The IT Nerd

 Zoho Corporation today launched Projects Plus, a flexible, collaborative new platform providing data- and intelligence-driven project management for mid-sized and large organizations. Through native integration of four key Zoho applications—Projects, WorkDrive, Analytics, and Sprints—Projects Plus enables asynchronous collaboration, seamless file management, real-time business intelligence, and Agile or Waterfall workflows.

Building on Zoho Projects, which doubled its revenue growth in 2024 due to migration away from third-party apps, with 55% of new users migrating from Microsoft Projects and JIRA, Projects Plus drives superior value to mid-sized and enterprise organizations by addressing their operational complexity. Projects Plus, now a platform, expands across four key areas: data democratization, AI, hybrid project management, and collaborative work management. While 18% of Enterprise customers deployed both Zoho Projects and Zoho Analytics, Projects Plus directly addresses these advanced needs by consolidating the two, and more, into a singular, efficient solution.

Business Intelligence Leading to Project Democratization

Project management is rapidly evolving with the advent of Data-Driven Project Management (DDPM), shifting from intuition-based decisions to a focus on data and analytics. Projects Plus utilizes this approach, harnessing data across various aspects, such as time tracking, budgeting, task completion, and team and deliverability metrics and transforming them into actionable insights for smarter decision making. This includes:

• Predictive Analysis: Using historical data to predict risks, estimate timelines, and anticipate resource needs, predictive analysis is essential for forecasting future project outcomes and allows for proactive project planning and risk management.

• Progress Tracking and Bottleneck Analysis: Traditional project management relied on static tools like Gantt charts to track project progress. With analytics, project managers can now utilize real-time dashboards that provide dynamic and up-to-date insights into project status.

• Quality Control Analytics: Analytics can be employed to implement robust quality control measures throughout the project lifecycle. By analyzing data related to project deliverables, project managers can ensure that each component meets predefined standards.

Easier, Faster, Stronger Project Management with Zia

Advanced AI/ML capabilities introduced to Projects Plus via Zia, Zoho’s in-house AI engine, automate complex data analyses and provide predictive insights, reshaping the role of project managers into strategic, data-savvy leaders and allowing for:

• Improved Efficiency and Productivity: By analyzing data on project performance, businesses can identify areas where processes can be streamlined and optimized. For example, data analytics can reveal bottlenecks in the project timeline, take corrective action, and keep the project on track.

• Smarter Resource Allocation: Determine where resources are being underutilized or overutilized to optimize resource allocation and employ the right people to the right tasks by taking their skills into account.

• Accurate Forecasting and Planning: Make more accurate predictions about future project outcomes and adjust plans accordingly to avoid delays and cost overruns, leading to more successful projects overall.

Projects Plus integrates easily across Zoho’s extensive software suite as well as third-party software including Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, and popular repository management, collaboration, customer service, and analytics tools.

Pricing and Availability

Projects Plus is available for immediate use globally. Projects Plus is priced at Canadian $20 per user per month, 27% lower than combining Projects, Sprints, Workdrive and Analytics a la carte. For regional pricing, go to https://www.zoho.com/projectplus/.

Zoho Corporation today announced the findings of its “Trends in Digital Workplace Transformation” study, which surveyed 4,900 employees globally to assess their businesses’ digital workplace transformation (DX) maturity. The survey also included 300 Canadian respondents. 

The Zoho Workplace team developed a comprehensive digital workplace transformation maturity model as part of the survey methodology that measured two key areas: workplace indicators (digital tools and processes) and employee performance indicators (productivity, collaboration, and security preparedness). 

The study reveals that Canadian businesses are falling behind globally, with productivity weaknesses and slow tool adoption hindering progress. The report, based on survey data across multiple industries and company sizes, finds that 40% of Canadian organizations are stuck at an early transformation stage, while top-performing global counterparts move ahead. 

Process Inefficiencies Bring Down Canadian Digital Transformation Maturity 

The study ranks Canadian digital transformation maturity at 59.9%, below the global average of 62.2% and second-to-last when compared to other regions including India (64.6%) and Asia (63.2%) which have the highest maturity levels. The U.S. average score is 61%.  

Despite access to digital tools, limited integration, weak security protocols, and inefficient workflows are preventing companies from reaching higher digital workplace transformation maturity. 

• Manual task delegation: 85% of companies still rely on manual task delegation over automation.  
• Sector struggles: Hospitality (56%), logistics (53%), and retail (58%) fall behind tech (66%) and finance (62%). 
• Company size matters: Small and medium businesses (58%) lag behind larger firms (63.5%). 
• Unmet expectations: Only 15% of employees feel workplace tools fully meet expectations 

Key Security Gaps Fuel Vulnerabilities 

Many Canadian businesses remain vulnerable due to weak security measures and lack of awareness, according to the study. While larger enterprises and tech firms have made strides in security adoption, small businesses, remote teams, and customer-facing roles continue to face high risks. 

• Only 46% of Canadian businesses enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA), biometrics, or one-time passwords (OTPs) for system access. 
• Less than 30% of remote workers receive secure access policies, such as VPN encryption or device authentication. 
• 30% of organizations implement physical security controls (ID badges, restricted zones), leaving the majority exposed to insider threats. 

Many employees remain untrained and unprepared for cyber threats, increasing the likelihood of breaches:

• Fewer than 38% of employees have received cybersecurity awareness training. 
• Only 19% of employees have ever reported a security incident through official channels. 
• 28%

take proactive measures against phishing or social engineering, such as verifying identities before sharing information. 

A Path Forward: Integration, Automation & Security Overhauls 

With reference to Zoho’s maturity model, to advance from Level 2 (Standardization) to Level 3 (Structured Operations), companies need to adopt integrated digital suites, automate workflows, and enforce stronger security measures. The study estimates: 

• Advancing from Level 2 to Level 3 takes 3–5 years and costs $250–500 per employee annually. 
• Reaching Level 4 (Optimized Digital Operations) requires 10+ years and $500–1000 per employee annually. 

The full results of the “Trends in Digital Workplace Transformation” study are available for download here.

Survey Methodology 

The questionnaire was designed to evaluate key performance indicators (productivity, collaboration, security preparedness) and workplace indicators (tools, processes, employee experience, and change). It aimed to assess the alignment of workplace tools and processes with organizational goals and employee expectations. 4,900 employees globally, including 300 Canadians, were surveyed to assess their businesses’ digital workplace transformation (DX) maturity. 

Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today expands the scope of Zia with the announcement of Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace. Together, these solutions empower enterprises to access, build, and distribute intelligent, autonomous digital agents across their organizations. Beginning today, Zoho and ManageEngine will be previewing pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents, which will deploy across Zoho Corporation’s combined portfolio of 100+ products in the coming weeks. 

Zoho Corporation’s in-house AI has evolved over the past decade from proactive to prescriptive to generative to agentic: 

Zia: Launched in 2015, Zia is Zoho Corporation’s foundational AI, facilitating all intelligent and contextual actions across the company’s ecosystem of apps. Zia possesses a vast and diverse skillset. New skills are being implemented regularly to boost customer experience and drive productivity.

Ask Zia: Launched in 2018, Ask Zia has developed into a system-wide conversational assistant that helps employees work smarter and accomplish tasks more effectively. For example, an account manager can review a report of customers at risk of churn, summarize the outcomes of each customer’s recent interactions, filter and summarize helpdesk tickets, analyze trends in their industry, and reach out to that customer for a meeting based on the employee’s upcoming travel schedule, without leaving the Ask Zia interface. Ask Zia is powered by Zoho’s unified data platform and will be contextually embedded across all applications.

Zia Agents: Today, Zoho Corporation has previewed some of the several dozens of pre-built Zia Agents that will be rolled out in the coming months, including an Account Manager Agent, SDR Agent, HR Agent, Customer Support Agent, IT Help Desk Agent, and a SalesCoach Agent. For customers, partners, and developers looking to create their own agents, Zoho is launching Zia Agent Studio, allowing them to build and deploy customized agents with inherited skillsets, which can then be distributed through Zoho’s Agent Marketplace.

• Zia Agent Studio: Offering no-code and low-code experiences, Zia Agent Studio enables users to build autonomous agents with skills relevant to their specific needs. Zia Agent Studio users can also access a wide range of pre-existing Zia Skills, tools from across the Zoho ecosystem, data from a unified data platform, and a range of language models. These can be agents within a function (like an SDR agent or email support agent) or natively cross-functional agents (like an RFP agent or loan approval agent). They can be deployed on any Zoho application and summoned using Ask Zia. Moving forward, Zia Agents will be deployable in any third-party application as well. Additionally, Zia Agents with complementary skillsets can be combined using Zia Agent Studio, creating a single agent capable of cross-functional work.
• Agent Marketplace: Agents created using Zia Agent Studio can be published in the Agent Marketplace. Zoho Corporation will offer a pre-built roster of agents, while the company’s ecosystem of partners and developers can build and distribute specialized AI agents through the marketplace, which can be reused and instantly deployed by organizations. 

Organizational Differentiation

Today’s announcement follows record growth for Zoho Corporation, which onboarded 110,000 new customers globally in 2024. With over 850,000 customers globally in diverse industries, using a range of tools across Zoho and ManageEngine, Zoho Corporation’s AI solutions are informed by a vast range of functional data. This is a core differentiator for the company, putting it in a unique position to serve businesses with cutting-edge technology. 

Technological Differentiation

Zoho Corporation’s distinct technological breadth and depth is a fundamental differentiator, particularly in AI development and deployment. Leveraging its shared data model, owned and managed tech stack, including global data centers, and a broad application portfolio, Zoho Corporation’s highly secure, privacy-compliant, usable, capable, and deeply knowledgeable AI agents deliver superior technology at a high value to its growing customer base. 

Availability

These capabilities will begin to roll out to a limited set of customers, which will expand monthly. 

Zoho today announced the addition of key capabilities in Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Practice, helping Canadian businesses and accountants enhance operational efficiency, simplify routine financial tasks, and ensure regulatory compliance. These capabilities aim to support organizations in streamlining many of their internal processes by providing them with necessary tools that help them grow. 

Many businesses rely on manual processes for performing critical financial tasks, resulting in delays, errors, and inefficiencies that drive up costs and hinder growth. Today’s updates to Zoho’s finance and operations platform aim to streamline these processes for greater efficiency for both businesses and accountants.

For businesses:

Zoho Books has introduced a suite of new features, including support for electronic filing of T4A and T5018 slips with Canada Revenue Agency. Businesses from Quebec can generate combined GST/HST-QST returns that include both federal and provincial returns that can be easily filed online with the Revenu Quebec. Progress-based invoicing allows businesses to invoice customers for the duration of a project incrementally, improving cash flow. With bill pay capabilities, businesses can autoscan, 3-way match for accuracy, and pay multiple bills from different vendors, simplifying the entire accounts payable process. Advanced features like revenue recognition automatically recognize revenue based on contractual obligations or when the service is delivered, while the fixed asset management feature allows recording of asset details, automatic depreciation calculations, and generate forecast reports, simplifying the bookkeeping process.

In Zoho Inventory, advanced warehouse management capabilities—such as enhanced location tracking and labeling, stock counting, stock out alerts, and role-based access to the warehouse operations—offer better inventory control, ensure accurate stock levels, and provide faster order processing. The product’s mobile apps empower warehouse employees to perform their tasks more efficiently, improving productivity.

For accountants:

Zoho Practice has included new features to help accountants deliver client services efficiently. Workpapers simplifies audit and compliance workflows by automatically fetching client financial statements from Zoho Books, enabling easy comparison, adjustments, document management, and collaboration for seamless review and approval. The self-service portal enables accountants to collaborate with clients that use third-party services, facilitating document requests, digital signatures, and communication. Accountants can easily create and manage ledgers without a full accounting system, helping them maintain a single source truth. Advanced capabilities like workflow automation, custom functions, and scheduling options support a complete tailoring of their operational workflow.

Pricing and Availability

All the features announced today for Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Practice are available for immediate use. For more details on pricing, please visit the following pages for each product: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Practice.

Zoho Corporation, a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, announced today that it will be leveraging the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform – which includes NVIDIA NeMo, part of NVIDIA AI Enterprise software – to build and deploy its large language models (LLMs) in its SaaS applications. Once the LLMs are built and deployed, they will be available to Zoho Corporation’s 700,000+ customers across ManageEngine and Zoho.com globally. Over the past year, the company has invested more than USD 10 million in NVIDIA’s AI technology and GPUs, and plans to invest an additional USD 10 million in the coming year.

Zoho prioritises user privacy from the outset to create models that are compliant with privacy regulations from the ground up, rather than retrofitting them later. Its goal is to help businesses realize ROI swiftly and effectively by leveraging the full stack of NVIDIA AI software and accelerated computing to increase throughput and reduce latency.

Zoho has been building its own AI technology for over a decade and adding it contextually to its wide portfolio of over 100 products across its ManageEngine and Zoho divisions. Its approach to AI is multi-modal, geared towards deriving contextual intelligence that can help users make business decisions. The company is building narrow, small and medium language models, which are distinct from LLMs. This provides options for using different size models in order to provide better results across a variety of use cases. Relying on multiple models also means that businesses that do not have a large amount of data can still benefit from AI. Privacy is also a core tenet in Zoho’s AI strategy, and its LLM models will not be trained on customer data.

Through this collaboration, Zoho will be accelerating its LLMs on the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform with NVIDIA Hopper  GPUs, using the NVIDIA NeMo end-to-end platform for developing custom generative AI—including LLMs, multimodal, vision, and speech AI. Additionally, Zoho is testing NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM to optimize its LLMs for deployment, and has already seen a 60% increase in throughput and 35% reduction in latency compared with a previously used open-source framework. The company is also accelerating other workloads like speech-to-text on NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today launched a new version of Zoho Analytics-Zoho’s self-service BI and analytics platform. Among more than 100 other enhancements, Zoho Analytics has developed powerful new AI and ML capabilities, enabling diagnostic insights, predictive analysis, and automated report and dashboard generation.

Additional advancements to Zoho Analytics include a custom ML model-building studio, seamless integration with Open AI, 25+ new data connectors, and third-party BI platform extensions. The new version of Zoho Analytics has added power, intelligence, and flexibility to serve a broader range of businesses and users than competitors in the market.

The latest version of Zoho Analytics has advanced across four key areas: Data Management, AI, Data Science & Machine Learning, and Extensibility. Below are notable highlights of the platform across these four categories. 

Data Management Hub 

Zoho Analytics has expanded its data management capabilities, adding Stream Analytics, ETL data pipelines, and metrics-layer enhancements to ensure broader access to more accurate data for businesses. Key data management additions to Zoho Analytics are as follows: 

• Zoho Analytics has expanded its 500+ data connector portfolio by adding Stream Analytics, along with 25 other new data connectors.
• Business users can now create and manage complex ETL data pipelines within the platform, specifically through the following actions:
  • Create end-to-end data pipelines using Zoho Analytics’ visual builder
  • Build Custom Transforms and ML models using the platform’s Python Code Studio
  • Transform data using natural language with Zoho’s AI assistant, Ask Zia
  • Access robust data management with an automatic versioning system and a new Sandbox environment
  • Orchestrate data pipelines using Zoho Flow
• New Unified Metrics Layer enables users to define, standardize, monitor, access control, and catalog all business metrics in a single pane. The platform also extends to serve in a Headless BI mode, allowing data apps to consume the same metrics in real time for consistent and dependable insights.

BI Infused with Generative AI

Zoho Analytics has introduced Generative AI capabilities across the BI platform to accelerate the adoption of insights for a broad spectrum of user personas. The following AI-powered enhancements deliver more efficient, contextual, accessible, and intelligent insights and actions to the platform:

• Diagnostic Analysis: Zoho’s AI-powered, automated insights engine, Zia Insights, now provides diagnostic analytics contextually, bringing decision intelligence into the platform.
• Ask Zia, Zoho’s multi-lingual Natural Language Querying AI copilot, has been enhanced, allowing users to trigger actions and build custom data models. Users can now converse with Ask Zia within IM channels, including Microsoft Teams, to generate deeper, faster, and more contextual insights and actions.
• Zoho Analytics has added Auto Analysis, enabling AI-powered automated metrics, report, and dashboard generation.
• Zoho Analytics’ seamless Open AI integration-enabled by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)-drives more relevant and accurate query responses. Using Open AI APIs with BYOK, users can more easily find public datasets and create formula & SQL queries. 

Data Science and Machine Learning Studio

Zoho Analytics now features the Data Science and Machine Learning (DSML) Studio, supporting users to build custom machine learning models for specific business requirements. DSML Studio offers the following capabilities: 

• DSML Studio offers AutoML, a no-code assistant, to build custom ML models easily. With feature engineering, hyperparameter tuning, and comprehensive model analysis, it enables users to train, test, compare, deploy, and manage models. 
• Zoho Analytics also features Code Studio, the platform’s new integrated Python code environment where users can create custom ML models, as well as import Python models or externally built libraries, which can be executed within the platform. 

Platform Extensibility 

Zoho Analytics is more deeply extendable, adding new capabilities such as its no-code

builder for data connectors, actions framework, BI fabric, and client SDKs. Zoho Analytics is a composable platform on which any analytical solution can be built. The following are additional key extendability developments: 

• Zoho Analytics’ new BI fabric enables businesses to consolidate insights from multiple BI platforms, such as Power BI and Tableau, onto one, easily accessible and searchable analytics portal. Access to the portal can be controlled with fine- grained access permissions.
• Within Zoho Analytics, users can trigger actionable workflows, including URL and Webhook actions. The platform integrates seamlessly with Zoho Flow, enabling 500+ app triggers.
• Zoho Analytics features a no-code data connector builder, allowing users to create custom connectors, to bring data from any custom application. sPartners can also build data connectors that can be published and sold on Zoho Marketplace. 

The new Zoho Analytics release features over 100+ updates, including new visualizations, enhanced dashboard building, audit and admin controls, revamped mobile apps, Right-to-Left (RTL) support, and more.

Pricing and Availability 

The New Version of Zoho Analytics is available immediately. For information on pricing, please visit: http://www.zoho.com/analytics/pricing.html

The newly released Zoho Canada Business Outlook Report by Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, indicates a decline in business optimism among Canadian business leaders due to ongoing economic challenges. The report shows that 61.2% of respondents remain optimistic about the remainder of 2024, compared to 74.1% in the previous Q4 2023 report. Additionally, 32.9% cite the economy as their biggest challenge, and 51.9% indicate a decline in customer spending.

The survey, conducted in April 2024, included 1,000 Canadian business leaders (C-level to manager) and explored business performance, staffing trends, economic impacts, and technology usage. The report also highlights mixed priorities regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI), with 45.4% of respondents not considering it the most critical technology for their business, and moderate concerns about AI replacing existing roles (34.6%).

Key Survey Findings:

• Respondents continue to be somewhat optimistic about their business with 63.1% of respondents anticipating growth of 1-20% (74.1% in Q4, 2023)
• Staffing is holding steady with 57.2% of businesses planning to maintain current workforce levels (64% in Q4, 2023)
• The integration of AI is a mixed priority with 45.4% of people not seeing it as the most critical technology.
• 51.9% of respondents feel that customer spending is down
• 24% of businesses indicate that cybersecurity is a technology priority, closely followed by collaboration tools (21.1%) and CRM (20.9%)
• The availability of employee well-being programs skews towards the negative with 52.1%  of respondents indicating that none exist at their workplaces.

Employee Wellness

Employee wellness initiatives are critical for fostering a resilient and productive workforce, but there’s room for improvement – less than half of respondents indicated that wellness programs exist.

Employee wellness initiatives are split, with:

• 52.1% of businesses lacking initiatives and 47.9% having some in place
• Work-life balance is encouraged through flexible work hours (36.3%), remote work options (25.9%), regular breaks (22.4%), and paid time off for mental health days (15.4%).
• 37.8% have observed a noticeable increase, reflecting a positive shift towards better mental health support

Business Outlook

• 61.2% of businesses are optimistic
• 28.6% are neutral
• 10.2% are pessimistic 

Economic Impact and Customer Spending

Looking ahead, small businesses feel that the economy and a decline in customer spending are most likely to affect their business performance:

• 32.9% of businesses cite the economy as their biggest challenge
• 19.7% cite cash flow issues 
• 14.0% cite funding/capital concerns 

• Customer spending behavior has been negatively affected, with 51.9% observing a decrease in spending and only 22.3% seeing an increase
• Ontario respondents indicate a slightly higher decrease of 53.5%, while Quebecers are less at 41.2%

Staffing

Staffing levels remain stable, with businesses planning to maintain their current workforce. However, there are concerns about AI’s impact on employment, with moderate worries about job replacement.

• 57.2% of businesses plan to maintain their current workforce levels
• 34.5% intend to hire more staff
• 8.3% are planning layoffs
• Concerns about AI replacing existing roles are moderate, with 22.7% somewhat concerned, 22.5% not very concerned, and 18.3% not concerned at all. 14.5% are very concerned.

Technological Integration and AI

While AI is recognized as important by some, many respondents do not consider it the most critical technology for their business. Among the primary factors driving AI adoption are increasing productivity, competitiveness, and reducing headcount/employee costs.

• 45.4% do not consider AI as the most critical technology for their business, whereas 36.4% recognize its importance
• The primary driving factors for AI adoption include increasing productivity (49.2%), increasing competitiveness (16.1%), and lowering headcount/employee costs (10.4%)
• Technological priorities: 24.0% cybersecurity; 21.1% collaboration tools; 20.9% CRM

Report Methodology

Conducted in April, 2024, using Zoho Survey and Zoho Analytics, this study contacted 1,000 individuals across Canada. Participants in the study included a range of business leaders, from the C-level and owner/operators to managers, at small and large enterprises across a variety of industries.

Report Dashboard

Click here for the report dashboard.

Zoho, a global technology company, today announced that the Zoho Finance Platform has achieved 45% increase in new customers globally. The company also made significant expansion to its Finance Platform with 230+ extensions in Zoho Marketplace, and a dedicated developer portal. Additionally, it also launched Zoho Practice, an end-to-end practice management solution for accounting professionals. These additions strengthen the Finance Platform’s ecosystem, helping businesses tailor their applications and collaborate with their accountants to enhance their operations.

Zoho Practice, a Modern Solution for Accountants
Today, accountants are expected to go beyond providing traditional services like day-to-day accounting, bookkeeping, financial reporting, auditing, and tax filing. Clients also expect insights on an organizational level, like how to curb spend, identifying additional revenue sources, and accelerating business growth. However, to provide these bespoke services with excellence, accounting professionals would require a holistic view of their clients’ businesses, in addition to efficiently running their own firm’s operations.

Zoho Practice, a one-stop solution meticulously crafted for the modern accounting firm, launches with extensive client management, document management, task management, timesheet and billing capabilities. The application also offers industry-first functionalities built from the ground up for distributed firms, including AI-driven anomaly detection for client records; built-in collaboration through chat, voice, or video calls; and a unified platform to act as a single source of truth for all client services. This practice management solution comes pre-integrated with Zoho Books (accounting app) and Zoho Expense (travel and expense management app), providing a comprehensive central repository while enabling seamless interoperability between an accounting practice and their clients’ finances. 

Continued Growth of Zoho Finance Platform

Regionally, Zoho recently launched the Germany edition of Zoho Finance Platform, introduced a free student edition of Zoho Books in India to empower future financial professionals, and added corporate tax capabilities to help UAE businesses stay compliant. The company also introduced Zoho Billing, a multifaceted solution built for growing businesses to experiment with pricing and quickly go to market. The finance platform ecosystem also experienced a63% increase in the global accounting partner network last year.

Continuing on this momentum, the company also launched an enterprise-grade Developer Portal. This allows third-party developers to build solutions easily that customize specific functions of their finance applications, automate routine processes, and publish the extensions in Zoho Marketplace. Additionally, businesses can use the portal to build their own extensions for use within their organizations. 

Today, there are 230+ extensions in Zoho Marketplace extensions for the Finance Platform that go beyond the functionalities offered natively, helping solve advanced requirements. Some of the most common uses of extensions include:

• Connections to local payment gateways to offer more convenient payment methods to customers
• Verifying a contact’s email address, and their bank account details to ensure data accuracy 
• Syncing financial data automatically with other business intelligence and forecasting apps
• Adding pin location within a map while recording customer or vendor addresses

Pricing and Availability

Zoho Practice is available for use immediately, and is free for accounting firms with up to 3 users.  Additional users can be added by purchasing the add-on which works up to $2.5 monthly, per user. 

Customers of Zoho Finance Platform can install the extensions offered in the Zoho Marketplace from within the applications. The pricing will depend on the monetization model that the developer follows for that extension. 

Zoho Corporation is solidifying its commitment to the Canadian market with the opening of two new data centres in Montreal and Toronto offering Canadian customers the benefit of localized data storage and processing. 

A Localized Solution for Canada’s Growing Market

The new data centres will help build on Zoho’s momentum in Canada. This momentum includes a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate of 36% for mid-sized enterprises and an overall Canadian customer base increase of 24%, with Zoho Workplace customers growing 32% over the same period. 

Globally, Zoho surpassed 100 million users in August, thanks to the continued support of Canadian customers, as well as the dedicated effort of the company’s partner network.

The new Canadian data centres represent Zoho’s 13th and 14th globally and underscore the company’s commitment to user privacy and security, as well as its efforts to serve customers locally.

Zoho Privacy Pledge

Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. More than 100 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself. For more information, please visit: https://www.zoho.com/privacy-commitment.html

Zoho today announced Zoho Billing, an expanded version of its current application Zoho Subscriptions. Zoho Billing is a multifaceted billing solution built specifically for growing businesses, allowing users the flexibility to experiment with pricing and the ability to go to market swiftly.

For the past decade, businesses of all sizes have been embracing subscription models, which introduced a number of challenges including managing recurring billing and tracking new metrics. Zoho Subscriptions was introduced to solve these challenges. Today, businesses are more flexible and experimental in their approach to billing – subscription-based businesses are exploring traditional sales methods, while companies that used to focus on one-time sales are considering tiered subscription plans. This necessitates a comprehensive billing solution that supports businesses with their constantly evolving strategies.

The expanded application boasts a user-friendly interface with versatile billing functionalities like estimates, retainer invoicing for advance payments, one-time or flat-fee billing, project billing, expense billing, and Quote-to-Cash (Q2C). Additionally, Zoho Billing offers subscription management capabilities like trial management, prorated billing, customer lifecycle management, retention, and revenue recovery. Businesses can also use features like consolidated billing, metered billing, online payment collection and record offline payments. Businesses selling mobile app subscriptions through app stores like Apple’s AppStore or Google Play store, can integrate their billing, maintaining unified backend across selling channels. 

Zoho Billing offers 13 country-specific editions including Canada [US/Mexico], that help businesses to be compliant with the regional tax regulations. Businesses outside of these countries can leverage the global version to configure the tax settings according to their local tax laws. Moreover, Zoho Billing offers 50+ reports, providing metrics on accounts receivable, cash inflow, recurring revenue and customer subscriptions.

Zoho Billing includes a feature-rich mobile application available for iOS and Android devices, making it easier for businesses to take care of their billing operations on the go.

The application seamlessly integrates with other Zoho apps like Zoho Books for accounting, and Zoho Inventory for inventory order management, Zoho CRM for customer relationship management, and Zoho Analytics for advanced analytics. Furthermore, it offers built-in integration with third party applications like Slack, Zendesk, and Dropbox to cater to different business needs, and sync billing data contextually. For advanced or custom needs, businesses can use APIs and Webhooks to connect with any other applications.

Pricing and Availability

Zoho Billing is available for use immediately, and offers four different plans for users to choose from: Standard plan $19/$15 (CA/US) monthly, Professional plan $49/$39 (CA/US) monthly, Premium plan $99/$79 (CA/US) monthly, and Elite plan $299/$ 239(CA/US) monthly, billed yearly.