Regarding use cases, I would say it's used in our organization during our internal proof of concept. The objective is to familiarize us with Zoho Creator as a platform. Additionally, it is to familiarize us with the features the solution possesses. This is a more exploratory phase of work that we are currently doing.
Even though I am part of CoE, which is primarily RPA CoE, explicitly speaking about Zoho Creator, I don't have much detail. So, it's not right for me to comment on what we are working on now in Zoho Creator. However, my team is currently working on an onboarding process using Zoho Creator. Additionally, internally, we have a certain training program since learning and development are very important in AAPNA Infotech. Hence, we are investing heavily in our employees. We initially planned to use some kind of data bank, so we planned to develop one. After that, we thought of using Zoho Creator. Also, since I am not 100% sure if my team is still working on that project, I have to check with them.
Regarding the solution's features, I attended an event organized by Zoho, which happened last year in September in India. There were four or five sessions specific to Zoho Creator in which they took us through some use cases and real-time experiences. If I remember correctly, they invited four customers for a photograph in one of the sessions since they had developed some applications using Zoho Creator only. So, it was really interesting to see, after which we, in our organization, thought of exploring Zoho Creator to see how we can leverage it. Basically, the application development part of the solution is one of the main features I like since it is quick. Within a few weeks, one can develop at least some prototype using Zoho Creator, and then you can expand it or maybe build something more on top of that.
It's very difficult for me to speak on the areas of the solution that need improvement since I am not the one who is going through the training. So, I have to speak with my team to know about the areas of the solution that need improvement. Zoho Creator's UX design needs to be improved. At the moment, if you want to make a good user interface, it is difficult to design an application that provides a better user experience or customer delight. Also, all the use cases and my understanding regarding the solution were primarily for the back-end support team only. Basically, it is not a customer-facing application that one can develop using Zoho Creator. It is more about the back-end support type of application or the one you want to use within your office for a smaller audience. So, I'm not sure whether one can develop some applications for an enterprise-level customer. I think that is an area where the solution can improve. Catalyst is also a platform Zoho provides, and combining both Zoho Creator and Catalyst can be great. So, it can be a lethal combination considering that someone wants to use it to build some application.
Our company uses Zoho Creator, a product offered by Zoho. We started utilizing the solution in January of this year and have only two and a half months of experience. Although we process for a Zoho partner, our internal team is currently working on some POC-related stuff, so we don't have any clients to whom we provide services. At present, we don't have a business relationship with Zoho. However, we will soon be partnering with Zoho. We learned about the partnership process during a conversation with them in January. After the conversation, a couple of team members underwent training and got certified. We started our journey with Zoho Creator after the training. Hopefully, we will begin the partnership process soon. For now, we are just customers.
Although Zoho Creator is working well, I cannot currently provide any rating, particularly regarding scalability and stability or any other parameter you may require me to rate.
Scalability issues will come into the picture if you have a lot of traffic on your application. So at this moment, nothing is in production, so I can't comment on the solution's scalability. Presently, in our organization, the solution has three users, all of whom work as software developers.
Our company has primarily worked with UiPath and Electroneek. Also, we do have some level of exposure to Microsoft Power Automate as well.
Another team uses a low-code platform called Decisions to develop applications quickly. And we have more than 20 team members working on several projects using Decisions.
I rate the solution's initial setup a six out of ten since, in our organization, we needed to dig deep to understand the solution, while simultaneously working on some real-time projects to understand more about the features and what capabilities Zoho Creator offers.
The solution's deployment can be done in a few minutes.
For the solution's implementation in our organization, we have an in-house team responsible for setting up the CI/CD pipeline. Also, all processes are automated these days. So, nothing is manual. After setting up the CI/CD pipeline, which takes care of everything, like building the code before running some test cases and then deploying on a UAT environment or a production environment, depending on where one wants to apply the solution.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten for pricing since it is really cheap.
There is one more tool in which our company has some expertise. Unfortunately, I'm unable to recall the name of that platform. The whole reason for choosing Zoho Creator for our organization was because Zoho as a product has a very good market. Zoho has a scope for the future because its vision is great, which is something we learned during the two-day event organized by Zoho. So, Zoho is taking care of the application and developing some infrastructure. Zoho is a great organization, and we decided to partner with them. Additionally, another sector that we were exploring was CRM. In the past, after our analysis and evaluation of HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and one more tool, we chose Zoho CRM because of specific parameters, including cost. In short, we found Zoho CRM much better. After opting for Zoho CRM, we thought of exploring other Zoho products.
Our company's partnership with Zoho Creator will begin in a couple of months. Once the partnership is established, our team will become experts in Zoho Creator and serve as brand ambassadors for the product. This collaboration with Zoho Creator will allow us to sell the solution to our clients. Based on these factors, I would recommend Zoho Creator to others. As we continue to explore the solution further, my rating may improve. Currently, I would rate Zoho Creator a seven out of ten.
