The way that businesses around the world operate, from startups to the most established multinational companies, is changing significantly. Thanks to advances in technology, business owners are recognizing that they no longer need to have physical limitations.

In fact, thinking of a business in the traditional sense of hiring employees, confined to one workspace, and executing all business operations (i.e., from sales meetings to answering the phone) from that one location, is no longer be considered effective.

Once upon a time, businesses had no choice but to operate in this way, but now it is no longer necessary to work in the same room as your colleagues. You can hire employees from a global talent pool instead of only employing people from your local town, and you can outsource many business tasks in order to better focus internal resources and improve productivity.

The benefits of creating a virtual workforce are clear. But how do you actually build and implement a virtual method of working into your company? Here are three smart ways to get started:

1. Embrace video conferencing.

   Getting employees together in the same room for an important sales meeting or a weekly team update can be a challenge. By using an advanced video conferencing service in the workplace, the need to be physically in the same room as your colleagues for a meeting is completely eliminated.

   Instead, video conferencing allows you to: connect with colleagues based in other offices (and even in other countries), participate in a video conference if you choose to work from home, communicate with employees during their daily train commutes that desire to effectively participate on a call as well. The most advanced videoconferencing solutions allow participants to use work PCs, home laptops, and even their own mobile and tablet devices to connect with colleagues wherever, whenever.

2. Create a bring your own device (BYOD) network.

   Workplaces are increasingly allowing employees to work from their personal devices instead of just the office PC. By connecting an individual’s iPhone or tablet device to the work’s virtual network, employees are essentially given the ability to work from absolutely anywhere, as long as they have their personal device with them. This means that work documents can be edited while on-the-move and corporate data can be accessed from any location, significantly enhancing work efficiency.

3. Consider business process outsourcing.

   Successful businesses are realizing more and more that not every business task needs to be performed by people directly employed by the organization and sitting within the office walls. In fact, you can offer a better service to clients and customers, and reduce costs, by outsourcing certain business tasks.

   For example, a business that chooses to outsource its customer support function to a company that has trained customer support staff will have a highly effective support service. This ensures that company employees can spend their time focusing on the most important business tasks instead of answering endless calls from customers. Business process outsourcing could provide your business with a competitive advantage.

Ultimately, virtualization is now key for any business that wants to stay ahead of the competition. By implementing some of the virtualization techniques listed above, your business will have access to a global talent pool, and will be able to increase its levels of efficiency and productivity significantly.

Gere Jordan is a Business Development Associate at Continental Message Solution, an award-winning call center and live answering service. He blogs about a variety of topics including small business, lead generation and online marketing.

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