Apple highlights how the Mac and its devices are making a difference at Zoho

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Back in 2021, Apple commissioned Forrester to do a study to find out how the economic impact of its devices on enterprises. As per the study, it was revealed that during the three-year device lifecycle, organisations save $635 per Mac compared to PCs. Many organisations across the world use Apple devices for their staff.

Closer home, one of the big names to do so is global software firm Zoho, which has 100 million plus users globally. 65% of employees at Zoho use a Mac and Rajendran Dandapani, director of technology, Zoho Corp, told Moneycontrol how the company adopted Apple’s devices — primarily Mac.

Rajendra said that the association with Mac goes back a long way and says that the time when Apple moved to grayscale of iOS — back in 2010 — Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu took a call to adopt Apple devices for the company. It was, as Rajendran says, about aiming for the perfection — both in the company's products and internal processes. So the Mac was a good fit.

Ask Rajendran why the other 35% of employees haven’t adopted Apple’s Mac, he makes a valid point. He says that he doesn’t want to be in a world where there’s just iPhone as diversity is always needed. Zoho also builds a lot of network monitoring tools where it has to work on custom configured Linux-based machines, so Mac can’t be used. Zoho also doesn’t want its employees to be locked in a single operating or ecosystem.

Talk of ecosystems and Rajendran says that the walled gardens often get a bad rap. At Zoho, he says that there are nice things around these walled gardens. A single sign-that allows everything to connect seamlessly is what Zoho promises — something which Apple is also renowned for.

Neil Shah, partner and co-founder at Counterpoint Research says that enterprises like Zoho are seeing  value in leveraging Apple devices. “I believe Apple is in a strong position to expand and succeed in enterprise with its entire portfolio and solutions from Mac to iPad to iPhone to Vision Pro to Apple Watch," he added.

Rajendran admits that investing in Apple’s devices is a costly proposition but in the long-run it does save money “Apple devices don’t seem to age that easily and that always helps,” he says.

Apple’s silicon has been an important factor for Zoho as well as in terms of improving the efficiency. “It might seem a minute here or two seconds saved there but it’s the combination of software and hardware goes a long way in improving efficiency”.

Zoho has a lot of employees that follow BYOD — bring your own devices — and to ensure what software comes in and that malware doesn’t come in and systems are updated, Mac makes it very easy, says Rajendran. “It’s also a great headache remover for an IT support engineer,” he adds.

Another area where Zoho is using Apple hardware is Zoho Schools. Rajendran says that 1,700 employees have come from Zoho Schools, where they get two years training — one in classroom and one in internship. The School of Design and School of Business students get a Mac each whereas they also share iPads and Apple Pencils.

Sometimes, according to Rajendran, it’s not about tangible benefits only. “Peace of mind is also very important,” he says and Apple devices, according to him has given that across the company.