By Ritu Jha-
The San Francisco Chapter of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in collaboration with Zoho, hosted the “Finance over Dinner” on June 8, in Mountain View, California.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) major Zoho Corporation offers software and related services to businesses in 160 countries, competing with major companies like Microsoft and Salesforce.
Speaking about hosting the event, Val Steed, Director Accountants at Zoho, told Indica, “The objective is to introduce Zoho to Californians in the area.”
“We have an accounts program and we’re starting to get attention now in the US for our Finance Suite,” said Steed, who has a CPA background and has been involved in the accounting technology finance area for over 35 years. Attendees of the event received free access to the Zoho Finance suite of products (Zoho Books, Zoho Expense, Zoho Practice & Zoho Inventory) for one year.
“It is great that our Finance Suite is starting to get attention because the accounting tech industry companies have been picking best of breed for years. Then they’ve been integrating. With integrations, you end up with trouble sooner or later. Years ago, I figured out that the best way to go is to set up a suite within a company. The suite should be equipped with everything people need for finance and a lot of other stuff. That’s where Zoho is going. We have a pretty robust suite right now that is dedicated to the long-term building of the finance area. Though we’re not a big player yet, we will achieve that status eventually, because Zoho keeps adding features,” he added.
Steed is also aware of the company’s competitors in the US. He named Intuit, Acumatica, and NetSuite as “big competitors”. “However, Zoho is catching up, and our USP is the Zoho Suite,” Steed said. Zoho Office Suite is a web-based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management, project management, invoicing, and other applications.
Explaining further, he said that the companies approach them mainly for Zoho Suite, as it helps them have their customer relationship management (CRM), expense and inventory integrated. For this, they don’t have to tie up with other integration tools, which can become a real nightmare, especially when something goes wrong. That’s where Zoho has the key advantage – the suite. The neat thing is they’re in one place, and all the data flows back and forth between these suites.
“For a business or entrepreneur, this is heaven,” Steed cited. “They don’t have to fight with multiple companies. And the other real advantage we have is that our company is privately owned. The owners will never sell, and we are dedicated to the long term, so we’ll keep solving problems. As Zoho Suite becomes more robust and powerful, it will make a lot more sense for our clients across the globe.”
Zoho’s target clientele is middle and small businesses and its biggest advantage is in-house operations, the Director Accountants stated.
“Small to medium business fits really well with us. In certain key areas, we work with enterprises well, like expenses, CRM. There are a number of our apps that fit the requirements of enterprises really well, and we can scale well too. The other thing I’d say is a big advantage for us, we don’t have any intermediaries. Our competitors have to run either on AWS or other cloud service providers. We run on our sister company’s systems. We run on their servers, globally. It’s a family, the same people who own Zoho. So, our global network is managed by our sister company, which helps us secure it, have lower pricing, and make sure that things are going right. There are no intermediaries that can step in and say that they are jumping their prices up and forcing us to raise prices,” he explained.
“We have over 100 million global customers. Some are free, most are paid. We have a presence in over 160 countries and 15,000 plus employees. In the United States, we have offices in Pleasanton, Austin, New Braunfels, and McAllen, Texas. Our total revenues crossed $1 billion last year. Zoho is the first bootstrapped start-up company to cross a billion dollars all by itself.”
When asked what the secret was to Zoho’s swift rise in competitive status, Steed said, “The suite is the key for our clients because they don’t have to fight integrations. Our affordable prices also really do help. And the fact that we’re on that sister company’s network where we get very good internet speeds and the fact that our software was crafted in-house, tailor-made to work with each other, and written to run fast in the cloud. I’ve been around long enough to remember the days when some of the first-generation SaaS products and cloud products didn’t run well in the cloud. Our software is designed and crafted to run fast in the cloud,” Steed added.
Zoho also vouches for the security of its client’s data. “We don’t sell customers’ data. We make sure we have our own local data centers and we adhere to all the complaints and privacy concerns,” said Purnima Meenakshi of Zoho. The company has now set its sights on new global destinations for expanding its footprint. “We have been working with ICAI India for a long time, and we want to expand across the globe, wherever ICAI is present. And we want to leverage it and grow along with them,” Purnima Meenakshi added.
Sudha Michel, chairperson ICAI-SF chapter, on the collaboration with Zoho told indica, “We are thrilled to have Zoho Corporation as our event sponsor at the San Francisco Chapter of ICAI. Their support is a testament to their commitment to excellence and innovation in the field of Accounting and Finance. Today’s event is the beginning of a fruitful partnership that will undoubtedly bring numerous benefits to our chapter members and the accounting fraternity in the US.”
Vish Arunachalam founder, chairman, and director of the ICAI San Francisco chapter said,“I am involved in delivering an AI-enabled SaaS ecosystem designed to empower professional organizations and businesses, enabling them to navigate the complexities of today’s business landscape with agility and foresight,” Arunachalam said. “Our profession is at a pivotal juncture.”
Adding on Arunachalam said, “Our profession is at a pivotal juncture. The rapid pace of technological advancement presents both opportunities and challenges. As Chartered Accountants and CPAs, we must embrace these changes, continually evolving our skills and methodologies to stay ahead.”
He said as a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur, he has had the privilege of witnessing the transformative power of technology in reshaping the accounting profession, from ERP to BI advanced analytics to blockchain to AI and beyond.
“Through our ‘Unite in America’ initiative, we have successfully established 19 new offices in the USA from 2020 to 2023, marking the largest and fastest overseas expansion in ICAI’s history. This milestone is a testament to the collective efforts of our community and our commitment to fostering global connections,” he said.
