ERP 2.0? Zoho Open Product Review     Ever had an emerging trend sneak up on you? How about one that snuck up on 45 million users worldwide  - what’s it mean to you? Could be big changes in how you Profit From ERP - -  I’m Gene Hammons, Practice Director Software Selection and Implementation….   (MFX) Welcome to ERPodcast, the small business edition – but even huge multinationals need to know – there’s a change in business software deployment – we’ll discuss.   We’re going to be taking a look at Zoho, if you don’t know, they started with a free CRM model and soon developed apps or modules extending functionality into other departments - From a 2001 initial launch into the Japanese market, Zoho has expanded worldwide and by 2014 – 15 million worldwide users, 20 million two years later by 2019, a reported 45m worldwide users. That kind of exponential growth means you should probably start paying attention   Not technically ERP, but a Business Operating System – as they refer to it, for predominately small to medium businesses. We’re not replacing SAP ERP with Zoho anytime soon.   But there’s a new approach we’re referring to as the Cloud Deployment Model – not just cloud based software, but how you implement cloud based software - Instead of teams of 200+ dollar onsite software consultants we’re seeing online business coaches, videos, tutorials and implementation exercises.  We’ve seen this same model emerging in Project Management with WorkFront, in construction apps with BuilderTrend– and now some of the Microsoft resellers are picking up on it – it’s a huge change in both costs and approach to deploying business software.   So while you’re current ERP system still has a few years of life in it, you need to know that sooner or later, you’re more likely going to be deploying some types of business software using the new Cloud Deployment Model – one way or another the cloud deployment model is coming your way.   We’ll take you out to a recent Zoho Roadshow   But today is not just about entry level business software – it’s about the same theories you’ll follow whether your company just passed the 1million dollar revenue mark, the 10 million or the 100 million dollar signpost.     So no matter what your business size, you can continue to Profit, From ERP.   MFX Out Sponsor Break   MFX Live room montage   It’s Thursday at the Phoenix road show for a software called Zoho – you may have seen them as a free CRM product a few years back – well, things have developed since then.   Zoho is a worldwide software provider with over 6,000 employees across the globe. Headquartered in India, with US HQ in Pleasanton California, Zoho started out 22 years ago as a free CRM product and they’re now in 180 countries with a reported 45+ million users. I’m always a little suspect of user counts from software companies – but the amazing thing with Zoho is the doubling of total users within a 2 year period. So even if they’re cooking the numbers – the same recipe that cooked up 20 million a couple of years ago is now cooking up 45+ million – and hey, since it’s all cloud based, they may be totally accurate.   The free starter model of CRM was popular with a few software publishers – you start out for free with basic functionality, and slowly as you grow and become more enamored with the software, and especially as you start making more money via better customer contact and service, you graduate to a paid version and become customers for life.