For a Business on the Move : O.C. Man Offers a New Way to Take Your Work Home With You--the Mobile Office

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  A cellular phone and a mobile fax machine aren’t enough for your car? James Batlle may be bringing what you need to the Southland.

Batlle, a veteran salesman, has started selling a Michigan company’s version of an office on wheels: minivans converted to mini-offices loaded with desks, swivel chairs, file cabinets, computers, copiers, televisions and VCRs to go along with the phones and fax machines.

Batlle figures the patented design from Mobile Office Vehicle Inc. in Zeeland, southwest of Grand Rapids, is a natural for California. After all, sales representatives, insurance adjusters, real estate agents and disaster management teams often lose valuable office time as they log hundreds of miles on local freeways every day.

“It hit all my hot buttons,” said Batlle, 43, who works out of his Huntington Beach apartment as Mobile Office’s regional business development manager. “It provides all the tools you need to close the deal right then and there.”

The salesman, who has sold dishes, Lexus luxury cars and Arizona real estate in his 20-year career, dropped everything four months ago when he found out that Mobile Office didn’t have an agent on the West Coast. After three months of negotiation, he landed the exclusive rights to sell the Michigan company’s products in California, Nevada and Latin America.

From the outside, the Chevrolet Astros or Ford Aerostars that are typically used look like ordinary minivans. But inside, the office systems can be plush with leather seats and refrigerators and provide more room with raised roofs. Electronics are hidden under folding panels to provide security and versatility.

Because the offices are put in minivans, the mobile workplaces are more economical and easier to drive than a motor home or full-sized van.

The basic unit sells for about $33,000, including the vehicle, though more furnishings and special features could push the cost to $50,000, Batlle said.

Most Mobile Office clients nationwide purchase their own vehicles and hire Mobile Office to build and install the seating, desk and electronics. Batlle’s basic package costs $10,000 and can be completed in a month by subcontractor Compact Equipment Automotive Group Inc. in Irwindale.

“There’s no competition that I know of,” said Fred Kates, Compact Equipment’s president. “I like the concept. It’s well thought out. A lot of people are going to be doing this in the future.”

For Southern Californian salespeople trying to compete through traffic snarls and numerous stops, the office on wheels can multiply both their presence and productivity, said Batlle, pronounced like “battle.”

In his first month, Batlle sold only one Mobile Office unit so far. That went to Canon Computer Systems Inc. in Costa Mesa, which paid about $29,000 for a partially equipped Chevy Astro.

Canon didn’t want the computer, printers or cellular phones included because it is using the van to showcase its own line of technology. The minivan recently left Houston for New Orleans as part of a pilot program to test the concept of the mobile sales office, Canon spokeswoman Sherri Snelling said.

“We normally don’t have the ability to be so close to so many customers,” she said. “The advantage is that by reaching so many people whom we wouldn’t normally be able to see at stationary offices, we can diffuse all of the techno-phobes.”

After the van returns to Orange County in the fall, Snelling said, the office equipment company will consider purchasing more vehicles and making them a mainstay in their national marketing plan.

While such portable offices could augment a sales team, they also could become a critical asset for disaster management, said Donald Hairston, emergency director for the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross.

“With technology today, you can conduct your duties more efficiently from a mobile command center,” he said.

During this past winter’s floods, local emergency operations were directed from the Red Cross headquarters in Santa Ana. But with minivan offices, Hairston said, regional command centers could have been dispatched to provide aid quicker in specific areas.

Mobile Office demonstrated its product’s ability last April after the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

The Michigan company donated a minivan to the Federal Protective Service to aid the residents in the tragedy. Before long, the FBI and the Oklahoma City Fire Department were borrowing the vehicle, said Jackie Kilmas, director of operations for Mobile Office.

“It is a time- and cost-saving way to get professional help to a disaster site,” said Carolyn Newsom, executive director of Orange County chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “It takes monumental time away when you have to go back to the office.”

Newsom said that after an earthquake, for example, architects can assess damage and do all the necessary calculations to process construction needs on location, producing results more rapidly and accurately.

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But Batlle believes the big potential lies in the insurance and real estate industries.

Adjusters could estimate losses, connect to a mainframe computer at the company’s headquarters and cut a check right from the location of the claim. After showing a home, a real estate agent could give clients other listings and even arrange a mortgage, without constantly going back to the office.

Mobile Office was founded by Charles Lippert, a Zeeland furniture manufacturer who had spent time working at a desk tied down in the back of a 25-foot motor home. He started his Mobile Office business in late 1993 by taking his idea on the convention circuit.

The company sold its first vehicle in February, 1994, but sales didn’t start to pick up until this year, Lippert said. The company put about 50 mini-offices on the road this year, giving it sales of $600,000 for the first six months, and 15 more soon will be shipped.

Next year, Lippert said, “we are looking at exponential growth.”