Zoho plans SAR 500 million Saudi push as football clubs use its software

Zoho says it plans to invest SAR 500 million in Saudi Arabia in the coming period, a bet on the country becoming one of its fastest-growing markets worldwide. The company sells cloud-based business software—the tools organizations use to run sales, finance, HR, customer support, and other everyday work—and says it already offers more than 50 applications locally. Its Middle East and Africa chief, Hyther Nizam, said Al-Ahli and Al-Qadsiah football clubs now use Zoho software to manage daily operations, showing that the company is trying to become part of the machinery behind Saudi organizations rather than simply sell individual apps. Zoho has also built local data centers and is expanding its Riyadh office and Saudi workforce, steps that make its services more practical for large customers that need data kept and managed inside the Kingdom.