Wow - Thanks! We are overwhelmed by the support everyone showed us on Twitter and elsewhere after Microsoft called us "fake".

For example, Vinnie Mirchandani at Deal Architect said:

If this is fake, give us plenty more

The question is, what do you do when the 800-lbs gorilla in the industry calls you a fake? Well, we've come up with a checklist

• Blog about it - Check
• Tweet about it - Check
• Make a website about it - Check (We just uploaded the Fake Office 2.0 version)
  
• Make a movie about it - ?
  

Now, seriously... want to see how real the fake office is? Sign up now. Takes less than 20 seconds.

Back in early June, James Haftner tweeted: "Holy magnolia, whatever Zoho is using for their forums is slick!". @James_Hafner. thanks for waiting, here's your answer.

If you noticed, so far this year we have been trigger-shy on new products - that's because we have spent a lot of time working on the cross-integration of our products. But today is brand-new-product-day at Zoho. We're very excited to announce our newest product: Zoho Discussions.



Zoho Discussions allows organizations to create external and internal communities where problems are solved, topics are discussed and ideas are exchanged. Businesses can create a customer support forum where solutions to problems come not only from the company support reps, but also from other users in the same situation. Customers can make their voices heard and vote on what they like - and don't like. Employees can discuss important topics in an environment that fosters collaboration much better than e-mail.

Connect with and engage customers: Customer Support Forums, Feedback and Product Innovation

We are very excited to announce we have a brand-new Zoho product. And we'll be even more excited next Tuesday when we actually unveil it and give you more details. But not to keep you waiting too much, I'm including below a short teaser video that should give you an idea (an idea? I think this video gives it away!).

You may have noticed that we haven't released new products lately. No, we haven't taken a months-long vacation. We have been quite busy this year doing updates to our existing products and useful integrations among them. For example, the Zoho CRM and Mail integration and the Zoho Projects 2.0 launch. And there has been a lot more integrations going up here and there. For example: Zoho CRM with Zoho Meeting and Zoho Invoice as well as many others.

But Tuesday will be a good time for a brand-new product. The funny thing is, although it is brand-new, many of our users have been using it already, without even realizing it ;)

Stay tuned!

Rodrigo

Today we're very excited to announce a one-of-a-kind integration between our award-winning Zoho CRM service and Zoho Mail (and other e-mail platforms too).

The problem our customers were facing was clear: they manage their customer relationships with Zoho CRM, yet most of their customer communications happen via e-mail. Our goal was to not only bring both of these together, but to do so in an elegant and easy-to-setup and easy-to-use way. We've been working hard on this, and we're very proud of the result.

Full-fledged e-mail within Zoho CRM

One of the first things that people will notice is the new "Emails" tab in Zoho CRM. This gives you instant, un-restricted access to all of your mails within Zoho Mail. Customers can now easily switch between their mail and their CRM from within the same window/tab in their browser. And of course - there's no need to sign-in again, Zoho's single sign-on takes care of that in the backend.

E-mail Composing/Reading within the CRM Contacts Tab

Of course you don't need to go to your e-mail client, or the Zoho CRM Email tab to interact with customers and contacts via e-mail. Within the Contacts tab, we have enable both mail read and compose, so all your e-mail communications are truly just one click away.

BCC: No one

One of the things we really like about the Zoho CRM and Zoho Mail integration is that it requires users to do nothing. Really. Some inferior crm + mail solutions require users to CC:/BCC: some special e-mail address. Not us. Everything is taken care of on the background. E-mails will be logged within the respective contacts regardless if they were sent from the CRM Contacts Tab, the CRM Emails tab, directly on Zoho Mail, or even while using another mail client to send e-mail with Zoho Mail.

E-mails that respect hierarchy

Another cool thing about the integration with Zoho Mail is that the same permissions structure that applies to Accounts/Contacts will apply to e-mails to/from those contacts. So for example, when Steve Salesman, maintains an e-mail communication with Charles Customer, Steve's manager will be able to refer to those e-mail communications.


Create CRM contacts and to-dos directly in Zoho Mail

Some customer interactions begin through e-mail. At any point, you can create a CRM contact directly from your Zoho Mail interface. You just need to choose 'Add to CRM' from the 'More Options' drop-down in Z Mail. Not only that - but after creating the contact you can also immediately add a task (for example, to follow-up with the contact or send a document). And of course, to keep the data clean, Zoho Mail will advice you if that particular contact already exists.

Connect to other e-mail systems

And of course, the last thing we'd want is to force customer to use Zoho Mail to take advantage of this great new functionality. So no, you don't need to host your e-mail with Zoho if you don't want. If you are happily e-mailing your customers from your Gmail account, you can continue to do that. you just need to enable POP in your e-mail service/server so Zoho Mail can connect to those e-mails. We know some people will prefer a method other than POP, and we're working on that as well.

And here's a short video that Victor on our team prepared:

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An open invitation to Zwitch

Today we're also announcing the Zwitch to Zoho program. It's our way to make life easier for those customers wanting to migrate out of Salesforce.com's and into Zoho's affordable-yet-fully-featured CRM service. Among other things, it includes:

• Free, no-obligation assessment with a Zoho CRM specialist
• Free data migration services
• Free trial periods, and free service for up to 6 months, depending on the time left on the Salesforce contract

A customer from Poland recently e-mailed our Zoho Projects support team with two questions:

 
I would like to ask you how many people can collaborate on free and upper price versions and second but most important question: How does Zoho Projects support agile and short iterations project development

2. The Project Stream and the Twitter-like status updates gives you a quick update on everything happening in the project. With Agile, milestones and task due dates are not set in stone - they are always changing. Zoho Projects helps you keep your team appraised as there are changes in the schedules and plans.

3. Older software development methodologies argued for "requirements" to be set in stone and pretty much frozen before the first line of code was written. In contrast, Agile calls for flexibility around deadlines and when requirements come int. Zoho Project's included project Wiki is an ideal place where the entire team can keep track of the changing requirements. And of course, not only that, you can also go back and track how the requirements have changed over time using version control.

I hope that addresses the question. This is just a subset of the things you can do with Zoho Projects 2.0, but we found them to be the most relevant for an agile methodology. Of course, Zoho Projects also has the traditional milestones - task - priorities functionality that is essential to any structured project.

Rodrigo

One of the features I love about this thing we're launching soon is how many other Zoho services it incorporates into one cool package of unrestrained productivity. And... no, it's not just a pricing bundle where we give you a number of disparate thing for one set price.

It goes beyond that. Anyway, I was just counting how many other Zoho services it integrates under one roof - no less than 5! It's actually more than that, but I won't go into details.

You might remember last week we announced the ground-breaking Zoho Office for SharePoint - which lets users store their documents in SharePoint while editing and collaborating on them with Zoho. A lot of customers, media and bloggers liked that idea. Well, this thing (that we're releasing before you leave for your 4th of July weekend) also integrates with another popular Microsoft product.

As an added bonus, here's what a screenshot of this new thing looks like:

Yeah, of course it's broken into big, 38-pixel mossaics so as to not give it away so easily. Gotta love that Photoshop.

But, if you squint your eyes and look at it for 5 minutes without blinking, the whole thing will appear in 3-D before your eyes - like those posters that were popular in the 80s (90s?). Oh, who a I kidding? I was never able to see one of those autostereograms - to this day I still think they are a cruel joke.

But I digressed. You might think that screenshot doesn't give out any info. Well, it does! Some of the things that people were guessing are not supported by this screenshot. Also... read carefully!


Rodrigo

How's that for a launch announcement? You see, we're launching this thing next week. But we're not crazy. Bear with me for the next few lines. There are two philosophies when it comes to launching a product: one is you say well in advance what you are going to launch, and when - the Microsoft model. The other is to say absolutely nothing (nor product not date) until the day you launch it, the Apple model.

So we thought it'd be fun to do something in between those two extremes. We're telling you that next week we're launching something.

But we won't tell you what that is, nor we'll say specifically when. But we promise it will be before you leave for the 4th of July weekend.

We also promise you will really really like this new shiny thing. It will change the way you  _________ (can't tell you that just yet, as it'd give it away). In fact, we challenge you to try out Zoho _________ for a month, and then you'll wonder how you worked without it before.

Rodrigo

And by "Money" I mean not the "Show me the money" kind of money, but the Microsoft Money product. You know, the product that Microsoft just announced it is whacking.

The obvious winner in this epic battle that goes several years back seems to be Intuit, with its Quicken line of services and products - so congratulations to the Intuit team - I hope that with their major competitor out they will nonetheless continue innovating and producing a good product. But without taking away from Intuit's effort, there's also a lot to be said for on-line services like Mint.com (a personal note: I've been a user for a while and I love it). Mint in particular has been quite successful as of late, adding users and generating a lot of buzz in the media. Of course, we should also note that Quicken also offers a 100%-web (and free) money management service, Quicken Online.

What is interesting here is that Microsoft Money was, without ever being officially called so, one of Microsoft's first products to follow their "Software plus Services" strategy. Software-plus-Services is the name that Microsoft uses to justify not fully moving into a SaaS model. And Microsoft Money could have really been the poster boy for software-plus-services: buy a piece of boxed software from your favorite electronics store, install it in your computer and complement/augment it with the kind of additional value/information that you can only get on-line.

So, why did Microsoft kill Money? Well, here's the official explanation:

With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed...

Now, let's see... my two banks (two of the biggest ones in the nation) provide some services, but nothing close to a full solution like Mint or Quicken. My brokerage doesn't provide that centralized view either. Neither does my credit card company. So that leaves websites like Mint.com and Quicken Online as probably the biggest factors that contributed to the demise of Microsoft Money.

Well, so there you have it. Software-plus-Services just yielded its first result.

Rodrigo

ps. Credit when it is due - kudos to Microsoft for working with Intuit to help Money customers easily migrate to Quicken.

…your competition has a 'scripted template' for bashing you!

We recently had a few prospective CRM customers contact our sales team as they were shopping around for a CRM product and they had narrowed it down to just two products: Zoho CRM and Salesforce.com CRM. In the context of our conversation, they were nice enough to forward us the communication they had with their Salesforce.com sales rep regarding Zoho.

As a marketing guy, what caught my attention is that Salesforce invested some time and energy on creating a template that they send out to prospective customers who are specifically asking about the differences between Zoho and Salesforce. We know it can mean only one thing: they’re increasingly seeing people ask why should they go with Salesforce vs. Zoho. And we know that because it’s the same we’ve been seeing on our side – not only have people been asking why should they choose Zoho over Salesforce, but people have been actually switching from Salesforce.com to Zoho CRM.

So we thought we’d speed up the sales cycle a little bit by addressing these questions once and for all for our prospective customers.  Below is a summary of the major points Salesforce is telling customers about Zoho, and then, in the interest of fairness, our side of the story. Customers should evaluate and consider both sides, and of course, then do their homework.

Salesforce is saying: We are the market leader and we’ve got more awards. Yes, Salesforce did just cross $1b dollars in revenue…. Mostly, of course, because their product is overpriced. How is that a good thing for customers? By the way, we have some awards of our own as well – we’ve been named a 2008 Market Leader by DestinationCRM magazine, and our CEO, Sridhar Vembu, has also been named a “CRM Visionary”.

Salesforce questions our commitment to the CRM space/product. Salesforce is telling customers that we, Zoho, are not committed to CRM because we have many products. Yes, we do offer a comprehensive portfolio under the Zoho umbrella, and that is core to our strategy and the value we offer customers. But I wouldn’t question our commitment to our CRM product. Sitting this side of the fence, I can tell you our biggest chunk of our revenue comes thanks to our excellent CRM product. Need I say more about our commitment? But by the same token, we would also question Salesforce's long-term prospects as a standalone entity. What is the last well-known CRM-only company that you can remember? Siebel? Correctomundo!

E-mail and Document Management Integration. I think Salesforce has done a good job integrating e-mail with their CRM product. We’ll honestly concede we are a little behind integrating some of our other products into CRM. We have been busy building a strong foundation for that. In the near future we’ll show how Mail and CRM integration should be done. We’re in beta tests for this already and it’s looking sweet.

Customer, do your homework!

If you are a customer looking for a great CRM solution, here are the 3 things you should consider when deciding:

•    What are my CRM needs, and what plans do my prospective vendors offer me to address them?
•    What is the total price, and the conditions, that I’d need to pay for that system?
•    What is the experience I will have with the product once I start using it?

It’s important that you compare not on a plan-vs-plan basis, as that can be deceiving. Instead, make a list of the functionality you need, and the corresponding plans/editions from your prospective vendors that address those needs. And then of course, figure out how much you’ll need to spend to get the CRM system that you need. But of course, also actually sign-up for a trial and use the system for a bit, take it for a spin. Which one is easier to use? Which one is faster? Which one will my sales team feel happier with?

There's also another important part about the experience - what will happen if in the future you want to take your business elsewhere? We have been very vocal that your data always belongs to you. Zoho will never keep your data hostage. You should ask that of the all the vendors you're considering - oh, but you already know what they'll say. Check their reputation instead. Hey, and what about requiring long-term contracts? Zoho offers you the option to subscribe on a yearly basis, but doesn't force you to - no pun intended.

Rodrigo