UAE is the fastest growing region: Zoho

Zoho, a global provider of cloud-based business software, today announced its plans for expanding and reinforcing its presence in the UAE and GCC region. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the company's annual user conference, Zoholics Dubai. The initiatives include launch of Zoho's Arabic website zoho.com/ar, and alliance with PayTabs that will help businesses with payment processing.
Zoho has seen over 100 per cent growth in the UAE last year, and 71 per cent growth in the GCC region. In the last one year, Zoho has opened an office in Dubai to function as its regional headquarters, significantly expanded its partner network to support local businesses and participated in local events to improve engagement with its customers. The company also launched VAT-compliant local versions of its accounting software, Zoho Books in KSA and Bahrain. Zoho Books has been accredited by Federal Tax Authority (FTA) and General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT).

"The UAE is the fastest growing region for us, and we are investing more to strengthen our position here," said Hyther Nizam, President MEA, Zoho Corp. "The Arabic website would make software accessible and approachable for more people, while PayTabs integration will provide businesses a seamless payment gateway to make transactions without any hassles. This is a first-of-its-kind integration in the GCC region where an accounting software and a payment gateway software have come together to streamline payment acceptance and accounting."
Local support
As Zoho is making inroads into the GCC region, it has also invested in making its software accessible to local businesses by providing Arabic language support. It is now taking it a step further by evolving Arabic UI in its apps, starting with Zoho CRM. Moreover, thousands of pages of content have been translated and made available in Arabic at zoho.com/ar, and more pages are being added.
Businesses in the region can also avail Arabic customer support for any query or complaint. They are also assisted by regional partners in leveraging Zoho's software to improve their business.
Zoho has also provided some of the applications, like Zoho One, in AED, so that businesses can make transactions in their local currency hassle-free.

"From the perspective of PayTabs, we are always looking out for ways to simplify our entrepreneurs and business owner's lives," said PayTabs Founder & CEO, Abdulaziz Al Jouf. "Integrating with Zoho Books, the region's premier software company, will now offer multiple payment options for our mutual customer base, while streamlining and automating the accounting of their businesses. This will enable businesses to expand their network as it will facilitate payments from across the GCC and we are extremely proud of this collaboration."
Zoho One for Startups
The startup scene in the region has been experiencing a steady and healthy growth, with both the public and private sectors launching initiative and programmes to help nurture this budding ecosystem.
As a part of the internationally successful Zoho One for Startups program, Zoho offers complimentary access to Zoho One, the company's flagship platform comprising 40+ products to startups.
"The aim is to help startups focus on building a profitable business from the ground up using industry standard and world-class tools while putting their hard-earned money into their products," said Ali Shabdar, Business Development Director MEA, Zoho Corp. "Startups can stay for at least a year on the platform with no strings attached. However, we expect that within a year or so, a successful startup to come out of the early stages showing signs of revenue backed by our powerful system in the back-end to help them grow faster. At that stage we would ask them to consider paying for the service and support them with their specific needs," he added.
The program was launched in UAE in February during the Step Conference, and will be launched in KSA later this month, with Bahrain and Kuwait as well as other countries in the region to follow suit shortly.
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com