infoTECH Feature

July 23, 2012

Zoho Provides Business Apps for Small and Medium Businesses

In 2004, the Zoho (News - Alert) Corporation, which was founded in 1996, decided to transition into being a cloud services business. And, as it analyzed the marketplace, its leaders saw a historically underserved market – small and medium businesses. So the company’s leadership decided to cast its net into these waters and focus on these millions of potential customers. To meet the needs of this market, Zoho developed a series of applications designed specifically for SMBs.

Recently, Raj Sabhlok (News - Alert), president of Zoho Corp, sat down with TMCnet for an exclusive interview, explaining their suite of apps. Their applications, such as the Zoho Writer word processing application, the Zoho Sheet spreadsheet program and Zoho Show presentation program, are hosted on Zoho’s data center. These business applications, delivered in a Software-as-a-Service model, allow for increased collaboration and productivity across these smaller businesses. Companies that use the Zoho apps can automate their business, allowing them to sell products and services, bill and account for them, all the while optimizing business processes.

Nowadays, Zoho is a prolific deliverer of cloud services and is building out its ecosystem integration. To this end, it has recently announced integration with Google (News - Alert) Drive. Google Drive users can now create, open and edit files with Zoho Writer, Zoho Show and Zoho Sheet, and they can collaborate with other Google users who sign up for Zoho accounts.

Zoho boasts more than 25 different apps in its app store, including an app that allows users to develop their own applications. The Zoho Creator app builder is non-code based, but it also allows developers to “go under the hood if they wish,” or will direct them toward consultants who can help with app creation.  In addition to office application, the company also offers CRM and accounting apps. All of these can be used by SMBs, but are also scalable to meet the needs of enterprise users.

The company has put a lot of recent focus on mobility, thinking of mobile first when designing these apps. They are streamlined for mobile use, and available for Android (News - Alert), iOS and iPad, with HTML5 incorporated into many of the mobile optimized apps already.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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Edited by Rachel Ramsey
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