Resources from Unified Communications

Davinci Taps into Growing Coworking Market

By Christopher Mohr
Contributing Writer

Davinci recently announced that it would begin offering its live receptionist services to members of Grind Spaces. This will allow those who use the coworking service to have the appearance of a full-fledged business without the high costs that go with it.

New York-based Grind, LLC offers a comprehensive set of coworking services targeted towards freelancers and startups that cannot afford or prefer not to lease office space as it has traditionally been offered. Space is currently available in Chicago and New York.

In simplistic terms, the business model of Grind is to avoid having idle space on a 24/7 basis. Space can be reserved under terms more consistent with an office lease or first come, first served plans where you can rent by the day, but do not have guaranteed space. There are plans limited to work during normal working hours or moonlighting plans for those who prefer to work late or want to start a business while working their day job.

Salt Lake City-based Davinci Virtual Office Solutions provides answering service, auto receptionist, virtual office, and conferencing services. Its live receptionist services come in business and premium plans.

With the business plan, you get many features that would be useful to a business using coworking space or a virtual office. These include live receptionists that screen and forward calls. Voicemail, local and toll-free numbers, call routing, audio conferencing, long-distance calling, auto receptionist, and online faxing are also available. The premium plan offers the same services in the business plan, plus appointment scheduling, outbound calling, order processing, bilingual capability, and administrative work.

Results from the first Global Coworking Survey indicate a positive outlook for the coworking market. The average coworking space has 46 percent more members than it did two years ago. The survey estimates a total of 510,000 coworking members worldwide, 1.7 times more than the 2014 total of 295,000. Two-thirds of respondents stated that they do not plan to leave their current space.

This is great news for those who lease coworking space. Just because they cannot afford or prefer not to use traditional office space does not mean that they don’t need receptionist, cloud-based telephony, or conferencing services. Business is still business and these services are important to many. It is also good news for Davinci. Not only has the company tapped into a growing market, but also one that appears to be stable for the foreseeable future.