Posted by Chennai: The Chennai-headquartered software and technology company Zoho Corp has completed 25 years in the industry.
Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas started Zoho in 1996. Since then the company has expanded its presence in seven locations and corporate headquarters in Pleasanton – California, USA.
Today, the company has a workforce of over 10,000 plus, more than 50,00 customers and revenue of Rs 4300 crore in FY 2020.
During its 25 years’ journey, Zoho Corp has diversified its software and technology business into three brands serving three different areas. WebNMS is the Internet of Things (IoT) division, ManageEngine is for enterprise IT management and Zoho serve cloud platform and software applications.
“Zoho has been built on values and convictions. We do not measure our success in numbers, but the impact we have had on our employees, their families, customers, industry, ecosystem and the local communities,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-Founder, Zoho Corp.
“Our purpose has been to create opportunities for those who don’t have them, build compelling products for our customers, and serve geographical locations that have not been served before. We want to continue being a catalyst for change, inspiring others and emerging as a top technology leader, all the while serving those whom we impact more broadly and deeply,” added Vembu.
At this historic juncture, the company has charted out plans for the next 25 years. These plans are broad in nature but cover key aspects including transnational localism, self-reliant regional economies, distributed workforce, remote work tools, R&D and de-layering the technology stack.
Transnational localism and self-reliant regional economies: Transnational localism is about being rooted and connected. Zoho’s growth will be rooted in closely working with and serving the local communities around the world while staying connected through shared knowledge and culture.
The company will support regional economies become self-reliant through opening offices in rural or non-urban areas, local hiring, partnerships, investments, and adopting the local culture.
Knitting a distributed workforce with remote work tools and strong culture: Zoho will follow a hub-and-spoke office model, moving towards a decentralised and globally-distributed workforce. In such a remote and hybrid work model, every business app becomes a collaboration app.
The company will invest in messaging and A/V technologies. Zoho will also focus on maintaining the company culture, bringing employees together through a sense of shared value and purpose.
De-layering the tech stack: Zoho will continue to invest heavily in R&D initiatives with a focus on creating a vertically integrated tech stack. In the coming years, Zoho expects the value of tighter vertical, horizontal and contextual integrations to grow. Vertical layers, historically, have been separate with vendors focusing on individual layers.
Zoho expects these separated layers to shrink (or de-layered) leading to better efficiencies and customer experience. This can only be achieved through significant R&D efforts, which Zoho will continue to put in.