THE Asia Pacific (Apac) Zoho Corporation launched Tuesday, September 18, its new product, "Zoho One," which was designed to improve smaller and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South East Asia and modernize their business systems.
The launching, held at Fairmont, Makati Avenue, was led by Gibu Mathew, vice president and general manager of Apac Zoho Corporation, and Raju Vegesna, Zoho chief evangelist.
Zoho One is an all-in-one suite of applications to run an entire business -- across every function and organizational group -- in the Apac region. It includes a variety of integrated web applications and an equal number of mobile apps -- under a single sign-on and with centralized administration and provisioning -- to ensure a reliable system for a business.
The announcement came at a time when Zoho is expanding its operations in the Asia Pacific region. The company is working closely with its local customer base from its regional office in Singapore. It has a wide network of local partners that support Zoho customers. This month, Zoho is also hosting its user conference Zoholics for the very first time in the region, beginning from Singapore (September 12) and moving to Indonesia (September 14) and the Philippines (September 17).
"The Asia Pacific region is seeing many government initiatives that encourage SMEs to go digital and embrace innovation. This has hence become an important market for us, and we are increasing our investment here," said Mathew.
"Zoho One puts all the software you need to run a business online and turns it into an accessible business utility. This means that businesses of any size and type can run all their operations online. Its incredible value and ease of use lowers the barriers in adoption of technology and eases the journey of digital transformation for companies," he added.
The Zoho One innovates the SMEs by providing them with an easy, accessible and safe operating system for business with apps in nearly every major business category, including sale, marketing, and customer support, accounting and back office operations.
Along with the apps, Zoho One also introduces its business AI, the "Zia," a flexible AI assistant that guides the customer with simple instructions and analytics, though it is not currently available. The Analytics feature will be rolled out in phases, but users can utilize her at their website for now through Zoho's search engine.
Now, Zoho has over 35 million users and considers the Philippines as its third largest market. Ten companies have so far subscribed to its apps, and Zoho is confident that in the next few years, more companies would sign up as well.
The company is expecting the Growth Domestic Product of the Philippines to rise, which will in turn develop into a market that is advantageous for them.
The Zoho One app is available for USD30 per month, per employee. (SunStar Philippines)