Businesses establish LI beacheads at Totus centers.

Benchmark Specialized Production Staffing found a way to get its new Long Island operation up and running quickly.

The company, which provides temporary staffing for electronic and mechanical assemblers, inventory specialists and warehouse businesses, leased offices at a Totus Business Center in Melville.

"We wanted to establish a branch on Long Island. This is our first beach head," Bill Bostrom, Long Island branch manager for Pleasanton, Calif.-based Benchmark, said of the decision to locate at the Totus Business Center at 330 S. Service Rd., Melville.

"This is a very convenient location. It's enough space to get us started up and going."

Melville-based Totus Business Centers offer businesses needing one or more small offices the advantages of a large corporate setting by providing a shared receptionist, fully-equipped conference rooms, a corporate-style lobby, and administrative support services.

Totus Business Centers, which owns suites in two Class-A office buildings in the bustling Route 110 corridor, also provides sophisticated technology such as T1 high speed internet access, multi-line phone systems with voice mail, and high quality photocopiers that small businesses might not be able to afford on their own. With office set-up in as little as one day and flexible terms, Totus Business Centers suites give businesses of all sizes tremendous flexibility to meet their office needs.

Benchmark, which moved into its new offices on Sept. 15, is a division of Robert Half International Inc., the world's largest specialized staffing firm. Benchmark operates 21 branches across the United States.

Melville was the perfect location for its first Long Island site, said Bostrom. "It was in striking distance of both Nassau and Suffolk."

And Benchmark's space at Totus is just right, too. "It's a good transition space," said Bostrom, noting that while Benchmark currently has just two people in its Long Island office, it intends to aggressively bring on additional personnel.

In locating in a Totus Business Center, Benchmark joins a growing roster of businesses that have entered the Long Island market without the expensive commitment that goes with renting traditional office space.

Among them is RCM Technologies Inc., of Pennsauken, NJ, an information technology consultant and staffing company, which earlier this year also decided to open a professional information technology staffing office on Long Island. RCM chose the Totus Office Center at 105 Maxess Road., Melville.

"We wanted temporary space. We are expanding," said Bob Jacovetti, senior account manager, who occupies a corner office with two colleagues at 105 Maxess Road, Melville.

RCM, he said, relocated part of its Manhattan operations to Long Island Manhattan after discovering Totus on the Internet home page of the Alliance Business Centers, an international network of independent business centers. "We want to build a book of business out here."

The Totus facilities "had all the amenities," he added, "The location is perfect. Melville is the center of the business community of Nassau and Suffolk."

Other businesses that have gotten their start in Totus, today are regular office-space tenants of an affiliated company, T. Weiss Realty Corp, one of Long Island's premier office development and management companies.

They include Independence Community Bank and Larsa Inc., a developer of structural and earthquake engineering software.

Established in 2000, TOTUS Business Centers offer companies Class-A, fully furnished executive offices and multi-office suites. Offices are available on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. TOTUS also offers virtual identity and business continuity plans.

TOTUS has two locations in Melville and is a member of the Alliance Business Center Network.