Zoho takes an aggressive leap of faith with new suite

Pricing it at a modest Rs 1,000 per month, per employee, Sridhar Vembu, the CEO of the company, intends on revolutionising the market for SaaS with this offering.

Zoho One includes more than 35 integrated web apps and an equal number of mobile apps to run an entire business – across every function and organisational group – under a single sign-on with centralised administration and provisioning.  

Speaking at the launch, Vembu said, “A suite like this would typically cost hundreds of dollars per user. What we intend to do with this product is offer enterprise applications to end users, including small and medium businesses, at the cost of consumer software. Like how we take electricity, smartphones and broadband for granted, even business software must become as ubiquitous as those. We are hoping that our pricing becomes the benchmark at which enterprise software is sold henceforth. We have already onboarded more than 350 companies even prior to the official launch and we intend to market this product aggressively in the months to come.” 

Chief Evangelist, Raju Vegesna said, “In a market littered with vendors with bloated business models offering individual, overpriced applications, we change the game by offering an all-you-can-eat application suite.” 

When probed about the markets that are most important or the company, Vembu disclosed that, “The US is the largest market for software products, by and large. India currently is among our top five markets and we expect it to become our No 2 market in a span of just five years. The company is also strengthening  its global footprint with its presence in countries in South East Asia, Latin America and Europe.” 

While the software major’s singular focus is on the commercial enterprise market at this point, especially SMEs and SMBs, Vembu said the company is also planning to target public sector undertakings, State and Central government bodies and even corporations and municipalities as part of aiding in the e-governance movement. The company, which currently has six data centres (two each in the US, Europe and China) will set up two more such facilities in India including one in Chennai and one tentatively planned for Mumbai.