The platform can be extended to more than 250 data sources – including Google, Microsoft, and Mailchimp

Cloud-based software developer Zoho has launched an AI-enhanced Business Intelligence Platform (BI Platform) with built-in data preparation tools.

The product combines the all-new DataPrep tool with an enhanced version of Zoho Analytics platform.

It features visual dashboards, flexible deployment models – either via the cloud or on-premises – and advanced security and privacy capabilities.

“For data to be a true catalyst of business growth, there can’t be any gaps in the collection, management, or analysis process. Too few BI platforms in the market excel in both data preparation and analytics, which leaves businesses with weak — or worse, flawed — insights,” Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s chief evangelist, said.

Zoho is charging $8 per user, per month for access to its new platform, with the on-premises version available for $30 per user, per month.

‘Cleanse, unify, and analyze’

Established in 1996, Zoho is based in Chennai in Southern India. Local billionaire Radha Vembu holds a majority stake in the firm, which was co-founded with Sridhar Vembu, her older brother and the 59th richest Indian in the world, according to Forbes.

Zoho said its latest offering is built for scale and is extensible to more than 250 data sources—including Zendesk, HubSpot, Microsoft, Mailchimp, Stripe, and Google.

Users can create analytics applications that can then be sold via the company’s Marketplace or a third-party platform run by Shopify, ServiceNow, or Atlassian.

Zoho claims that around 50,000 organizations are already using its Analytics product, and is forecasting a 45 percent increase in analytics application revenue now that it has launched its BI Platform.

The integration of the Zia Insights tool allows the platform to show users trends and relationships between datasets, even without a query from the end-user, the company said.

The new platform “enables organizations to cleanse, unify, and analyze cross-departmental data, obtain an encyclopedic view of the company, and ultimately move toward a more competitive business strategy based on real-time insights,” Zoho stated in the announcement.