In the interview with Suvish Viswanathan, Head of Marketing Europe at Zoho

Times change, and you can probably still remember large stacks of floppy disks that had to be inserted one by one into the drive to install software. Fortunately, this effort is a thing of the past. Today, software comes from the cloud. We met with Zoho Corporation, an established specialist in this field, which, with more than 50 applications across almost all major business categories, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, and back-office functions, as well as a range of productivity and collaboration tools, is one of the providers with the largest solution portfolios worldwide. Zoho is privately owned and employs 12,000+ employees. The headquarters is located in Chennai, India. The largest European branch is in Utrecht, Netherlands, with additional offices in more than 25 countries, such as the USA, Japan, China, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the United Arab Emirates—and, since last year, Essen. Today, we speak with Suvish Viswanathan about the special importance of privacy at Zoho, learn about the German location in the heart of the Ruhr region, and find out more about the constant growth of the tech giant, as well as Zoho One—The operating system for your business.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Mr. Viswanathan, if I asked you what makes Zoho so special, there would probably be many answers. But what do you think are the three standout differences compared to all competitors offering cloud solutions?

Suvish Viswanathan: The three biggest differences in our offering are as follows:

1. The diversity of software products we offer for businesses. Companies can only work seamlessly across departments if the software products communicate with each other. We developed them from the ground up and did not simply adopt internal technology structures.

2. A fair price. We operate our entire technology system ourselves, in our own data centers. This gives us the advantage of being able to pass on the resulting lower costs to our customers.

3. The enormous value we place on data protection and privacy for our users. This has been the cornerstone of our business since we began operations in 1996.

While these three technical benefits play a role, we are a private business without external financing. This gives us the freedom to continue our development in various areas and continue to provide added value to our clients and partners.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Privacy is a good keyword. How is this ensured by Zoho?

Suvish Viswanathan: As already mentioned, data protection has always been the foundation of what we do. We offer free versions of almost all of our more than 100 products, and none of them contain advertising. Data protection obligations and commercial activities cannot go hand in hand. That is why we decided from the very beginning not to place any advertising on our products and not to sell any data from our customers.

Of course, we have also built our platforms around a data protection framework, which means that our users can protect their data with appropriate policies. We also do not use third-party cookies on our websites. This means that when you visit our website, your data is not tracked with tools like Google Analytics or those small social media symbols that place cookies on your browser. We believe that this kind of commitment is important to maintain the trust of Zoho users when we back up our words with constructive actions.
You can find more information about our data protection obligations on our homepage at www.zoho.com/privacy.html.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Does this also mean that German users can store their data securely on a local or European server?

Suvish Viswanathan: We take data protection for everyone who works with us and the security of their individual data very seriously. We invest a lot in both areas and regularly conduct audits according to international standards. As far as data storage is concerned, we operate our own data centers. There are 12 data centers worldwide, two of which are in Europe. One each in the Netherlands and Ireland. We continuously review the requirements and expand our data center network.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Recently, you opened your Germany headquarters in Essen. What were the decisive factors for you to go there?

Suvish Viswanathan: We have always set up our offices worldwide in areas that are less in the spotlight and not overcrowded. We believe that this is good in many ways – it helps to develop areas that are not yet so heavily used, contributes to sustainable living, and gives us the opportunity to participate in the development of the local community. Digital transformation cannot focus on just a few big cities; it must be distributed across the entire region. We chose Essen because its location in the heart of the Ruhr region is predestined for digital change, and Zoho has long been a reliable partner in this transformation. Now that I live in Essen myself, I can see the opportunities we have and hear customer feedback in this urban metropolitan area.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Let’s talk about Zoho One, the operating system. What tasks can it solve, and what are the specific advantages?

Suvish Viswanathan: Zoho One is the most ambitious product in our portfolio. The idea was born almost 10 years ago when we recognized that the market needed a unified software solution capable of meeting all business requirements. Whether it’s sales-related tasks like CRM, marketing tasks such as running email campaigns, social media, financial tasks like creating invoices, accounting, subscription models for modern businesses, HR tasks like managing employee data, leave and attendance, or daily communication such as email, chat, and document management—companies currently use different software for all of this.

Zoho provides 55 applications for these various needs. We wanted to create a complete solution that addresses fundamental questions such as: What if companies didn’t have to purchase and manage licenses for 55 different applications from 55 different providers? What if they didn’t have to manage user licenses and access for 55 different tools? What if businesses didn’t have to worry about integrating these tools to enable better use? The answer is Zoho One. We launched the product in 2017 and have just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Now, 50,000 global users trust Zoho One. The product has grown and evolved, and we continue to work on it to ensure its optimal use. Like an operating system running on your PC or Mac, we want Zoho One to run your business. That’s why we call it an operating system for businesses.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Does this mean users can do without other operating systems like Microsoft?

Suvish Viswanathan: We often hear this comment because of Zoho One’s slogan. But it’s not an operating system for computers—there are plenty of those on the market.
An operating system is an interface between a computer’s hardware components and those who operate it. We envision Zoho One as the interface between business tasks and the people running the business. In the background, Zoho One naturally offers the ability to use various hardware and software technologies to enhance performance and user experience. But we want our customers to see and use just one easy-to-use interface to handle all their business tasks.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: How does the onboarding process work with your technology?

Suvish Viswanathan: A user-friendly interface is the goal of our product teams. Every one of our software solutions is designed to provide an easy entry point. However, large packages like Zoho One can sometimes feel overwhelming. When a company acquires a Zoho One license, it gains access to 45 applications, so its staff may sometimes feel like a child in a candy store! That’s why we typically offer all users assistance from us or our partners in Germany and worldwide. It’s important to develop an implementation strategy and start with the application that is most critical. Once the rollout is successful, you can move on to the next application. The beauty of Zoho One is that the apps are immediately available, so they can be used without additional license costs.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Zoho has been on a growth trajectory for years. In your opinion, what are the reasons for this consistent upward trend?

Suvish Viswanathan: There are several factors behind this growth. But I think two points are the most important:
First, we have continuously worked to improve the experience of our customers. For example, it has been 17 years since we launched Zoho CRM, but every year there are at least two new versions that further develop the product and optimize usability.

Second, our culture is very significant. Zoho places immense importance on the satisfaction of its employees. This isn’t about fancy offices or free lunches, but about the freedom we give colleagues to shape their own careers. A large portion of our workforce has been with us for more than 15 years. This long tenure helps us create long-term technology plans and stay on course. This culture shapes our technological development strategy, which in turn contributes to providing sustainable benefits to the entire community using Zoho.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: That sounds very impressive. Thank you for the exciting interview.

Suvish Viswanathan: Thank you for the invitation and the great conversation.