At Zoholics Qatar in Doha, Zoho revealed that it is opening its first Office in the country, in Doha. Zoho tends to open offices after it gains traction in a location and sees an opportunity that is worth taking advantage of. In the case of the wider Middle East, Zoho’s growth has surged and it is now the leading sales region by revenue growth.
In 2023, the MEA business grew by 31%. Zoho also expanded its channel partner ecosystem by 50% in the region. It now lists six local and two GSI operating in Qatar. In the wider region it has well over a hundred.
Zoho has attracted some significant customers since it launched in Qatar, including Commercial Bank, Qatar Science & Technology Park, Tamweel Al Jazeera Finance, and Qatar Cancer Society.
Hyther Nizam, President of Middle East and Africa (MEA), commented, “We’re thrilled to witness our company’s continued growth in Qatar, a market that has consistently demonstrated a strong appetite for innovative technological solutions. The vibrant business environment and forward-thinking approach of the local ecosystem have created a fertile ground for our expansion.
“As Qatar continues to embrace digital transformation, we remain committed to providing cutting-edge solutions that address the evolving needs of businesses and contribute to the nation’s economic prosperity.”
Partners key to growth in MEA for Zoho
Much of the success has been due to regional partners, which contributed 30.4% to the total MEA business and is growing at 28.5%, 27.5% in Qatar. Some of the longest-serving partners operating in Qatar include 1 Cloud Consulting, Alchemist Accounting, Gulf Infotech and Solutions to Success.
The new Office is not just a sales office. It will have several teams to help win and service customers and partners. It will include presales engagement and solutions architects, implementation consultants, support staff as well as account management. Zoho has seen growth across its portfolio of solutions, with Zoho One, Zoho Books, Zoho People, Zoho Creator, and Zoho Expense as the top five most popular.
Is remote and flexible working about to make a comeback in Qatar
At Zoholics, Zoho also published findings from a survey around the challenges and opportunities of Workplace collaboration. The study was based on a survey of 3,301 employees across MEA with a sample of 396 from Qatar itself.
This is a significant survey that covers a range of topics. The data shared was specific to Qatar. It looks at how organisations allow their workforce to work in Qatar. With 60% now working completely on-site, 32% working in a hybrid way, and only 8% working fully remotely. This is a much lower percentage than in other countries.
However, without a qualitative element, there is no indication as to why that is the case. Moreover, the Qatari Council of Ministers recently approved a proposal for the introduction of more flexible working for government agencies from 29th September. Thus aligning with the human and social development pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030. It means that if the same survey is conducted next year, this shift in thinking may be reflected more broadly.
Productivity and collaboration tool usage are pervasive
Employees are familiar with the digital tools used for collaborative work, with 57.4% using productivity and collaboration tools such as Zoho Workplace, Teams and Slack. The other top tools are HR (46%), Project Management (43.07%) and Accounting (42.07%).
It is perhaps a reflection of the sample that accounting is so high, though surprising that HR is so low, even compared to collaboration. It may show that there is a big opportunity for self-service HR tools or that adoption is poor.
While a significant proportion is using Project Management, daily task management tools are even more embedded, with only 13.35% not using a task management app of any kind. Only 8.03% believe that task management won’t save them time. 36.95% of those using task management believe it saves them over 2 hours of time. It isn’t clear whether this is daily or weekly, though.
Challenges remain though
While the tools are being used, there are still barriers to effective collaboration, which is a must for working remotely. The top barriers were seen as:
- Information spread across too many apps – 73.8%
- Digital Fatigue – 69.27%
- Inability to communicate/collaborate with other teams – 69.27%
- Inability to communicate with team members in a hybrid/remote setup – 65.24%
- Company Culture – 59.45%
- Poor Wifi/Data network connectivity – 51.13%
With the recent announcement, there could be a shift in company culture if the country’s leaders are advocating change. The most worrying, perhaps, is the lack of data connectivity. While Qatar has 99.59% 4G network coverage in 2024, the average broadband speed in Qatar was only 56.22k kbit/s in 2024. (Source: Statista).
However, Statista is at odds with other reports with the International Media Office stating, “Qatar is ranked first in the world for mobile internet speeds and the entire population is covered by 5G and fibre connectivity.” Again, a qualitative element might have given further insight into why 50% of the respondents feel that connectivity is poor.
Nizam commented, “Our enterprise collaboration platform, Zoho Workplace, pioneered the unified experience way back in 2017. Our vision has been validated with the survey results that have highlighted the lack of access to necessary data, challenges in tracking tasks, and difficulties in communication within the organisation.
“Moreover, as we build apps for various business functions and understand how they interoperate, we have created a communication layer across our offerings to foster contextual collaboration.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Zoho continues to expand in MEA. In Qatar this has resulted in yet another regional office, adding to Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh and Dubai. Zoho’s expansion in the region has been rapid and it aligned well with the national digitisation initiatives.
The study has some interesting findings but lacks the trend information that would have made it more powerful. It will be interesting to see what Zoho produces next year. It was perhaps surprising that unlike recent Zoholics events in South Africa, it didn’t announce further localisations for Qatar.
However, with two data centres in the region, Jeddah and Riyadh, the global firm is likely to continue expanding, and the local presence will only help drive more customers and partners to join the impressive bandwagon.
