Ali Hasan
Zoho will help you in your Digital Transformation
Introduction – Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes web-based business tools. It is best known for online office suite named Zoho.
Zoho offers a suite of business, collaboration, and productivity applications. The company offers over 30 online applications from CRM to mail, office suite, project management, invoicing, email marketing, social media management, and more.
The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas and has a presence in 7 locations with its global headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and corporate headquarters in Pleasanton, California.
How it all Started – From 1996 to 2009, the company was known as AdventNet, Inc. AdventNet expanded operations into Japan in 2001. Zoho CRM was released in 2005, followed by the releases of Projects, Creator and Sheet in 2006.
Zoho expanded into the collaboration space with the release of Zoho Docs and Zoho Meeting in 2007. In 2008 the company added invoicing and mail applications, reaching one million users by August of that year.
In 2009, the company was renamed Zoho Corporation after its online office suite. The company remains privately owned. In 2017 they launched Zoho One, a comprehensive suite of over forty applications. Billionaire Radha Vembu owns a majority stake in the company.
As of 2019, it has 12 offices around the world. Its US headquarters is currently in Pleasanton, California with plans to move to Austin, Texas by 2021. The research and development campus is in Estancia IT Park, Chennai. They have an office at Tenkasi, from where their product Zoho Desk was built and launched. The company operates in China and also has offices in Singapore and Japan.
The bulk of its support operations are carried out from its office in Chennai. They also have an office in Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh and has been operating from this office since 2018. After covid, they planned to open his branches in rural areas in southern Tamil Nadu including Madurai and Theni.
Marketing Strategy – Their ads are usually targeted towards business owners who want to take their business to the next level and run it in a hassle free way by using their services. They provide various online tools and services by which one can run their business without any stress maintaining the same profitability as desired by the business owners.
They are also taking advantage of the pandemic and are positioning themselves as a company that will help businesses go to completely digital. They believe that the world we live in has changed dramatically and our workplaces are following suit.
Digital transformation is no longer a luxury or a distant vision—it’s a necessity if businesses want to survive and thrive. Organizations should embrace this change and be prepared for the next normal. They use a tagline in the ads which goes like this. “Made in India, Made for the world.”
User Base – Zoho reached more than 50 million customers as of January 2020.
Funding – Zoho hasn’t raised funding from external sources. It has done the opposite. It has invested in some startups. Their most recent investment was made on May 30, 2020. The startups in which the company invested are as follows:-
- Boson Motors
- Zentron Labs
- Zenedge
Revenues – Zoho’s revenue from operations surged by around 29% to Rs 4,274.7 crore during FY20 from Rs 3,308 crore earned in FY19, regulatory filings show. Their profit has grown to Rs 801 Cr in FY20.
Notably, only 4.5% of these revenues Rs 192.8 crore were booked in India and the rest Rs 4,082 crore were collected from services provided outside the country. Revenue from its India operations has grown by 59.2% while revenue from the other geographies it operates in has surged by 28.1% during FY20.
Acquisitions – Zoho has acquired just 1 startup named ePoise on March 7, 2019.
Controversies – The only major controversy that Zoho had was to be engaged in a legal battle with a rival named Freshworks.
The controversy started during March 2020 when Zoho charged Freshworks with violating the Defense of Trade Secrets Act and various other U.S. trade laws, stating that Freshworks built its entire business model by stealing Zoho’s sensitive information, including trade secrets such as critical customer data, software products, and even pricing strategy.
In October, the court rejected Freshworks’ plea before the Northern District of California Court for Zoho plea’s dismissal, which stated that Zoho’s lawsuit had followed the standard for a plea misappropriation of trade.
Also, it emerged that, as Zoho stated in his current complaint, a former regional head at Freshworks, had admitted to stealing CRM data and using it for Freshworks. The Ex employee is no longer affiliated with Freshworks.
Sources said that even though Mathrubootham, a product development manager at Zoho, left the company to start Freshworks in 2001, allegations of employee poaching and data-stealing have been going on.
Freshworks has gained massive funds from abroad and domestic investment firms, including Sequoia, Tiger Global, Accel, and Capital G, unlike Vembu’s Zoho, a developed and tested startup aggressive growth strategy of most startups.
Based in Chennai, with services such as CRM, Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), and helpdesk software, the software companies mostly cater to small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. market.
Freshworks is a similar startup just like Zoho and they have a fierce rivalry.
Present Time & Future Plans – Zoho’s CEO & Co-Founder said that the company has been built on values and convictions. We do not measure our success in numbers, but the impact we have had on our employees, their families, customers, industry, ecosystem and the local communities.
Our purpose has been to create opportunities for those who don’t have them, build compelling products for our customers, and serve geographical locations that have not been served before. We want to continue being a catalyst for change, inspiring others and emerging as a top technology leader, all the while serving those whom we impact more broadly and deeply.
Conclusion – To sum it up, Zoho’s start was small but overtime it has grown up to be a full blown software company that is equipped with all the services, solutions and tools that the necessary for the smooth functioning in any business on a day to day business.
Now their only major concern is to win the legal battle against Freshworks. We have already covered about Freshworks. Do check it out and decide for yourself that which of these 2 companies is better.
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