Zoho has launched Zoho Projects Plus, enabling organisations to better manage project teams and their work.
Zoho has bundled four solutions into a single solution that organisations can purchase and implement in a single engagement.
The four solutions that are included within the bundle are:
- Zoho Projects: A rich project management platform
- Zoho Workdrive: Online file management
- Zoho Sprints: Agile project management software
- Zoho Analytics: An AI-Powered Self-Service BI and Analytics Platform
The combination of these four solutions brings together capabilities that can drive greater efficiencies and productivity for organisations. The solutions are all based on the Zoho platform. Which means that they not only interoperate with one another but also share a common data platform. Thus they can integrate with other Zoho applications an organisation uses.
The solutions also integrate with third-party solutions such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace. Also with popular repository management, collaboration, customer service, and analytics tools.
Zoho Projects has seen huge growth over 2024. Doubling its revenue in 2024, having seen new users migrate from platforms such as Microsoft Project and JIRA. Projects Plus provides a portfolio of solutions that takes the platform to the next level. Benefitting from a price point that will enable customers to consolidate from other applications onto the Zoho platform.
Evelyn McMullen, Research Manager at Nucleus Research, commented, “The Projects Plus Platform launch underscores Zoho’s continued commitment to meeting customers where they are. For customers who are not yet ready to adopt more advanced project management capabilities, the new offering stands as an option available to them as their requirements evolve over time.
“For large enterprises, the platform is designed to meet the specific needs of organizations in complex verticals, such as e-commerce, construction, manufacturing, and automotive. Overall, this move supports Zoho’s upmarket trajectory while offering different levels of functionality to support the entirety of its broad client base.”
Stronger together
Project Plus enables asynchronous collaboration, seamless file management, real-time business intelligence, and Agile or Waterfall workflows. Where organisations have other similar applications, it may mean they no longer require them. The combination of applications is what makes this proposition worth considering.
For example, Shubhum Gupta, Vedantu noted, “The implementation of Zoho Projects and Zoho Analytics has resulted in efficient automation and a clear understanding of our KPIs. We have increased our overall efficiency by 33%!”
18% of Zoho customers already use both Zoho Projects and Zoho Analytics. The addition of Sprints and WorkDrive further enhances Project Plus. Thus, enabling it to deliver data democratisation, AI, hybrid project management, and collaborative work management.
Other customers have already seen the full benefit of Zoho Projects Plus. Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris Credit Union, commented, “Projects Plus’s blended dashboard really improves user experience for new users, giving them one place to go for all of their work and information.
“Everything in IT is a Project — the team believes that what gets measured, gets done. When you’re organizing big interdisciplinary projects across departments, the wrong software can make project management an administrative burden.
“Our projects also require a lot of collaboration with vendors and other external stakeholders, and even auditors. With the WorkDrive integration, adding a workspace as your document repository and sharing that across stakeholders, including external users, along with Zoho Analytics giving us real-time dashboards and reports, lets us give everyone full visibility into the projects.”
Adding Business Intelligence to Projects Plus
Where the offering stands out is how Zoho are bringing together business intelligence, AI and Project management. Organisations are looking to automate processes through digital transformation. One area that is ripe for automation is project management. Professional services leaders are looking to implement Data-driven project management (DDPM). DDPM leverages data analysis and metrics to guide project decisions.
Organisations no longer need to depend upon intuition but project managers and consultants can be given objective evidence that helps them to make informed decisions. The result is improved project outcomes and business KPIs.
Zoho Analytics can analyse data held within Zoho Projects, such as time tracking, budgeting, task completion, and team and deliverability metrics. Insights can be drawn from these data points to deliver business insights that organisations can take advantage of. These include,
- Predictive Analysis: Using historical data to predict risks, estimate timelines, and anticipate resource needs, predictive analysis is essential for forecasting future project outcomes. This capability is invaluable for proactive project planning and risk management.
- Progress Tracking and Bottleneck Analysis: Traditional project management relied on static tools like Gantt charts to track project progress. With analytics, project managers can now use real-time dashboards that provide dynamic and up-to-date insights into project status.
- Quality Control Analytics: Analytics can be employed to implement robust quality control measures throughout the project lifecycle. By analysing data related to project deliverables, project managers can ensure that each component meets predefined standards.
Adding AI into Projects Plus
When combined with Zia, the Zoho AI engine, organisations can automate analysis and suggest actions for the project managers to undertake for optimal results. Examples include:
- Improved Efficiency and Productivity: By analysing data on project performance, businesses can identify areas where processes can be streamlined and optimised. For example, data analytics can reveal bottlenecks in the project timeline, take corrective action, and keep the project on track.
- Smarter Resource Allocation: Determine where resources are being under or over-utilised to optimise resource allocation and employ the right people for the right tasks by taking their skills into account.
- Accurate Forecasting and Planning: Make more accurate predictions about future project outcomes and adjust plans accordingly to avoid delays and cost overruns, leading to more successful projects overall.
Sridhar Iyengar, Managing Director, Zoho Europe, commented, “Like many of our Enterprise solutions, Zoho Projects Plus was developed to deliver supreme value and meet the needs our customers had been demonstrating within our software suite, particularly between Zoho Projects and Zoho Analytics.
“Projects Plus synthesises the latest AI-driven tools, data-first analytics, and privacy-focused protections into software that anticipates the evolving needs of multi-country Enterprise organizations, expanding Zoho’s global reach.”
Pricing and Availability
Projects Plus is available globally now. It is priced at £12 (€15) per user per month. What is not clear is the comparison of functionality to individual licences for each of the component applications.
- Zoho Projects within Projects Plus appears to equate to the top level of Zoho Projects – Enterprise (£7.20 pupm)
- Zoho Workdrive appears to be bespoke with only 100 GB of storage under Zoho Projects, yet the functionality, such as data recovery, is the equivalent of Business level (£7 pupm) which offers 5TB out of the box for the team.
- Zoho Analytics is the equivalent of the Enterprise level limits with 50 users and 50 million rows, £369 per month (not per user)
- Zoho Sprints includes features from the Premier level (£4 pupm)
The pricing appears off, and it is not known whether the use of Zoho Analytics is restricted to just Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints Data. If not, this is an impressive pricing option. Zoho Projects Plus is also available on UK GCloud, the public sector digital marketplace.
Zoho also claims that Zoho Projects Plus will be available on GCloud. Currently, many of Zoho’s applications are listed, including Zoho One, Projects and Analytics. However, neither Zoho Sprints, Zoho Workdrive nor Projects Plus have an entry as of writing, though they are included within Zoho One. Presumably the listing is just a matter of time.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The challenge for Zoho has always been that it is seen as a platform for SMEs. That is changing. With announcements such as Zoho Project Plus indicate that it can combine its solutions to provide the kind of combination that larger organisations will take seriously.
The difference between the project management toolset that Zoho is providing with this announcement and others is that everything sits on a single data platform. Also, the user interface is similar across sprints and projects. Therefore, enterprise users who might switch between project methodologies will find it easier.
WorkDrive enables organisations to hold project information in a single common repository, which is vital for running projects collaboratively.
Zoho Analytics is also a sophisticated analytics suite that can compete with many specialist applications and outperform what many PPM vendors provide for their solutions.
The big question will be what kind of organisations will look to adopt the suite. Should Zoho have considered adding other applications into the mix, for example, Zoho Invoice or even Zoho Meeting?
