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You know you’re getting bigger as a productivity software maker when you have to create applications to support the work your users are doing with your existing productivity apps.
Zoho, which notched its 1 millionth customer a month ago in August, has launched an SAAS (software as a service) file management application. Like Google Docs, Zoho Docs lets users store the files they create in the Zoho Writer word processing application, Zoho Sheet spreadsheet application and Zoho Show presentation application.
Zoho unveiled Zoho Docs, which offers up to 1GB of free storage, at the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco Sept. 4. Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna said in a statement Zoho Docs reflects a shift at Zoho to put context above applications.
What does Vegesna mean by this? Zoho believes that when users are looking for a file, they don’t want to think about which application created it, they just want the information to be available on demand.
I’ll buy that. It’s similar to the notion that most people don’t think about what operating system or browser they use, so long as it enables their apps to run well.
By offering users an online, one-stop storage space for their files, Zoho Docs makes the productivity experience easier for users. Making workers’ work easier is a great way to win over customers and help the SAAS market grow in the process.
What’s Zoho Docs like? The application lets users edit, share and collaborate on files. Sections include My Folders, My Groups, My Tags and My Views, which includes tabs for recent documents, all files, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, pictures and even music.
The root folder lists files in Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show. Clicking on a file opens a new tab inside Zoho Docs, which displays the file in read-only mode. There is an option at the top of the new tab to let the user edit the document in a new window.
To support collaboration among employees, Zoho Docs also works with Zoho Share to let users share files with individuals or groups in read-only or in read/write mode. Moreover, groups created in Zoho Business will appear in the Group Share option as well as in the My Groups section.
Zoho Docs also integrates Zoho Chat; users can initiate a chat session with any of the listed users by clicking contacts at the bottom of the screen.
Acknowledging that not every document users create will be forged in Zoho Writer, Sheets or Show, Zoho Docs also lets users upload any file format to Zoho Docs, including .zip and PDF.
Zoho Docs is quite a nice file management application, and, coming on the heels of Zoho’s 1 millionth customer achievement, should position the Zoho productivity suite for greater growth.
Indeed, Zoho is the only company offering SAAS productivity apps and SAAS enterprise apps for CRM, invoicing, human resource management and other business services.
Zoho is the only entity keeping Google and Salesforce.com in tandem from owning SAAS productivity and enterprise applications such as CRM and HRM.