Sri Kannapiran Mills Limited transforms communication and collaboration with Zoho Workplace

The Company

Incorporated in 1946, Sri Kannapiran Mills Limited is a textile manufacturing company that specializes in the production of yarn and denim fabric. They also manufacture recycled cotton yarns in coarse counts. They manufacture approximately 80 tons of yarn per day, and their denim division, KG fabrics, produces around 20 million meters of denim fabric per year, making it south India’s largest fabric manufacturing mill. All the products made at Kannapiran Mills, including both yarn and denim fabric, hold a green pro certification, ensuring their environmental friendliness.

The challenges

Initially, Sri Kannapiran Mills used an open-source mailing solution for all of their emails, documents, spreadsheets, and power-point presentations. They also used common chat apps for all internal communications between employees. Because these different open-source solutions were used in silos, the employees struggled to integrate and streamline their workflows efficiently. They had to navigate between different applications to access their emails, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, wasting unnecessary time and leading to a disjointed user experience. They also encountered other limitations with the open-source solutions, such as compatibility issues, inadequate support and updates, security concerns, and the absence of centralized control over their data and user management. This resulted in fragmented communication and hindered productivity.

With the onset of the pandemic, the company faced the immediate challenge of transitioning their workforce to remote work. Because the existing tools and platforms were ill-equipped to efficiently handle the demands of remote work, ensuring seamless communication, collaboration, and productivity across distributed teams became a top priority.

The solution

Knowing they needed a more integrated and efficient solution, Sri Kannapiran Mills decided to transition to Zoho Workplace, a unified, cloud-based platform for email, document editing, file storage, and synchronous collaboration. With tools like Zoho Mail, Zoho Workdrive, Zoho Sheets, and Zoho Cliq, employees could communicate, collaborate, and share information regardless of their location, fostering teamwork and productivity—even in remote work environments.

Streamlining remote work and enhancing collaboration with Zoho Cliq

During the pandemic, Sri Kannapiran Mills faced the challenge of tracking employee attendance while ensuring effective communication across their remote workforce. They turned to Zoho Cliq, a powerful communication and collaboration platform, to address these needs. They used Zoho Cliq's check-in and checkout feature, which allowed employees to indicate their presence or absence, providing immediate visibility to management. This streamlined the attendance-tracking process and ensured accurate records, even during remote work scenarios.

Zoho Cliq proved to be a valuable tool for employees traveling across the country. The ability to initiate chats, conduct voice or video calls, and schedule virtual meetings within Zoho Cliq provided a secure and centralized space for communication, allowing colleagues to collaborate effectively regardless of their geographical locations. This, in turn, enhanced productivity and strengthened team cohesion.

Enhancing productivity and efficiency with Zoho Mail

Once they decided to move from the open source solution to Zoho Workplace, Sri Kannapiran Mills faced the daunting task of migrating all of their data from open-source mail to Zoho Mail. With the guidance and assistance of Zoho’s support team, they successfully completed the migration with minimal disruption.

After the migration was complete, Sri Kannapiran Mills successfully enhanced collaboration and communication between their various teams by leveraging Zoho Mail, specifically using the Streams feature. A Streams group acted as a virtual bulletin, where any information that needs to be passed on to all group members could be posted. With the inclusion of likes and comments, Streams allowed structured discussions around the posts in the group. All of the departments within Sri Kannapiran Mills used this feature to enhance productivity through open communication, reduce email replies and forwards, and avoid email clutter within teams.

Sri Kannapiran Mills also revolutionized email management using the spam control feature in Zoho Mail. By leveraging advanced algorithms, the spam function accurately detects and filters out unwanted and malicious emails. The robust filtering system ensures that users' inboxes remain clutter-free and helps mitigate the risks associated with phishing attempts, scams, and malware. The Zia search and filters option of Zoho Mail helps users to dig out relevant documents and emails instantly, and organize their inbox efficiently.

Another feature that helps users keep track of their tasks and emails is the ability to schedule reminders. By setting reminders for specific dates and times, employees can stay organized and ensure that important tasks are not overlooked. Whether it’s a crucial deadline, an upcoming meeting, or a follow-up email, users can rely on Zoho Mail’s reminder functionality to prompt them at the right time. This feature helps in task prioritization and time management, enhancing efficiency and ensuring the timely completion of tasks.

Enhanced data management and access with Zoho Workdrive

Sri Kannapiran Mills’ head office is in Coimbatore, and they also operate a production facility in Perunur. Ensuring that teams at both locations had access to various files and folders on plant operations was essential. Zoho Workplace's centralized online file management tool, Zoho Workdrive, allowed employees from both branches to store all of their data and files in Zoho WorkDrive. During their weekly meetings, they engaged in screen-sharing sessions and made live changes to documents, fostering instant collaboration and harmonious teamwork. It ensured that all stakeholders were on the same page, regardless of their physical location.

The employees at the mills frequently needed to capture photos of critical areas in their factory, and share those with their operational heads to ensure proper functioning of machinery and a high standard output. They utilized the Zoho WorkDrive mobile application to instantly upload these pictures into organized folders. By leveraging the mobile app, they ensured that crucial visual data was quickly and securely accessible to the relevant stakeholders. This streamlined process saved significant time and eliminated the hassle of transferring photos manually.

Seamless data-sharing with Zoho Sheets

By leveraging the collaborative features of Zoho Sheets, Sri Kannapiran Mills overcame the challenge associated with traditional spreadsheet tools. The platform allowed multiple team members to access, edit, and collaborate on the same spreadsheet simultaneously, regardless of their physical location. This functionality streamlined communication, eliminated version control issues, and enhanced productivity.

Benefits and ROI

• Migration to Zoho Mail in 24 hours.
• Product and support rating 100%.
• Improved collaboration and enhanced productivity across branches.
• Cost Reduction by 66%

Looking forward

After migrating their operation to Zoho Workplace, Sri Kannapiran Mills transformed its collaboration, productivity, and data management. The seamless integration of various Zoho Workplace applications, such as Zoho Mail, Zoho WorkDrive, and Zoho Cliq, allowed their teams to work efficiently and collaborate synchronously.