Zoho Resources

The best way, we think, is to go to the official Zoho Partner Directory, decide whether you want a local, U.S.-based Zoho Partner or a global/offshore one, and search. Make a short list, call or contact the pre-selected Partners by other means, and observe the response.

Criteria that are worth taking into account:

• Paid certifications, graded by the Zoho Certification team.
• The presence of the case studies filed with Zoho (should be visible on the Partner’s profile and on their website).
• Partner’s experience with your industry and Zoho applications you plan to use (Zoho has over 70 products; no Zoho Partner on Earth is equally skilled with all of them, no matter what they say).
• Partner’s billing model (hourly rate/fixed budgets), but remember that the client-provider relationship model isn’t the same as the employer/employee one. In a few words, hourly rate for the implementation project is bad.
• Ensure that you are making a deal with the same people who will be executing your project. If the Partner outsources their projects, benefiting from the cheap offshore workforce, you’d better go directly offshore (if you prefer the economical side) or work with a local Zoho Partner with the local team.

What does not matter:

• Location: You’ll be fine with either a remote or a local Zoho Partner, as long as the Partner is good. Our business is inherently remote.
• Partner tier: It matters, but up to some degree. Generally speaking, the higher, the better, but many Authorized Partners deliver better service than Advanced and Premium ones (read about Zoho Partner tiers).

Red flags:

• Lack of transparency, especially in the early stages of the engagement.
• Lack of cybersecurity and liability insurance.
• Lack of publicly accessible privacy and data retention policy.
• Vague, generalized contracts or no contracts at all. That includes UpWork freelancers, too — nothing prevents a good freelancer from having a solid, legally binding contract even if they work through UpWork.

Think about choosing a Zoho Partner the same way you choose a doctor or mechanic: no one wants the cheapest one, because in the long run the quality always wins over the cost. Business automation is complex; expecting it to be done by the price of a used bicycle is dangerous for any business.