Can't Afford an Office? Rent a Desk for $275

By EMILY GLAZER

Originally Published on WSJ.com

Forget privacy. Shared workspaces are the latest trend in office space.

The offices, set up in a variety of ways but emphasizing open space and the ability to rent a single desk, are also known as co-working spaces. Such offices have long been popular with technology start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area looking for cheap space, but as the latest tech wave rises, shared workspaces are popping up in cities around the country.

Besides the cost advantages, entrepreneurs in technology and other fields say they like co-working spaces because their open floor plans boost collaboration, offer more flexibility on leases and can even help land investors.

"Nowadays with the shared workspaces you don't need to buy furniture, you don't need to set up Internet, you don't need to sign a long-term lease," said Saeed Amidi, founder and chief executive of Plug and Play Tech Center, a co-working space in Sunnyvale, Calif., with about 1,000 workers. "You can just get started... within two hours of walking in."

Workers share deskspace at General Assembly, a New York co-working space that opened in January.

Plug and Play is exploring expansion to Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Diego, Denver and Vancouver, said Mr. Amidi.

Meanwhile, reserved desks at General Assembly, a new 20,000 square foot co-working space and educational center that opened this past January in New York, are filled, according to the company.

Investors are also showing some interest. General Assembly said last month it raised $4.25 million from Yuri Milner of investment firm DST Global, and venture firms affiliated with Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Starbucks Corp. founder Howard Schultz.

Loosecubes, a start-up that has created an online marketplace for office sharing, lists more than 2,300 spaces across almost 500 cities and 60 countries, and claims 7,000 registered users. Last year, it raised $1.23 million led by prominent venture capital firms Accel Partners and Battery Ventures.

Office spaces amenable to co-sharing are proving to be more popular and lucrative than traditional Dilbert-like offices both for established companies looking to change their atmospheres and companies hosting the spaces for start-ups. The total vacancy for a "creative" space with open floor plans ideal for co-working was 2.54% in San Francisco in July, and the asking rent ranged from $32 to $53 per square foot per year. Meanwhile, more "historical" spaces with closed-door offices that lack open space had a total vacancy of 10.55%, while the asking rent ranged from $21 to $36 per square foot per year, according to commercial listing broker The CAC Group.

The Pitfalls of a Job Without a Desk

Owners of stodgier office spaces are tearing up their floor plans to chase the market. Earlier this year, a building at 115 Sansome St., in downtown San Francisco, started remodeling for a more flexible layout to appeal to high-tech start-ups.

"We are transforming this project because we think we will achieve greater demand for the space as well as higher rents than could be attained by maintaining the traditional office space," says John Winther, founder and managing partner of Emeryville, Calif.-based Harvest Properties, which is leasing the building.

Other spaces, like the roughly 12,000 square-foot Launchpad in New Orleans, help entrepreneurs by housing service providers that can help expand their business. Launchpad, which is popular with "techies" and creative types such as filmmakers, has expanded twice since its June 2009 opening.

Common workspaces are spurring innovation and providing start-ups with the collaborative atmosphere one might find in academic settings, but with more opportunity for venture capital. WSJ's Andy Jordan reports from New York's "General Assembly".

Workers pay $650 to $1,600 per month for a closed-door office, $450 per month for a permanent desk, file cabinet and personal landline and $275 per month for any available desk. The space can handle 70 companies and up to 170 people.

"If you need your LLC started, there's a lawyer upstairs; if you want to get your books down, there's an accountant right there; if you want a commercial start on the Web, there's a filmmaker in house," said Co-founder Barre Tanguis. "We've done a lot to nurture that and deliberately curate so we have the right people around and the right dynamic."

Collaboration is another part of the appeal of sharing space. Software firm Atlassian lets start-up Odiago use its space for free. In return, Odiago engineers offer Atlassian their expertise in open source software. "It's a full on win-win," said Jay Simons, Atlassian's president. "We take our people and basically embed them in [Odiago's] team.... the best way to learn is to sit next to each other."

The emphasis on learning has been such a draw at some workspaces that they organize workshops or demonstrations of the latest technologies. General Assembly hosts lectures regularly in addition to events such as a recent start-up demo night. Its layout includes a communal area with large, cushioned couches and industrial wooden tables in addition to breakout rooms, small phone booths or even cocoon-type seating for privacy.

Since the action is growing at co-working spaces, investors are also hanging out there more. At Plug and Play, angel investors, including Sand Hill Angels, Band of Angels and The Angels' Forum, typically visit every Monday afternoon to review the business plans of start-ups. More established venture capitalists including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, typically drop by every other month for deal reviews, Plug And Play's Mr. Amidi said.

Click here to view the original article on WSJ.com.

Thanks for Joining Us!

Thanks for making last Thursday's LMN LA event at The Gamble House a success!

We had a great time at last Thursday's social and want to thank everyone that was involved.

Congratulations to David McKinney for winning both a Starbucks gift card and the CORT prize bag with a Cheesecake Factory gift card. Congrats to Chris Davis for taking home a Macy's gift card and to Jenny Ahn and Rebecca Hodgers who both took home Starbucks gift cards.

Pictures from the event can be viewed on CDR-Data's Facebook page.

Once again, we'd like to thank all of our sponsors for helping us put on this event.

Thanks to CORT Furniture, DaVinci Virtual Office Solutions and CDR-Data for helping with the expenses and providing the great prizes. 

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing everyone again in the fall!

Join Us at OBCAI's LMN LA August Social!

Join us at our social on the back lawn of the historic Gamble House in Pasadena on the 18th of August. Wine and cheese will be served at 5:30 followed by a meeting and discussion. Fantastic door prizes will be raffled off after the meeting. Topic for discussion will be announced soon.

Carolina Rendeiro, President of the OBCAI, will be making the trip all the way from Florida to attend our LMN LA event. She'll be able to give us a glimpse on the upcoming goals and objectives she has for the future of the OBCAI. She'll also be able to answer any questions you may have about the upcoming OBCAI conference.

$20 per person.

Thanks to CDR-Data and CORT Furniture for sponsoring the door prizes.

Plenty of free parking in lot and surrounding streets.



For more information on the Gamble House, visit their website at http://www.gamblehouse.org/

RSVP on evite today!

A Message From MorningStar Software's President, Tom Hurt

MorningStar draws on its 20 years of success in developing management software for the North American OBC industry to offer a comprehensive collection of features to OBC clients around the world. From tracking marketing and sales information to fully integrated efficient invoicing, MorningStar’s seamless interface with your CDRData service, printers, fax machines, scanners, and phone systems ensures that every cost is accounted for and translates into profit instead of loss.

MorningStar offers several services to save your clients money and create additional income for you. For example, through MorningStar you can receive up to a 45% FedEx discount. MorningStar clients can also benefit from significant savings on their customers' credit card transactions. Plus our integrated credit card processing allows you to just click on a system link once a month to process all of your credit card customers.

Your custom portal provides online convenience your customers will appreciate including: requesting service, reserving conference rooms, paying invoices and reviewing their account history.

Thomas Hurt

MorningStar Software

281-890-8469

CDR-Data to Continue Telecom Billing for Celebration Corporate Center

CDR-Data is pleased to extend their partnership handling the telecom billing for Celebration Corporate Center. For over three years, CDR-Data has been assisting the luxury office center with managing their telecommunications and expanding their revenue. With Celebration Corporate Center’s various tenants receiving building access 24 hours a day, the many phone calls made to and by tenants can be difficult to manage. CDR-Data simplifies the process and consolidates every call into clear and precise reports, which allows Celebration Corporate Center to profit while focusing on providing their tenants with office space tailored to their specific needs and budget.

As the first and only town to be developed by The Walt Disney Company, Celebration and its unmatched standards are perfectly suited for the 50-suite office center. With their upscale executive suites, conference rooms, waiting areas and an executive lounge, Celebration Corporate Center has an office prepared for businesses of various sizes. Celebration Corporate Center’s location in Osceola County, Florida also provides their tenants the ability to be surrounded by a quaint, small town with downtown Orlando only 30 minutes away. CDR-Data is proud to assist the office center with their telecommunications as Celebration Corporate Center continues to expand and become a key provider of office space in Southern Florida.

About CDR-Data Corporation

CDR-Data Corporation, based in Pasadena CA, <http://www.cdrdata.com/> consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the telemanagement, call accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment, this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing. CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.

About Celebration Corporate Center

We’ve made the investment, so you don’t have to.  At Celebration Corporate Center, <http://celebrationcorporatecenter.com>, we have compiled the latest technological advances in office equipment, telephone services and internet capabilities.  We then combined them with top notch service delivered by professional multilingual office technicians and receptionists.  To top it all off, we have created an upscale Executive Lounge, state of the art conference rooms, and elegant waiting areas.  We assure you that you will be impressed, and we guarantee that your clients, customers and business associates will be equally impressed. In business, Image Is Everything, and perception is often reality, let us provide you with the image you deserve at a price you can afford.

For More information:

CDR-Data Corporation                                           Michelle Chin            626-791-7900

Celebration Corporate Center                               Christen Smith           407-566-2000

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Seven Tips on How to Make Working From Home Work For You

Working from home has become a common alternative for many people who want the flexibility of not having to trek to the office on a daily basis. But with the conveniences, there are also extra struggles that a person working from home may encounter. Lori Spiess, owner of VirtualOffiCenters and OffiCenters in Minneapolis, has learned many fundamental home-office tips while working with small business for nearly 30 years. To read her seven tips on how to make working from home work for you, click the link to read her article on http://www.newbizminn.com/Office%20Space.html.

Thanks for a great conference to everyone involved with GMIS!

Sunny Santa Fe was beautiful at this year's GMIS and the conference was a great success. We had a great time meeting with IT professionals from all over the country and learned a lot about the industry.

Congratulations to Paul Nelson from the City of Clovis, NM and to Elaine Isler from the City of Mobile, AL for winning CDR-Data's raffle. Both took home Starbucks gift cards for $100.

We look forward to seeing you all again in August 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.

Click here to view pictures of the event on CDR-Data's Facebook page.

Thanks for a Great Social!

Thanks for Joining Us!

 

The recent LMN LA June Social was filled with lots of networking, great discussion and informative guest speakers.

A big thanks to CDR-Data for sponsoring the event and to Regent Business Centers for hosting at their Downtown LA location.

Thanks to Ray Lindenberg for coming all the way from New York to speak at our meeting and for sharing tips on expanding LMN LA and our business centers. Thanks to everyone who was involved with the June Social and we look forward to seeing you at the next one!

To view pictures from the event, click here to view CDR-Data's Facebook page. Don't forget to like us while you're there!

Join CDR-Data at OBCAI LMN LA's June Social!

You're invited to LMN LA's June Social! - Click here to RSVP http://new.evite.com/services/links/BWSYLKBFAA

Enjoy a video recap of last Saturday's Hike for the Homeless!

Enjoy a video recap of last Saturday's Hike for the Homeless for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul's Cardinal Manning Center (shelter) in Skid Row.  You can view the video at the Society's youtube link at http://www.youtube.com/user/svdpla?feature=mhum

Which PBX is Right for You?

When deciding on whether to equip your office with a premise-based VoIP PBX or a hosted PBX, there are many factors you have to consider. While a premise-based VoIP PBX may well suited for one company, a hosted PBX may be perfect for another. The system with the best fit for your company depends on your business’ needs. The following article from Communications Technology Watch by William Harrel can help you decide which is ideal for you and your company.

Premise-Based VoIP PBX verses Hosted PBX

Nowadays, many small to medium companies are thinking about and looking into Voice over IP (VoIP) PBX systems, if for no other reason than to save money over their existing or antiquated traditional phone systems. Making this transition requires a lot of analysis and decision making. One of the more important decisions is whether to purchase your own VoIP PBX or to go with a “hosted” or virtual PBX, which is a system hosted by a VoIP provider. There are good arguments for both solutions, including cost, voice quality and reliability. Let’s look at each solution to see which works best for your business.

Premise Based VoIP PBX

With a premise based VoIP system, you either install the IP PBX yourself, or have a dealer or VAR (value added reseller) Install it for you. The equipment sits in your company’s data center, connects to your LAN, and distributes calls to IP phones also connected to the LAN. You own the equipment and software, and administer and maintain it. Calls can come to the IP PBX from a communication service provider over traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines or over your company’s broadband Internet connection, or both.

The premise-based approach has several advantages. Although the upfront cost is higher than with a hosted service, your company owns the system, rather than having to make payments forever. And with ownership comes increased control—you can customize or extend the capabilities of your systems more than you can with hosted service, provided you have the technical resources or are willing to pay somebody to do it for you. Another advantage is that it’s not necessary to rely solely on the Internet to deliver calls.  A premise based IP PBX gives you fallback capabilities should your Internet service be interrupted. Security is also higher because all messages and call data remain on your company’s premises.

But when compared to hosted solutions, there can be a significant disadvantage depending on the needs and resources of your organization. The biggest is monitoring and maintenance. Someone has to be available virtually all the time to make sure the system is running right. Someone also has to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. Premise-based systems typically require maintenance contracts that add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Configuring remote users can also be somewhat complicated and thereby expensive.

Here are a couple of premise-based solution providers:

GSolutionz

Cisco

Here is a great post on VoIP-News comparing premise-based systems to hosted systems:

http://www.voip-news.com/news/hosted-premises-pbx-pro-con/

Pros

• You will own the system
• You can customize it to suit needs
• Doesn’t necessarily have to rely on Internet for quality, reliability
• Messages, prompts, records remain on your company’s premises

Cons

• Significant costs for hardware and software maintenance contracts
• Requires staff for monitoring and maintaining
• Configuring remote users can be tricky
• Hardware, software upgrades could eventually become necessary if your user numbers and/or call volume grows

Hosted PBX

Hosted VoIP, also known as hosted PBX or virtual PBX, runs on equipment belonging to and located in the data center of a service provider. Calls travel to your office via its broadband Internet connection. Hosted services can provide many of the features and capabilities that traditional phone systems offer. Users can make or transfer calls by dialing each other’s extensions. They can also make conference calls, park and pick up calls, and answer calls forwarded to groups of extensions, known as ring groups. That’s not to mention all the new capabilities that IP makes possible, such as listening to voice mail messages through e-mail or another online interface, or placing calls by simply clicking on names in onscreen address books.

This solution also allows you to create extensions in different locations, such as multiple offices or employee homes. Remote VoIP extensions act just like extensions of traditional PBXs in that you can call them directly by dialing extension numbers, page them, or include them in call groups. The real benefit of VoIP extensions is that you are not charged for calling between them, no matter where they are located.

The biggest benefit of the hosted approach is its low upfront cost. The only equipment you need to buy to get started is IP phones for your employees. You then pay a monthly fee for each extension, which typically includes packages of minutes or unlimited domestic calling as well as cheap international rates. This approach lets you increase the number of users as needed and eliminates some ongoing costs. There are no hardware or software maintenance contracts, for example, and no need for in-house IT staff to monitor equipment and fix problems.  All service, maintenance, and updates are managed and provided by your service provider.

Hosted services can also have considerable drawbacks, though. The monthly charges can add up, especially when they involve paying full rate for little-used but necessary extensions. And unlike equipment purchases, hosted PBX payments don’t end until you cancel the service, and upon termination of service the business is left with no associated asset. Security is another concern, since voice mail messages and call records reside on the service provider’s servers, not you servers. Call quality and service reliability can also be significant worries, since both are totally dependent on your Internet connection(s).

Today, their are many hosted PBX providers. Here are a few:

Aerioconnect

NCISP

Here is a great blog for finding out all you need to know about hosted PBX: 

http://www.voip-news.com/blog/

Pros

• Low upfront costs
• Increase capacity exactly as needed
• No need for maintenance contracts or staff
• Remote extensions

Cons

• Quality, reliability depend on Internet
• Pay full rate for little-used extensions
• No end to payments, no eventual ownership of equipment
• Messages, prompts and call records reside in service provider’s data center

A Third Alternative

Another alternative, sometimes called “hybrid-hosted,” combines the key elements of hosted and premise-based systems. You buy and own the IP PBX equipment, which resides at your premises. But the vendor monitors and helps manage the equipment from its data center. This arrangement offers most of the benefits of both hosted and premise solutions, while doing away with most of the disadvantages of both. However, it is also by far the most costly.

As with conventional premise solutions, hybrid-hosted systems lets you pay once to purchase the equipment rather than paying forever for extensions, some of which may see little use. And messages and call data remain within the company.

And as with hosted solutions, hybrid-hosted systems significantly decrease the hassles and headaches of premise solutions. Part of it is ease of use. Administrators and managers can access their systems from anywhere via web browsers, rather than having to be on premises or to have configured special routes through their firewalls. Setting up remote users is simple too, and linking branch offices is often a one-click process. Users can even configure their own extensions from wherever they are.

Perhaps most important, the hybrid-hosted approach alleviates monitoring and maintenance headaches. From its data center, the vendor proactively watches the customer’s hardware and software, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for impending failures, and takes action before they happen. It also transparently maintains the software, pushing out automatic updates without the need for someone at your company to do anything. The vendor can also choose to back up call records and generate reports, taking a significant load off the premise equipment. And it also backs up the customer’s configurations (though usually not its voice mail messages or prompts due to privacy concerns), allowing for easy recovery in case of disaster.

Pros

• You own the system
• Can customize to suit needs
• Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises
• Vendor monitors for faults 24/7
• Vendor backup of customer configurations with easy disaster recovery
• Automatic software upgrades
• Easy remote administration through web browser
• Easy setup of remote users
• One-click linking of branch offices

Cons

• Upfront costs higher than with hosted solutions
• Hardware and software maintenance contracts recommended
• Hardware upgrade eventually necessary if user numbers grow
• Support and management contracts can be quite high, eliminating the savings you would gain from using VoIP.

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Thanks OBCAI LMN LA!

Thanks for being a part of LMN LA's social at CORT's beautiful showroom last week. It was a big success and we had a great time.

A big thanks goes out to Rebecca Chandler and CORT Furniture for graciously hosting and to all of our sponsors for the great prizes.

Everyone involved was an integral part of the social and made it a great event. To view pictures from the event, visit CDR-Data's facebook page.

Encore Offices Enlists CDR-Data for New Aliso Viejo Business Center

With the recent opening of Encore Offices’ newest executive suite and business center, Encore Offices has enlisted CDR-Data Corporation as their exclusive Call Accounting provider. The new luxury facility, located in Aliso Viejo, is expected to be the latest success for Deborah Walls and Diane Kampner, veterans in the executive suite industry. With Encore’s variety of over 60 executive suites, CDR-Data will provide reports to allow Encore Offices to effectively and efficiently manage their phone records for their many different clients.  

With CDR-Data’s flagship product, eCDR®, Encore Offices will be able to retrieve their Call Accounting records 24/7 from the convenience of any computer with an internet connection. In addition to virtual access of their accounts, CDR-Data’s technicians are attainable by phone if any problems arise.

Encore Offices has set themselves apart from the many competing office centers in the industry and their partnership with CDR-Data will help them in their effort to create an ideal workplace for each of their clients.

About Encore Offices

Encore Offices, <http://www.encoreoffices.com/>, provides a fully-equipped, professionally-staffed, state-of-the-art executive suite and business center for entrepreneurs, independent professionals and established corporations. Located at The City Walk at 120 Vantis,

Suite 300

in beautiful Aliso Viejo, our brand new offices are ready for you. Whether you require a class A office image, private office or a professional meeting/conference facility, our standard or custom office plans will meet or exceed your expectations at a fraction of the cost of traditional office space.

CDR-Data to Serve as Quest Workspaces’ Telecommunication Billing Provider

Quest Workspaces has recently named CDR-Data Corporation as an IT partner. Quest Workspaces is a leading office business center devoted to providing high-quality offices customized to their clients’ needs. With the assistance of CDR-Data Corporation and MorningStar Software, Quest Workspaces will be able to focus on continuing to make an ideal workspace for each of their clients.

As a business leader in a vigorous and fast-paced industry, Quest Workspaces is well-aware of the benefits technology can provide to a growing business center and will be using the cloud platform to receive their data quickly and accurately. With regular updates and CDR-Data’s technicians on hand, Quest Workspaces will be able to alleviate any telecommunication concerns and manage their telecommunications without difficulty.

About Quest Workspaces

Quest Workspaces, http://www.questworkspaces.com/ provides flexible, furnished and equipped offices designed to your specifications, whatever your requirements may be. Our innovative office programs are designed to support companies of all sizes and stages. We believe that our dynamic, collaborative, and productive workspace is critical to our client’s success and wellbeing. We’ve created a unique work culture through our high-quality office facilities, team and services that provide a competitive advantage for our clients to grow and prosper.

OBCANY Meeting This Wednesday

OBCANY will hold their first meeting of 2011 on Wednesday, January 26 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at Rockefeller Plaza. The RSVP deadline is January 26^th at noon. Those who cannot make it to the event can listen-in on the educational component of the meeting by phone. The topic of the evening will be “Pricing With Confidence, Even During a Recession.” Listening-in is free and can be done from anywhere in the world. Email info@obcany.com for instructions on how to listen-in. For more information about Wednesdays’s meeting click here to view OBCANY’s newsletter, Center Stage.

OBCAI’s Southeast Texas Regional Chapter’s First Meeting

The newest chapter of the OBCAI is holding their first meeting next week on Thursday, January 27, 2011 from 10:30am – 3:00pm.

The meeting is hosted by BusinesSuites and will include great presentations and door prizes. Business center owners and managers from Houston, Austin, and San Antonio are encouraged to attend. For more information click here to view more details for the event.

2011 Holiday Schedule

Hope everyone is enjoying the new year. For the convenience of our clients, our 2011 holiday schedule is posted below.

Holiday                                                           Date Office is Closed

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day                             January 17, 2011

Presidents Day                                                February 21, 2011

Good Friday                                                   April 22, 2011

Memorial Day                                                 May 30, 2011

Independence Day                                          July 4, 2011

Labor Day                                                      September 5, 2011

Thanksgiving                                                   November 24 and 25, 2011

Christmas                                                        December 26, 2011

New Year’s                                                    January 2, 2011