Increasing productivity with the Zoho stack

A while back, I wrote about the applications that help me go about my business. Since then, I’ve been testing the different apps in the Zoho stack and have slowly (but surely)  started canceling many of the products and services in favor of Zoho, not only because they are less expensive, but also because they’re better. Granted, in these times of uncertainty any savings are most welcome.

Here’s the list:

1. Virtual Presentations. I stopped using Gotomeeting and started using Zoho Meeting. There is nothing wrong with Gotomeeting, however I found myself giving virtual presentations to just one person at a time, which can be done for free and just as easily with Zoho Meeting.  Benefit: Savings of $50/month.
2. Mail. Outlook is now (as of this week) legacy software for me. I’m done waiting for Outlook to fix a data file that wasn’t closed properly (according to Outlook) and taking 45 seconds to open (on a Laptop with 2gb or Ram, but also with Vista). Zoho Mail is better than Outlook (and Gmail too). Plenty of cool features including the Quick Reply, Offline work, view emails as conversations or in sequential order and many others.  I’m actually enjoying using Email again. Benefit: No more headaches!
3. Team Collaboration.  I was a Groove (unpaid) evangelist and partner from 2003 until now and it was really fun to work with Ray Ozzie’s team while Groove was an independent company. However, since MS acquired Groove Networks, things have changed radically (for one, our mapping product was rendered obsolete when they shut down their APIs for in-process tools). I now use Huddle which takes advantage of the Zoho Remote API when I need to share information (Discussions, Files, Whiteboards) in workspaces. Otherwise, I use the sharing features available in Writer, Sheet and Show to collaborate with my virtual team. Benefits: Easier to use, no need to have Groove installed on every machine, cross-platform and browser-based, and better synchronous collaboration (e.g. documenting editing).
4. CRM. I found the Zoho CRM a bit overkill for what I do, but not so the Zoho Creator CRM app showcased in the Marketplace, which I can modify further to fit my specific needs. Benefits: Customizable and smaller.
5. Dashboard. Zoho Business helps me keep track tasks, calendar entries, links and notes. Benefits: Easy access to everything I need.

And here’s what I’d need to research further for:

1.  Invoicing. Change from Quickbooks Online to Zoho Invoice. I don’t have an issue with Quickbooks, but if I can save $25/month I currently pay, then I’ll move to Zoho Invoice.
2. CMS for my website. I would like to investigate Zoho Wiki as an option, but feel that there isn’t enough information about doing this. The examples provided look good and serve my purposes (web site, application documentation) - I just need to explore this further.

I have managed to change my software to Zoho (services), without having to give my credit card once and  now have a more productive environment than I did before; all while saving money and lots of headaches (priceless). I hope Zoho continues to provide these services for free for small businesses but I wouldn’t have any trouble paying a monthly fee for their stack, if this weren’t the case.

Of course, there is still a wish list; in effect, the availability of deluge scripting and/or Zoho Creator features in other apps would be quite handy.

Fast Food Nation (in ZC 3.0)

I have resurrected my first Zoho Creator prototype (Fast Food Tracker) in order to begin reviewing the new features available in ZC 3.0 and test the integration with Zoho DB and Reports, as described on the Zoho Blog. When I first looked at ZC a while ago, all I wanted to know was how long it would take me to build a few forms, import a file of sufficient size to test performance and determine if it made any sense to spend more  time with it. I’ve since realized how powerful and viable it is as a platform for small businesses (even though there’s still plenty of room for improvement).

Here’s what I’ve found in five minutes of tweaking the app:

• Many application layout options improve usability. The ability to select themes, distribution of panes and menus goes a long way toward making applications easier to use and end users benefit from this. I used the Menu layout and was happy with the results (i.e. how easy it is to change from the Entry form to the different views).
• HTML View will be pivotal in expanding Zoho Creator. I spent two minutes creating the graph view by following the steps in the Zoho Blog. This was enough to envision that it will be my preferred way to expand Zoho Creator to include other functionality I’m interested in, such as maps and graphs. I’ve created a long list of things to review further all related to this new view type.

All this is good, however (imo) the folks at Zoho should’ve spent the time and effort required to integrate their lastest graph and reporting engine with this version, because ZC’s current graph view leaves much to be desired and the integration with DB and Reports isn’t really a good workaround.

Here’s what I found from following the steps to integrate Creator with DB and Reports:

• I had to create a smaller view in order to make it work, hence the view on the Southeastern US. The main view has 20,000+ records (within the limits of what is feasible) but the file from which I imported the data is greater than 3 mb (the upper limit), so I couldn’t come up with a graph of the entire US.
• I was unable to change the colors of the bars in DB and Reports, even though there is an option to do so. The result is  a graph with the default colors instead of the ones I wanted.
• The integration between Creator and DB and Reports is painless, but the fact that I can integrate a graph into my app that shows different data (due to the refresh frequency) than what is recorded in the spreadsheet view of the same app is disturbing and surely wouldn’t pass the test of a good manager.

It does seem that they’re keen on addressing this issue as the quote suggests,

A much closer GUI level integration of making report creation features of Zoho DB & Reports available within Zoho Creator is in development.

We’ll keep looking into 3.0 and let you know what we find.

Reviewing Huddle, an online collaboration application that uses Zoho Remote API

This past week I had the opportunity to chat with Andy McLoughlin, co-founder and product director of Huddle, a very useful and well-designed web-based collaboration application that uses Zoho’s remote API. Huddle intrigued me initially  because of its similarities (from a user’s perspective) to MS Office Groove, a product I know too well (before and after the Microsoft acquisition). I am now using Huddle daily. Here is my list of features that make Huddle worthwhile as a collaboration tool for small teams:

1. Workspaces keep your information in context. Workspaces are invitation-only containers of data and tools where participants collaborate. They work best for small teams (15 people or less) where every person contributes.  Workspaces  compartmentalize your projects, which is particularly handy when dealing with multiple entities or being involved in different projects.
2. File Sharing works better than email attachments. Workspaces include a Files tool for uploading or creating Office documents online that are shared among the participants, thus avoiding the potential conflicts that arise when circulating documents as email attachments. If you are a developer, this functionality is also a good example of how Zoho’s Remote API can be used by an external application to view and/or edit the documents online.
3. Discussion threads are easier to follow than email. The forum-style Discussion tool available with Huddle workspaces makes it easy to follow issues when there is a succession of questions and answers around a specific subject.
4. Tasks viewed by all team members help keep the project on track. This tool with the Ical feed option is a project manager’s best friend.
5. The Whiteboard is a good place to develop an idea. The Whiteboard is a wiki-style tool for when you want to develop and idea and keep everything in one place. It’s also the right tool if you want to keep a journal or log your daily or weekly activities and notes and share them with your team.
6. Alerts via RSS feeds are convenient and non-intrusive.While Huddle provides a mechanism to notify people via email when something has been added to a workspace, it is the RSS subscription that makes most sense, as a  non-obtrusive way of receiving and reviewing information.
7. The Rest. There is also audit trail and version control, selective access to files and Search, which I mention mainly because none of these ever made it into Groove and they would’ve made most Groove users very happy.

In summary, the real benefit of using Huddle (imo) is being able to bring teams together quickly under the same roof (i.e. the workspace) and provide them with a set of complementary tools (i.e. Files, Discussions, Whiteboard, Tasks) to move their agenda forward, starting from a clean slate (and all from a browser).

And now the one wish for the Huddle team - the ability to embed Zoho Creator Forms into Huddle workspaces. Or for the Zoho team - a remote API for Zoho Creator.