Zoho set to open Australian office

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 25 May 2008 16:32

Business IT - Technology

Zoho is up against not only Salesforce.com but against the industry's biggest: Google with Google Apps, and increasingly Microsoft. However Vembu said that, in a market growing as rapidly as SaaS, there was ample scope for a company like Zoho. "This is a big enough market that a focussed player can make a good showing, This whole market is growing at 50-60 percent per year. Just look at Salesforce.com revenue [which is publicly available].

While Zoho sells direct to end users, Vembu said its software also formed the basis of SaaS offerings from other players who modified the user interface to suit their own market focus. One such is Intelliworks. "It's a company that offers a CRM system to universities. It is really an alumni management system " Vembu said. "It is used by top universities all over the world and it is entirely based on Zoho."

One application still missing from Zoho's portfolio is mail. Zoho Mail is still in private beta, but Vembu said a commercial launch was due in about one month and would be incorporated into a planned Zoho business suite of applications. "This is definitely something users have been waiting for before they will formally adopt Zoho within their organisations."