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Serviced Officers: Start Business with a Computer

For a foreign businessman who is planning to stay in an exotic city for several months, staying in a serviced apartment is likely a better choice than staying in a hotel. Similarly, when a foreign company sets foot in a strange land to start a business, similar convenience can also be found with “serviced offices.”

Serviced offices, or business centres in China, follow the same concept as serviced apartments; the difference is that its clients are companies, who can move into the office with their own computers and start to do business, saving the time, energy and money in searching, decorating and furnishing conventional offices.

In most serviced offices, furniture and all the working place equipment is provided. Residents can share reception services, photocopying equipment, printers, meeting rooms, and tea rooms, thus sharing the cost of all these amenities, though clients have to pay a bit extra money to use them.

Serviced offices are best suited to small companies, branch offices, project teams and representative offices of big companies, ideally with staff less than ten. Companies seeking relocation or waiting for the decoration of their offices are also frequent costumers for serviced offices. It would be wasteful for such a company to hire a receptionist, pay for a meeting room that is little used and buy all support equipment for a team of only several people.

Serviced offices first appeared in Beijing in the mid-1990s, but it was not until recent years that the business begun to expand rapidly. Top-end serviced-office providers are mainly international companies like Regus, The Executive Centre (TEC) and Servcorp, which account for roughly 60 percent of the 35,000 square metres of high-end office space provided by international brands, according to figures from Cushman & Wakefield. Domestic brands are operating business centres too, but many of them lag in terms of network and facilities, and have to maintain a lower price to attract clients.

Enjoying all the services provided by serviced offices means companies have to pay a much higher rent. Figures from Cushman & Wakefield suggest that the current rate for every workspace is between 3,000 yuan and 8,000 yuan (US$420–$1,120) per month.

Not every company is willing to pay such a high rent. That’s why most clients of serviced offices are international companies with large budgets. In comparison, domestic companies are rarely seen in the list of clients, because they cannot afford the rents and most of them are strangers to the concept of serviced offices.

However, the serviced office providers have a different opinion about the pay-and-return rate of this model, as they have discovered that for short-term residents, using serviced offices is much cheaper than ordinary ones.

For clients staying for less than two years, it is much cheaper to rent serviced offices. Renting 150 square metres of serviced office space for two years can save as much as 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) over conventional offices, according to Sean Wang, general manager of Regus Beijing.

Group General Manager Lucy Liu of TEC shares the view. Most grade-A office buildings requires a minimum rental of two years. Clients have to spend at least two months in decoration, furnishing, buying equipment and dealing with all this over the phone, in addition to securing Internet connections.

Liu said, “Many of our clients are banks, financial companies and institutions, who are the most sophisticated math masters in the world. That they have chosen to use serviced offices is proof that this kind of service is worth it.”

With more and more international companies coming to Beijing, the market for serviced offices has increased steadily. Most of the international serviced office providers currently enjoy an occupancy rate of 85 percent and above. And they expect a better performance in the upcoming months as decoration of office buildings will be banned before and during the Olympic Games; therefore, many companies will have to find a temporary place to work. And Many international sponsors and foreign media will also come to reside in serviced offices.

The serviced office brands are betting on the burgeoning opportunities in the booming capital city economy. That’s why many of them are seeking expansion in the most bustling business areas.

Expansion of office space means fiercer competition. However, it seems every brand has its own competitive edge and everyone has already identified customers that are used to the specified services different brands are providing. Regus will continue to draw on its large global network to provide membership services to clients; TEC have many of the world’s most advanced technologies; and Servcorp’s interior decoration caters to many of its costumers.

Still, opening of more centres will enlarge the market supply, causing adjustment to the rent level, while many domestic brands, due to inadequacy of communication equipment and a lack of business networks and brand loyalty, will be merged or acquired, according to analysis from the Cushman & Wakefield.

写字楼市场的分支——服务式办公室

文/薛京晶

新颖独特：全方位享受现代化服务

“服务式办公室”是目前办公市场上比较“另类的产品形态，是指出租方提供精美装修，并配有全套现代化的办公设备和办公用品。 与传统的办公物业相比，服务式办公室在选址、配置和租赁方式等方面都具有鲜明的特点。

这类物业一般都位于标志性建筑物内中高楼区的整个层面，建筑面积一般在1500—2500平方米。从整个层面的布置来看，包括公共专业的前台服务区、独立分隔的办公单元区（可供1—10人使用）、公共的办公设施设备区、咖啡茶点休憩区（配备可接收国际财经栏目的大型PDA和高级厨房电器设备）、各式规格的会议区以及临时上网办公区等。高品质装饰和舒适的办公环境为紧张繁忙的工作平添了几分轻松的享受。同时，服务式办公室还配有训练有素、外语流利的服务团队（一般为3—5人组成）提供“菜单式服务”。

自主灵活：可以随时“预约”的办公室

“很多时候，人们需要一个更灵活的办公室。”雷格斯集团总经理王博说，“雷格斯提供的即时办公室就像酒店，你可以随时入住使用，使用时间不论是1天或者1个星期都可以。”

这种租用模式被称作“即时办公室”。雷格斯集团是全球即时办公室最大的提供商，在全球70多个国家的主要城市设立了超过950家商务中心。在中国的北京、上海、广州、深圳、大连和香港等6座城市已经设立了30多家商务中心。无论是走进上海的金茂大厦还是北京的嘉里中心，都会看见雷格斯的商务中心。虽然它与一般跨国公司的办公室没有太大区别。一进门首先看见的是微笑的前台，然后是被隔成不同大小的办公室、会议室、会客区以及茶水间、打印间等附属设施。但是“灵活”是雷格斯服务最大的特点，从1个人到几十个人的办公空间都可以提供，并提供更加灵活的租期。

当租用雷格斯办公后，每位客户都有自己独立的电话号码，当外线电话打入后，雷格斯总机系统会自动识别，总机接线员都能准确地说出：“你好，这里是某某公司。”客户完全感觉不到雷格斯的存在。

“对于一些大型公司来说，刚刚在一个城市设立分支机构的时候，最紧要的任务当然就是去拓展市场，而不是把前几个月的时间放在寻找写字楼、装修这些事情上。”王博说，雷格斯可以做到的是，无论是几个人还是几十个人的团队，都可以当天就入住办公，不耽误一点时间。

化零为整：入住率保持95%以上

在雷格斯，通常都保持着95%以上的入住率，比如像嘉里中心这些最顶级的写字楼中则经常是100%的入住率。“雷格斯知道每一个客户的签约时间，比如他签了3个月，这段时间内销售人员就可以出动寻找新的客户。同时如果一个长期客户到期之后，他的办公室我也可以随时给短期客户使用，而不是等待下一个长期客户找上门来。”

尽管雷格斯可以提供短至一天的服务，但是很多公司还是认为在这里长期办公也是一个划算的选择。所以雷格斯的合约的平均时间是9个月，对于摩托罗拉、NBA、Siebel这些客户来说，与雷格斯都签订过超过两三年的合约。在布鲁塞尔雷格斯，东芝使用雷格斯办公室甚至已经有10年时间。

目前入驻北京服务式办公室的客户主要以国外公司为主。“全球500强中有超过七成的公司都是我们的客户，比如诺基亚、摩托罗拉、IBM等，这些公司进入一个新的市场的时候，这里是他们的首选。”越来越多走向海外的中国公司也已经成为雷格斯的客户，华为在法国、德国和葡萄牙的办公室同样设立在雷格斯。越来越多东莞、昆山的一些外贸型企业也开始选择在广州、深圳和上海租用雷格斯的办公室，因为他们需要向国际客户展示自己的形象和实力。