Beyond the conventional: The Zoho way

Hello, everyone! This has been a fantastic year for us—serving our users, making investments we believe in, expanding our footprint, and celebrating remarkable milestones.

Thank you for being part of our journey; we anticipate an even better year ahead for both you and us! ??

Rapid fire with?attendees ??

Engaging with our users is always a delight, and this lively game was a crowd-pleaser at Zoholics India. Head to the link to see how our attendees tackled challenging questions. It seems like they had a blast—and we did too!

We helped LambdaTest deliver top-notch support with SalesIQ!

LambdaTest, a leading continuous quality testing cloud platform, sought an integrated solution for CRM and chat-ticket support. SalesIQ helped with exactly this, with a notable 40% increase in operator efficiency.

Canada, we're here! ??

Exciting news! Our data centers in Montreal and Toronto are now open. We're thrilled to embark on this new chapter and look forward to serving Canadian businesses with these homegrown data centers.

The Long Game

The secret to inspiring employees often lies in the intangibles.?In culture.

But good culture can't be manufactured on an assembly line or programmed with lines of code. It's nurtured over time with care.

It goes beyond the values statement on a website—it's the shared vision, collaborative spirit, and reasoning behind decisions made, big or small.

Curious about the elements of a strong organizational culture? Head to our blog to find out.

Captured last month ??

Our Chennai campus pond is the latest initiative we've embraced in our commitment to sustainability and living in harmony with nature.

Humans of Zoho

This month, we're celebrating three stellar employees who have successfully navigated different career paths, faced multiple challenges, and demonstrated remarkable growth and dedication. Meet Sandhiya, Kiran, and Karthikeyan.

Employee Spotlight | A glimpse at our people and their journeys ??

Meet Ashwanth A , who transitioned from tax consulting to being a vital resource for our events team. With an MBA under his belt, Ash found his true calling in marketing and joined us in 2019, where he discovered a passion for event planning.

In this interview, he shares the intricacies of his role and the unexpected joy he finds in stall setups. We found that a bit surprising too! ??

As a seasoned event marketer, Ash emphasizes the importance of trusting stakeholders. Learn more about him below.

1. Tell us something about your background, Ash. What led you to work for Zoho?

After my MBA, I worked as a US tax consultant for a couple of years with two different tax firms. While that role had its moments, that wasn't the career path I wanted. I started looking to switch to marketing and joined Zoho back in 2019. Since then, I've had incredible opportunities to work on product and event marketing, with events becoming my primary role.

2. What is it that you do exactly? Explain what your work entails.

Along with my colleagues on the events team, I work with several product and program teams across Zoho, facilitating their participation in B2B/SaaS conferences in India. We also handle end-to-end planning and coordination of meetups hosted by Zoho. A big chunk of my work is communication and coordination, to ensure all our event deliverables are met, and our participation is seamless.

3. Did you always want to get into events?

No. Events was something that found me during my starting days as a marketer. I started with writing content for email campaigns and social media promotions for virtual events hosted by Zoho. This was in 2020, when lockdown was at it's peak. As the world gradually returned to normal, my role transitioned into live events, and I'm loving every minute of it!

4. What would your advice be for an aspiring event marketer/planner? Any resources that you'd recommend?

The phrase "trust but verify" comes to mind. We deal with many internal and external stakeholders in this line of work. A lot of things can go wrong quickly. As the SPOC for two or more organizations, an event marketer must constantly stay on top of every action item and ensure it's completed well within deadlines, whether working on it directly or coordinating with someone else.

5. What do you love the most about your job?

The stall setups. At almost every event, we have an exhibit space, either a shell scheme or a customized booth. A good amount of time goes into planning our stall spaces, especially if it's a custom-fabricated design. From the beginning, I usually work with the design team, going through various concepts and iterations. Seeing the final design come to life after weeks of work gives an incredible sense of fulfillment. It also hurts when the booth is taken down after the event—something I'm sure every event marketer and designer can relate to. My heart goes out to all of you!

6. What's in the works for you right now? How excited are you about it?

December is a slow month for events. But I am looking forward to next year when we start planning Zoholics India, our annual user conference. This year was a grand success in Bangalore, and I've been looking forward to the next one ever since. Every year brings with it fresh opportunities and challenges. I'm excited to navigate through them and put on another successful show!

7. One work tip that you swear by.

Always keep the relevant stakeholders looped in. Whether it's events or any other line of work, there will be people you work with on a task or a project. Having relevant stakeholders in the loop for all communication is essential, so they know every course of action.

From the horse's mouth

1. In this piece, Vijay Sundaram emphasizes the essential role that technology plays in advancing healthcare while drawing attention to the increasing menace of privacy breaches in the sector. Here are some measures that can effectively mitigate these risks.

"Data has surpassed oil in value, which is why so many unscrupulous hackers are determined to access it."

- Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer, Zoho

2. Here's an insightful conversation with our CEO, Sridhar Vembu. Tune in to gain perspectives on AI and learn about the future trajectory of software development, along with valuable lessons from his remarkable journey.

3. Zoho's journey has always been about staying true to our values, maintaining a clear long-term vision, and ensuring our customers receive the absolute best in tech. Hyther Nizam believes in precisely that—adhering to foundational principles, staying focused on long-term goals, and wholeheartedly embracing a tech-centric strategy.

“We committed not to sell customer data or place ads in our products as early as 2005. Think about it; we could have generated tens of millions of dollars every month, but we chose a deeper relationship with our customers.” ?

- Hyther Nizam, Director of Technology, Zoho

With that, we're concluding this month—and this year! Here's to a holiday season filled with joy and a fresh sense of hope, preparing you for the opportunities and challenges of the upcoming year.

For more product updates, make sure to subscribe to Zoho Buzz. See you in the next edition. Buh-bye! ??