At a time when the so-called high tide has tapered, digital-led businesses such as SAAS now appear to be creating new strategies to sustain. Instead of acquiring new clients, retaining existing ones seems to be the focus currently. In a conversation with BrandWagon Online, Shailesh Kumar, co-founder and vice-president of engineering, Manage Engine and Rajesh Ganesan, president, Manage Engine, Zoho Corp talk about how they plan to sustain when the growth rate is no longer 30% (Edited Excerpts)
How do you see Zoho’s role evolving in the lives of digital ecosystems in the coming years?
Yes, we talked about digitalisation. A business has a lot of front-end building functions. This means that a business will need to find customers and retain customers. In that process, a business will need to have a customer relationship manager, customer support system, and invoicing system, among others. That is what Zoho will primarily focus on. How can a business enable its sales team? Besides internal communication within a company, how can one run marketing campaigns? These are all front-ending functions.
What about Manage Engine?
However, a company will also have a complex digital infrastructure. For example, how should it manage the mobile phones of its employees, as it is a very easy way to get ransomware into the entire company? So there is the digital infrastructure that needs to be managed, monitored, and maintained and it is here that Manage Engine focuses on using that technology infrastructure. Apps and digital capabilities are built to run businesses. The demarcation is very clear.
By what percentage have you seen a decline in growth?
The growth has indeed declined from 30%, however, being a private organisation, we are not at liberty to share the exact data. While it’s not 30% anymore, it neither is three percent. So far it has been a steady drop.
How do you sustain in this kind of scenario?
I tell non-people in this kind of scenario, first go and read the Serenity Prayer. And then we will talk about what are some strategies. Even as numbers play a very important role and you should see us on 31st of every month, how serious we are about numbers. Post that we only focus on strategies. Numbers are then used to ask the right set of questions to drive growth. We have a very, very large existing customer base, right? That is our primary goal – just retain that base. A lot of the growth is sort of guaranteed. Also, as we have a subscription business model. So primarily, customers pay annually.