ZohoPress ReleaseHindu Tamil Thisai Saves 40% in Costs with Zoho Creator

Hindu Tamil Thisai Saves 40% in Costs with Zoho Creator, Redefining Operational Efficiency

The Tamil daily’s low-code journey modernises workflows, streamlines processes, and accelerates digital transformation across departments

Chennai, November 6, 2024 – Hindu Tamil Thisai, a leading Tamil daily from The Hindu Group, has achieved a 40% reduction in IT costs while driving significant operational transformation by implementing Zoho Creator, Zoho’s low-code application development platform. This digital transformation has streamlined workflows and reinforced the publication's commitment to technological innovation, enabling it to deliver quality journalism with agility and efficiency.

Since its launch in 2013, the publication has served a diverse audience with nine editions, covering both local and international news, and a circulation of over 300,000 copies. In its modernization efforts, the publication sought a flexible, scalable solution to unify workflows in advertising, event management, and newspaper production. Zoho Creator emerged as the ideal platform, enabling the publication to optimize core processes, enhance collaboration, lower costs, and increase operational agility across departments.

Addressing Key Operational Challenges

Previously, the publication relied on a mix of technologies including.NET, PHP, React, and Power BI to manage various aspects of their operations. However, these traditional solutions required extensive manual coding and maintenance, which resulted in time-consuming processes and high operational costs. Seeking a faster, more cost-effective solution, the publication turned to Zoho Creator—a low-code platform that provided seamless integration with their existing systems and allowed for the rapid development of tailored applications. Their familiarity with other Zoho applications, such as Zoho Billing, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Books, made the transition to Zoho Creator both efficient and intuitive.

Transformative Applications on Zoho Creator

Within five months, The Hindu Tamil developed three core applications on Zoho Creator that have redefined their workflows, benefiting over hundreds of users across six departments:

  1. Subscription Hub: Automates customer onboarding, invoicing, and subscription renewals, integrated with Zoho Billing. This system also tracks sales activities via Google API, capturing check-ins and check-outs, and automatically processes travel reimbursements. By centralising these functions, the publication has saved significant time and reduced administrative overhead.
  2. Ad and Event Manager: Manages ad and event bookings end-to-end, automating the ad placement process from booking to billing through integration with Zoho Books. This module also supports event planning with seamless coordination through Zoho Backstage, eliminating manual data entry and enhancing the efficiency of both ad and event operations.
  3. Printing Production Tracker: Provides real-time visibility into inventory across branches with Zoho Inventory integration, ensuring effective management of newspaper stock and regulatory compliance through automated e-way bills and invoices. The printing tracker has optimised inventory oversight and resource allocation, creating a streamlined workflow for print production.

Operational Impact and Key Benefits

The adoption of Zoho Creator has delivered substantial benefits across The Hindu Tamil’s operations:

  1. Efficiency Gains:: With integrated applications, the publication has accelerated subscription processing, streamlined printing management, and gained a unified view of data across workflows, reducing the time and effort required for routine tasks.
  2. Significant Time Savings: Shifting from manual coding to Zoho Creator’s intuitive low-code platform has freed up valuable time, allowing the team to focus on strategic tasks that drive productivity and overall operational effectiveness. This streamlined system enables quicker adaptation to changing operational needs without the burden of heavy coding.
  3. 40% Cost Reduction: By eliminating the reliance on traditional technical resources, the publication has achieved a 40% reduction in technical costs, underlining the platform’s ROI and value.The platform’s widgets, pages, and API integrations have further simplified operations, reducing dependency on manual interventions.

Commenting on the transformation, Shankar V Subramaniam, Chief Executive Officer of Hindu Tamil, said, "KSL Media Limited, the publisher of Hindu Tamil Thisai newspaper and its digital platforms , faced high IT costs due to reliance on manual coding and multiple platforms (.NET, PHP, React, Power BI). After evaluating various options, we chose Zoho Creator to streamline our business processes. With the development of key applications—Subscription Hub for customer onboarding and invoicing, Ad and Event Manager for ad bookings and event coordination, and Printing Production Tracker for inventory and e-way bill management—we achieved substantial cost reductions, improved efficiency and productivity, enhanced user experience, and saved time. The seamless integration with other Zoho products has been invaluable in modernizing our operations."

"Zoho Creator empowers organizations to automate workflows, streamline business processes, and create custom applications without the need for extensive coding. For an IT Head, it's a powerful tool to enable agility, improve efficiency, and ensure seamless integration across teams, all while reducing development time and operational costs", added Gopinathan S.M ,IT Head Hindu Tamil 

Bharath Kumar, Head of Marketing and Customer Experience, Zoho Creator, added: “It’s wonderful to see The Hindu Tamil leverage Zoho Creator to transform their operations. Our mission with low-code development is to empower businesses to build solutions that precisely meet their needs, free from the constraints of traditional coding. Their experience highlights the adaptability of low-code technology, and we are proud to support their journey toward operational excellence.”

Building on its success with Zoho Creator, the company plans to develop additional applications, including a custom Human Resource Management System (HRMS) and a Content Management System (CMS), further optimising operations, enhancing productivity, and supporting its mission to deliver high-quality journalism efficiently.

About Hindu Tamil

The Hindu Tamil Thisai is the Tamil-language edition of the popular English daily, The Hindu. It serves as a dedicated newspaper for Tamil-speaking readers, primarily targeting audiences in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The publication provides comprehensive coverage of national and regional news, with a focus on Tamil culture, heritage, and regional developments.

For more information, please visit: https://www.hindutamil.in/

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Media Contacts

Aditi Gupta 
aditi.gupta@zohocorp.com