It does seem more like a coworking arrangement or an ultra-flexible serviced office set up. I’m not sure how PBC is pulling that off, unless they have lots of empty office space in their 15 California locations.
Melanie Jones February 16th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Liquifying the most illiquid asset in all of real estate. That’s a real tongue twister and a real different way to deliver serviced office space. There are so many buzzwords in the executive office suite industry that I agree it can get a little fuzzy. And it’s not to say that no one else is delivering this type of office space solution. But this really does offer far more flexibility than most alternative office solutions out there.
Rob Zeus February 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am
This sort of marketing appeals to the tech-savvy crowd. It might get lost on some off of the alternative office seekers who don’t understand the analogy to cloud computing or software-as-a-service. That’s probably fine, since this serviced office provider is located in California in tech heavy markets. I’m interested to see how it plays out.
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