Riyadh – Asdaf News:
Zoho, a global technology company, today launched VAT-compliant Zoho POS for Saudi businesses. The company, recorded 41% growth in the Kingdom last year, also announced that its local data centres have received Class B certification from Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST).
The announcements, aimed at supporting digital transformation goals laid down in Saudi Vision 2030, were made on the sidelines of Zoholics Saudi, the company’s annual user conference. According to the Saudi Vision 2030 Report, the size of Saudi Arabia’s digital economy has reached approximately SAR495 billion in 2024, contributing 15% to the national GDP.
“The achievement of the data centre certifications and launching localised solutions showcase our continued investment in the Kingdom, which remains one of our fastest growing markets,” said Hyther Nizam, President, Zoho MEA. “With government’s push towards digital transformation, and organisations modernising their legacy systems in order to benefit from emerging technologies like AI, Zoho, with its wide portfolio of products and localisation strategy is uniquely positioned to support this growth. We continue to invest in the Kingdom to empower businesses of every size to adopt scalable, future-ready technologies.”
Growth Momentum
Zoho previously committed to investing SAR 500 million in the Kingdom, and opened its data centres in Riyadh and Jeddah early last year. The company said that Class B certification from CST would enable it to process public and confidential data from private and government entities within the Kingdom, in accordance with NCA Cloud Cybersecurity Controls. With Saudi organisations prioritising data residency and NCA Cloud Cybersecurity Controls compliance, vendors with CST-classified local data centres have a significant advantage.
Apart from having local data centres, one of the key drivers behind Zoho’s growth has been its upmarket momentum as more and more mid-market and enterprise organisations choose its solutions for their operations. The company saw 84% y-o-y upmarket growth in 2024, and has sustained the momentum this year. Some of its enterprise customers include SiFi, Cruise Saudi, Morni, 9Round. More recently, Zoho has started working with Al Ahli and AlQadsiah football clubs to help with their digital transformation. Saudi enterprises are accelerating CX modernisation, especially across BFSI, sports, and tourism—areas where integrated platforms are increasingly replacing fragmented legacy systems.
The products driving Zoho’s growth are: Zoho One (unified platform with 55+ apps), Zoho Books (ZATCA-approved VAT and e-invoicing compliant accounting solution), Zoho Workplace (email and collaboration for enterprises), Zoho CRM Plus (customer experience platform for sales, marketing and support), and Zoho Creator (low-code app development platform). The key industries for Zoho are: BFSI, IT, Retail, Real Estate and Construction, and Manufacturing.
The company has grown its local partner network by 48% in 2024, in order to work more closely with its Saudi customers. The company also doubled its workforce, largely hiring locally, in 2024 in order to support its growth in the Kingdom.
“Localisation is not just an initiative for us—it’s a long-term commitment to the Kingdom,” said Saran B. Parmasivam, Regional Director, Zoho MEA. “By strengthening Arabic support in products, increasing local integrations, expanding partner network and hiring locally for customer-facing roles, we are reinforcing our dedication to serving Saudi businesses and fuelling our growth in the region. The launch of localised solutions like Zoho POS, adding AI capabilities in our products, and earning compliance certifications for our DCs are all steps in this direction.”
Launch of Zoho POS for Saudi Arabia
Zoho POS is a VAT-compliant modern POS solution for retail stores to streamline their day-to-day operations and easily monitor them from one place. The short implementation time allows stores in Saudi to start using the POS software in an hour, and the ease of use allows them to train their employees quickly, an essential requirement for a sector with high employee churn. Saudi Arabia’s retail sector, valued at more than SAR 500 billion in 2024, is rapidly adopting modern POS solutions to support omnichannel operations and compliance requirements.
Zoho POS comes with a native billing app, available for Windows, iOS, and Android, that can also be used offline. During peak hours, cashier can use the mobile POS billing app to parallelly bill customers and shorten the checkout queue.
Zoho POS has an all-in-one admin console where businesses can manage operations such as inventory management, customer details, transaction information, and vendor data. They can also gain real-time insights to enhance their store performance with the help of powerful reports on sales, inventory, etc.
Zoho POS integrates with After Ship, UPS, USPS, and EasyShip for shipping, Shopify and Zoho Commerce for e-commerce, Zoho Books for accounting, and WhatsApp and Twilio for customer and vendor communication. The app has Arabic language support, RTL orientation, and the option to print customer invoices in Arabic.
AI-powered Zoho One for Contextual Collaboration
Zoho One’s new features offer unification across three domains: Intelligence (AI), User Experience, and Integrations. On the Intelligence front, Zoho One is leveraging Zoho’s AI assistant, Zia to aggregate and contextualise data from multiple platforms, including third-party apps, into a single, actionable answer. This enables organisations to make faster, more informed decisions, eliminating data silos and enhancing productivity.
Zoho One’s new UX offers a connected, context-aware user experience with the introduction of Spaces. Relevant applications are grouped in respective Spaces: Personal (productivity and collaboration apps), Organisation (Forums, Town Halls etc) and Department (HR, Marketing, Finance). With the new enhancements, users can add upcoming meetings, uncompleted tasks, scheduled Cliq messages or emails, and more in their Action Panel, accessible from any app within Zoho One.
The third pillar of this new version for Zoho One is Integrations, delivered natively. The platform now offers a centralised integration panel, allowing admins to view, create, monitor and configure connections across Zoho and third-party apps. Additionally, given that workflows cut across apps, Zoho One has also introduced workflow-driven integrations such as Smart Offboarding, which handles user transitions, device data, and permissions from one guided flow. It also offers a Administration console, powered by Zoho Directory, for advanced security features like anomaly detection, Bring Your Own Keys and comprehensive audit logs.
