How three Zoho apps came together to bring you an action-packed football season.

It's Manchester Derby week - the Premier League is about to get real serious, and we're here to help.

Background: Check

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Whether you're about to launch your business and looking for that one-stop-shop, plug-n-play technology partner that can get you up and running in next to no time, or you're an established organisation contemplating the next best move for your business -  the time is now and the place is Zoho. To take the plunge and move to the cloud. Because not only do we have 35 enterprise-grade cloud products, all of them are seamlessly integrated and work with a single sign-on:

A few months ago, we showed you how you could get match reminders for Euro 2016 delivered straight to your inbox. This time around, we went three steps further.

With the new Premier League season having just been kicked off, we wanted to show how Zoho apps can empower you, so you can get so much done with so little effort . For all you football fans, we folks here at Zoho Mail got together with our friends from Zoho Creator (an app that can build apps for you), and we put together a nifty little application that lets you add your favorite club's season schedule into your calendar, so you can get reminders before all of their games. We then used Zoho Sites (our drag-and-drop website builder) to build a DIY website (we didn't have to bother any designers) to host the app. All this within a few hours. Read on to find out more.

Previously on the Premier League -

So last year, this happened:

But we all know how that ended:

...the fairy tale did come true, what a season Leicester had! Take a bow, the 2015-16 Premier League champions. But can they retain their championship, or will we see another dethrone them and be crowned champions of England?

Only one way to find out - 20 teams, 380 games -

Premier League 2016-17 is here (with a brand new logo, too).

Time to suit up for another gruelling, adrenalin-pumping season. Flags will be raised, flags will wave, crowds will chant and boo, cards will be shown, players will collapse in agonising pain, new heroes will rise, stadiums will roar as the ball hits the back of the net, or groan when it hits the crossbar...right from kick-off till the referee blows the final whistle, all this drama will unfold on the pitch. And a lot more off of it.

Your team and your players will need all the support they can get, so make sure you never miss out on the action. How exactly, I hear you ask...

Zoho Mail's got your back, Jack

So here's (the geeky version of) what went down last week here at Zoho:

1. First up, we had our friends over at Zoho Creator build us an app, that fetches the webcal URL of the season schedule for any Premier League team.
2. The Calendar team opened up their API, and we made our 'PL Match Alerts' app call the Zoho Calendar API, so that any team's schedule gets added to your calendar directly.
3. Next up, we built a one-page website using Zoho Sites, and embedded the 'PL Match Alerts' app in this newly built site.

So here it is: plmatchalerts.zohosites.com

Head on over here, and you can add the entire season's schedule for your favourite team(s), or for the whole Premier League, into your Zoho Mail calendar. Now you will get match reminders delivered straight to your inbox, so you can tune in to catch your favourite team in action right on time.

But before you do, just make sure you are logged in to your Zoho Mail account (just in case you're not logged in when you access the application, you can 'download' the calendar and manually add it your calendar once you log in).

TL;DR

1. Select the team you want to add match alerts for -> click 'Add to Zoho Calendar'. Once in your inbox, the Calendar tab will open. When asked 'Do you want to add this calendar?',  click 'Yes'.
2. You will find 'Premier League' listed under 'Other Calendars'. Optional: Right-click -> give the calendar the name of the team you added, and/or even change the colour.
3. Click on 'Settings' -> 'Calendar Settings' -> 'Other Calendars'. Mouse-over to the calendar you just added, and click on 'Details'. Then, under 'REMINDER', click on 'Add Reminder', and choose how many minutes/hours in advance you want to be reminded of an upcoming match. And you're done!

Or, just follow this simple tutorial:

So just sit back and cheer for your team. The Battle for England has begun - may the best side win.

(Pssst...if you have an event coming up, try creating a simple one-page website using Zoho Sites. Maybe even dabble around with Zoho Creator to create simple apps for your website. Fin)

P.S. No prizes for guessing my favourite team.

(Image credits for 'Manchester Derby' cover pic: Antariksa Hartono; Twitter: @footballgraph1)