By Debra Rono & Grace Gilo
Zoho, a worldwide technology enterprise, has announced collaborations with various organizations such as Safaricom Mpesa, J-Hub Africa, a digital innovation centre fostering emerging innovators and entrepreneurs at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Electronic Certification Service Providers (E-CSP). This move aims to broaden its presence and operations in Kenya.
Zoho is an Indian tech company that was founded in 1996 and provides a comprehensive suite of online productivity tools and software for businesses.
Addressing a press briefing aligned with the company’s annual user conference at Hyatt Regency in Nairobi, Veerakumay Natarajan, the company’s country manager in Kenya, disclosed that the initiative was designed to contribute to the advancement of the local communities in Kenya.
“Growing with local communities is as important for us as delivering value for our customers through our solutions. We actively endeavour to contribute to overall community progress in Kenya by collaborating with local and hyper-local bodies. Our partnership with J-Hub promotes technology adoption among young innovators and early-stage startups and provides upskilling for students who are about to join the workforce. We are also investing in localizing our products to ensure businesses here can easily leverage our solutions while staying compliant with local and global laws,” said Veerakumar Natarajan
Mpesa
Zoho has partnered with Safaricom Mpesa to offer their users an online transaction option by seamlessly integrating Mpesa with the Zoho suite of finance applications enabling businesses to effortlessly accept online payments.
This will make it easier for businesses to complete payments and avoid manual data entry as invoices will be automatically updated once payments are made using these applications.
Softwares that can be used with Mpesa include Zoho books- an accounting software, zoho inventory- which helps to better receive and track inventories by automating the whole process, and Zoho billing- an end-to-end billing solution.
E-CSP
Zoho has joined forces with Tendaworld Limited which is a CAK-licensed digital signatures app to allows its users to create unique digital signatures linked to their phone numbers and activated by OTP. Zoho signs allow its users to create digital signatures that are legally valid e-signatures that cannot be easily forged. Kenyan businesses can now apply electronic signatures for contacts and agreements compliant with both Kenyan’s global laws.
J-Hub
Through this partnership, Zoho will train JKUAT students from technology streams on how to leverage cloud-based business tech to gain a competitive advantage. Zoho will henceforth support individuals and startups associated with the hub by providing them with Zoho Wallet credits up to Kshs 100,000. These credits can be used to purchase any of Zoho’s 55+ cloud products for any business function.
Speaking to KUTV Digital in a one-on-one interview after the press conference, Veerakumar Natarajan, revealed that Zoho is ready to partner with other institutions. “We are already working with Strathmore, JKUAT is the new one. If any university is interested they can reach out.”
Zoho has increased its employee count by 33% and has grown its partner network by 212% in Kenya. According to Premanad Velumani, Zoho’s Regional manager, Middle East and Africa, the growth had been driven by Zoho workplace-enterprise collaboration platforms.
They include Zoho CRM Plus- a customer experience platform, and Zoho Books- TIMS compliant, accounting software.
“Kenya’s growing digital economy and the resulting uptick in cloud adoption among businesses have largely contributed to Zoho’s growth in the country. Our customers particularly value the localization in our products, such as robust integrations with regional vendors for e-signing, online payments, and other business operations, and the ability to buy Zoho apps in KES. As the needs of Kenyan businesses continue to increase and evolve in this digital era, Zoho is well-placed and committed to supporting and empowering them with its robust tech stack,” Velumani remarked.