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At its Zoho Day analyst event in Austin, TX, Zoho marked several key milestones. The company celebrated its 30th anniversary and reported more than one million paying customers and 150 million users. For a privately-held company with a long-standing emphasis on engineering over marketing, these figures reflect sustained growth at scale. Strategic Context Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer, outlined the trends shaping Zoho’s strategy: AI has moved from experimentation to operational deployment. AI is accelerating innovation—and raising expectations. Best-of-breed buying has created application sprawl; organizations now seek consolidation and a single system of record. Spending is under scrutiny; value is increasingly tied to measurable outcomes. Systems of record, APIs, and infrastructure layers have become strategic assets. Sundaram argued that AI and agentic systems are reshaping the SaaS model. Under traditional SaaS, economic, security, and operational risk shifted from customer to vendor. With AI and agentic systems, elements of that risk shift back toward customers—particularly as they design, train, and deploy their own agents. Customers are no longer just users of predefined workflows; they are designers of behavior. As control increases, so does responsibility. Organizations must determine whether they are prepared to manage that risk. Zoho is approaching these changes in several ways: ·       Maniacally focusing on value, by building a model that delivers value while giving customers the freedom to customize Serving as the corporate system of record, providing context, permissions, and governance for AI. Driving customization through platform approach that allows customers and partners to build applications within a unified ecosystem. ·      Enabling massive automation with AI/agents The objective is to expand customer control without increasing operational exposure. Addressing Fragmentation Mani Vembu, CEO – Zoho Division, highlighted the core problem of enterprise software: enterprises run too many disconnected applications, systems are difficult to change, and each new tool often adds complexity rather than reducing it. The best-of-breed procurement model has led to fragmented architectures, overlapping vendors, and limited incremental value. AI amplifies this issue. Without unified systems, shared data models, and consistent knowledge structures, AI outputs are costly and inconsistent. Fragmentation exists at three levels: applications, middleware, and data. Users must navigate multiple systems, and IT retains limited centralized control. Vembu noted that mid-to-large enterprises average roughly 275 SaaS applications, while IT directly manages only a subset. Fragmentation, he argued, ends when software is designed as an integrated system rather than assembled from components.   AppOS To address this, Zoho introduced AppOS, a unified business application operating system. AppOS provides: A shared data foundation. Common business and process models. Built-in workflows and automation. Identity, permissions, and governance by default. Applications are built natively within the platform rather than integrated after the fact. Key implications: Data is structured consistently across applications. Business rules execute uniformly. Teams retain application-level control within centrally enforced standards. Applications can evolve without architectural rework. For customers, this translates to reduced time to value, lower total cost of ownership, and predictable governance.     Vertical Integration Zoho is also pursuing vertical integration across the technology stack. The company operates its own operating system, database (optimized for GPU workloads), internally developed LLMs and SLMs, and is developing proprietary hardware (details remain under NDA). This “delayering” approach spans: User experience Orchestration and execution Software infrastructure Hardware infrastructure By controlling the stack, Zoho aims to improve cost efficiency, performance, and data sovereignty. It also enables tighter integration between AI models, data, and applications. Zoho manages its own data centers and supports cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployments—an increasingly relevant capability as data sovereignty requirements expand globally. In a discussion on AppOS and vertical integration, LSP Chandrasheka, Managing Director, Zoho Canada, described Zoho’s evolution from a platform foundation  toward horizontal applications in HR, finance, and other domains. He explained that AppOS, once released, will serve as a platform layer that exposes core capabilities to partners and system integrators, enabling development of industry-specific solutions.     Zoho CX Within customer experience, Zoho emphasized orchestration across teams and workflows. The company’s CX focus includes: Unified CX work orchestration across customer-facing teams. Native, embedded AI for contextual intelligence. Personalization across stakeholders. A system of execution aligned to operational workflows. Modular architecture. Solution-oriented pricing. To get more insights into Zoho CX, I spoke with Dlip Nagarajan, Head of Product, Zoho CRM, and PVK, Head of Market Strategy, Zoho CX on CX Strategy  Cliq Zoho Cliq, the company’s team collaboration application, supports messaging, chat, voice and video calls, and meetings, didn’t get much attention on the stage, but is a key application for many customers. In a discussion with Shathantha Laksmi, Senior Marketing Analyst at Zoho, she noted that Zoho’s focus was on deeper AI integration into collaboration workflows. AI capabilities are being embedded directly into user workflows to act as proactive assistants. Zoho has also expanded workflow automation and unified related capabilities within the platform.   Customer Perspectives Customer sessions remain a core element of Zoho analyst events. I had the opportunity to speak with two customers who shared their experiences at the event. Newcross Healthcare Solutions Mo Umerji, Head of Enterprise Architecture, described Newcross’s use of Zoho One applications, including CRM, Creator, Recruit, Analytics, Campaigns, DataPrep, Expense, Desk, FlowMail, People, Sign, Survey, Contracts, Vault, and Cliq. Umerji emphasized that AI augments users rather than replaces them, noting “AI isn’t a replacement for a person. It’s about giving the user more power and more information to improve how they operate and how quickly they can do things." By building its healthcare application (Karivo) on Zoho Creator, Newcross can keep their data secure and centralized while reducing costs. Integris Credit Union Jeff Anderson, Vice President of IT, discussed Integris Credit Union’s use of Zoho applications, including CRM, Analytics, Directory, Expense, Cliq, Projects, Vault, Desk, Flow, SalesIQ, Campaigns, Assist, Bookings, DataPrep, Mail, Calendar, and Forms. Following a merger, Integris needed to integrate 30 applications, including Zoho and its in-house core banking system. Anderson explained that Zoho Analytics provides visibility into member behavior, churn, asset and loan aggregation, delinquency, and portfolio value. Key Themes Several themes emerged: ·      Platform over portfolio : Zoho is positioning itself as a unified application platform rather than a suite of loosely connected tools. With AppOS serving as the architectural foundation providing unification, rather than fragmentation, Zoho makes it easier for customer and partners to build custom app or customize existing Zoho apps using the same coding tools, with everything built on the same foundation. ·      Verticalized stack : By controlling hardware, infrastructure, database, operating system, and AI models, Zoho improves cost efficiency, optimizes performance, while better supporting data sovereignty by design. Zoho is in a unique position, as most competitors can’t provide this full stack at the cost and efficiency of Zoho. ·      Embedded AI : AI is integrated into the platform rather than layered on top. Internally developed LLMs and SLMs can be trained and deployed for specific customer requirements, with an emphasis on efficiency and latency control. ·      Data sovereignty and deployment flexibility : With owned data centers and support for cloud, hybrid, and on-premises models, Zoho addresses regulatory and geographic constraints. ·      Customization at scale : AppOS is intended to enable customers and partners to build vertical and team-specific applications using a shared foundation. Zoho’s goals for the event were to: ·      Strengthen its enterprise story year after year ·      Provide a clear understanding of the customer outcomes they want to create ·      Share its vision and strategy during this volatile, fast-changing time Based on what we heard at the event, the company succeeded in these areas.

The landscape of Unified Communications (UC) and Contact Center (CC) has shifted from a period of predictable cloud utility to an era defined by extreme complexity and rising costs. As enterprises move through 2026, CIOs and CFOs are facing a "sticker shock" that challenges the original value proposition of the cloud: flexibility and cost savings. This podcast examines the driving forces behind these price escalations and provides expert insights on how to mitigate financial risk. The Rise of the UC Oligopoly and "Enshittification" The industry has entered a phase of consolidation that has dampened traditional price competition. Joseph Williams, known as the "cloud economist," notes that 2025 saw a dramatic 20% lift in prices across the UC industry. He suggests that vendors are no longer competing on price but are instead squeezing their incumbent install bases. Williams observes that the high cost of switching, including security validation and customization, has left many enterprises captive. "I think what's happening... the competition is not as fierce and so rather than compete as much on price... they're working with their incumbent install base and just elevating the fees attached to what they're offering." — Joseph Williams This trend has been described as "enshittification," where vendors stop innovating substantially and instead focus on revenue growth through fee escalation. Williams predicts this environment is ripe for a market disruptor to offer a simpler, lower cost model to break the current oligopoly. The AI Premium: Value vs. Hype Artificial Intelligence is the primary justification for recent price hikes, yet many experts question whether the functionality justifies the cost. While vendors like Zoom and WebEx have included AI assistants at no additional cost, others have introduced significant price increases. Kevin Kieller highlights that these shifts are forcing a total re-evaluation of license value. "Come July 1st, 2026, licenses in the E series and F series, it's going to increase somewhere between 8% and 33% depending on your license. So obviously that's causing people to go and redo the math and figure out if they're getting value for what they're paying for." — Kevin Kieller Consumption Risk and Hidden Operational Costs The shift toward consumption-based pricing models—often using "tokens"—has effectively transferred the financial risk from the vendor to the customer. Beth English notes that many clients are experiencing sticker shock when they realize that every AI transaction incurs a cost. This unpredictability is further complicated by "hidden" fees in the infrastructure. Jon Arnold compares the current state of enterprise communications to the fragmented world of consumer media, noting that the "onus" should be on the vendor to provide better cost management tools. "This sounds so much like cutting the cord with cable for TV and you just revert... you go to streaming and before you know it you got 10 different streaming packages and you're spending twice the amount of money and frankly you were getting a much better deal with cable before." — Jon Arnold Strategic Renegotiation and the Search for ROI Despite the aggressive tactics used by vendors, the experts agree that these costs remain negotiable. Robert Harris points out that many price escalations are simply revenue growth strategies rather than reflections of new product value. Organizations should scrutinize renewals and challenge "fixed commitment" licenses that strip away cloud flexibility. Blair Pleasant suggests that the industry is moving toward a hybrid approach to balance the need for predictability with the reality of AI usage. "I think what we're going to see is really this hybrid mode... a base price plus consumption or usage because finance wants predictability but it gets really hard to do that predictability." — Blair Pleasant Recommendations for Senior Leadership To navigate this period of volatility, IT and finance leaders should prioritize the following actions: Conduct a Math Audit:  With major license increases hitting in mid 2026, organizations must redo their TCO models immediately to see if current seats are still justifiable. Evaluate Switching Costs:  Compare the long term cost of a 20% price hike against the one-time pain of migrating to lower-cost platforms like Google Meet. Implement Governance Tools:  Use automated monitoring tools to track AI consumption and disable "always on" agents that do not provide active value. Demand Predictability:  Push vendors for "hybrid" models that combine a stable base price with capped consumption fees to protect the bottom line. As the industry matures, the burden is on the vendor to prove that AI and unified platforms deliver the productivity gains they promise. Until then, the BCStrategies experts advise a cautious, data-driven approach to every new contract and feature activation. Watch the entire discussion here:

Zoho One, Zoho’s flagship suite, has recently undergone a makeover, offering simplicity and unification. Rather than adding another set of features to an already broad portfolio, Zoho has rethought how work actually happens across its more than 50 applications—and redesigned the experience around unified integrations, context, workflows, and data. Announced in November 2025, the new Zoho One reflects a shift away from app-centric workflows toward a platform-centric model that is more user-friendly. The goal of the latest release is not simply to offer more tools, but to offer enhanced unification across three domains: Experience, Integrations, and Intelligence. Experience - from “many apps” to one experience Why is the new Zoho One so important? Most Zoho One customers use more than 20 applications on average, which can be both a benefit and a challenge. The latest release removes boundaries between apps and data by making Zoho One feel like one unified experience, where context is king. The most visible change is Zoho One’s new user experience, which replaces the traditional app menu with “Spaces,” dedicated work areas organized around how people do their work. Spaces groups applications by role, function, and context rather than by product name: ·      Personal Space holds individual productivity tools ·      Organization Space centralizes company-wide communication through tools like Forums, Town Hall, and Ideas ·      Department Spaces group role-specific apps for HR, Finance, Marketing, and other teams These Spaces are accessible from a unified top toolbar and can be customized to reflect how teams actually work. Search, settings, and navigation are consistent across applications, helping Zoho One feel less like a collection of tools and more like a single system. While Zoho has been able to bring data from Zoho apps and third-party apps into dashboards for years, the Spaces paradigm brings these dashboards into a unified interface. Each Space is customizable and accessible from a top toolbar that unifies navigation and search. The new Action Panel aggregates tasks, approvals, and follow-ups from across applications into a single view. Expense approvals, document signatures, project tasks, and deal reviews surface in one place, regardless of which application generated them. With Quick Navigation, users can move across the platform with minimal clicks, reducing friction. Zoho is also expanding its use of dashboards and “Boards” to emphasize outcomes rather than applications. Boards can pull together data and tasks from multiple Zoho apps, and even selected third-party tools, into unified, contextual views. Vani – providing visual collaboration With the addition of Vani, Zoho’s visual collaboration environment, Zoho One now includes a visual-first collaboration space. Vani acts as a shared digital wall for whiteboarding, mind maps, and video calling, all within the same Zoho ecosystem. For many organizations, this could mean replacing several standalone subscriptions for whiteboarding or conferencing tools with one integrated workspace. Integrations - designed for visibility and outcomes Integration has long been a pain point for growing organizations, particularly as stacks evolve organically over time. Zoho One’s latest update introduces a unified integration panel that gives administrators visibility into Zoho-to-Zoho, Zoho-to-third-party, and even third-party-to-third-party integrations. Beyond visibility, Zoho is emphasizing what it calls “outcome-based integrations.” One example is Smart Offboarding, which orchestrates what is typically a fragmented process across identity management, device control, data ownership, and application access. Instead of touching multiple systems to offboard an employee, including transferring files, wiping devices, reassigning reports, forwarding email, administrators can complete offboarding through a single workflow, with Zoho handling the underlying coordination. Intelligence - understanding business context AI plays a prominent role in the new Zoho One, but not as a standalone feature set. Zoho’s AI assistant, Zia, which is trained on all of Zoho’s applications,  is embedded across the platform and designed to work with unified data and workflows. Zia Hubs serve as an intelligent content layer, automatically organizing assets such as signed contracts and recorded meetings into searchable, contextual repositories. Ask Zia, which will be accessible from the Zoho One interface, is designed to answer practical, cross-application questions, while surfacing everything from schedules, overdue tasks, deal status, or meeting follow-ups without users needing to jump between systems. Because Zoho owns and integrates the full stack, its AI can operate with a broader and more consistent understanding of organizational data than systems stitched together from loosely connected point solutions. Security, governance, and scale—without a price increase While the user experience changes are the most visible, Zoho has also expanded security and identity capabilities within Zoho One. Privacy and security is baked into all Zoho services on the back end. Features such as Zoho Directory, customer-defined encryption, Cloud LDAP, and CLOUD RADIUS support more robust access control and authentication, particularly for organizations managing distributed or fast-changing workforces. Importantly, these additions come without a price increase. Zoho One remains priced at $37 per user per month, positioning it aggressively against competitors whose comparable capabilities often require multiple products, vendors, and contracts. A platform approach that reflects how work is evolving Zoho One’s latest update reflects a broader industry shift: businesses are increasingly less interested in buying “apps” and more interested in reducing complexity, risk, and wasted effort. By focusing on unified experience, native integrations, and contextual intelligence, Zoho is making a strong case for platform-led business software that prioritizes outcomes over interfaces. Zoho’s latest Zoho One release marks a profound shift in how business software is designed and delivered. It’s less about apps and more about outcomes while eliminating complexity. Essentially, Zoho One is about optimizing business results at every level of the organization. As Zoho notes, customers are not licensing apps – they’re licensing peace of mind.

B usiness C ommunications S trategies Expert analysis, insights, and opinions Search BC Strategies Welcome to Business Communications Strategies (BCS), your go-to source for expert insights and guidance for enterprise success in Communications and Collaboration. Popular Tags Artificial Intelligence (14) 14 posts CCaaS (4) 4 posts Future of Work (2) 2 posts UCaaS (2) 2 posts Generative AI (2) 2 posts 8x8 (2) 2 posts Follow Us Featured Article Enterprise Connect 2025 – A Farewell to the Gaylord Palms Blair Pleasant 6 days ago 13 min read Quick Picks Latest Events Upcoming Events AI Videos Featured Expert New Expert Latest Research Latest Podcasts Latest Events Upcoming Events AI Videos Featured Expert New Expert Latest Research Latest Podcasts Latest Events Upcoming Events AI Videos Featured Expert New Expert Latest Research Latest Podcasts Latest Events Upcoming Events AI Videos Featured Expert New Expert Latest Research Latest Podcasts Latest Events Upcoming Events AI Videos Featured Expert New Expert Latest Research Latest Podcasts Latest Podcasts Key takeaways from Enterprise Connect 2025 - Part 2 Mar 28 Takeaways from Enterprise Connect 2025 (part 1) Mar 27 Latest Posts 8x8 Analyst Summit Takeaways – Track Some Mud on the Carpet My favorite line from A Complete Unknown – “ Don’t be afraid to track some mud on the carpet ”. My favorite line – and pretty much... Jon Arnold 30 minutes ago Q&A with Pete Lavache, Avaya CMO and Blair Pleasant, COMMfusion president and principal analyst Expert Blair Pleasant asks questions of Avaya's CMO Pete Lavache Blair Pleasant 4 hours ago Chalice AI: The DeepSeek of Ad Tech In this exclusive interview, Adam Heimlich, Founder and CEO of Chalice AI, breaks down how his company is disrupting the ad tech space by... David Maldow 23 hours ago Unified Communications & Collaboration The Future of Eye Contact in Video Calls: Which of These 3 Methods Works Best? David Maldow 23 hours ago 1 min read Vedubox: The All-in-One LMS with Zoom-Powered Live Classes David Maldow 23 hours ago 1 min read Customer Experience 8x8 Analyst Summit Takeaways – Track Some Mud on the Carpet Jon Arnold 30 minutes ago 8 min read Q&A with Pete Lavache, Avaya CMO and Blair Pleasant, COMMfusion president and principal analyst Blair Pleasant 4 hours ago 6 min read Artificial Intelligence Chalice AI: The DeepSeek of Ad Tech David Maldow 23 hours ago 1 min read RingCentral Analyst Summit 2025 Blair Pleasant Mar 11 4 min read Infrastructure Das AI: The Good, Bad, and Weird from My Week in Berlin Tom Brannen Sep 12, 2024 4 min read The AI Chefs With Kevin Kieller and David Maldow The AI Chefs: AI Kitchen Tools and Inspiration Rodizio Feb 17 The AI Chefs: A Deep Dive into DeepSeek Jan 30 AI Show With Rob Scott and Kevin Kieller AI Show - The Fifth Industrial Revolution and Why AI is Reshaping Everything Nov 27, 2024 AI Show - Is Ambient AI Watching You? The Rise of 'Always-on' Technology Nov 15, 2024

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Latest Events BC Strategies Expert analysis, insights, and opinions Recent Events Inside Enterprise Connect 2025: Conversations, Insights, and Industry Trends A Farewell to the Gaylord Palms In this article, BCStrategy Expert Blair Pleasant covers key announcements and news, and offering valuable insights through informative vendor interviews she conducted at Enterprise Connect 2025. Read More A Congregation of Thoughts Read BCStrategy Expert Kevin Kieller's high-level impressions and takeways from Enterprise Connect 2025. Read More Key Takeaways - Part 1 Join BCStrategies Experts Kevin Kieller, David Danto, Thomas Brannen, Jon Arnold, Melissa Swartz, Robert Harris, and Steve Leaden as they share their key takeaways from Enterprise Connect 2025, highlighting the most surprising revelations, compelling insights, and overarching themes shaping the event. View Here Key Takeaways - Part 2 In this podcast, BCStrategies Experts Blair Pleasant , David Maldow , and Martha Buyer discuss their key takeaways and insights from Enterprise Connect 2025, offering thoughtful observations on the event's most impactful moments. View Here