We get numerous requests for Zoho office suite as a server product, running behind the firewall. We are gratified to see that level of interest, but we still would say that there is another 3-6 months of evolution ahead before we would be satisfied to take off the beta label. Coming from the packaged software business at AdventNet, we understand the issues involved in installation, patching, migration and so on. It would lead to customer pain if we ship something that keeps getting updated every few weeks, as it happens with services such as Zoho Writer or Zoho Sheet. Services such as Zoho Creator actually get updated every few days, something that would cause customers to throw up their hands in frustration if they have to do the patching, migration work themselves. Therein lies one fundamental benefit of SaaS model. Eventually, of course, this pace will inevitably slow down, though AdventNet products still get an update every 3-6 months. In a polished mature product offering, customers don't want change too frequently, because they start to value stability more than features at that point. Clearly Zoho suite has still a way to go to achieve that level, but we are working hard on it.
Yes, we do plan on offering Zoho as downloadable software, but please give us some time. We haven't set a concrete time frame, but one key milestone is to move the currently-in-beta services off the beta tag.
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