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Xaas Genie’s observations from conversations with customers, partners, industry voices and the Zoho teams building what comes next.

We went to Zoholics India 2026 to listen. We came back with a few questions of our own.

This year’s event felt different—not because there were fewer product announcements, but because so many of the conversations seemed to point in the same direction. At Zoho’s Estancia Campus in Chennai, we spoke with customers, prospects, partners, industry voices, analysts, Zoho leadership, product and offering teams, sales teams and regional alliance teams.

The individual conversations were different. The underlying concern was often the same: businesses don’t really want another piece of software to manage. They want the systems they already have to work better together.

Less fragmentation. Less manual work. Better context. Faster time-to-value. And, increasingly, a very practical question about AI: can it actually do something useful with the data a business already has?

That, for us, was the most interesting shift at Zoholics—from buying applications to connecting the business.

What We Heard from the Market

The conversations were refreshingly practical. There was plenty of interest in AI, but very little appetite for AI simply because it is the latest thing. The questions were much closer to the day-to-day reality of running a business.

• Where can we get people out of spreadsheets and manual reporting?
• Why does the same customer or transaction still have to be moved between systems?
• How do we reduce the amount of work that depends on one person knowing the workaround?
• How do we scale a process without scaling the headcount behind it?
• How do we turn a new technology capability into something the business can actually measure?

The other question sitting underneath all of this was adoption. As AI and agentic capabilities become more capable, businesses will need to decide not only what they can automate, but what their people will actually use—and trust.

For us, that is an important distinction. The value of technology is not really in the number of features switched on. It is in what changes in the way the business operates.

The Partner Conversation Is Changing 

We heard a similar shift in conversations with partners. The old question was often: “Can you implement Zoho?” The more interesting question now is: “Can you solve the business problem?”

That takes a different kind of conversation. It starts with the industry and the process, then moves through data, integration and automation, and only then gets to AI and adoption.

Industry → Process → Data → Integration → Automation → AI → Adoption

The technology sits underneath all of this. The outcome sits above it.

That is why we think the partner’s role is changing. It is less about configuring an application in isolation and more about understanding how the business works, connecting the right systems, redesigning the process where necessary, and making sure people actually use what has been built.

In other words, the value increasingly sits between the applications and the business.

What Zoho Is Signaling

The announcements and demonstrations at Zoholics reinforced that direction. Zoho is pushing toward a platform that is more connected, more intelligent and more deeply aware of the industries it serves.

Zia Chat was one of the clearest examples. Zoho presented it as a conversational interface across Zoho applications, with the ability to connect to external systems through MCP integrations. The idea is straightforward: instead of moving between applications to find context and then take an action, users can ask, understand, analyse and act through one interface—within the permissions already defined for them.

Zoho also highlighted vertical SaaS initiatives across seven industries—retail, automotive, BFSI, healthcare, education, real estate and restaurants. Alongside these were developments in Zia Agents, Agent Studio, AgentInbox, Zoho One, Analytics, developer tools and connected suites such as People Plus.

Taken together, these are more than a collection of new features. They point toward a model in which context, reasoning and action increasingly sit across the business rather than inside one application.

From AI Assistance to Action

One of the biggest shifts we noticed was the move from AI that helps with a task to AI that can increasingly take part in the task.

The discussion around Zia is moving toward agents that can handle multi-step work—lead scoring, follow-ups, support triage, reporting and workflow triggers—within defined permissions and controls.

That creates an important difference. An AI feature can help someone do today’s job a little faster. An AI-enabled operating model can change how the job itself gets done.

But the second requires foundations. The data has to be reliable. The processes have to be clear. The integrations have to work. Permissions need to be thought through. And the people using the system need to understand what it is doing and why.

The Interface Is Changing Too 

There was another theme we kept coming back to: people spend an extraordinary amount of time navigating software.

They open one application, search for something, move to another system, copy information across, send an email, check a spreadsheet and then go back to the first system. The data may exist, but the context is scattered.

A conversational layer changes that experience. Instead of asking employees to remember where information lives, the interaction can start with what they need to know or what they need to get done.

The applications don’t necessarily disappear. But they can become much less visible in the day-to-day experience of running the business.

Vertical Depth Meets a Connected Platform

Zoho’s move into vertical SaaS adds another interesting dimension. A broad platform can cover a lot of ground, but some industries have workflows, terminology, controls and compliance requirements that generic configuration cannot fully address.

The seven vertical initiatives suggest that Zoho is increasingly building some of that industry context into the product itself rather than leaving everything to customisation later.

For businesses, the question becomes more nuanced: what should come from the standard platform, what needs industry-specific capability, and where does custom process automation create the real difference?

The Real Challenge: Adoption 

If we had to reduce our takeaway from Chennai to one word, it would be adoption.

A business can have CRM, Finance, HR, Projects, Analytics, Creator and AI—and still run important parts of the operation through Excel, WhatsApp, email and a handful of workarounds that everyone knows but nobody officially owns.

So the question isn’t simply, “What can Zoho do?”

A better question is: “What will people actually adopt—and what business problem will it remove?”

That is where implementation, process design, integration and change management become much more than delivery disciplines. They determine whether the technology becomes part of the operating model or remains another layer on top of it.

What This Means for Xaas Genie 

Zoholics reinforced something we have been seeing in our own work: many businesses don’t need more applications. They need to get more value from the applications they already have.

For us, that means starting with the operational problem, not the product catalogue. It means looking at where work is still manual, where data gets stuck, where systems don’t talk to each other and where people have created workarounds simply to get the job done.

It also means preparing the foundations for what comes next—stronger data, better processes, sensible integrations and an adoption plan—before asking AI or agents to take on more responsibility.

The goal is not to make the technology more visible. Ideally, it becomes less visible because the business simply works better.

Beyond the Apps 

This is probably our biggest takeaway from Chennai.

The next Zoho opportunity isn’t necessarily another application. It is the connected business.

Applications connect. Data connects. Processes connect. AI connects context. And people actually use the system.

That changes the role of the partner too. From implementer to business transformation partner.

We came to Chennai to listen. We came back thinking differently. And we suspect this conversation is only getting started.

Want to Talk Through Your Zoho Setup? 

If your business already runs on Zoho but still relies heavily on spreadsheets, manual handoffs, disconnected applications or workarounds, we’d be happy to have a practical conversation about it.

You don’t need to prepare a formal RFP or know which Zoho product you need. Bring us the business problem. A Xaas Genie consultant can look at the process with you, identify where the friction sits, and discuss what could realistically be improved through integration, automation, process redesign or AI.

→ Request a conversation with a Xaas Genie expert​

Tell us the process or business challenge you are trying to fix, and we’ll take it from there.

XAAS Genie is pleased to announce that it is now an official Zoho Commerce partner, expanding its capabilities to help businesses build, manage, and scale their ecommerce operations through connected digital solutions.

The partnership brings together XAAS Genie’s expertise in digital transformation, business process automation, and the Zoho ecosystem with Zoho Commerce, an all-in-one ecommerce platform designed to help businesses create online stores, manage products and orders, handle inventory and payments, and grow their digital presence.

Enabling Connected Ecommerce Operations

Ecommerce today extends far beyond having an online storefront. Businesses need to manage product catalogs, inventory, orders, payments, shipping, customer engagement, and analytics while delivering a consistent experience across their digital channels.

When these functions operate across disconnected systems, businesses can face fragmented workflows, duplicated effort, and limited visibility across their operations.

Zoho Commerce brings key ecommerce functions together within a unified platform. Businesses can create and customize online storefronts, manage products and inventory, process orders, integrate payment and shipping providers, and access tools for marketing, SEO, and analytics.

Through this partnership, XAAS Genie can help businesses leverage these capabilities as part of a broader digital transformation strategy, enabling them to build ecommerce environments that are more connected, efficient, and aligned with their business processes.

Connecting Commerce with the Wider Business Ecosystem

For growing businesses, ecommerce cannot operate in isolation. Sales, inventory, finance, marketing, customer management, and fulfillment all play a role in delivering a seamless commerce experience.

Zoho Commerce can connect with applications across the Zoho ecosystem, including Zoho Inventory, Zoho Books, Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho PageSense, and Zoho Flow. These integrations allow businesses to connect ecommerce activities with broader operational and customer-facing processes.

For organizations already using Zoho applications, this connected approach can help reduce operational silos and create a more unified flow of information across ecommerce and back-office functions.

With XAAS Genie’s expertise in business process transformation and the broader Zoho ecosystem, the partnership creates opportunities to help organizations approach ecommerce as part of an integrated digital business environment rather than as a standalone storefront.

Supporting Businesses as They Scale

As businesses expand their digital presence, their ecommerce requirements evolve. Larger product catalogs, increasing order volumes, multiple sales channels, and growing customer expectations can make ecommerce operations more complex to manage.

Zoho Commerce provides capabilities across storefront creation, product and order management, inventory, payments, shipping, marketing, and analytics, giving businesses a platform to manage key aspects of their ecommerce operations.

As an official Zoho Commerce partner, XAAS Genie can support businesses in implementing and aligning these capabilities with their specific operational requirements and growth objectives.

The focus goes beyond setting up an online store. It is about creating connected ecommerce processes that work alongside the systems businesses already rely on.

Expanding XAAS Genie’s Zoho Ecosystem

The addition of Zoho Commerce further strengthens XAAS Genie’s growing portfolio of Zoho capabilities and reinforces its focus on helping businesses adopt connected, scalable technology solutions.

By combining Zoho Commerce’s ecommerce capabilities with XAAS Genie’s consulting, implementation, and digital transformation expertise, the partnership can help organizations simplify their commerce operations while connecting them with other critical business functions.

This creates a stronger foundation for businesses looking to digitize their commerce processes, improve operational visibility, and build technology environments that can evolve with their needs.

Looking Ahead

The Zoho Commerce partnership marks another step in XAAS Genie’s continued expansion of its digital transformation and Zoho ecosystem capabilities.

As businesses increasingly look to strengthen their digital commerce presence while maintaining efficient and connected operations, XAAS Genie looks forward to helping organizations make the most of Zoho Commerce and build ecommerce environments designed for long-term growth.

With Zoho Commerce, XAAS Genie continues its commitment to helping businesses turn technology into connected, efficient, and scalable digital operations.

XAAS Genie is pleased to announce that it is now an official Zoho Learn partner, expanding its capabilities to help organizations build structured knowledge management and learning ecosystems.

The partnership brings together XAAS Genie’s expertise in digital transformation, business process automation, and Zoho solutions with Zoho Learn, Zoho’s knowledge and learning management platform designed to help organizations centralize information, create training programs, and build a culture of continuous learning.

Turning Organizational Knowledge into a Strategic Asset

As businesses grow, critical knowledge often becomes scattered across documents, emails, shared drives, and individual teams. At the same time, organizations need consistent ways to onboard employees, document processes, deliver training, and ensure that teams have access to the information they need.

Zoho Learn provides a centralized environment where organizations can create and organize knowledge bases, document SOPs and processes, collaborate on content, and control access to information. Its learning management capabilities also allow businesses to create courses and learning paths, conduct assessments, and track learner progress.

Through this partnership, XAAS Genie can help organizations approach knowledge and learning as connected components of their broader digital transformation strategy.

From Documentation to Continuous Learning

One of the key strengths of Zoho Learn is its ability to bring knowledge management and employee learning together on a single platform.

Organizations can use Zoho Learn to build centralized knowledge repositories for policies, SOPs, manuals, and process documentation, while also transforming that knowledge into structured training programs. Courses can include different content formats, quizzes, assignments, learning paths, and progress tracking to support more effective learning experiences.

The platform also supports knowledge sharing beyond internal teams, with capabilities for creating branded external portals for customers, partners, and other stakeholders.

This creates opportunities for businesses to build more consistent approaches to employee onboarding, process training, customer education, partner enablement, and compliance learning.

Strengthening XAAS Genie’s Zoho Ecosystem

As an official Zoho Learn partner, XAAS Genie continues to expand its ability to help organizations get greater value from the Zoho ecosystem.

The partnership complements XAAS Genie’s existing focus on helping businesses simplify processes, adopt digital tools, and create connected technology environments. By combining implementation and transformation expertise with Zoho Learn’s knowledge management and learning capabilities, XAAS Genie can support organizations in moving from simply storing information to actively creating, sharing, and applying organizational knowledge.

Zoho Learn also incorporates AI-powered capabilities that can assist with content creation, including generating SOPs, course outlines, and lessons, further supporting organizations in building and maintaining their knowledge and training content.

Looking Ahead

Becoming an official Zoho Learn partner marks another step in XAAS Genie’s continued expansion of its Zoho capabilities and digital transformation portfolio.

As organizations place greater emphasis on knowledge retention, employee enablement, process standardization, and continuous learning, XAAS Genie looks forward to helping businesses build structured knowledge and learning environments that support both their people and their growth.

With Zoho Learn, XAAS Genie aims to help organizations turn their collective knowledge into an accessible, structured, and continuously evolving business asset.

XAAS Genie, a digital transformation and automation company, is pleased to announce that it is now an official partner of Intellistack, strengthening its capabilities in intelligent workflow automation and process transformation.

The partnership brings together XAAS Genie’s expertise in helping organizations transform and automate business processes with Intellistack’s AI-native, no-code workflow automation platform. Intellistack Streamline is designed to help organizations modernize manual processes, connect siloed systems, and build secure, data-driven workflows without the need for traditional development.

Bringing Intelligent Automation Closer to Businesses

As organizations continue to adopt digital technologies, disconnected systems, repetitive manual processes, and fragmented workflows can create significant operational challenges. Businesses increasingly need solutions that can connect existing systems, simplify processes, and enable teams to work more efficiently.

Through this partnership, XAAS Genie will be able to further explore and deliver intelligent workflow automation capabilities that help organizations address these challenges. Intellistack Streamline enables teams to build customized workflows involving forms, documents, contracts, eSignatures, approvals, notifications, and integrations with existing business systems.

The platform’s no-code approach also allows business teams to participate directly in designing and improving workflows, while built-in governance and access controls support organizations working with sensitive business data.

A Partnership Built Around Smarter Processes

The collaboration reflects a shared focus on making digital transformation more accessible, practical, and impactful for organizations.

By combining XAAS Genie’s consulting and automation expertise with Intellistack’s workflow automation technology, the partnership creates opportunities to help businesses move beyond isolated automation initiatives and toward more connected, intelligent processes.

From digitizing manual workflows and connecting business systems to automating document-driven processes and enabling data-driven experiences, the collaboration is positioned to support organizations looking to improve efficiency while making better use of their existing technology investments.

Looking Ahead

Becoming an official Intellistack partner marks another step in XAAS Genie’s continued expansion of its digital transformation and automation ecosystem.

As businesses look for smarter ways to simplify operations and adapt to increasingly complex technology environments, XAAS Genie and Intellistack will work together to bring intelligent, no-code workflow automation closer to organizations seeking to transform the way work gets done.

XAAS Genie looks forward to building on this partnership and helping businesses turn complex processes into connected, efficient, and intelligent workflows.

Kolkata, August 15, 2026: Independence Day in India is a celebration of freedom, community and the spirit of coming together. In Salt Lake, Kolkata, that spirit took to the football field this year as the Purbachal Sports & Cultural Association (PSCA) hosted the 41st edition of its annual ‘Freedom for Goal’ football tournament.

XAAS Genie was proud to support the community sporting event as one of its sponsors, contributing to an initiative that brings together people of different ages and backgrounds through the city’s enduring love for football.

Organized every year on August 15, ‘Freedom for Goal’ has become a part of the local sporting tradition in Kolkata. The tournament, hosted by PSCA, an association established in 1986, combines the celebration of Independence Day with the energy of community football. The 2026 edition marked 41 consecutive years of the tournament, reflecting the event’s longevity and the role sport continues to play in bringing communities together.

For XAAS Genie, supporting the tournament was about more than associating with a sporting event. It was an opportunity to encourage an active and healthy lifestyle while supporting a community tradition that has continued across generations.

Football has a unique ability to bring people together. On the field, age and profession take a back seat to teamwork, participation, and the simple joy of playing. ‘Freedom for Goal’ reflects that spirit particularly well, creating a space where both young and older members of the community can participate, engage, and celebrate the occasion together.

The tournament featured local football matches and community participation, alongside the presence of special guests and dignitaries. The atmosphere around the event reflected the enthusiasm that football continues to generate across Kolkata, where the sport has long been deeply woven into the city’s culture.

Supporting a healthier, more active community

As a technology and business solutions company, XAAS Genie works with organizations to help them become more efficient, connected and future-ready. But its engagement with communities extends beyond business.

Supporting initiatives that promote fitness, participation and community well-being is part of recognizing the importance of a healthy workforce and a healthy society. Sporting activities, particularly community-led ones, create opportunities for people to step away from increasingly sedentary routines, connect with others and stay active.

The ‘Freedom for Goal’ tournament offered a fitting platform for that message. Held on Independence Day, the event brought together the values of participation and togetherness with one of India’s most loved sports.

For XAAS Genie, the association also reflects a broader belief that meaningful community engagement does not always have to be centered around technology or business. Sometimes, it is simply about supporting the things that bring people together.

Celebrating Independence through the spirit of sport

The 41st edition of ‘Freedom for Goal’ was another reminder of the enduring role that local sporting traditions can play in a community. Four decades after its beginning, the tournament continues to give football enthusiasts a reason to come together every Independence Day.

By supporting the event, XAAS Genie was pleased to contribute to a celebration that puts fitness, football and community spirit at the center of Independence Day celebrations in Salt Lake, Kolkata.

The company looks forward to continuing to support initiatives that encourage active lifestyles, strengthen communities and create opportunities for people to come together on the football field and beyond.

New Delhi | July 2026 – Global Solar Expo 2026 brought together manufacturers, EPCs, installers, technology providers, buyers and other stakeholders from across the renewable-energy ecosystem.

For XAAS Genie Consulting, the event was an opportunity to look beyond the exhibition floor and understand what businesses across the sector are actually dealing with as the industry scales.

Mahuya Puri, CEO & Director of XAAS Genie Consulting, along with members of the XAAS Genie consulting team, spent time on the ground interacting with business owners, customers, technology providers and industry professionals — gaining a closer view of the conversations, forecasts and emerging trends shaping the renewable-energy sector. One observation stood out: the renewable-energy business is becoming more connected. Its underlying business processes are not always keeping pace.

From Products to Ecosystems

Solar is no longer simply about panels, inverters and installation. The industry is evolving into a broader ecosystem involving manufacturers, distributors, EPCs, installers, financing partners, service providers, technology companies and asset owners. Storage, EV integration, distributed energy and evolving customer expectations are adding further layers of complexity.

As the ecosystem expands, businesses increasingly need visibility across the entire customer and asset lifecycle — not just within individual functions.

What the Industry Is Talking About 

Several themes consistently surfaced through conversations on the ground:

Scale is creating complexity.

As businesses grow, sales, project execution, procurement, installation, service and finance often evolve as separate functions, creating hand-off gaps and operational friction.

Digital systems remain fragmented.

CRM, ERP, project management, field operations, finance and customer-service systems often operate independently, leaving teams dependent on spreadsheets, emails and manual data movement.

Automation is moving up the agenda.

Businesses are looking beyond basic task automation towards connected workflows that can reduce manual intervention across the customer and operational journey.

AI is becoming part of the conversation.

From forecasting and customer engagement to operational intelligence, AI is increasingly being considered as part of the digital operating model — rather than as a standalone technology initiative.

Lifecycle visibility is becoming more important.

As renewable-energy businesses move from selling equipment to managing longer-term customer and asset relationships, visibility beyond the initial transaction is becoming increasingly valuable.

The Technology Challenge Is Really a Process Challenge

The challenge is not necessarily a lack of technology. In many cases, the bigger issue is how existing technology, people and processes work together.

A lead may begin in a CRM, move into project planning, pass through procurement and installation, and eventually become a service or asset-management relationship. If each stage operates in isolation, valuable information is lost between the handoffs.

This is where digitization needs to move beyond individual applications towards process integration — connecting the commercial, operational and customer-facing layers of the business.

Experience Shapes the Solution

XAAS Genie’s engagement with the renewable-energy sector extends beyond the conversations at Global Solar Expo. The team has experience working across renewable-energy use cases spanning solar, EV and wind-energy businesses, gaining an understanding of the operational realities that sit behind technology decisions.

That experience has also informed Renew Genie, XAAS Genie’s renewable-energy focused process automation and digital transformation accelerator. Built around the practical requirements of the sector, it reflects the same principle XGC applies across its consulting work: understand the business and its domain first, then determine where technology can create meaningful value.

Platforms such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator can form part of that technology layer where they fit the business requirement — but the starting point remains the process, not the platform.

From Connected Technology to Connected Enterprises 

This is perhaps the larger opportunity emerging across renewable energy. The next phase of digital transformation will not simply be about adding another application or automating another task. It will be about creating a connected operating environment where information moves with the business, processes work across functional boundaries, and leadership has a clearer view of what is happening across the customer and asset lifecycle. The technology already exists.The bigger question is whether businesses are connecting it effectively.

The Bigger Takeaway 

Global Solar Expo 2026 reinforced an important shift: the renewable-energy industry is moving from a technology-led ecosystem towards a more connected business ecosystem. For XAAS Genie, being present at industry events is part of understanding that transition first-hand — listening to businesses, understanding their challenges and observing where the market is heading before designing solutions around it.

Because transformation does not begin with implementation. It begins with understanding the business. For more insights into digital transformation, automation and connected processes across renewable energy and other industries, connect with Mahuya Puri, CEO & Director, or the XAAS Genie Consulting team.

For the industry, this shift could make aggregation and partnerships increasingly important. Manufacturers can gain wider market access, solution providers can extend their reach, and buyers can benefit from simpler routes to finding and implementing the right solutions.

From technology to business value

The evolution is also changing how solar companies communicate with the market. Technical specifications remain critical, but commercial buyers are increasingly looking at the broader business value of a solution, cost, implementation, financing, scalability and long-term performance.

“What I found particularly interesting was the way the conversation is becoming broader. Companies are not just talking about what their technology does; there is much more focus on how it fits into a larger solution and how it creates value for the customer.”

This has implications not only for technology and partnerships, but also for marketing and customer experience. As the market becomes more complex, companies that can make sophisticated solutions easier to understand, evaluate and adopt may have a distinct advantage.

Looking beyond the hardware

For Mahuya, the Expo reinforced the idea that the next phase of solar growth will require more than technological advancement.

“My biggest takeaway from the Expo was that the future of solar is going to be about much more than hardware. The companies that can build strong ecosystems, create meaningful partnerships and make the entire customer journey simpler will have a very important role to play in the next phase of the energy transition.”

Global Solar Expo 2026 offered a glimpse of an industry continuing to mature, not just through better technology, but through stronger connections between the businesses, customers and capabilities that make adoption possible.

For XAAS Genie, that evolution highlights a broader opportunity: using digital infrastructure and connected business processes to help industries turn fragmented capabilities into scalable ecosystems.