Dubai Economy and Zoho, a global technology company with a wide portfolio of products, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to make enterprise-level technology available and affordable for all businesses in Dubai and help them in their digital transformation journey.

The MoU, signed by Omar Bushahab, CEO, the Business Registration and Licensing sector (BRL) of Dubai Economy, and Ali Shabdar, Regional Director of MEA, Zoho Corp, is a step towards making Dubai a trailblazer in digitalisation and global role model in driving a competitive knowledge economy, as targeted by the National Agenda 2021.

Through this agreement, local businesses registered with Dubai Economy can gain access to Zoho One, a unified cloud-based suite of over 45 applications, which seamlessly connects diverse functions of a business, for free for one year. Most businesses that either have legacy software or work with multiple cloud apps, struggle with data silos, multi-vendor contracts, integration hassles and escalating costs. With Zoho One, businesses can run their sales, marketing, productivity, collaboration, HR management, finance and other functions on a single platform. This significantly lowers the entry barrier that many startups and SMEs face when adopting enterprise technology. The cloud-based apps enable businesses to run from anywhere and take advantage of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to expedite their growth.

Omar Bushahab said the cooperation with Zoho is in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, which strengthens the city’s position at the forefront of digital transformation in the region, as the Emirate embraces the largest global technology companies and developers of smart solutions, as well as implements projects and initiatives that confirm its leadership in this field.

The digital vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the strong ground for promoting the digital industry sector and apps in the UAE, in general, and Dubai, in particular.

“We are delighted to sign the agreement with Zoho, which would provide solutions that facilitate easy procedures, saves time, effort and cost, and promote the happiness and satisfaction of the business community in Dubai and enhance their competitiveness. These solutions are value-added services, within an innovative environment that seeks to invest future technologies in driving the well-being and prosperity of societies through digital smart,” added Bushahab.

“We are excited about joining hands with Dubai Economy in their efforts towards scripting a digital future in Dubai,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-founder, Zoho Corp. “At Zoho, we staunchly believe that overall economic development stems out of an interconnected network of strong, self-reliant clusters. With that in mind, we are always committed towards supporting local economies in their growth journey. Having our MEA regional headquarters in Dubai and an ever-growing partner network in the country, allows us to serve our customers here better. With Zoho One, businesses can find all the necessary tools to run their business online in a single place. As we have built every app on the same technology stack, they work together seamlessly, and when the apps run together, business runs better.”

Key highlights:

* Wallet Credits for Zoho One: Businesses registered with Dubai Economy can benefit from $1800 per business in wallet credits that can be used to subscribe to Zoho One. This financial sponsorship endeavours to boost the adoption of digital tools that can help businesses catapult their growth.

* Discount on Renewal: After their wallet credits expire, businesses can avail a one-time discount of 5% on renewal of their subscription or to buy any Zoho product.

* Focus on Privacy: Zoho does not allow any third-party trackers to monitor usage behaviour and never sells any data to ad-based companies. Because Zoho has built its entire technology stack, the company is able to offer the most secure experience to its users without any compromise on data privacy. Users have the assurance that their data is confidential and protected, and only users themselves maintain ownership of that data.

Zoho One Highlights:

Zoho One is an all-in-one solution, which is customizable, extendable and integratable, making it the ‘Operating System for Business’. It breaks down departmental silos and helps drive smarter decision-making. It can be customized with powerful service options and it grows to fit each business’ needs and goals, leading to a shorter time-to-value and overall success. Its feature highlights include:

• Customer Experience: Zoho’s unified customer experience platform helps businesses deliver an exceptional experience to every customer across all stages of their lifecycle and convert them into brand advocates. They can monitor website visitors, manage sales (CRM), send email campaigns, track social media engagement, provide customer support, send surveys, manage projects, run analytics and more.
• Finance and Accounting: Zoho’s accounting software (Books) is VAT-compliant and FTA-approved. It simplifies accounting and enables businesses to file their taxes from within the software. Businesses can also manage their inventory, invoices, expenses and subscriptions.
• Productivity and Collaboration: Employees can collaborate through email, instant messaging, social intranet or online meetings. They can also co-create and collaborate on documents using Zoho’s online office suite and file management system.
• HR Management: Zoho offers HR management software and application tracking system to help businesses manage their employees and create a happier workforce.
• Custom Solutions: With Zoho’s low-code development platform, Zoho Creator, businesses can create custom solutions for their specific needs. Those who want to use apps from other vendors can easily integrate them using the integration platform (Flow).
• Business Intelligence and AI: Zoho One offers advanced analytics and AI functionalities that can pull information from across various apps to provide intelligent insights for quick decision-making.

To avail the offer, which is valid for new Zoho customers, please visit www.zoho.com/ded and use the promo code DED2020.