Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Zoho drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Analytics and Data, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

We recently published five Ventana Research 2023 Analytics and Data Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined analytics and data, augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, embedded analytics and mobile analytics and platform support.

At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for analytics and data platforms for any use in your organization. We developed five technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall analytics and data requirements as well as specific augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, mobile analytics and embedded analytics use-cases.

In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for analytics and data. We evaluated Zoho and 21 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research on analytics and data.

In the overall Analytics and Data Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Zoho as a vendor of Assurance, ranking eighth in the overall research at 63.7%. Zoho’s best performance came in Customer Experience at 74.0%, ranking seventh, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Validation. In Product Experience, Zoho placed 12th with a 61.9% due to its performance in Capability and Usability. Zoho fully participated in the RFI process.

Zoho’s Product Experience was impacted by its 55.9% performance in Capability, where it could provide more presentation, collaboration and predictive capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 71.9% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could provide more materials on its website regarding the customer experience.

Zoho performed best in Customer Experience, notably in Validation, where its 76.1% performance was due to its references and case studies. In addition, Zoho’s architecture and deployment options led to its 75.3% performance in Reliability. In Capability, it performed well in dashboarding, mobile and collaborative analytics, and support for updating databases and transactional applications. 

In the Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Zoho as Exemplary, ranking seventh in the overall research at 62.8%. Zoho’s best performance came in Customer Experience at 74.0%, ranking seventh, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Validation. In Product Experience, Zoho placed 10th with a 60.5% due to its performance in Reliability and Usability. Zoho fully participated in the RFI process.

Zoho’s Product Experience was impacted by its 52.2% performance in Capability, where it could provide more assistance for data access and preparation. Customer Experience was impacted by its 71.9% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could provide more materials on its website regarding the customer experience.

Zoho performed best in Customer Experience, notably in Validation, where its 76.1% performance was due to its references and case studies. In addition, Zoho’s architecture and deployment options led to its 75.3% performance in Reliability. In Capability, it performed well in NLP and AutoML with its Zoho Intelligent Assistant (Zia) tools Ask Zia and Zia Insights, which provide NLP and automated analyses, respectively. Zoho also provides automated agents and alerting functionality.

In the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Zoho as Exemplary, ranking seventh in the overall research at 63.1%. Zoho’s best performance came in Customer Experience at 74.0%, ranking seventh, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Validation. In Product Experience, Zoho placed 10th with a 60.1% due to its performance in Capability. Zoho fully participated in the RFI process.

Zoho’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.5% performance in Capability, where it could provide functionality to assign and track tasks related to analytics. Customer Experience was impacted by its 71.9% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could provide more materials on its website regarding the customer experience.

Zoho performed best in Customer Experience, notably in Validation, where its 76.1% performance was due to its references and case studies. In Capability, it performed well in annotating and sharing analyses including threaded discussions. It also provides monitoring and alerting and subscriptions. In addition, Zoho’s architecture and deployment options led to its 75.3% performance in Reliability.

In the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Zoho as Exemplary, ranking seventh in the overall research at 67.3%. Zoho’s best performance came in Customer Experience at 74.0%, ranking seventh, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Validation. In Product Experience, Zoho placed 10th with a 66.0% due to its lower performance in Capability. Zoho fully participated in the RFI process.

Zoho’s Product Experience was impacted by its 62.0% performance in Capability, where it could provide more assistance for data access and modeling. Customer Experience was impacted by its 71.9% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could provide more materials on its website regarding the customer experience.

Zoho performed best in Customer Experience, notably in Validation, where its 76.1% performance was due to its strong references and case studies. In addition, Zoho’s architecture and deployment options led to its 75.3% performance in Reliability. In Capability, it performed well in integration and customization including its APIs.

In the Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Zoho as a vendor of Assurance, ranking seventh in the overall research at 67.6%. Zoho’s best performance came in Customer Experience at 74.0%, ranking seventh, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Validation. In Product Experience, Zoho placed 10th with a 66.3% due to its performance in Capability and Usability. Zoho fully participated in the RFI process.

Zoho’s Product Experience was impacted by its 62.8% performance in Capability, where it could support additional types of visualizations. Customer Experience was impacted by its 71.9% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could provide more materials on its website regarding the customer experience.

Zoho performed best in Customer Experience, notably in Validation, where its 76.1% performance was due to its references and case studies. In Capability, it provides good interactivity, annotations and brings its Zia augmented analytics and conversational analytics functionality to mobile devices. In addition, Zoho’s architecture and deployment options led to its 75.3% performance in Reliability.

This assessment was based on Zoho Analytics, 5.0 (Build Number 5260), and was available in July of 2023.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of analytics and data software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:

Analytics and Data Buyers Guide

Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide

Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide

Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide

Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide