If you dial a real phone number and it connects you to a real office, then a virtual phone number should connect you to a virtual office. But what is a virtual office in the first place? A virtual office is one that provides all the services of a traditional office but that does not have a physical presence. It is the offshoot of modern technology which enables people, who would normally have to work in the same premises, to communicate with each other and perform their tasks even if physically separated. It is the answer to the question of many an office worker who asks “Why do we all have to be in the same building?” The virtual office says, “No, we don’t

The first recorded application for a virtual office was in 1994 when a company, The Virtual Office, Inc., was established. The business has since expanded and been renamed “Intelligent Office”. The main components of the virtual office are space utilization and communications services.

A virtual office rents out from a provider or building owner a business address and a mailing address. The provider maintains a traditional, bricks-and-mortar office that serves as the business address and mailing address for a number of clients. This is usually located in a prestigious building or location and has a receptionist to answer telephone calls, take messages, receive mail and packages delivered to the address. This is important for the proper recording of mail and packages, especially for security and legal purposes.

The provider of a virtual office maintains rooms which might be used by its clients for meetings or for casual work on an hourly or daily basis. The virtual office provider also offers its clients normal office amenities like broadband internet service, copying and fax facilities, conference call and video conferencing.

The other element of a virtual office has to do with how the work is actually carried out by the employees. Office work is usually outsourced to third-party providers or, if done by the company’s employees, carried out at their homes or other locations of their choosing. Marketing, sales, accounting and other standard office functions are performed by the employees over the computer. With the availability of online voice and video facilities, software that allows multi-party access to data, reports and progress charts, the different employees can keep in touch with each in much the same way as if they were housed in one building.

A virtual phone number is the gateway to access the virtual office. It can serve as the hub for the virtual office and enable communication between all the members of office. The virtual phone number can be programmed to route calls to more than one party and allow office staff to be in easy touch with each other. For customers of the virtual office, a virtual phone number is like having a branch in every locality where the customers are located. 

Through creative use of technology and work systems, the virtual phone number can create a virtual office for a business minus all the expense, hassle and risks of the real thing.