Zoho

Zoho is announcing today a major set of updates to it's spreadsheet application Zoho Sheet. The major updates are the addition of macros and pivot tables -- now we are getting into the advanced stuff!

The macro functionality is based on Visual Basic and Zoho Sheet is the first online spreadsheet application that understands Visual Basic macros. This moves the application into the advanced functionality realm. MORE »

Web office suite maker Zoho is announcing their launch into China today. The launch comes by way of a partnership with Chinese company Baihui. The products included in the partnership are: Writer, Sheet, Show and CRM. Writer, Sheet and Show are free, CRM is available at nearly the same rate as the U.S. version. Other business apps will be launched to the Chinese market in the near future.

Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna provided some additional information about Baihui, "Baihui's parent company, PC Stars is the largest online distributor in China with more than 2400 resellers and over 1000 system integrators."

Zoho continues to increase their product offering, both in features and languages. Earlier this month Zoho launched their enterprise CRM product and the Telegraph newspaper named Zoho as one of the 101 most useful web sites. I'm wondering if a partnership with Dell might make sense -- get icons for Zoho's products right on the desktop from the initial launch and push them as a value add on system purchases -- might be a good move for additional distribution.

Zoho is announcing the launch today of Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition. Their business suite now includes: CRM, Invoice, Projects, Meetings, People, DB and Creator. Zoho has created a full specifications overview of the new CRM product along with a demo video that I've embedded below. Mashable has more on the launch.

Role-based Security Administration is the major addition to the product which helps managers provide the correct permissions and data rules to the right people. Zoho defines role-based security with the following chart: MORE »

The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. has compiled their list of the 101 most useful sites online today. There is a variety of worldwide sites plus some local favorites. Check out the entire list and below are a few of my notes. They smartly stuck Digg in at 40 so as to maximize the chance of getting on the frontpage.

The top 10 are: Google, Anonymouse, iLounge, Only2Clicks, Zoho, Backpack, GetNetWise, DaFont, Pando, and FlipClips. In the social category, Facebook, Flickr, Technorati, and Wordpress are the big names. Engadget looks like the only blog on the list.

The Beijing Olympics site comes in at 22, Radio Locator at 23. The Eggcorn Database, Wiktionary, About.com (why?), UK Legal advice from Legal Services Shop, Babelfish (love the fish), Noise Mapping England (we could use this for NYC!). Nice to see The Man in Seat 61 getting some love along with one of my top 10, SeatGuru. The first one that crosses my mind that should have been on the list in the travel category is TripAdvisor - how can you travel without visiting this site?

If you could only pick one Web site, which would be your most useful site? The one you just couldn't live without?

Zoho is launching a new application in their business suite of apps today called Zoho People. Zoho People is a HRM - Human Resources Management - app that includes five modules: organization, recruitment, forms, checklist, and self-service. Zoho People will be integrated into the suite of business apps that Zoho provides.

The organization module helps to keep org charts up-to-date, the recruitment module handles the steps from searching an internal resume database through the hiring process.

This module is used to define the structure of your organization including departments, designations/titles along with Org Chart. There is a forms wizard which lets the HR admins create forms for general employee management. The self-service module allows a top-down management of the other modules so that managers and distributed employees can manage the HR process.

I like this for small-to-medium sized businesses. What I'd like to see is management of the public HR site for the company. Add a job board for the company along with resume/application forms. While most large companies will have a system in place already, for a small business HR management sometimes is mismanaged. Zoho is targeting this product towards small companies that are just large enough to have a full-time HR person. Up to ten users is free, and there are pricing plans for more users past the ten.

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After last year's acquisition post, I thought it would be interesting to look at 5 great acquisition targets for 1st quarter 2008. I do not have financials for any of these companies, so I am working from a base of technology and visibility. For each company I list, I have also listed a possible buyer along with my commentary on why the purchase makes sense. Do you agree or disagree?

AOL

Buyer: Yahoo

Why: Yahoo needs to expand its base of distribution for the Yahoo ad platform. What better way than to acquire the population segment who uses AOL and loves it? AOL users click ads which means a potential cash win for Yahoo sa they could integrate contextually-relevant advertising into AOL, something AOL doesn't do currently. It would also give them access into Hulu thru the AOL Video portal. It might even perk up the employee morale which I read has been quite low this past year.

Zoho

Buyer: IBM

Why: A couple times each week I read about IBM wanting to own the services market. Acquiring Zoho would give IBM a foothold into Web 2.0 and since Zoho targets the small business, would give IBM a chance to sell the small business on even more IBM-based services. It could even help IBM to slowly become a household name again in the Web space, something that they have no real presence in today.

Clicky

Buyer: Webtrends

Why: Webtrends is so completely out of the Web game, it's sad. I remember beta testing the first version of Webtrends in the mid-90s and watched the company never move forward. Clicky is hot, both from the application-side and the buzz-side, and could be a good fit for Webtrends. Most small businesses need simple Web analytics and while Clicky is more robust than just simple, it would give a slow entry into the current Web market for Webtrends. That is of course if they actually want to move forward, something I've wondered for eight years now.

CrazyEgg/ClickTale

Buyer: Omniture

Why: To help Omniture move further into the Web testing market and provide a rounded suite of tools for their clients. Last year I said that CrazyEgg should be acquired by a large creative agency but I've changed my mind and am going with Omniture. CrazyEgg and ClickTale provide the testing and Omniture provides the analytics - I could see some nice A/B type testing with these acquisitions.

Pageflakes/Netvibes

Buyer: Yahoo

Why: Both Pageflakes and Netvibes have good footings into the early adopter, "cool techie" segments. This is a segment which Yahoo lacks on but could be a very influential segment for buzz. Completed correctly, Yahoo could (once again) start to get their search and other products in front of the early adopter, blogger crowd which can be an excellent way for Yahoo to get messages out and have forced use of their technology.

Note: Zoho is a current sponsor of CN.

Zoho is announcing the launch of Zoho Show 2.0, their Powerpoint replacement today. It's amazing how close the Zoho products are to typical desktop Office packages but with the easy Web sharing features. The updates listed below and in the video will be available beginning this weekend.

Zoho Show 2.0 has a variety of new features and there's a video below describing each one. There's a new interface, more themes, shapes support like in Powerpoint, clip art and the ability to integrate Zoho chat so you can group-edit/discuss a presentation.

I believe Zoho needs to begin focusing on outreach and marketing. The products are stable and feature-rich, but I still don't hear the Zoho name in general conversation. If they ramp up their marketing machine, I could see their growth curve moving much more rapidly into the full-on mainstream -- especially since individual usage is free.

Come inside for the video overview »

Zoho is announcing a major update to their Zoho Writer product today. In the past year, they introduced the ability to read your Zoho Writer documents offline via Google Gears. Today, you can now edit the files offline as well. Frankly I've stuck with MS office because of the ability to work offline - since I have no mobile access, it's made sense. As I look to moving to a new Mac and losing all my current software, I have considered moving to a Web office suite to keep the conversion costs low.

Check out a video overview of the offline product inside.

This is a big update for the product as it now can begin to consider Microsoft Office competition along with Google Docs. The ability to work offline seems to be an issue for many Internet apps. I am guessing offline mode for the other Zoho apps is in development as well. Check out our previous Zoho coverage.

Zoho is announcing the launch of a variety of new features to their Writer product this morning. The features are: Pagination Support, header and footer support, and spell check in 43 languages.

Pagination support allows the user to view their document as it will be printed (or pdf'd). This helps you get a feel for how the final document will look.

Headers and footers were one of the most requested features says Raju Vegesna, Zoho community evangelist. He also notes that most other online word processors can't handle headers and footers. This is another big step forward to a complete offline replacement.

The last update is what I consider the most powerful of the three. The ability to spell check a documet in other languages means that Zoho can expand past English as a customer base. I wonder how long it will be before we see localization versions of the Zoho product set.

From what I can tell, these features continue to move Zoho Writer more towards a complete Microsoft Word replacement. Check out our previous Zoho coverage.

Editor's note: Zoho is a current CN sponsor.

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Zoho

Zoho is one of the leaders in online office suites, Zoho launched Zoho Database and Reports this month. It's a better version of MS Access and is available online. Another exciting update is their Facebook app which lets you share your Zoho docs within your facebook account. Check out the Zoho blog for all of their latest news along with some interesting industry commentary.

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New Conference Sponsorships

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