The IT Nerd

 Zoho Corporation today celebrates major momentum in Canada marked by a five-year CAGR of 36% for mid-sized enterprises. This year to date, Zoho’s overall Canadian customer base increased by 24%, with Zoho Workplace customers growing 32% over the same period. To further serve its Canadian customers locally, Zoho is opening two new data centers in Toronto and Montreal, both which will be operational by Q4 of this year. Additionally, Zoho is announcing the release of Zoho Billing, a new solution available as a Canadian edition, which is compliant with regional tax regulations.

Globally, Zoho surpassed 100 million users this month, thanks to the continued support of Canadian customers, as well as the dedicated effort of the company’s partner network, through which Zoho generates 40% of its revenue in the country.

Zoho Billing

Today marks the release of Zoho Billing, a new subscription billing and invoicing platform, available immediately, either as a global or Canadian edition, which is compliant with regional tax regulations. This multifaceted solution provides users the flexibility to experiment with pricing and the ability to go to market swiftly. Zoho Billing boasts a user-friendly interface with versatile billing functionalities, including 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 such as trial management, prorated billing, customer lifecycle management and retention.

Canadian Data Centers

Beginning in Q4 of this year, Zoho will open two new data centers in Canada. Strategically located in Toronto and Montreal, Zoho’s new and existing Canadian customers will receive fast, reliable, and secure access to their data and business applications. Representing Zoho’s 13th and 14th globally, these data centers underscore the company’s commitment to user privacy and security, as well as its efforts to serve customers locally.

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.

The recently released Cash Flow Report by Zoho, a leading global technology company, reveals that despite the uncertain economy, SMBs are showing a positive business outlook, with 39.7% of respondents indicating that their business is growing and 39.9% stating it’s stable. The majority (63.1%) of financial teams at Canadian small and medium-sized businesses have not experienced cash flow problems.

Surveying 1,219 Canadian financial professionals in June about business performance, cash flow, the economy, and tech usage, Zoho’s Cash Flow Report also reveals that 45% of respondents using accounting software and accountants report business growth, followed by 41.4% saying their business is stable.

On the other hand, 66.3% of SMBs are yet to unlock their business potential with the help of resources like accounting software and accountants, despite clear evidence that respondents who utilize them earn 16.2% more revenue than those who don’t.

Key Survey Findings:

Benefits of Synergy between Accounting Software and Accountants

66% of businesses that use accounting software also utilize services of professional accountants. Of these businesses, 54.7% reported no cash flow problems, demonstrating the effectiveness of professional accounting tools and services.

45% of businesses that use accounting software and accountant services are experiencing growth and 41% are experiencing stability.

The survey also reveals a 16.2% increase in revenue for respondents who employ accounting software and accountants compared to those who do not use these resources.

Economic Downturn Impact

Only 13.8% of respondents attribute cash flow problems to the economic downturn, echoing the optimism reflected in the Zoho Canada SMB Outlook Report where 73.4% of respondents anticipated growth between 1-20+%.

Optimal Cash Flow Management

Over 95% of respondents improved cash flow by optimizing payment terms and providing a variety of payment options, instead of relying solely on loans or credit lines. Respondents are not using debt to improve cash flow.

Advocacy for Accountants

Not surprisingly, 87.9% of respondents highly recommend working with accountants to fellow small business owners, acknowledging the value of professional financial guidance.

Report Methodology

Conducted in June, 2023, using Zoho Survey and Zoho Analytics, this study contacted 1,219 individuals across Canada. Participants in the study included a range of financial team members at small and large enterprises.

Report Dashboard

Click here to access the survey insights.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today unveiled its unified communications platform, Trident, as well as strengthened collaboration technologies to offer businesses easier ways to communicate across channels, reduce tool-ambiguity, and improve an organization’s overall digital adoption. 

Establishing itself as a central work hub or virtual headquarters, Zoho Workplace is a unified office platform that combines collaboration, productivity, and communications tools. It is now a flexible, full-featured business mail and cloud office suite that is built on a common data model and unified through search and AI, enabling users to operate collaboratively and seamlessly through applications.

Commenting on the continued innovation, Zoho Canada managing director, Chandrashekar LSP said: “In the past year, Zoho Workplace adoption has accelerated as businesses of all sizes transition to digital-forward, hybrid work. With a clear focus on continued innovation, Zoho is well-positioned to thrive during this time of readjustment. The goal of Zoho Workplace is to enable businesses to unify their work to a point where the line between apps disappears. It’s heartening to see so many new businesses join the Zoho family, using Zoho Workplace as their customizable center of gravity.”

Zoho Workplace has grown 30% year-over-year and now has more than 16 million users. This substantial growth is attributed to increasing business demand for simplified, streamlined solutions that maintain utmost standards for user privacy as well as rising costs from other collaboration platform providers. Additionally, migrations from Google, Microsoft and GoDaddy to Zoho Workplace almost doubled in 2022.

Here’s a look at what’s new:

1. Zoho Trident is a brand new collaboration, productivity and communication experience that combines mail, messages, audio/video calls, calendar, tasks and more into the same place. It’s also Zoho’s first native desktop app for email and chat. Trident is a move away from individual product experiences, as Zoho works to provide its customers with a unified platform. 
2. The Zoho Voice platform is now a full Phone System integrated directly within team collaboration app Zoho Cliq and web conferencing app Zoho Meeting. This allows employees to make direct line calls and send SMS messages, as well as pick up inbound calls across the apps.
3. Zoho is releasing a new AI-based grammar tool, BluePencil. This brings writing suggestions and a text editor which can be used on any third-party webpage.
4. Universal Drag & Drop functionality lets users save time doing things across multiple workplace products. Drag an email attachment and drop it to your colleague’s chat to send it directly, for example.
5. Mobile Device Management capabilities and OTP-restricted Emails have been added tothe workplace suite as Zoho focuses on security. 
6. TrueSync has been added to Zoho Workdrive so that hard drive storage limits are no longer a concern. TrueSync creates a mirror of all WorkDrive files and folders on the desktop so you can seamlessly switch between the cloud and your computer. You can access files locally and make changes without using up hard drive space.

Zoho Workplace Pricing: 

Zoho Workplace is available in three editions: Standard is CDN $3.75 per user per month. Professional is CAD $7.5 per user per month. Zoho Mail is CDN $1.25 per user per month. For more information, please visit: https://www.zoho.com/workplace/

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, is today unveiling the latest version of Bigin, the company’s CRM solution for small businesses.  As the preferred CRM solution for small businesses, Bigin offers a simple yet powerful CRM  without the high barrier of entry and cost. Today’s product updates further support small and micro businesses by providing users the tools and insights they need to maintain and grow meaningful and high-value relationships with customers in a challenging economic environment. 

Since Bigin’s launch in 2020, it has stood out as a robust, easy-to-use, and welcoming CRM solution thanks to its 30-minute set up promise. Zoho has observed that around 65% of Bigin’s customers have never used a CRM previously, making it the ideal choice for business owners who are looking to move away from spreadsheets. When they outgrow Bigin, Zoho also offers them an easy migration to Zoho’s full-fledged CRM solution. Bigin now boasts 20K customers and continues to help small and micro businesses manage all of their customer-facing operations within a unified platform. 

Bigin’s latest version includes the introduction of Team Pipelines, which allow customer-facing teams to manage their distinctive operations using a distinct set of pipelines and sub-pipelines within a single Bigin account. Competitive offerings often cater only to a single function — like sales — whereas Bigin is an efficient solution for all customer-facing teams. New features compile customer operations into one place, and enable tighter alignment and collaboration between individuals and teams without compromising the simplicity that makes Bigin stand out. 

Key Product Updates

• Team Pipelines: The most significant addition to Bigin, Team Pipelines brings together various customer operations into a single 360-degree view. Businesses can connect key customer processes such as deal management, onboarding, delivery, training, ticket management, refund requests, customer testimonials, etc. thereby ensuring small businesses manage their day-to-day processes in an easier way. Businesses can now enjoy a complete CRM that goes beyond sales management and offers them a single source of truth when it comes to analyzing customer data. 

• Connected Pipelines: Alongside Team Pipelines, Bigin introduced a new way of connecting customer records across different processes. With Connected Pipelines, businesses can automate the movement of customer data across various pipelines, enabling them to deliver seamless end-to-end customer experiences. For example, once a deal is won, sales teams can automate the creation of a connected record in the customer onboarding pipeline. This way, businesses spend less time entering repetitive customer information and have more time to focus on actual customer conversations. 

• Toppings: Additional functionalities and third-party integrations can be added on-demand to address business needs that go beyond the standard offering. For example, the ‘Email-In’ topping ensures emails sent to different email aliases in an organization are automatically mapped to the relevant customer records in each pipeline. Similarly, the ‘File Cabinet’ topping automates the process of file collection where customers can manage all their documents through unique, secure links.

• Mobile Capabilities: In response to the increased adoption of Bigin’s mobile app, Zoho is ensuring all new features are available across iOS, iPadOS, Android, and macOS. This makes for seamless employee experiences and is further enhanced with a new Dynamic Display which helps users customize the look, style, and visibility of records in their pipelines. Bigin also recently updated its apps for the Apple’s iOS16 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 launches, where it was an exclusive launch partner. 

• Developer Center: Bigin now opens its developer platform to a network of global app developers and partners who are looking to create custom solutions for unique business needs. With various developer tools and components like custom fields, buttons, links, widgets, related lists, and REST APIs, developers can create new Toppings which can be monetized in the Bigin Marketplace. 

Pricing

Bigin by Zoho CRM starts at CAD $9/user/month (billed annually) for the Express edition and goes up to CAD $15/user/month (billed annually) for the Premier edition. There is also a free edition available.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today launched new tools for Zoho Desk, the anchor application in the company’s customer service platform, to help customer service teams evolve with the changing needs of customers and meet heightened business expectations. Zoho Desk, which has achieved 45% year-over-year revenue growth for the past five years, now serves more than 100K businesses globally. New capabilities include Blended Conversations, a seamless combination of human-driven and bot-powered conversational service experiences, as well as several refinements to the user interface. These developments enable customer service agents to improve engagement and deliver higher-value customer experiences, removing the guesswork for agents and drastically minimizing friction that often results in bad customer experiences. 

Blended Conversations for Zoho Desk allows customer service agents to deliver the best experience in the moment by delegating the majority of manual and transactional tasks to bots, while remaining in control of the overall service experience. With fast and easy deployment that does not require external help, Zoho Desk allows brands to scale their conversational service experiences through higher agent productivity without compromising on the quality of CX. This experience is a culmination of Zoho’s Instant Messaging (IM) Framework and Guided Conversations, a low-code builder for self-service experiences. The IM Framework allows organizations to integrate any messaging service they use with Zoho Desk, and comes pre-integrated with services like WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, WeChat, Messenger, and Instagram. Guided Conversations for Zoho Desk allows business users to build powerful self-service flows that are useful throughout the customer journey, and help customers quickly and securely manage their relationship with the organization. It offers service teams tighter collaboration and integration with other Zoho marketing apps at no extra cost, including Zoho’s CX Platform and Zoho CRM Plus, for example. 

In addition to Blended Conversations, Zoho also announced a technological overhaul of the user interface to make it simpler, faster, and more accessible to users with a wide spectrum of different needs — the company’s biggest steps towards improving digital accessibility to date. Updates include options to support: cognitive and dyslexia challenges; visual impairments including astigmatism; animation reduction for those with seizure disorders; customization capabilities for color-blindness.

Zoho continues to build a system of experiences that focuses on every aspect of the customer journey, giving every stakeholder greater ability to add value to CX, from planning and creating diverse customer experiences to delivering and evolving them for the future. Zoho’s CX offerings help organizations of all sizes enable employee productivity, improve stakeholder collaboration, and increase customer success. Specifically, Zoho Desk’s integrated omnichannel approach supports entire service teams to connect with customers and with one another. On the business side, it enables high-quality consistency and reliability. Customers, in turn, have better overall end-to-end experiences with the brand, which ultimately drives loyalty and trust.

Pricing

Zoho Desk starts at $19 CAD/user/month (billed annually) for the Standard Edition and goes up to $50 CAD/user/month (billed annually) for the Enterprise Edition. 

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, announced today that the Zoho Finance Platform has achieved 50% year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth, supporting more than half a million businesses across more than 160 countries. 

Driving the Platform’s growth is the global expansion of its cloud-based accounting application, Zoho Books, which now supports 180 currencies, 17 languages, and is backed by a comprehensive global tax engine that solves country-specific tax compliance challenges. Following today’s launch of Zoho Books in Mexico, just a few weeks after launching in Kenya, the accounting application now supports 14 editions, including a global version.

Launched in 2011, Zoho Books is among the five highest grossing Zoho products, with revenue growing 50% YOY. The accounting application offers editions across the globe, including Canada, the US, UK, India, Australia, UAE, Kenya, and Mexico.Zoho Books is a government recognised tax-compliant solution in the UK (MTD), Saudi Arabia (ZATCA), UAE (FTA) and India (GSP). 

Zoho’s Finance Platform includes solutions for accounting, inventory management, travel and expense management, billing and subscription management, and payroll management. These applications are built on the same underlying platform, enabling instant interoperability, seamless data flow, and unification across systems. Typically, businesses start using one of the finance products, and then expand their usage to other applications within the suite. On average, customers using Zoho Books for more than one year adopt at least two other applications within the finance suite.  

Powerful ecosystem 

Beyond products and the platform, businesses can benefit from the strength of the ecosystem. The finance platform comes with a growing network of payment gateways, banks, travel partners and shopping carts. Businesses can also connect with any third-party applications through APIs and Zoho Marketplace. This significantly reduces the need to invest in IT resources, and enables them to go to quickly-market with any change.  

Zoho Finance Plus and Zoho Books Pricing: 

Zoho Finance Plus starts at CAD $349 monthly per organization, includes 10 users. 

Zoho Books starts at CAD $20 monthly ($15 billed annually), per organisation. It also comes with a free plan. For more information on pricing please visit: www.zoho.com/books/pricing/

The newly released Zoho SMB Outlook Report by Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, reveals that Canadian small and medium-sized business leaders are optimistic about their business prospects and looking to hire. According to the survey, 40.1% of respondents expect 1-10% growth; 22.7% expect 11-20%; and 10.6% expect growth of 20+% over the next six months.  

Surveying 1,526 Canadian business leaders (C-level to manager) about business performance, staffing, the economy, pandemic responses, and tech usage, the Zoho SMB Outlook Report additionally reveals that 64.6% of business respondents say their pricing has been impacted by inflation.

The Canadian SMB Outlook Report builds on two previous versions of the report that surveyed individuals in May, 2022, and October, 2021. The May report indicated that 81.2% of respondents were optimistic about the next six months and forecasted 1-20+% growth. Currently 73.4% feel similarly optimistic, which suggests that the economy and news of a recession have muted respondents’ enthusiasm, but not by much.

Key Survey Findings:

Business Growth:

Respondents feel good about their business prospects, with 40.1% of respondents expecting 1-10% growth and 22.7% expecting 11-20%, and 10.6% expecting growth of 20+% across the following regions. 

• Alberta – 40% expecting 1-10% growth, 24.8% expecting 11-20%, and 6.7% expecting growth of 20+% during the next six months. 
• BC – 41.3% expecting 1-10% growth, 22.7% expecting 11-20%, and 9.1% expecting growth of 20+% during the next six months. 
• Ont. – 40% expecting 1-10% growth, 24.5% expecting 11-20%, and 10.8% expecting growth of 20+% during the next six months. 
• Quebec – 37.8% expecting 1-10% growth, 25.2% expecting 11-20%, and 13.5% expecting growth of 20+% during the next six months. 

Staffing:

Staffing plans show optimism with 43.4% planning to hire, 51.2% expecting no change, and only 5.5% anticipating layoffs.

• Alberta – 41.8% hiring, 50.9% no change, 7.3% layoffs
• BC – 41.3% hiring, 53.3% no change, 5.4% layoffs
• ON – 43.6% hiring, 51.9% no change, 4.5% layoffs
• Quebec – 44.8% hiring, 48.7% no change, 6.5% layoffs

The majority of respondents who are hiring struggled to find staff, with 47.5% saying yes, 35.9% saying no, and 16.6% not hiring.

• Alberta – 48.5% yes, 35.9% no and 15.8% not hiring
• BC – 46.3% yes, 30.6% no and 23.1% not hiring
• ON – 45.2% yes, 38.8% no and 16% not hiring
• Quebec – 57.4% yes, 32.2% no and 10.4% not hiring

Inflation:

Inflation is affecting businesses, with 64.6% of respondents saying they’ve been impacted and 35.4% indicating no changes.

• Alberta – 72.1% yes, 27.9% no
• BC – 59.9% yes, 40.1% no
• ON – 66.3% yes, 33.7% no
• Quebec – 67.8% yes, 32.2% no

The majority of respondents increased prices, with 25.2% raising prices by 1-2%, 24.9% raising prices by 3-5%, and 20.2% raising prices by more than 5%. 29.7% said the question applies to them, suggesting perhaps that they didn’t increase their prices.

• Alberta – 29.1% raised prices by 1-2%, 23% raised prices by 3-5% and 20.6% raised prices by more than 5%.
• BC – 20.7% raised prices by 1-2%, 24.4% raised prices by 3-5% and 19% raised prices by more than 5%.
• ON – 26.9% raised prices by 1-2%, 25.6% raised prices by 3-5% and 19.1% raised prices by more than 5%.
• Quebec – 22.6% raised prices by 1-2%, 29.6% raised prices by 3-5% and 25.2% raised prices by more than 5%.

A Link to the report dashboard can be found here: Zoho SMB Outlook Report

Report Methodology

Conducted in August, 2022, by Zoho Survey, this study contacted 1,526 individuals across Canada. Participants in the study included a range of business leaders, from manager roles to the C-level, at small and large enterprises across a variety of industries.

The Canadian SMB Outlook Report builds on two previous versions that also surveyed individuals in May, 2022 and October, 2021.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, announced today the opening of its new office in Cornwall, Ontario. This new office will build on Zoho’s regional Canadian approach to sales, support, marketing, and partner management—including bilingual sales and marketing—to facilitate a greater regional understanding of the specific needs of local customers, and to create closer relationships with surrounding businesses.

Zoho’s success in Canada has seen 35% and 15% growth in revenue and customers, respectively, and the company plans to expand the Cornwall office as those numbers rise.

Zoho’s Proven Philosophy: Transnational Localism

The new Cornwall office is part of Zoho’s global Transnational Localism strategy, which was first introduced more than 10 years ago as a means to create self-reliant local communities and economies. Since then, the initiative has grown to include new global offices, local hiring, partnerships with local organizations and government bodies to lower the technology adoption barrier for businesses, upskilling courses in association with educational institutes, language localization including RTL support for languages, and local pricing for several countries. 

This new Cornwall office is part of the Transnational Localism hub-and-spoke model, with larger offices serving as a hub to several dozen small spoke offices located in rural areas and towns around the world. This method of growth allows employees, like those in Cornwall, to stay in their hometowns and contribute to their local community while working for a leading, globally recognized technology company.

In the last two years, Zoho has opened 59 hub-and-spoke offices, improving access to both software and localized Zoho support. In addition to aggressive expansion into new territories and markets, including Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, Zoho has announced plans to add 100 new small-scale offices in rural districts across India in the next few years.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, announced achieving a rate of 38% year-over-year growth and surpassing the 80 million user mark. In addition to ongoing global expansion, the company continues to grow its product portfolio and make investments in automotive, robotics, and health care technologies. Zoho also celebrated opening 59 new global hub-and-spoke offices in rural areas and small cities over the last two years to expand into new markets and further support local communities.

The announcement, made at Zoho’s annual analyst summit, affirms the company’s commitment to developing resilient solutions that support all businesses, many of which have been negatively impacted by recent economic disruption.

Investments

Zoho has made strategic investments in the areas of automotive, robotics, and health care technology to support the development of and access to advanced solutions by those in need. These include:

• An investment in Silicon Valley-based smart electric utility vehicles and powertrains manufacturer Boson, which focuses on light utility vehicles (LUVs). Boson’s initial focus is on farming, and Zoho shares that focus as it expands into rural areas across the globe.
• An investment in electric motorcycle company Ultraviolette Automotive in partnership with TVS Motor Company, an India-based motorcycle manufacturer. The combined investment totals roughly $15 million and will support the launch of a new, high-performance electric two-wheel vehicle slated for release in 2022.

• A $5 million investment in Voxelgrids, an Indian startup that builds Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners. This is being used to foster development of deep technological capabilities and intellectual property (IP) in the country.
• Forming a consortium of local technology companies based in the Kongu region of India. Through this initiative, Zoho will make a capital investment to set up centers in the region focusing on the research and development of critical technologies for capital goods manufacturing, like machine tools, industrial automation software, and production process know-how.
• A $2.5 million investment in Genrobotics, an Indian startup building robotics and AI-powered solutions for social issues such as hazardous working conditions. Zoho’s investment will assist Genrobotics in its mission to eradicate manual scavenging in India and provide safety and dignity to workers in the sanitation and oil and gas industries.

Innovation and R&D Diversity

Zoho’s investment and innovation philosophies are rooted in the research and development of powerful, unified tools that are customizable to any organization’s distinct business needs and vision. More than 60% of the company’s workforce is devoted to engineering, both in the development of new technologies and building ways for those apps to complement and integrate with one another. To date, Zoho has developed more than 55 apps, having grown from 40 only two years ago. Though the scope of our offerings continues to increase, our price does not, and we remain committed to affordability—offering both free and paid versions of every product—and delivering software tailored to the distinct needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

Zoho’s Proven Growth Philosophy: Transnational Localism

Zoho continues to celebrate global expansion through its Transnational Localism effort, first introduced in early 2020 as a means to create self-reliant local communities and economies. Since then, the initiative has grown to include new global offices, local hiring, partnerships with local organizations and government bodies to lower the technology adoption barrier for businesses, upskilling courses in association with educational institutes, language localization including RTL support for languages like Arabic, and local pricing for several countries. The offices opened as part of Zoho’s Transnational Localism efforts follow a hub-and-spoke model, with larger offices serving as hub to several dozen small spoke offices located in rural areas and towns around the world. This method of growth allows employees to stay in their hometowns and contribute to their local community while working for a leading, globally recognized technology company.

The company improved access to both software and localized Zoho support, opening 59 hub-and-spoke offices in the last two years. In addition to aggressive expansion into new territories and markets, including Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, Zoho has announced plans to add 100 new small-scale offices in rural districts across India in the next few years.

Zoho celebrated impressive regional growth, with headcount up 300% outside of India since the start of 2020. It also aims to hire at least 2,000 employees across engineering, technology, and product development, particularly software developers, quality assessment engineers, web developers, designers, product marketers, writers, technical support engineers, and sales executives within the next year. The recent openings of Zoho’s McAllen and New Braunfels, TX, offices in April 2022 and December 2021, respectively, exemplifies this mission. Since its ribbon-cutting, the McAllen office now hosts 40+ employees from surrounding communities, and has maintained an ambitious hiring cadence. The New Braunfels office has added more than 30 employees since its opening.