Interview with Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-Founder of Zoho
15 April 2011 - We asked Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, a few questions about his company and his view of the markets they serve.
GETAPP.COM: Who are you and what is your role in the company?
SRIDHAR: My name is Sridhar Vembu, I am the CEO and co-founder.
GETAPP.COM: Are you a cloud or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company?
SRIDHAR: We provide SaaS business software. But it doesn't really matter - now everything is cloud, cloud, cloud... so cloud has ceased to be a "differentiator". I mean seriously... has GetApp listed any non-SaaS software in the last year?
GETAPP.COM: How do you use and promote usage of cloud computing?
SRIDHAR: We are of course heavy uses of cloud software ourselves, and most of our company runs on Zoho. We promote the use and benefits of the cloud to everyone who would lend us an ear - and sometimes... even if they don't!.
GETAPP.COM: What are the points of difference of your solutions?
SRIDHAR: There are multiple differentiating points for Zoho. One of them is that we believe in the power of the cloud, so we don't build any "lightweight" non-sense. All of our Apps are meant to be full-fledged applications. Another difference with our solutions is that... we have many of them - currently we have 25 apps and counting. But it's not only that, but also the fact that we are working hard to integrate all of those applications with each other. When applications are integrated contextually, we benefit the user. Finally, we bring value to businesses by having applications that are priced fairly, and we don't required any annual contracts (but of course we do provide discounted annual pricing) - we believe SaaS also means the end of over-priced software.
GETAPP.COM: How would you like to be evaluated by a prospect?
SRIDHAR: We love it when prospects just start using our products. Most of them don't require a lot of time investment to see what you are able to do with the product.
GETAPP.COM: Why do your customers buy from you?
SRIDHAR: They buy from us for many reasons. Because they like the products, the like our portfolio breadth, they like where we are going. Because there's really not any other one-stop-shop alternative for what we have, and because they like the price and also because we don't try too hard to sell Zoho, we don't believe in the hard sell.
GETAPP.COM: What do you see as the key trend emerging in the industry?
SRIDHAR: One of the key trends in sales & marketing is that SaaS necessarily alters the approach for selling software. Before, software was mostly sold based on relationships of pinstripe-suited salesmen with huge expense accounts on which they'd wine and dine customers. Software was bought at the top. With SaaS, the dynamics of selling software are shifting, and provide a more level playing field for people like us, who want to sell software on the basis of the software's on merits.
GETAPP.COM: What is THE most important message you feel you should get across to someone considering buying your solutions?
SRIDHAR: There is a change happening in the business world with respect to technology. More and more, companies are looking for social and Web 2.0 technologies to help connect their people, information and processes in an effort drive productivity, innovation and competitive advantage. They are putting the focus on their most important business asset - their people. And, they want to do it quickly, more self-service, enabled by the cloud.
GETAPP.COM: Thanks for your time, Sridhar.