By S Shyamala Aug 04 2015 , Chennai, IT products company Zoho Corp is improving its presence and focus in the Indian market. The company that competes with the likes of Salesforce.com, Google For Work and Microsoft Office365 in the rest of the world is hoping to break into India with customised product offerings for SMBs. It launched two products on Tuesday, both created end to end in India. Zoho launched the New Zoho Mail and Zoho SalesIQ on Tuesday. While the former brings social-media-like communication features to Zoho’s email service Zoho Mail, Zoho SalesIQ is a product meant for businesses to manage their customer-facing portals by tracking leads, analysing traffic and servicing customers better. “From serving the world out of India, businesses are moving to making software in India. Zoho has progressed to the next step—innovating out of India,” said Sridhar Vembu, chief executive officer of Zoho Corp. “Our vision has always been to be a global product company. This meant building world-class software, competing with world leaders like Google and Microsoft, and supporting global customers—all from India. Today we have over 15 million users spread across 120 countries, and a product portfolio broader and more integrated than that of any cloud software company.” The Zoho Suite has about 25 products including CRM, mail, Office Suite (such as a word processing application, spreadsheet and presentations), project management, invoicing and web conferencing. The company has the complete package for SMEs to start their IT journey, Vembu said. The 3,000-employee strong company has a vast majority of them based in Chennai and has been focusing on developed markets such as USA and Europe until recently. It is privately held without any venture capitalist backing. The Zoho.in package available for Indian users is free for the first 25 users in any business. Up to 25 users can get free business-class email accounts in Zoho Mail. Businesses can create unlimited websites using Zoho Sites' drag-and-drop interface. The company has announced similar offers for its new products. For New Zoho Mail, the first 25 mailboxes, with 5GB storage per user are free. The paid packages include a standard 10GB (Rs 150), a standard 15GB (Rs 210) and a premium, which has 25GB per user (Rs 600). All rates are per user, per month. The enhanced email application would be available for all from August 15. On the other hand, Zoho SalesIQ is available immediately. The free version is for two users, and one website, engaging 5,000 visitors/month, and supports 100 chat sessions a month. The paid packages include a basic (Rs 1,140/month), a professional (Rs 3,540/month) and an enterprise (Rs 7,740/month) option. “The company is trying to break the initial hurdles that keep SMBs from embarking on the IT journey,” Vembu told FC. “Once they get a feel of IT products and what they can do for their businesses, firms would want more of them to run their organisations better. The basic services will be free and when companies start to grow, they will need add-ons, for which they pay. For example, it may be Rs 150 per mailbox per person. Overall, Zoho subscription per month will be less than an SMB’s mobile bill.” shyamalaseetharaman@mydigitalfc.com, Source: mydigitalfc.com
