Zoho has integrated its online project management tool, along with some other features, with Google’s Apps — a linkage Zoho thinks will benefit users of both software suites.
Zoho and Google are competitors, offering a range of Web-based office applications and collaboration features that are designed to be an alternative to desktop suites such as Microsoft’s Office. Both Zoho and Google have their strengths, however, and it appears some people are opting to use both for some functions, according to Zoho.
“While customers enjoy the e-mail and calendaring functionality that Google Apps provides, they also recognize the need for a robust collaboration and project management solution,” according to the Zoho Project’s Web page.
Zoho Projects for Google Apps will let people sign on using their log-in and password for Google Apps. The accounts on both services will then be merged.
Then, users can put their documents from Google Apps into Zoho Projects, which has a host of features such as assigning tasks to people, setting milestones and meetings, sharing documents and running forum discussions and wikis as well as online group chat sessions.
Milestone, tasks and meetings can also be imported into Google’s Calendar. The calendar can also be embedded into Google Sites, a tool to create simple Web pages.
Zoho also has a gadget for Projects that can be embedded into Google products such as the iGoogle a personalized page, G-mail and other applications that support OpenSocial, an API (application programming interface) for social-networking applications.
Users can manage one project with Zoho’s Google integration for free. For more projects, prices start at $12 per month for 10 projects and 100MB of file storage up to $80 per month for unlimited projects with 25GB of storage, according to Zoho’s price list.