Disqus - Latest Comments for Sridhar Vembu

Re: Early notes on GoogleApps (Scripting News)

Sridhar Vembu — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:32:02 -0000

Great post, Dave. I felt exactly the same thing - this is the IBM PC Moment for the industry ...

Re: Look ma, my docs are in the cloud!

Sridhar Vembu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:49:27 -0000

Mathew,
Thanks for using Zoho! While there is no such thing as perfect security or perfect safety, we take all the standard precautions in the Zoho data center. It is in a top-notch facility in California (as well as a remote backup), and we keep 3 copies of your data + a backup. We have 700K+ users already on Zoho, growing fairly rapidly.

Yes, scale economics does apply, but it plays even at our size. Cost per user to scale tends to fall rapidly starting from zero users, and then it flattens out (so the first million user drops the cost very rapidly, while going from 10 to 11 million does not drop the per user cost that much).

Finally, Zoho's parent AdventNet has been in business 12 years, with profitable, organic growth. From a development perspective, we have demonstrated the ability to execute, and we will continue to put out a steady stream of updates.

Sridhar

Re: Look ma, my docs are in the cloud!

Sridhar Vembu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:16:21 -0000

Mathew, no question Google has the formidable brand. I didn't take your post negatively either - I actually appreciate your mentioning Zoho! I was just saying (assuring, really!) Zoho is a viable choice against the much bigger Google - because we have a sustainable business model, and sufficient scale to compete. Sort of like how a 50-store chain can often compete against a 5000 store chain, by specializing and differentiating.

Our key differentiation is richness of features, sharp focus on the needs of demanding business users, and the breadth of product portfolio addressing such needs.

Re: Zoho’s business offerings still growing with online invoice tool

Sridhar Vembu — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:22:31 -0000

Thank you for the review. You probably don't want a billing/invoice package that blows you away, though :-)

I was asked recently "What is your source of inspiration?" and I said Toyota & Honda. I admire their reputation for engineering, reliability, their kaizen philosophy of steady stream of innovations both large and small, and of course, affordable pricing.

Part of the not-blowing-away comes from that continuous improvement philosophy. If you look at a Zoho Writer or a Zoho Show, they have come a long way in the past year, with a continuous stream of updates. Cumulatively, we have made a lot of progress, but there wasn't this magical blow-away moment.

Once again, I appreciate the review.

Sridhar