Cloud-based Project Management app Zoho Projects is marking 15 years of existence this month. The app is part of larger business solution leader Zoho Corporation.
In honor of that special occasion, I had a chat with Vijayakumar Sadagopan, Product Manager at Zoho Projects, who has over two decades of experience at Zoho, to talk about the company’s progress throughout the years, its unique work culture and some future plans.
From 50 to 50k in 15 Years
Vijay has been with Zoho Projects since its very beginning, watching it grow from a tiny little app to one with a huge, global customer base.
“Initially we launched the free edition, and in October 2006 we launched the paid edition. At the end of 2006 we had about 50 customers. Now, fast forward to 15 years later – we have five data centers across the globe, and nearly 50k clients using the paid version of Zoho Projects”
Being a Project Management app, the primary goal of Zoho Projects is to bring every user across the organization or the project on the same page.
“When we started, our motto was ‘plan, track and collaborate’,” Vijay shares.
So what is Zoho Projects secret to remaining relevant for so long in such a competitive market?
Well, there are two.
First, they make sure to remain updated at all times.
“To keep Zoho Projects relevant, we’ve released seven editions in the past 15 years, the last of which (7.0) was released in Jan 2021,” says Vijay. “Every two years we do a major release, adding more features and revamping the app to make sure it’s relevant to current market trends.”
Second, they’re all about listening to their customers.
“We make sure to get constant feedback from customers, and we keep on enhancing the usability as well as ease of use of the product according to the needs and requests they express”
Eye-Level Work Culture
Another thing that seems to be unique to Zoho Projects is the friendly and informal atmosphere across the company.
“We have a very special work culture, in that anyone can talk to anyone, regardless of their rank or professional experience,” notes Vijay.
When Vijay says that anyone can to anyone, he means it literally.
“There’s a huge internal portal where anybody can ask any senior manager across the organization about technology, our product, what’s coming up next etc. Workers can also approach the senior rank any time, even after office hours. Our support agents never hesitate to talk to me when they need my help on a customer query, even if it’s 2 am.”
Zoho Projects employees know how to have some fun together, too; and we can expect a 15-year-anniversary celebration later this year.
“Usually we go for an outing, enjoy a movie together, or spend a day in a resort. Due to the pandemic, everything is currently put on hold. But once everything is back to normal, we’ll surely have an event.“
Plans for the Future
When it comes to future plans and goals, Zoho Projects has got a handful.
“The app already allows quite a lot of customization, but we’re planning on extending customization options even further and creating different interfaces meant for specific verticals,” Vijay shares.
“We’re also planning on improving our mobile and tablet capabilities, so they fully match the web version of the app.”
Zoho Projects is also planning to enhance its proprietary AI, called Zia.
“Zia is already built into the app, allowing the user to ask for things like ‘get me the list of open tasks’ and get them instantly; but we are now working on adding a machine learning aspect to it as well.”
There’s definitely a lot to look forward to.
