We enabled a new indexer for searching group related documents on Saturday. As with search related features, the indexer was supposed to index over several days before the feature was officially unveiled. Unfortunately, we introduced a crucial bug in the new search system, which impacted one of our users on Sunday. The search results included 4 documents from other users (shared to their own unrelated groups). As soon as we got notified, we stopped the search subsystem and started a full investigation, which unearthed the bug in 3 hours.

We fixed the issue immediately after the root cause was identified.

While the fix was applied immediately, it was something we should not have let this slip in. It should have been caught in our quality assurance process. We sincerely apologize to the affected user, and all Zoho users as well.

We work hard at Zoho to keep the system functioning well. An error like this is very painful to us, and we take it very seriously. We will be even more vigilant in future. Please accept our humble apologies.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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In this blog we talk about different Zoho applications and their features. But at the back-end, there is one little known module that connects all Zoho Applications - Zoho Accounts

Zoho Accounts took shape when we rolled out Single Sign-on for Zoho Apps. Since then, we added quite a bit of functionality enhancing Zoho Accounts which is included across all applications (check out ‘My Account’ link on the top right in any Zoho App). It is this module that enabled Google & Yahoo! sign-ins across Zoho Apps.

Zoho Accounts let you configure your personal settings that are common across all Zoho applications. The Contacts module lets you import contacts from multiple sources including your Google & Yahoo! Accounts. These contacts will be visible across other Zoho Apps like Zoho Mail. The Groups section lets you define groups that are common for all Zoho Apps. Once you have the Groups defined here, you’ll be able to share your Documents, Spreadsheets etc to those Groups.

The Accounts section has other functionality like configuring your Email IDs, resetting your password etc. If you configure Skype ID here, it’ll be shown in some Zoho Applications like Zoho Notebook when you share a Notebook with other users who use Skype. Zoho Meeting also integrates Skype.

As with other Zoho Applications, this module is improving at a rapid pace. Most of the enhancements in this module are not very noticeable because of the nature of this app. But this is a very important module that is going to play an important role when we integrate Zoho Apps.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Now you can login to Zoho with your Google or Yahoo! accounts. Below the Zoho Sign-in section, you now have the option to login with your Google or Yahoo! accounts.

If you already have a Zoho account with your Google or Yahoo! email address, you will be logged in to the Zoho account automatically. If you do not have a Zoho account with your Google or Yahoo email address, then you have the option to either associate the Google or Yahoo email address with your existing Zoho account (under Accounts) or you can create a new one.

Apart from logging into Zoho with your existing accounts, you also have an option to import contacts from your Google and Yahoo! accounts to the Contacts section under Zoho Accounts.

This functionality is also useful for sharing documents. Now you can easily share your documents with your friends who have Google or Yahoo! accounts. They can login to Zoho with their Google or Yahoo! credentials and view shared documents without having to create new Zoho Account.

Here is a useful tip. Under http://accounts.zoho.com, if you add your Gmail and Yahoo email addresses (under ‘My Email IDs’ section) and confirm them, you’ll be able to login to your Zoho Account with either your Zoho Account, Google Account or your Yahoo! Account.

Why this move?

We obviously want many users to try out and use our applications. Apart from that, we noticed that when users try Zoho, they prefer our apps to competition. This Lifehacker poll conducted few months back for example gives you a snapshot.

There are two takeaways from the poll like the one above (and other polls we conducted).

1. Many users don’t prefer creating yet another account for yet another online app
2. Users prefer Zoho to Competition when they try both (In case of the above poll, around 75% prefer Zoho)

We hope this little feature is useful. More than these polls, we want to hear from you if this is useful. Please do let us know your feedback.

Update: FAQs on this is available here. Also, this image gives you the flow.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Huddle combines group collaboration, project management and document sharing using social networking principles. Huddle now integrated Zoho Applications for viewing and editing documents inside their application.

Huddle used our Remote API to integrate Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet. This allows Huddle users to create, view and edit documents, spreadsheets within their familiar interface respecting Huddle’s security, permissions and workflow rules.

We’d like to thank Huddle for integrating Zoho and are looking forward to more such integrations. All our API Partners are listed here.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Posted to:  API, Partners, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
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Online Desktop vendor eyeOS integrated Zoho Suite into their application. Currently Zoho Writer and Sheet are integrated into eyeOS. Zoho Show will be integrated after we open up the APIs for creating presentations.

To use the Zoho Apps on eyeOS, you need to install eyeZohoSuite from eyeos-apps.org. Once you have it installed, you’ll be able to view your existing documents and spreadsheets from Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet respectively. This also lets you create new documents and spreadsheets as well. eyeOS plans to support opening Open Office documents soon with Zoho Apps going forward.

The following video gives you a quick overview of the integration.

We’d like to thank eyeOS for integrating Zoho. If you are planning to integrate Zoho into your application, please do let us know and we’ll be glad to help you. Other partners who integrated Zoho are listed here.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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Our Zoho Sheet team just rolled out a milestone update to our spreadsheet application with a cluster of new features. There are more than 15 new features added to this update, but two key features really stand out for businesses - Macros & Pivot Tables.

This video gives you a quick introduction to these key features.

Macros:

Zoho Sheet now supports Visual Basic Macros - the ones you use in MS Excel. This is an important milestone for Zoho Sheet as it becomes the only Spreadsheet application that supports VB Macros apart from Microsoft Excel. We now understand Visual Basic and can execute Visual Basic code at the backend (no, we don’t run any MS stuff back there). This capability opens up new set of possibilities.

In the current version, Zoho Sheet lets you import your existing speadsheets with Excel macros or create new ones. We support a broad set of functions and we do plan to extend the list further. We also plan to add Record & Play for Macros going forward.

We are also launching a Wiki (http://vbmacros.wiki.zoho.com/) which is kind of a free marketplace for Macros. You can browse for sample Macros or share your Macros with others.

Pivot Tables & Charts:

As you may know, Zoho DB supports Pivot tables. This functionality is now extended to Zoho Sheet allowing you to create Pivot tables & Pivot charts on your structured data or from a range of spreadsheet data.

This unique integration between Zoho Sheet & Zoho DB brings in some new capabilities to Zoho Sheet. You can now import upto 100,000 rows of structured data to Zoho Sheet from a CSV file. Pivot tables and pivot charts can be created by simple drag and drop interface.




Pivot Tables & Macros are just two of the key functionalities added in this update. Complete list is available here.

As you may have noticed, we are adding more depth to our existing applications apart from adding new apps. We believe in feature-rich business applications and you’ll see us improving and integrating our apps further.

As always, we can’t wait to hear your feedback on this new update.

Popularity: 28% [?]

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We are happy to announce a new distribution partner in China - Baihui, a subsidiary of PC Stars - the largest Chinese online distributor with more than 2300 Resellers and over 1000 System Integrators.

With this partnership, Baihui hosts Zoho Applications in China for distribution in China (ofcourse, in Chinese language). These applications will be distributed under Baihui brand. To start with, Baihui will offer the following Zoho applications…

• Zoho Writer - Baihui Xiexie
• Zoho Sheet - Baihui Gege
• Zoho Show - Baihui Xiuxiu
• Zoho CRM - Baihui CRM

This list will expand going forward. All these applications are currently available @ www.baihui.com.

As with Zoho, Baihui plans to offer these applications free of charge for individuals. Zoho CRM does carry a price tag (99RMB/User/Month) beyond three free users.

While I don’t understand any of the stuff in the above screenshot, we are certainly excited to see our apps up there. Almost 50% of our existing users are outside US which is a good sign. We think partnerships like these will extend our reach further.

There are more exciting stuff coming from Zoho. We’ll keep you posted.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Posted to:  Announcements, Partners, Zoho CRM, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
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Zoho CRM which is part of our Business Applications set (Zoho Invoice, Zoho Projects, Zoho Meeting, Zoho People, Zoho DB, Zoho Creator etc) is now going one step further with the launch of Zoho CRM - Enterprise Edition.

This new release comes with a broad set of new capabilities making it easier for medium to large organizations to implement Zoho CRM. Some of the enhancements to the update include…

• Introduction of Role-based Security Administration
• Enhancements in product Customiation & Data Administration
• Multi-language Support (11 Languages)
  
• SSL Support for Professional & Enterprise Versions
• Integration with Zoho Sheet
  
• and lot more as mentioned here.
  

The key enhancement is the introduction of the Role-based Security Administration which makes it easier for managing the access permissions of users in an organization with multiple levels of hierarchy. In this Role-based Security module we introduced Roles, Profiles and Groups concept providing greater flexibility in access-control and customization.

The image below summarizes the new Role-based Security Administration section. Existing users: Please look at this document to understand how these changes compare to our previous version.

This video gives a quick introduction to this functionality. An online demo of the application is availble here.

Pricing:

As with other Zoho applications, Zoho CRM is very affordable. Here is the pricing information.

1. Personal Edition - Free for 3 Users
2. Professional Edition - $12/User/Month
3. Enterprise Edition - $25/User/Month

Professional and Enterprise Editions are also free for the first 3 users. Detailed information on Pricing (along with feature separation between these three editions) is available here.

Zoho CRM Integration with Zoho Productivity Suite:

Zoho Sheet is now integrated into Zoho CRM which lets users edit Zoho CRM data on a spreadsheet using the ‘Zoho Sheet View’ option available in most of the modules. This provides an easy way of editing your form-based relational content in a spreadsheet view and saving the changes back to the CRM Database.

This is just a starting point and we plan to do an extended integration with our productivity suite once Zoho CRM is part of our Single Sign-on System (currently in the works).

Competition:

It is a well known fact that Zoho CRM competes with Salesforce. But the unknown fact is that the functionality of Zoho CRM is more broader for Personal and Professional Editions. Here is a quick comparison between these two applications. You’ll notice that ‘Affordable Apps’ doesn’t necessarily mean less-featured apps. All this functionality is available at fraction of the cost. To give you a quick example, for a 5 person organization, the savings with Zoho CRM are 3x and 8x (per year) with our Personal and Professional Editions respectively against the competition.

More information on this update and the application is available on our new Zoho Wiki-based help. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on this release.

Popularity: 35% [?]

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Apart from rolling out new applications and improving the existing ones, one of the focus for Zoho is integration between applications. In this post, I want to highlight some of my favorite integrations we have already done between Zoho Apps.

Zoho Sheet integration into Zoho CRM

Database based applications like Zoho CRM are primarily form based which make them not-so-easy for simultaneous editing. Lets take a simple example of editing multiple contacts. In form based apps like CRM, you have to open individual contact, edit them and save them. On the other hand, a spreadsheet interface provides a very easy way to edit content. By integration Zoho Sheet into Zoho CRM, we have married the power of relational database back-end with the ease of editing the content in a spreadsheet.

The in Zoho CRM lets you edit multiple contacts in a spreadsheet view and save them to the relational database in Zoho CRM. This certainly is an interesting and unique integration for Zoho.

Zoho Writer & Sheet integration in Zoho Projects

Maintaining all the documents related to your project in your project management application is a no-brainer. If you also have the ability to create documents inside your project management app, it is an added bonus. Zoho Writer & Sheet integration into Zoho Projects lets you create documents under the documents section in Zoho Projects.

Zoho Meeting & Chat integration in Zoho Show

One of the unique and powerful features of Zoho Show is the ability to do Remote Presentations where you can make a slide show virtually with multiple attendees from different locations and everyone is on the same page (slide). But then, what if you want to chat with all the attendees? We have Zoho Chat integrated for this reason. What if you had to share your desktop to all the attendees? Well, we have integrated Zoho Meeting as well for this purpose. With this combination, the Remote capabilities in Zoho Show makes it a free web conferencing solution.

Zoho Creator integration in Zoho People

Recently released HR Management application Zoho People is all about customization as each business has its own way of doing things. For this reason Zoho Creator has been adopted for customization of all forms in Zoho People.

Zoho Projects integration into Zoho Invoice

Our recently released Zoho Invoice lets you create invoices for the time you spent on your projects managed from Zoho Projects.

Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show integration into Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a content creation and aggregation tool. To help you aggregate different type of content (including documents), we have integrated Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show documents inside your Notebook pages. You can create a Writer Page or a Sheet page in Notebook where one page in notebook can act as a word processor or a spreadsheet. You can also add Writer, Sheet & Show documents to your Notebook pages.

Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show Integration into Zoho Wiki

Similar to the Notebook integration, it makes perfect sense for your content to exist at a single place like Wiki. We have integrated Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show into Zoho Wiki.

You may not be aware that Zoho Wiki is infact built on top of Zoho Writer. This means our Wiki inherits most of the capabilities of our word processor.

Zoho Chat integration with Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook, Meeting etc

Zoho Chat is the common bus that runs across many Zoho Apps enabling collaborative editing in applications like Writer, Sheet, Notebook etc. It lets you chat with other users while collaborating on a document/spreadsheet/Notebook. In fact, as long as you are logged into Zoho, Chat lets you communicate with others users no matter which Zoho Apps you are on. Currently Zoho Chat is integrated into Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook & Meeting.

There are other similar integrations, but you get the idea. You’ll probably notice a theme here. Productivity applications can be integrated with other productivity apps to make them more useful (last three integrations). Also, productivity apps can also be integrated with Business Apps to create unique and useful workflows (first five integrations). Going forward, you’ll see us rolling out more interesting integrations. The marriage between productivity apps and business apps is inevitable.

Would you like to see any specific integration in Zoho? We’d love to hear your feedback.

Popularity: 19% [?]

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We just rolled out a new addition to the Zoho Suite - Zoho Invoice. This new application joins other business applications from Zoho like Zoho CRM, Zoho Projects, Zoho Meeting, Zoho People, Zoho Creator & Zoho DB.

Zoho Invoice is an online invoice generation and tracking application. It lets you create, send and track Invoices & Estimates. To create an invoice, first you add customers, define items (products or services) and then create invoices. Once you create an invoice, you have options to Email, Print or Export your invoice as a PDF.

You can define Recurring Profiles (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly) and let Zoho Invoice automatically send invoices to your customers. You can also define late fees, tax, discounts etc for the invoices you create.

Inside the application, you can also setup a ‘Payment Gateway’ (through PayPal, currently) which lets you accept payments directly from your customers once the invoice is emailed out.

The Settings section lets you first define your Company Details, Logo, Currency (yes, we support multiple currencies) and Tax info. This module has a Templates section which lets you customize the layout, look and feel of your invoices. You have the option to choose from a set of pre-defined templates or you can create your own. You can also define/customize email notifications settings as well for sending customized messages to your customers.

The reporting module provides different reports on the data based on Sales, Customers, Payments, Tax etc. The embedded Zoho Show slideshow below explains the setting up workflow & the various functionalities that Zoho Invoice has on offer.

Being a finance app, security is an important aspect. By default, Zoho Invoice comes with SSL support even for free users.

Integration:
Zoho Invoice currently has an integration into Zoho Projects. If you are working on a project and want to invoice your client, you can do so by creating an invoice and choosing the option to ‘Create Invoice from Zoho Project’. Going forward, this application will also be closely integrated with Zoho CRM and other Zoho Apps.

Pricing:
The pricing is simple & affordable. It is based on the number of invoices you create. It obviously comes with a free version that lets you create upto 5 invoices per month and it has several packages ranging upto the ‘Elite’ package that lets you create upto 1500 invoices/month for $35/Month. More information on the pricing is available here.

Bigger Picture:
As you might have noticed with our recent announcements, our applications go far beyond a productivity suite. We have a suite of applications focused on Productivity & Collaboration. Then, we also have a set of Business Applications needed to run a business online. Zoho Invoice is a nice addition to our Business Application set which addresses the business needs of SMBs.

Please do give this new app a try and let us know your feedback.

Popularity: 63% [?]

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