Goodbye beta, Zoho Reports reveals an improved production release

Yesterday, Zoho announced the production release of Zoho Reports. The newest version of the application, formerly available in beta as Zoho DB, aims to improve users' ability to synthesize business data in a visual way. (Watch a demo of the application.) 

"Users can upload or synchronize data from spreadsheets, web or traditional applications; build reports and charts in minutes via the drag-and-drop interface; and then share their reports and dashboards with key performance indicators," all without seeking guidance from the IT department, said Rodrigo Vaca, director of marketing at Zoho in a press release.

The new features in the latest release of the application include:

• A dashboard view, which allows users to group similar reports together and view all reports on a single page,
• An iGoogle gadget tool, which allows users to embed the gadget version of Zoho Reports in their iGoogle home page, and  
• New pricing, which starts at $15 per month.

A review by TechCrunch, calls the business intelligence tool "compelling" because it offers features that are hard to find in other, similar applications. "I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record but Zoho has implemented an intelligent strategy to continue to launch new products and add-ons to its existing offerings. Zoho knows that it will have to fight an uphill battle to keep users from flocking to Google Apps and soon Microsoft's Web-based version of Microsoft 2010," says TechCrunch's Leena Rao.

For more:
- see the Zoho press release
- see the video
- see the TechCrunch article

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