What is Zoho?
Zoho Corporation is a software company that offers a unique and powerful suite of tools that can help you transform the way you work. It was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in Pleasanton, California, and now operates across the world with offices in London, Austin, Beijing, Tokyo, and Chennai. They have developed a wide range of tools to make an impact on every aspect of your business, with products designed to be user-friendly and applicable for all.
Here at Ostratto, we love to use Zoho One, as it encompasses all of the cloud software available with Zoho on one platform. It helps us to manage business operations across the company, and streamline the way that we work. I’m writing this blog to offer you some more information about different Zoho products and outline the ten best apps that we use every day at Ostratto, to help you understand how they can be a helpful addition to your software suite.
Featured Products
#1: Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an industry-leading tool, and has been for many years, with an extensive feature set offered at competitive pricing. It’s highly customisable, uses omnichannel communications, offers sales and marketing automations, uses artificial intelligence, and even has its own mobile app.
#2: Zoho Books
Zoho Books is a comprehensive accounting platform that is designed for growing businesses, and it’s recognised by HMRC for its VAT integration. It has an extensive feature set that allows you to create quotes, invoices, sales orders, and bills with ease, and an advanced set of reporting measures to help you make the most of your finances.
#3: Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense streamlines the expense management process with a mobile-first approach, understanding that most of its users will upload their information on-the-go. It’s fully customisable with many controls for administrators, which helps you to keep track of everyone’s expenses and ensure that they comply with company policy.
#4: Zoho Inventory
Zoho Inventory helps you to track inventory across multiple warehouses, synchronise stock to sell across multiple channels, and manage order fulfilment with extensive shipping functions. It has many integrations to help you connect both sales and shipping platforms, and reporting functions that help you to stay on top of your operations.
#5: Zoho People
Zoho People is a Human Resource Management (HRM) software that has been designed to make managing your employees simple and efficient. It can help you to track the attendance, performance, and development of all your employees, with accessible enterprise-level functionality at an affordable price.
#6: Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects has an extensive feature set, helping you to manage and coordinate complex projects with ease. You can view timescales on Gantt charts, track hours with timesheets, and automate tasks to streamline your workflow. You can even manage projects on the go with its mobile app!
#7: Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a completely customisable service desk that will help you manage customer queries across your portfolio. It has many comprehensive integrations with communications platforms, including social media, and uses artificial intelligence to help you create responses quickly.
#8: Zoho Forms
Zoho Forms can help you to create visually appealing forms with custom branding to efficiently collect and manage information. You can automate forms to send notifications once they're completed, and automatically link info with contacts in your CRM, saving you time.
#9: Zoho Voice
Zoho Voice is an easy-to-use business telephony and call centre solution that integrates easily with CRM and Desk. You can use it to make and receive business calls on customisable phone numbers with excellent line quality and great mobile capabilities.
#10: Zoho Sign
Zoho Sign can transform your paperwork with its digital signature solution, helping you to save time and money. You can create reusable templates with custom branding, bulk send documents and track their progress, and create workflows to automate document flow.
#1: Zoho CRM
What does Zoho CRM do?
Zoho CRM is an industry-leading tool, and has been for many years, with an extensive feature set offered at competitive pricing. It’s highly customisable, uses omnichannel communications, offers sales and marketing automations, uses artificial intelligence, and a mobile app.
Why do we like Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM is an ideal solution for small-to-medium businesses looking to get their hands on enterprise-level software at an affordable price. It’s highly customisable with an extensive feature set, meaning that you can choose from a wide range of features and make it work for you.
As with most Zoho products, its CRM integrates well with other software and this can be very advantageous. If you connect your mailbox to Zoho CRM it will collect all the information you have on each lead and add it to their profile. You can send emails directly from the CRM, and their data will be tracked for you to review. It makes it easy to see how effective your marketing is, and track which leads are engaging with your content.
Streamlining your sales process has never been easier, with the ability to create workflow automations that start with lead creation and end with you closing the deal. You can set these up in any way you like, to ensure that you never leave a lead behind. It’s simple to import new leads, with a straightforward process and many integrations. You can also customise the way you view your sales process, with both list view and kanban options.
Zoho’s enterprise-level data security can help you to stay compliant with data regulation without any extra work. You can create departments and set rules to configure the view for each team member, ensuring that they remain focused on their work and only access to relevant information. Zoho CRM also has extensive analytics and reporting to help you track the performance of your team, and see where you need to improve.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Highly Customisable Interface
✔ Omnichannel Communications In-App
✔ Comprehensive Workflow Automations
✔ Simple Lead Importing
✔ Enhanced Privacy Protections
How to get started with Zoho CRM
How to get started with Zoho CRM
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#2: Zoho Books
What does Zoho Books do?
Zoho Books is a comprehensive accounting platform that has been designed for growing businesses, with extensive features and advanced reporting capabilities. It is a HMRC recognised accounting software that can help you be compliant with the MTD (Making Tax Digital) initiative and save time with the ability to pay your VAT directly through Zoho Books. Its features include workflow automation, time tracking for projects, and inventory management. You can report on anything to do with your company’s finances, with an extensive set of preset reports and the ability to make your own custom ones too.
Why do we like Zoho Books?
Zoho Books is an excellent platform for making new sales, with simple access to all the forms that you need throughout the customer journey. You can share access to these directly with customers through Zoho Books, saving time and simplifying the process. We love the amount of currencies available, offering support for international transactions, and the expansive number of languages supported too. It has an expansive set of integrations, with the ability to work with over 50 external applications, meaning that Zoho Books can work around you, and communicate with most software.
What are its Key Features?
How to get started with Zoho Books
How to get started with Zoho Books
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#3: Zoho Expense
What does Zoho Expense do?
Zoho Expense streamlines the expense management process with a mobile-first approach, understanding that most of its users will upload their information on-the-go from iOS, Android, and Windows devices. It’s fully customisable with many controls for administrators, which will help you to keep track of everyone’s expenses and ensure that they are compliant with your organisation's policies.
Why do we like Zoho Expense?
Zoho anticipated that most employees looking to be reimbursed for expenses will be looking to do so on their mobile devices, recording their expense receipts on the go. We love the ability to capture receipts using the Zoho Expense app. It also has a useful Chrome Extension that allows you to capture receipts on your webpage with a couple of clicks, streamlining the process for when you make new bookings.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Extensive Integrations
✔ Modern Mobile Application
✔ Company Card Integration
✔ Great Customisation
✔ Advanced Reporting
How to get started with Zoho Expense
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#4: Zoho Inventory
What does Zoho Inventory do?
Zoho Inventory helps you track inventory across multiple warehouses, synchronise stock to sell across multiple channels, and manage order fulfilment with extensive shipping functions. It has integrations that help you to connect both sales and shipping platforms, and reporting functions that help you to stay on top of your operations.
Why do we like Zoho Inventory?
We like Zoho Inventory as it enables you to manage your stock across multiple websites, easily transfer stock between those warehouses, and ship orders from multiple warehouses in the same order. It supports multiple currencies and dropshipping, making it an asset for any organisation looking for a better way to manage their inventory.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Extensive Shipping Functions
✔ Supports e-Commerce
✔ Tracks Across Multiple Warehouses
✔ Manage Sales & Purchase Orders In-App
✔ Great Reporting Options
How to get started with Zoho Inventory
How to get started with Zoho Inventory
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#5: Zoho People
What does Zoho People do?
Zoho People is a Human Resource Management (HRM) software that has been designed to make managing your employees more simple and efficient. It can help you to track the attendance, performance, and development of all employees, with accessible enterprise-level functionality to streamline your management processes.
Why do we like Zoho People?
We love Zoho People for its expansive feature set and easy user interface. Its functions cover every possible use-case for HRMs, with efficient time tracking and management systems. It’s ideal for small businesses looking to streamline their expansion, and medium businesses who want a more complete picture of their workforce.
Managers who use Zoho People are able to set up the software to company specifications and then take a backseat on the HRM process, with easy-to-use self-service portals for employees doing most of the work for you. You can track attendance, time spent across projects, and annual leave seamlessly, allowing you to focus on reaching your business goals through the comprehensive performance management functions. You can schedule appraisals, create goals, and receive feedback easily.
Employees have complete control over their attendance, leave, and time tracking with Zoho People. They can change any personal information with its self-service functions, manage their calendar and workload across multiple Zoho apps, and view everything they need to know about their employment in a handy branded portal. Most of these functions can be done in the Zoho People mobile app too, allowing employees to update their information on-the-go with ease.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Employee Self-Service Portal
✔ Timesheets & Time Tracking
✔ Efficient Performance Management
✔ HR Process Automation
✔ Extensive Reporting & Analytics
✔ Mobile App for Employees
How to get started with Zoho People
How to get started with Zoho People
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#6: Zoho Projects
What does Zoho Projects do?
Zoho Projects has an extensive feature set for an affordable price, helping you to manage and coordinate projects across your company with ease. You can view timescales on Gantt charts, track hours worked with timesheets, and automate tasks to streamline your workflow.
Why do we like Zoho Projects?
We love Zoho Projects for its excellent feature set, such as Gantt charts, tasks, reporting, documents, and milestones. You’re able to track time against each task within a project, which can be attributed to your Zoho People & Books for time management and accurate project costing.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Gantt Chart / Kanban / Task List Views
✔ Task Allocation & Time Tracking
✔ Mobile Application (iOS & Android)
✔ Collaboration Functions
✔ Reporting & Analytics
How to get started with Zoho Projects
How to get started with Zoho Projects
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#7: Zoho Desk
What does Zoho Desk do?
Zoho Desk is a completely customisable service desk that will help you manage customer queries across your organisation’s portfolio. It has comprehensive integrations with communications platforms, and uses artificial intelligence to help you create responses quickly.
Why do we like Zoho Desk?
We love Zoho Desk as it helps us to manage customer service tickets with ease, through convenient contextual support, AI assistance, and detailed analytics. It’s ideal for small businesses looking for enterprise-level customer service capabilities at an affordable price.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Customisable Performance Dashboards
✔ Self-Service Portal for Customers
✔ Knowledge Base for Customers
✔ Automatic Ticket Routing
✔ Mobile App Support
How to get started with Zoho Desk
How to get started with Zoho Desk
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#8: Zoho Forms
What does Zoho Forms do?
Zoho Forms can help you to create visually appealing forms with custom branding to efficiently collect and manage information. You can automate these forms to send notifications once completed, and automatically link information with contacts in your CRM.
Why do we like Zoho Forms?
We like Zoho Forms because it allows us to create highly functional branded forms with its easy to use no-code creator, with an array of fields to choose from, field validation to ensure accurate data is recorded, and full customizability to meet most business requirements.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Full Customisation & Branding
✔ No-Code Form Creation
✔ Secure Data Collection
✔ Comprehensive Integrations
✔ Reporting & Analytics
How to get started with Zoho Forms
How to get started with Zoho Forms
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#9: Zoho Voice
What does Zoho Voice do?
Zoho Voice is an easy-to-use business telephony and call centre solution that integrates seamlessly with CRM and Desk. You can use it to make and receive business calls on customisable phone numbers with excellent line quality and mobile capabilities.
Why do we like Zoho Voice?
We love Zoho Voice for its integration with other Zoho products. It can communicate with Zoho CRM to identify and recognise phone numbers, record voicemail messages and important conversations, and create notifications to bring your attention to new inbound leads.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Inbound & Outbound Calls
✔ Call Queueing, Forwarding, Transfers
✔ Personal & Departmental Extensions
✔ Customizable Phone Numbers
✔ Call Centre Capabilities
✔ Simple Dialling System
How to get started with Zoho Voice
How to get started with Zoho Voice
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
#10: Zoho Sign
What does Zoho Sign do?
Zoho Sign can transform your company’s paperwork with its digital signature solution, helping you to save time and money. You can create reusable templates with custom branding, bulk send documents and track their progress, and create workflows to automate document flow. It's highly secure too, with comprehensive encryption technology.
Why do we like Zoho Sign?
We like Zoho Sign because it helps to streamline signature collection and document processing in a secure and reliable way. It helps you save time through template creation and workflow configuration, and you can track the progress for each document sent easily. It’s compliant with many e-signature laws across the world.
What are its Key Features?
✔ Leading Data Security
✔ Completely Custom Branding
✔ e-Signature Capabilities
✔ Bulk Document Sending
✔ Reusable Templates
✔ Tracking & Reporting
How to get started with Zoho Sign
How to get started with Zoho Sign
We’ve made life a little easier for you with this free trial. Every Zoho product starts with a free trial so you can see if you like it and go from there. If you have any questions, let us know!
Why Zoho?
Zoho is one of the most affordable software developers for small-to-medium sized businesses, with comprehensive features across all of their applications for a price that doesn’t break the bank. You won’t find another software suite that has the integrations, the features, and the price points that Zoho has to offer, and the great thing is that their pricing is flexible so you can start small and scale up to enterprise level with ease.
We use most Zoho applications for our daily tasks, and they have helped to streamline our business processes and workflow immensely. They integrate well with Google Workspace, communicate data across the company to improve efficiency, and keep our company data secure at all times. If you’re looking for any of the above products, we recommend that you take a look at starting a free trial and have a go! We’re here to help answer any questions if you have them.
Why Ostratto?
Ostratto is a team of technical professionals that are here to assist you and your business on a truly personal basis. We have the skills and expertise to deliver comprehensive, cost-effective solutions, and will work to integrate Zoho software into your business in a way that meets all of your needs. We’re here to help you to find the most suitable products, and provide you with ongoing support throughout your time with us.
We've been partnered with Zoho for over five years, and have worked with their teams to develop their products for the UK market. We work with businesses from a wide range of sectors from leisure through to manufacturing. We are proud to be a part of all of our customers' businesses, integrating ourselves as trusted advisors and measuring our success on theirs. Wherever your organisation is right now, and wherever it wants to be in the future, we can help you to streamline your workflows and make your work less work with the right software solution.
