Zoho announces major developments to enhance productivity
Zoho has announced substantial updates across its collaboration tools portfolio to enhance productivity in the current era dominated by flexible, asynchronous work environments.
It comes after a massive 78% increase in migrations from competitors to Zoho's collaboration solutions.
Robert Arnold, Industry Director and Program Manager for Frost & Sullivan, highlighted the challenges that over half of organisations are facing with integrating multi-vendor solutions and aligning IT investments with business strategies.
Zoho's latest developments aim to streamline these processes by offering a broad and tightly integrated suite of software applications designed to facilitate seamless workflow collaboration, thus driving improved user experiences, productivity, and efficiency.
Chief Evangelist, Raju Vegesna, commented on the evolving work landscape where collaboration across different devices, networks, and time zones is increasingly becoming complex.
He said Zoho's integrated set of collaboration tools, powered by platform-layer services such as AI and process automation, seeks to enhance productivity by making collaborative efforts more seamless across disparate teams.
The company is introducing new features across four key collaboration tools—Zoho Projects, Zoho Notebook, Zoho WorkDrive, and Zoho Sign—focused on AI, automation, and industry-specific customisations.
New AI Capabilities
Zoho Projects now includes Natural Language Processing capabilities powered by its AI engine, Zia.
Users can utilise voice commands for deeper searches across Zoho apps, and Zia can provide task recommendations based on data analysis. These features aim to reduce the time needed to retrieve information and enhance visibility across teams operating asynchronously.
Zoho Notebook's new AI functionalities include smart summarisation, task management, automatic topic tagging, and visual chart creation from notes. Integrated with Zoho Projects and WorkDrive, Zoho Notebook allows for contextual note-taking and real-time brainstorming with its new Whiteboard feature, which supports embedding audio or video meetings.
New Workflow Automation Capabilities
The Blueprint visual workflow automation technology is now accessible within Zoho Projects, WorkDrive, and Sign. This enables users to create scalable and repeatable project workflows, reducing errors and enhancing productivity.
For instance, Zoho WorkDrive now supports automated content procedures across departments, enhancing the efficiency of tasks such as legal reviews or HR operations.
Zoho Sign, in particular, facilitates faster document turnaround by automating the creation and routing of reusable templates for various documents. The system now supports Knowledge-Based Authentication for financial technology companies and compliance with US FDA 21 CFR Part 11 for the healthcare industry, simplifying processes that require stringent security and verification.
Industry-Specific Capabilities
In the construction sector, Zoho Projects' integration with Zoho Lens allows for real-time troubleshooting via augmented reality. Healthcare administrators can leverage new Data Loss Prevention controls within Zoho WorkDrive to protect sensitive data.
Manufacturing companies benefit from Blueprint in Zoho Projects, enabling the automation of processes like prototype testing and inventory management. For the aviation sector, Zoho offers custom dashboards for secure and transparent monitoring, aligning with industry requirements.
Other key announcements include Zoho CRM for everyone, which democratises CRM capabilities across all customer operation teams, and an enhanced security stack comprising Zoho Directory, Zoho OneAuth, and Zoho Vault to protect businesses against breaches and attacks.
Zoho also introduced new features for its Developer Platform to assist in rapid app development and data-informed roadmap creation.
All updated tools—Zoho Projects, Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Sign, and Zoho Notebook are available worldwide.
