Office Applications Gain Single Sign-On, Unified Views, Folder Support
PLEASANTON, Calif. (August 30, 2007) –
Working online just became a lot smoother for Zoho customers with the launch of Zoho Start, which integrates Zoho’s free online office applications and documents under a single, unified interface.
Available online at start.zoho.com, Zoho Start features single sign-on, so users need only sign in once to gain access to Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, and other Zoho applications. Folder support lets users create new folders in Zoho Start, making it easier to organize personal and shared documents.
“We offer quite a few online office applications,” said Raju Vegesna, Zoho evangelist. “But our customers want more than breadth. They want convenience, too. Zoho Start offers convenient, single sign-on access to their documents and to the Zoho applications from a unified interface.”
The Personal Touch
When users log on to Start.zoho.com, they’ll find a “Zoho Apps” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen for access to Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Notebook, Zoho Wiki, Zoho Planner, Zoho Chat, Zoho Viewer, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM. Selecting any application opens that application in a new tab within Zoho Start Interface.
Meanwhile, their personal and shared documents will be available from the “My Documents” panel on the left side of the interface. Documents are presented in either list or box views. Rather than launch new browser windows, Zoho opens each new document and application in a separate tab within the Zoho Start.
In addition to folder support, Zoho further simplifies document management with mouse-over options. When a user holds the mouse over a specific document, an “Actions” button appears to the right of the document name. Click the button, and users can move the document to a different folder. They can also open, export, delete, tag or share the document.
Going forward, Zoho plans to round out Zoho Start by closely integrating other Zoho applications.
Initial kudos for Zoho Start
Zoho Start: a glimpse at future integration
“…Now Zoho releasing something new is hardly earth-shattering news. I’ve joked with Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s Evangelist, that at the rate this company pumps out new products and updates to their existing offerings, we’ll soon see him taking suggestions from the podium at a conference at the beginning of a session and have the new release ready by the time his presentation is finished. OK… that’s a bit of an exaggeration but the pace at which Zoho works to take feedback from its users and respond with improvements is very impressive….This is an excellent start (sorry – couldn’t resist) to bringing the broad range of applications the company has been developing into a unified whole.” Marc Orchant, Blognation
Zoho Launches Zoho Start: Netvibes for Documents
“Zoho, a web office suite that’s pretty impressive, will launch a start page today. …It’s another killer product for Zoho…” Pete Cashmore, Mashable
Zoho combines applications in one start page : Zoho Start
“As some of you know, Zoho is one of my favorite companies on the web. They have developed into a big player in the web-based office market, and they have been an inspiration to several others. Zoho always keeps on trying to improve….today is another great day of understanding and development as Zoho has just released a Startpage which combines their applications in one interface…The great look and feel of Zoho is still here, it is fast and it reminds me most of Google Docs&Spreadsheets. I think Google has some firm competition here.” S.M. Schrama, Web 2.0
Zoho Launches Integrated Start Page
“Zoho has been busy launching application after application, giving users a near complete web-based office suite that’s really quite impressive….CEO of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu says that while the start page may look plain and simple, it was done so intentionally because it was designed not to get in the way, but to help speed users along….Soon I think more people will be thinking of Zoho as set of applications instead of knowing them as offering several independent applications.” Ashley Wagner, CyberNet News
Starting things off with Zoho
“Zoho is always up to something. The company that seems like it never stops to breathe has released another update to their Zoho suite, Start….Think of it as a desktop for all things Zoho…Thanks Zoho, for making it extra difficult to choose between Zoho’s suite of applications, and Google’s Docs/Apps.” Chris Gilmer, Download Squad
For more information on Zoho, please visit www.zoho.com. To get breaking Zoho news, please visit and subscribe to the RSS feed at http://blogs.zoho.com/.
About Zoho and AdventNet
Zoho is creating the most comprehensive suite of affordable, online productivity tools for today’s knowledge workers. Nearly 120 developers work on the Zoho suite, often implementing new features just days after customers request them and responding to customer queries within minutes of their posting. To date, Zoho has launched 15 different applications and more are in the works. For more information on Zoho, please visit www.zoho.com and blogs.zoho.com
Zoho is a division of AdventNet, in business since 1996 providing innovative software tools and serving more than 10,000 customers worldwide. For more information on AdventNet, please visit www.adventnet.com.
Media Contact:
Susan D’Elia
TECHMarket Communications
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Source: Zoho