1.
Features: Help‐Desk, Ticket Management, Customer
Support Portal, Workflow Rules, Knowledge Base, SLA &
Contracts, Accounts & Contacts Management, Reports &
Dashboard
Industry: Non Specific
Customers: Small and Medium Business
Geography: All markets
Languages: English
Cost: Free for 1 Agent, Professional Edition starting at
12US$/Agent/per Month
Review methodology
This review constitutes an analysis based on a product demonstration and software review by qualified system
software experts at Eval‐Source The demonstration Eval‐Source received from the vendor was based on their own
custom vendor script, designed to validate and/or disprove vendors’ claims. The script was specifically prepared to
identify functionalities and form an impartial analysis and software review for various features of Help‐Desk, Ticket
Management and Customer Support Service.
Business Problems Addressed
Today’s market demands that organizations examine all aspects of their business in order to lower costs, become
more competitive attract new business and differentiate themselves. In a competitive business climate, high‐level
customer support can help retain existing customers and attract new ones. These initiatives can prove difficult to
quantify and doing so becomes the challenge.
Organizations are beginning to tackle these challenges of internal and external collaboration, issue management,
service level agreement support, customer retention and acquisition of new customers by implementing a Customer
Service/Support solution.
Today’s business environment has evolved in terms of what constitutes customer support and customer service. In
order to keep customers happy, organizations are doing what is required to retain customers. Customer
Service/Support solutions address the need to capture, aggregate, disseminate and deliver appropriate levels of
customer service. A Customer Support solution can optimize the areas mentioned to streamline inefficient
processes, automate and distinguish your organization as a leader in support, increase internal/external
collaboration and combine them into one solution.
Incorporating various functions into one application allows organizations to maximize every dollar spent on
technology. These types of systems can exist as standalone or can be incorporated into an existing application and
infrastructure. Zoho Support enables organizations to support customer service requirements without requiring a
pre‐established infrastructure of people, hardware and software. By adopting a Customer Support Management
solution organizations can rapidly create a delivery mechanism to administer their customer service initiatives.
These solutions allow prioritization and management of customer service issues for B2B and B2C consumers alike.
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2.
Target Market
Zoho Support caters to organizations that need to prioritize, manage and automate online help desk support needs.
Zoho Support is a web‐based solution that allows organizations to create, analyze and streamline best practices for
customer support teams.
Zoho Support targets organizations such as:
• Manufacturers
• Retailers
• Distributors
• Service based businesses
• Call centers
• Organizations looking for internal support
• Companies that provide technical support
Pricing model
Zoho Support is priced in two ways and suits a variety of organizational needs. Options for larger companies include
the Professional and Enterprise editions. These editions target organizations that create a large number of
incidents or tickets and that require additional user complexities such as workflow automation, additional security
parameters, exporting capabilities and additional web templates. The Professional and Enterprise editions are
based on the user count and have no transaction limits. The Free edition caters to companies that employ one
service agent but is limited to 25 requests per day.
The following editions are priced as follows:
• Free Edition ‐ free for one agent and request limit of 25 per day
• Professional Edition ‐ $12 per agent/per month no request limits
• Enterprise Edition ‐ $25 per agent/per month no request limits
For small business, young start‐ups and do‐it‐all teams there are three package options: Express 50, Express 100 and
Express 200. These packages are designed for organizations that do not have dedicated support personnel and in
which support rests with everyone in the company. These packages are priced according to requested support
tickets and have unlimited user capabilities. The Express 50, 100 and 200 offers Request Tracking, Custom Fields,
Reports and Dashboards and Ticket Management.
The packages for Express 50, Express 100 and Express 200 are as follows:
• Express 50 ‐ $24 a month, unlimited users, up to 50 requests a day, request management solutions, custom fields
and dashboards
• Express 100 ‐ $49 a month, unlimited users, up to 100 requests a day, request management solutions, custom
fields and dashboards
• Express 200 ‐ $99 a month, unlimited users, up to 200 requests a day, request management solutions, custom
fields and dashboards
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3.
Figure 1
Total Cost of Ownership
Eval‐Source has identified 18 key areas that organizations should consider when purchasing SaaS and cloud
technology. These items reflect areas that will determine the monthly cost of the subscription. The component
checklist below demonstrates how Zoho Support fared:
1. Tenancy ‐ Multi or Single: Multi‐tenancy
2. Cloud Structure Public or Private: Public
3. Subscription Terms: Monthly and Yearly
4. Data Center – Online/Offline Online
5. Data Security standards by vertical: No specific verticals, data security at network level
6. Business Continuity / Data Recovery Yes
7. Encryption Type: 128/256 bit SSL encryption
8. Version release schedule: Not available
9. Current Version Released: Version 1.0
10. Session Management: Yes
11. Application Level Security: Yes
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4.
12. Are there any User Limits: Yes, pricing based on amount of concurrent Agents for
Professional and Enterprise editions. Express 50,100 and 200 based on incidents not users
13. Offer data migration services: Yes (on request)
14. Offer free trials/sandbox testing: Yes 15 day trial
15. Application customizable by user: Yes (Change Logo, Time zone, Tabs, Fields, Page layout, Customer
Portal Home Page, Search Layout)
16. Application customizable by vendor: No, customer feedback is incorporated into new versions
17. Is there a setup fee (admin fee): No
18. Charge for additional space: No
Solution Analysis
When selecting a Customer Support software application, organizations should realize what types of requirements
are actually needed and differentiate between “must haves” and “wants”. Customer Support software has matured
as a standalone solution and industry‐specific requirements has emerged.
Zoho Support addresses these key areas of support functionality:
• Alert/Escalations • Help Desk Workflow Automation
• Accounts & Contacts Management • Knowledge Base Integration
• Automatic Customer Notices • Request Ticket Tracking & Management
• Customizable Fields • Reporting & Dashboard
• Customizable Functionality • Role based security
• Customizable Reporting • Customer portal self service
• Contracts & SLA • API’s Provided
• Data Import/Export Wizard • Trouble Ticketing
Zoho Support encompasses many ways to automate processes, especially when it comes to utilizing workflow and
alert/notification functionalities. Users can customize email, alerts/escalations, reporting, queuing, ticket
assignment and other attributes automate workflows. The automation of repetitive tasks allows users to fully
maximize software functionality. It’s customizable front‐end further facilitates more effective use of the software.
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5.
Functional Modules
Zoho Support consists of ten modules. The modules include: Contracts and SLA’s, Accounts and Contacts, Reports and
Dashboards, Alerts and Notifications, Knowledge Base, Customer Support Portal, Workflow, Product Catalogue (or
Catalog in US English) and Ticket Management. All ten modules form part of this application’s off the shelf capabilities.
In order to gain a better understanding of Zoho Support, we will analyze each module’s functional capability. A brief
description details the functional capabilities and key features found within these modules.
Ticket Management – Ticket management is a key part of customer support and enables agents to record the
most important details about customer interactions and manage incidents from start to finish. This module
facilitates the creation of webforms, integration of knowledgebase, management of requests, scheduling,
customization, prioritization and can calculate costs based on time spent on the ticket.
Additional features of this module include bulk assignment of tickets, tracking history of conversation threads,
time spent by the support rep and cost/hr allowing supervisors to approve requests and calculate the total cost
for a particular support rep.
Contracts and SLA’S – The Contracts and SLA’s module is used for supporting customers with specific service
level agreements and possibly time sensitive support contracts. It is often used to support customers that
require a specific level of support, such as urgent response in mission critical hardware or software support.
The main features of this module allow the support department to set resolution time parameters for support
tickets whereby honoring SLA’s in place and calculating the time spent on tickets. The module also permits the
capture of multiple levels of escalation if tickets are not resolved in a timely manner.
Accounts and Contacts ‐ This module will be integrated to Zoho CRM and allows customer service reps to access
accounts and contacts. Accounts and Contacts capabilities form part of Zoho Support. Seamless integration of
account and contact information into Support enables the use of a single application to access multiple
functions that may have previously existed in several disparate systems.
Reports and Dashboards ‐ This is essentially the business intelligence functionality of Zoho Support. It facilitates
the creation of customized reports and keeps relevant stakeholders abreast of current events, ticket status,
percentage of resolution and overall performance for all support issues in the system. This module can also
create charts that are exportable to various programs so that relevant information can be represented
appropriately. Zoho Support comes standard with predefined reports for easy tracking.
Alerts and Notifications – This module allows the ability to prioritize and delegate work to support staff and send
alerts and notifications to support reps, stakeholders or customers via email or web pop‐ups. The alerts can be
set to notify users of any change in status to an account or support issue. The notifications feature can be used
to notify a single user via email when a task is created, before contract expiry and for specific incoming requests.
Knowledge Base ‐ The Knowledge Base module allows users to create a repository of past incidents
by/customer, by product, contract stipulations, attachments or a variety of other categories. This tool allows
rapid search, which enables the customer service agent to access relevant information as a reference for the
customer call. Viewing of the knowledge base can be made public or kept internal, depending on the company
needs.
Customer Support Portal – The Customer Support Portal enables organizations to offer customer self support.
This module allows customers to resolve their own issues by accessing the knowledge base, thereby reducing
the number of incoming customer support calls. This module allows a secure login, status tracking and creation
of online requests.
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6.
Workflows – The Workflow module enables automation by rule creation that can auto‐assign requests, send
notifications and modify data pertaining to tickets. This module can create alerts, assignments and email
templates for specific resolution tasks. Assignments and workflow tasks can be set to trigger certain actions or
responses.
Product Catalog ‐ The Product Catalog is an internal customer support tool that provides product specific details
about any type of support tickets and appropriate information about products and inventory in order to
facilitate the best possible customer service support. The details on the Product Catalog include product and
customer attributes, manufacturer, warranty information and service level agreement information and can be
categorized by product group or relevance.
A key differentiator in this space is the user’s ability to customize the interface. Zoho Support provides the user with the
tools to cater the front‐end to personal specifications. Customizable functionalities include renaming of tabs and
departments, changing of field names, customization of email templates, webforms, workflows, rules and defines
working hours, which can be applied to SLA’s and tickets. Zoho Support customizations require no technical coding or
programming and are WYSIWYG driven. An interface that users can understand lowers learning curves, guarantees
usage of the software and reinforces the technology investment by ensuring that everyone uses the system.
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7.
Technical Specifications
Zoho Support includes Accounts and Contacts as part of the off the shelf product. The next version release of Zoho will
include integration to the Zoho CRM for bulk imports. Zoho Support facilitates data export and back up for the modules,
which can be exported in a zip file in CSV format. To date, import from Zoho CRM has been a manual process, but will
be automated in future releases.
Zoho Support offers the ability to create user level, role level, group level and session level security access for
additional/enhanced security. A data sharing setting is provided in order to manage the sharing rules for all modules
and also for organizational default share settings.
Network Security
In order to keep data protected Zoho offers 128/256‐bit SSL data encryption. To further secure data, multiple intrusion
detection and intrusion prevention measures are included on the Zoho servers. The Zoho network security strategy also
incorporated a secured sliced down operating system that minimizes vulnerabilities and offers virus scanning when
importing from extraneous programs.
Quick Glance Specifications
Web browser optimization: Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox (2+), Google Chrome and Safari (Java Plug‐in Required)
API’s provided: Provides REST API’s, which allow developers to design push or pull data to and from
applications. The open API also enables other services to be integrated to Support
Safe Harbor Compliant: Yes, both American and European
Business Continuity/Redundancy: Distributed SaaS grid architecture. Network, cooling, power redundancy, and
Internet failovers and geo mirroring at off‐site locations are part of security practices.
Security practices include: Distributed SaaS grid architecture. Network, cooling, power redundancy and Internet
failovers and geo mirroring at off‐site locations
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8.
Conclusion
Zoho Support targets SMB and large businesses and features pricing models that reflect each market. The Enterprise and
Professional editions have no transactional limit and are priced according to user and additional functions for larger
enterprises. The SMB target is based on a /pre‐determined number of tickets and support incidents per day but has no
user limit. The Express packages have no user limits and targets organizations where everyone is responsible for
customer support.
Zoho Support has 10 base modules: Ticket Management, Reports and Dashboards, Knowledge Base, Alerts and
notifications, Workflows, Customer Support Portal, Contracts and SLA’s and Accounts and Contacts, Product Catalog and
Task Management. These modules provide a broad spectrum that supports various customer support needs. The
Express versions offer less functionality but may be a better option for smaller organizations that do not require in‐
depth customer support functionality.
Zoho Support is an intuitive, customizable and robust solution with which organizations can equip their support
departments. In a crowded customer support marketplace, a key differentiator is its ability to provide a configurable
WYSIWYG customization for end users without requiring any programming. Zoho Support offers configurable workflows,
field customizations, email templates, webforms and many other configuration options. This unique capability allows a
greater adoption of the solution in your organization. Employees can comfortably and efficiently utilize the software,
which maximizes a company’s technology investment.
Zoho Support Product Review 15/02/2011

9.
About GetApp.com
http://www.getapp.com
GetApp.com is a business software app store for buyers of enterprise applications. It offers a simple way for buyers to compare and evaluate
applications and a low cost channel for providers to be found online. Software buyers come to GetApp.com for the convenience of researching
enterprise applications in one place. Application providers come to GetApp.com to reach out to a worldwide audience of active buyers, receive
qualified traffic to their website and sales leads relevant to their target markets. GetApp.com also operates AppDoubler, a software partner
network dedicated to Cloud applications, where vendors offer affiliate opportunities to re‐selling partners. Please visit www.getapp.com
and www.appdoubler.com for more information.
About Eval‐Source
http://www.eval‐source.com
Eval‐Source is consulting firm that provides enterprise software selection and strategic consulting services for organizations to achieve success in
their IT initiatives. Our Tru‐Eval selection system allows organizations to avoid IT failure, receive greater ROI and provide accurate decision support
for enterprise software. Our strategic consulting practice encompasses cloud computing services, cloud evaluation services, technology planning
and business process optimization. Eval‐Source is an industry leader in the analysis of software technology and our thought leadership has placed
us in the elite of consulting /analyst firms. As technology changes the need to understand your options and find the best fit for your organization is
more important now than ever before. What sets us apart is our unbiased best in class consulting services that provide our clients with value,
direction and success in selection, planning and optimization of their technology systems. Eval‐Source provides the professional services that put
your needs first and allow you to achieve success in your IT initiatives. We are the source for your solutions.
Zoho Support Product Review 15/02/2011