Praval Singh Navigating Zoho’s Evolution into a Tech Powerhouse

In a recent interview with Forbes India, Praval Singh, the Vice President for Marketing and Customer Experience at Zoho, shed light on the company’s impressive journey and its evolution into a tech giant. Zoho, founded over 25 years ago, has undergone remarkable growth and transformation, catering to diverse business needs and maintaining a strong commitment to product engineering and research and development (R&D). Zoho’s story began with products like Zoho Writer and Zoho CRM, but it quickly expanded its offerings to cover a wide spectrum of business functions. Today, its portfolio includes solutions for sales, marketing, HR, finance, customer experience, employee experience, and enterprise collaboration. What sets Zoho apart is its long-term approach and ownership of a unified tech stack.

As Zoho’s product offerings matured, it naturally drew the attention of larger enterprises seeking solutions for their complex requirements. To serve this growing customer segment effectively, Zoho established dedicated teams with expertise in catering to large companies. Additionally, they developed an interoperable ecosystem that enables seamless integration with third-party applications through APIs, connectors, and partnerships. To address the unique needs of larger enterprises, Zoho introduced the Zoho Marketplace. This platform boasts over 1,800 extensions and garners 30,000 monthly installations, facilitating customization and scalability for businesses of all sizes. Furthermore, in 2018, Zoho launched the Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS) team. This team serves as trusted partners, offering guidance and support in digital transformation projects, from consulting to implementation and training.

Zoho’s Sweet Spot: The Upmarket Segment

Praval Singh highlights the significant momentum Zoho has experienced in the upmarket segment. This category typically includes companies with over 250 employees, and some regions emphasize mid-market while others, like India, feature a significant presence of enterprise customers adopting Zoho. To solidify their position in the upmarket segment, Zoho employs a strategic approach that highlights their capabilities, establishes local account management and sales teams, and fosters partnerships with system integrators (SIs). This strategy has proven successful, with Zoho’s upmarket segment achieving an annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth rate exceeding 65 percent globally and in India over the past three years. Notably, this segment now contributes significantly to Zoho’s overall business, both in India and globally.

In the upmarket segment, Zoho has witnessed substantial traction in customer experience, employee experience, custom solutions, and productivity tools. These offerings align perfectly with the needs of larger companies. Enterprise collaboration and productivity tools, such as email, calendar, and video conferencing, have also gained momentum. Zoho’s diverse customer portfolio spans sectors like BFSI, manufacturing, retail, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, and IT, showcasing the versatility of their product suite in addressing various business functions. Zoho’s impressive growth is evidenced by the fact that some of their largest customers now have tens of thousands of employees. While Zoho Corporation itself was one of their largest customers with around 8,000 employees before the pandemic, today, they serve organizations with tens of thousands of employees. Notable examples include IIFL, a large financial sector organization in India, and Tata Play Fiber. These customers started with specific Zoho products but gradually expanded their adoption to the comprehensive Zoho One suite.

Zoho positions itself as a technology company rather than just a software vendor, placing a strong emphasis on research and development. Their focus is on product engineering rather than sales and marketing, and customer-centricity, particularly concerning privacy, is a core value. They operate their data centers and avoid third-party JavaScript running on their products or website. Zoho’s goal is to reduce the cost and time associated with implementing licensed software for large enterprises. They aim to provide agility and organizational change to meet evolving needs through their platform, which includes low-code and no-code tools, along with serverless capabilities. This approach minimizes the learning curve, accelerates implementation cycles, and maintains affordability.

The current economic environment presents challenges for Zoho and other service providers, with uncertainties about the outcome of ongoing economic shifts. Despite this, Zoho’s business continues to grow reasonably well. Over the next 12-18 months, Zoho’s priorities include capitalizing on market momentum, strengthening its position as a ‘made in India, made for the world’ company, and investing in product building capabilities. They are expanding partnerships with system integrators and establishing local teams worldwide to serve customers in both acquiring new business and account management.

In conclusion, Praval Singh‘s insights shed light on Zoho‘s journey, evolution, and its commitment to providing comprehensive and adaptable solutions to businesses of all sizes, while keeping a strong focus on innovation and customer-centricity.