CRM platform Zoho unveils next-gen business applications suite

Customer relationship manager (CRM) Zoho has rolled out the next version of its business applications suite Zoho One.

The new suite lets users handle all aspects of a business from sales and marketing, finance, human resource, operations and business intelligence.

The new services include a process automation app, telephony, single sign-on and blockchain capabilities, the company said in a statement.

Zoho One has been available for two years and claims to serve 20,000 customers, the statement added. It is priced at Rs 1,500 per employee or Rs 3,000 per user.

Zoho’s telephony platform, PhoneBridge, integrates 50 vendors and helps users to make calls from Zoho apps.

The single sign-on capability allows users sign-in into third-party apps, making it easier for customers to manage multiple apps via a single platform, the software as a service (SaaS) company said.

The Chennai-based company has also deployed a new business workflow management application, Orchestly, which lets customers create, manage and optimise their business processes through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

"Technology is supposed to help businesses. Instead, it has evolved into a complex beast that customers have to tame—from juggling apps from multiple vendors to trying to solve the multi-app integration puzzle to dealing with vendors forcing customers into expensive, lengthy contracts. The technology industry has gone too far down this path and this has to change," said Rajendran Dandapani, director of technology, Zoho.

The SaaS company is also working on the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to address issues in the industrial services management chain.

In July, WebNMS, the IoT division of Zoho partnered Swedish firm HMS Networks, a supplier of solutions for industrial communication and industrial IoT.