Digital working with Zoho Workplace

Digital working with Zoho Workplace

Sending emails here, connecting to a call there, downloading an application for generating your reports – in a worst-case scenario, your range of programs may be just as long as your to-do list in the office or while working from home. Now if only there were a fairy godmother who could bring everything together and allow you to work efficiently. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, your wish is granted! In this article, you’ll learn all about – and most importantly, learn to love – Zoho Workplace!

Entanglement in the digital age

Now, you might have thought that everything would be so easy now that the internet has become an established part of our everyday lives. You sit down in front of the computer, and AI slowly begins to take over some of the most important tasks (well, except for making the coffee that is – the cheek!), and your assignments should be completed even more quickly than they were before. Because there’s one thing that’s for sure: digitization has evolved rapidly over the past 30 years. Perhaps some of you remember the first cell phone that was about the size of a small chest of drawers, or the awful symphony of beeps and bleeps when you dialed up to the internet (which would come to an abrupt end if you tried to pick up the phone while doing so). Well, all this was quite some time ago now, and these days you are laughed at if you still jot down handwritten notes or handwrite to-do lists. But then again, what else are you supposed to do when you have to use every different software under the sun for virtually every step of your work? Of course, it’s not hard to understand the intention behind it: for each specialty, there are specific programs with the associated competition behind them, with factors such as cost and benefit playing a major role. It is not uncommon for employers to get bogged down in a hotchpotch of programs in order to save costs and/or ensure the greatest functional output. All well and good – but when it comes to the day-to-day work arena, we say: stop it! Joining in loudly with this chorus is Zoho. The software cleans up your workplace by providing a digital solution for (almost) all the tools you use every day and connecting them with one another. Right, so you’re probably shaking your head in disbelief right now? Well, steadily bring it to a stationary position again and let us show you that it can be done.

What’s Workplace got to do with it?

Okay, with this catchy tune (consider it an extra service on our part!), let’s first define for ourselves what this workplace is in the first place. The name sounds pretty fancy and very modern, but it can be traced back to the basis of any gainful employment: the workplace. A carpenter needs their wood and tools, an artist needs their canvas and paints. And we office babes need email, a telephone connection, and programs to create written documents and nifty Excel spreadsheets, as well as a place to take notes. One piece of software that gets this is Zoho.

Join us on a Zoho voyage of discovery!

With more than 40 modules, Zoho offers a comprehensive solution for the digitization of all of your business areas. Everything from accounting and marketing through to sales, Zoho connects all elementary work processes in a cloud-based operating system. This is also true of your daily workplace. Have you sent the customer an email about his quote? If so, thanks to Zoho, you’ll be able to find it in the corresponding customer file in Zoho CRM. Need to send the delivery order or invoice for the matching offer? The Zoho Books accounting module will take care of that for you. As you can see, everything goes hand in hand here. And not just when it comes to sales and the bureaucracy that goes with it – your workplace also comes full circle thanks to the Zoho Office Suite and its intelligent applications. But that’s enough rambling – now let us take a look at the modules that can make your workplace a lot of fun.

Zoho Mail for you 

If there is one thing you really need in the office, it’s a decent email program. It’s the foundation of internal and external communication! A solid email program is essential for keeping track of agreements, negotiations and all the other important things we need to keep eternalized in writing. Safety first is the rule here, of course! Zoho Mail has made this its most central priority and with its data centers provides you with a seamless security network and monitoring capability. In conjunction with the encryption of your data, Zoho Mail offers secure email hosting that protects you at your regular workstation or while on the go in the mobile version. If this whips you into a flurry of IT ecstasy and you ever happen to accidentally delete an email, don’t worry, because thanks to e-Discovery, Zoho will keep hold of all your emails for the period of your choosing and let you retrieve them at any time you want. And even when you’re on the go! The software understands the importance of mobile work better than any other, and accordingly features an app for your smartphone. ‘I’ve heard all this before’, you say to yourself, and maybe once again find yourself feeling annoyed by the empty assurances that it won’t restrict functionality? We would like to take this opportunity to reassure you: Zoho is compelling because of the customized mobile mail app. And even demonstrates a new way of sending emails at the same time! The future of mailing is called ‘streams’. It adds a touch of social media to the slightly dusty old image of the traditional email and puts an end to those seemingly endless mailing histories. With Zoho Mail you can tag colleagues on your team, add comments and share files. And if you get tired of typing, just switch to the verbal communication mode – of course Zoho has something for you there, too!

Cliq me, baby and meet me later

Picture this: it’s Thursday afternoon, 4 pm, and the weekend is within reach. You’ve already written what feels like 500 emails since Monday, 200 alone with one certain customer, as their project is in the very early stages. And there it is, the 201st email, packed with questions, each more awkwardly worded than the next. Enough is enough! The limitations of written communication have clearly been exceeded; this is where everything has to be discussed, talked through and discussed again, in order to move forward. So, reach for the handset and dial into Zoho Cliq. This communication tool enables you to chat, call or make a video call, both internally and externally, in the most efficient way (because sometimes it helps, especially with difficult topics, to talk to your contact person face to face for a moment in order to calm the waters again). It doesn’t matter whether you’re sitting at your computers or using your smartphones a few feet away or thousands of miles away, because Zoho Cliq, in combination with mobile data or wi-fi, ensures accessibility around the globe. You want to show said customer the current status of your project in a video call? Simply share the screen or send the files while answering questions and supplying any additional information. Do you need the support of a colleague for this? No problem – with a click of the mouse you can invite them to join you. Do you have a query for IT at the same time? Then drop a line to your colleagues in the chat to deal with both issues in one fell swoop. As you might be able to tell, Zoho Cliq sends you straight to communication paradise! And the best thing about it: When combined with Zoho Meeting, you can also coordinate and send follow up appointments or team meetings directly in the interface.

No office without the Zoho Office Suite 

There’s a German saying that roughly translates as ‘He who writes, stays’. This is something that runs true in the office, of course. After all, the things that were discussed in the meeting need to be noted down somewhere, the concepts need to be recorded, and calculations and project plans need to be drawn up. Think of how laborious that must have been back in the day when it was all done with a typewriter or even a pen and paper! Luckily, nowadays these specimens can usually be found in museums or as notes in the history books. Today, you simply consult the Zoho Office Suite. With the applications Writer, Sheets, Show and Notebook you are supplied with tools that you can use online as well as offline. Jot down your thoughts and plans in a Zoho Writer document, let them sit there, check them over, and format them. Do you want a colleague to look at them once more and then get your boss to give the final go-ahead? If so, be sure to take advantage of the extensive feedback, change tracking, and approval tools that are available to you in Zoho Writer. You can also draft a text together in a single document with your team and, once approved, put it directly online via the module on your WordPress pages. While not exactly any less creative, you can certainly become more analytical with Zoho Sheets. You can document project or company figures, calculate forecasts, evaluate costs and display them in graphics, or outline project plans with timelines for your customers. As with all the other Zoho apps, you can invite your team members and tweak your sheet together. You want the graphs, numbers and concepts to be summarized in a presentation? Say no more – Zoho Show has the solution for this. You can make use of the nearly 100 professional templates that the module comes with or individualize your presentation according to your company’s or client’s corporate design to make it more appealing with effects, photos and coloration. You can also note down the feedback you receive during the meeting in Zoho Notebook, your digital notepad that is always at the ready, and later add it to the presentation one-to-one.

Ask the Zoho experts

With all the things this Zoho tool can do – it might all sound a bit overly positive. That’s why we say, just ask us! As a certified Zoho partner, we at codafish have been using Zoho Workplace for many years to collaborate and communicate with our colleagues in Germany, Spain and Switzerland and with our international customers. Feel free to contact us and we’ll show you the functionalities of each individual module in a consultation and set up a test run so you can see it for yourself. If you are convinced, we’ll be more than happy to set everything up for you individually based on your needs!