Zoho: The web-based productivity suite that we don't talk about

You've probably noticed that we like to talk about Google Docs all the time. A couple weeks ago Bracken reviewed Microsoft's new Office Web Apps. What you don't hear us (or anyone else) talking about very much is the Zoho productivity suite.

Zoho is a web-based software company that makes just about every product you could imagine. From email to word processing to CRM to project management to invoicing, Zoho really is the closest thing you'll see to a one-stop shop for online software. You can see complete list of their products at Zoho.com.

The question is, if Zoho is making all these different web apps, why doesn't anyone talk about them in the same conversation as companies like Google and Microsoft? Let's look at what Zoho does well, and what they could do better.

The good
In many ways, Zoho is one of the most impressive internet companies out there. As I mentioned they have a ton of products, and they're really easy to start using. You can log in with your Google or Facebook accounts, so you don't even need to sign up. Most of their products are free, and even the paid apps still have limited free versions.

Zoho also does a good job of making sure their products make sense when you start using them. When you first open up their email client, it's completely obvious how everything works.

The bad
Unfortunately that last good quality I mentioned is also Zoho's worst quality. Their software is so intuitive because it looks and feels exactly like every piece of software you've ever used. I haven't tried all 22 of their products, but the ones I have tried all looked like direct clones of the industry standard. This means that while the products all satisfy most consumers basic needs, there's no compelling reason to switch to Zoho.

One big opportunity Zoho is missing is the ability to seamlessly share data across different products. For example, their email looks just like Outlook and their CRM looks just like Salesforce so there's no reason to switch to either product individually. But it would be pretty compelling to have your email, CRM, project management etc. all handled in one place. Unfortunately, each Zoho product seems to stand alone.

Finally, Zoho needs a stronger vision (or at least they need to communicate their vision to the user better). It's great that they have lots of products, but it almost seems like they're all thought up and built by completely separate companies. For example, they have a notebook app, a wiki app, and a planner app. All perform very similar functions, and I have no idea which one I should use. This problem would be fixed by integrating everything into one master product.

Conclusion
So in the end, Zoho makes an overwhelming number of underwhelming products. But like I said, they're all free and pretty straight forward, so it's definitely worth checking them out if you're looking for something that the normal software companies aren't offering. So go check out their site. Maybe you'll end up needing a applicant tracking system, or an online HRIS tool (I don't know what that is, but maybe you do).