Our Zoho Advanced Solution Provider sessions opened with some interesting statistics:
28 sessions, 28 consultants, 30+ Zoho staff, One-on-one product deep-dive sessions at Chennai’s Zoho HQ, and five days of great networking among the partners and Zoho staff.
It’s an honor to be part of this inaugural training event and to be part of such a great and talented group of people.
Ian, opening comments
This morning we got the inside scoop about the long- and short-term Zoho roadmap.
While much of it is confidential, what I can share is this:
Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna predicts level playing field for applications the older, one-product wonders become more and more commoditized. Zoho stands apart from the pack with its suite of over 30 applications and it’s stronger than ever integration strategy.
Zoho is a privately held (and profitable) company (and determined to stay that way), so the company has the relative luxury to pursue long term strategies. While I’d like to see improvements come at a faster clip than they do, I believe that their “slow and steady wins the race” approach means they’re building a platform for the long haul. This is borne out by Zoho’s recent ascendance Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.
Zoho understands that mobility is the future. The mobile CRM apps are slick, easy to use, and light years ahead of more established CRM mobile editions. Emails use responsive forms so that the form factor fits whether the email is rendered on a tablet, smartphone, or PC. And Zoho Surveys can be built and managed from the iPad.
Designing for the end-user experience makes a nice change from Microsoft’s approach of building the products and expecting consumers to conform to Microsofts vision rather than the demands of the marketplace.
Sharayna updates – Campaigns
Another way Zoho sets itself apart is to let the products do the talking. Unlike other software companies who “buy” their customers via huge investments in sales and marketing, Zoho has it’s priorities straight: their investment is 80% R&D, with only, 20% directed to sales and marketing. And the ads they do invest in display some great tongue-in-cheek humor.
I’ll post more later this week about some of the great ideas partners are sharing with one another. For now, I’m still trying to work of jet lag, so I’ll save those stories for another time.
Carved Elephant
Namaste.
#zohoexperts #zappindia