Zoho Corporation, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm has announced that all its 45+ business software applications are now available at a fixed Kenyan Shilling (KES) price.
The move, part of the brand’s global survive-and-serve strategy, seeks to ease the impact of currency fluctuations, especially on small businesses. It also aims to significantly reduce barriers to entry for SMEs who are considering multiple solutions from different global vendors.
Zoho, through the Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Program, is also offering its existing, qualifying small business customers a three-month waiver on their subscription fees. A number of additional initiatives and resources have been launched for businesses to help them weather the Covid-19 crisis. This includes Remotely, a remote working toolkit, which is freely available to all businesses until July 1, 2020.
“Serving our local communities and businesses is a key focus for Zoho, and we recognise that the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic is forcing businesses to adopt digitisation much faster than they might otherwise have,” says Andrew Bourne, Country Manager, Africa, Zoho Corp.
“Zoho seeks to make this adoption both simple and affordable by providing its world-class software solutions at a fair price, protected from exchange rate fluctuations. Customers are also guaranteed privacy and security of their data,” he adds.
Among Zoho’s top-selling products in the country are Zoho One, an all-in-one integrated suite of 45+ applications that can run an entire business in the cloud and Zoho Workplace that offers a suite of productivity apps catering to the needs of today’s modern, distributed workforce. It comprises email, file storage, word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, employee intranet, team chat and online video conferencing tools, and is available from KES210 per user, per month.
Zoho conducts free seminars and training sessions aimed specifically at the African market, educating users about how to adopt cloud technology to grow their businesses. After the success of its first-ever African Zoholics (Zoho’s user conference) event in Johannesburg in September 2019, the company hosted another Zoholics in Cairo, Egypt, in February this year.
Zoho says is has plans for long-term growth and expansion in Africa, having seen 35% growth in the region in 2019-2020. These include integration with top payment gateways in the continent, with a view to support local e-businesses and online retailers. It is also expanding its partner footprint in order to support more local businesses. Bourne says says its partners have helped increase ZOho’s reach, contributing to over 55% of Zoho’s overall revenue for the region,.
In addition to Kenya, localised pricing has also been announced for Nigeria,South Africa and Egypt, with further opportunities in the pipeline as Zoho plans to scale up its workforce on the continent over the next two years. Zoho currently has employees in South Africa and Nigeria.
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