A house is a home but for Samuel Tan, it’s also his office.

The co-founder and strategist of About Communications Sdn Bhd lives in the first two floors of a three-storey house with his family, but the top floor houses the office of the public relations and marketing communications company.

Tan says that offices in residential areas are more cost effective and offer multi-functional usage.

“We compared office/commercial space rental against residential rental, and residential was clearly more cost effective, more spacious with more creative space usage options,” he says.

“Ours is a high stress, high pressure industry, where keeping calm, not panicking and being creative is a must. Having worked in conventional office consultancy setups, we found that the environment and atmosphere of standard offices added to our pressure and stress, and strangles creative thought processes.”

After all, long hours are a normal in their line of work. “Why not spend them in a space that we would like to be?” he asks.

Additionally, with a permanent team of six, and part-timers added on when required, the space and connectivity of their work environment makes it easy to accommodate people as required, he adds.

However, there are additional advantages to their office setup.

There are staff bedrooms for those who work overnight or to catch some sleep, bathrooms to have a shower and freshen up, a full kitchen instead of a pantry to cook and share a meal, less commuting and no dark, scary and lonely car parks to negotiate, he explains.

Fortunately, technology is around to lend a helping hand.

“Technologically, we are as connected, and sometimes more so than organisations that are in standard office setups.”

Tan remembers that when the company started seven years ago, the security of wireless networks was an issue. Fortunately, it was addressed in the past few years and wireless has made a huge difference throughout the company, he says.

“Mobility shapes our work environment because we are spread over three floors. LAN (local area network) cabling would cost a small fortune and it can be an eyesore,” he says.

“We have meetings on the ground floor, and do our media monitoring there. Being able to video-conference, connect to the network for archives, wirelessly scan, send and receive images and documents, and print on different floors makes the whole process faster and more efficient. Effectively our workspace is any place where we are within network range and not confined to our desks,” he adds.

And among the applications that they use include Google Talk to keep in contact in and out of the office. And with the current quality of digital cameras, camcorders as well as the software that’s included, Tan says they can do daily photo and video editing in-house, saving both time and cost.

And any savings from the office setup are then passed on to their clients, Tan says.

“Our clients want results, and we deliver – where we work is not a concern to them. Initially, most of our clients do not realise our office is in a residential area and after visiting our office, they have not changed their minds,” he says.

About Communications isn’t the only business on the street, as Tan says there are at least five other home offices on the same street.

“This is a work environment movement that is gaining ground, we think,” he adds.