A new company called Habitaz is filling an unexploited gap in the market and people love it.
It offers a bundle of services to start-up businesses; work-from-homers; mobile workers; regional companies wanting to expand; even to larger companies caught between the end of a lease and an uncompleted building project.
The offering is built on flexible access to office space - whether it's just a table and always-on connectivity in the wireless café, a desk in a library environment or a more formal office. Added to this is a full suite of back-office services, including book-keeping, payroll, Web hosting and IT support that workers can subscribe to.
"We are short-circuiting the process of starting a business," says cofounder Andre Sharpe.
At Habitaz your business, complete with telephone lines, Internet address, postal address and Web hosting if desired, can be up and running within the hour.
Wireless networking and voice-over-IP telephony enable the company to route calls or e-mail voice messages to you, wherever you are.
The service is bundled into a variety of packages, starting from a basic R475/month. "We've priced it to make joining Habitaz affordable for people who would choose to work from home or from a hotel suite or other wireless hotspots," says its other cofounder, Hein Koen. "We believe people will increasingly work from a variety of locations."
A mini Habitaz is to be launched at a leading golf estate. There are also plans to launch in Centurion and Cape Town. The partners envisage eventually having a network of about 20 Habitaz locations in SA and elsewhere in Africa.
"If your office is in Johannesburg and your home is in Centurion, why commute every day?" asks Koen.
Habitaz was launched in February, has 32 clients and is breaking even.
The business model relies on the latest technology and IT processes to keep costs down. The entire system, from Web hosting to the PABX system, runs off open-source platforms. Voice-over-IP telephony coupled with wireless networking enables the company to route calls to clients' computers using "soft" phones - wherever they are in the building. If they are unavailable the voice message is e-mailed to them immediately.
The company's founders are entrepreneurs themselves. Sharpe was a director at IQ Business Group, which redefined IT processes in organisations. He launched the IQ Group in the US and understands the challenges faced by start-up businesses and mobile workers.
Koen is a marketing sales and public relations specialist. They met while completing their MBAs last year.
