Zoho Discussions can be used for internal forums where employees discuss projects and for external forums to provide support for customers Zoho has added a discussion forum application to its Web-hosted software suite, the company announced Tuesday.Organizations can use Zoho Discussions for internal forums where employees can discuss projects and for external forums to provide support for customers.[ Zoho recently linked its online productivity apps with Microsoft SharePoint and added e-mail and Salesforce.com customers to its CRM. ] In addition to discussion threads, Zoho Discussions features IM-like text chat, user profiles, e-mail-like private messaging, action notifications, a search engine, file attachments, RSS feeds and forum administration capabilities like the access controls, topic moderation and user management.The company, which offers SaaS (software-as-a-service) communication and collaboration applications for individuals and organizations, offers various options for Zoho Discussions. A free version includes up to two forums and 100MB of attachment space, while the Standard version includes up to five forums and 1GB of attachment space for $25 per month. The Professional version costs $75 month and includes up to 25 forums and 5GB of attachment space. Organizations that need more forums and storage can get a custom version of Zoho Discussions.The company has a suite of hosted collaboration and communication software called Zoho Business that is designed for use by small and medium-size companies. It is free for up to 10 users and thereafter it costs $50 per user per year. Zoho also has a set of applications available free for personal use by individuals. Like Google with its Apps suite, Zoho offers a SaaS-based alternative to traditional on-premise productivity and communication suites like Microsoft’s Office and Exchange. Zoho specifically targets individuals and small and medium size businesses. Software DevelopmentSaaSWeb DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business