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Category : Certified Zoho Consultants

4 Common Problems Manufactuers Face and how zoho and zbrains can solve them

Solving Top 4 Manufacturer Problems: Zoho Applications by ZBrains

zoho manufacturing

Manufacturer problems can range from supply chain management to quality control issues. However, with the right solutions in place, these challenges can be overcome, and businesses can thrive.

Manufacturers play a crucial role in producing goods, yet many struggle to reach their full potential due to internal problems. These challenges, although controllable, can be difficult to address and hinder business success.

Zoho & ZBrains: Enhancing Manufacturing Solutions

Lack of Lean Manufacturing Methodology

Lean may be the way to go for some. Businesses may struggle with outdated production methods, inventory exchanges, large lots, and subpar quality. Many of these manufacturer problems stem from a simple need for a system to help manage production correctly. Lean manufacturing systems can turn a struggling business around and boost sales while increasing productivity. Zoho Inventory can help manage inventory in multiple warehouses. The more robust Zoho Creator ERP can help you order your raw materials more effectively, manage your picking, and even optimize your production routing, all ultimately helping to reduce wasted product and time.

zoho manufacturing forecasting mobile

Subpar Forecasting

If you don’t know who’s buying what and when they’re buying it, you’re left with too much or too little to move your product at the correct pace. Future forecasting in Zoho Inventory gives you better visibility into what is needed with custom dashboards and fewer data inputs. Insights into customer trends and demands provide valuable feedback into your optimal reorder point and can help you use older inventory as needed. Data-driven insights help you understand your customers on a whole new level, allowing for more accurate forecasting of the material needs for production.

Bad Customer Experience, Leading to Worse Business Experience

Are you getting your customers what they want, when they want? Online reviews and instant gratification have increased consumer input. Insufficient data and slow turnaround can hurt sales. At times, products are even sent to market without proper development because of manufacturer problems somewhere else in the supply chain, and you’re left to pick up the slack. Maybe you have a supplier that doesn’t suit your operation anymore. These are all common issues that can contribute to a less-than-stellar customer experience. However, a tool like Zoho CRM can give you the visibility you need to gauge the overall health of your manufacturing or distribution business. It can directly help your sales staff engage your customers and vendors – and, in the process, help you see where to improve things.

zoho manufacturing chart

Resistance to R&D

Changing the way your business operates to adapt to the technological environment may seem daunting if you’re not already ahead of the curve, and using a streamlined ERP solution to manage your inventory and orders ERP solution to manage your inventory and orders, changing the way your business operates to adapt technological environment may seem daunting. Why bother if resistance from your team or adaptation to new technology will only take away from the primary goal of delivering a product? Adopting new technology to fuel your business isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it phase; it requires continuous input and adaptability. But, when done correctly, you’ll find your business flows like never before, with less waste and even less money spent!

At ZBrains, we’re here to help you face all these problems head-on with the help of our Zoho certified consultants and our slew of software solutions.  Are you interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! Call us at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below, and we’ll contact you.

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Zoho forms New Updates

Zoho Forms Updates – Take Payments and More!

Zoho Forms Gets an Upgrade: Exciting New Features for Taking Payments and More!

If you use Zoho in any capacity, you know that the more information you have, the easier it is for you to sell to your clients – and, by the same token, the easier it is for your clients to give you information, the easier it is for you to sell to those very same clients!  Zoho Forms is built to collect information, of course, but Zoho Corporation has recently augmented it with a couple of great new features designed especially to make your customers’ lives easier: Collecting payments and sorting answer options by relevance.

What is Zoho Forms?

Zoho Forms is a form building tool that gives you the ability to create and share online forms for your business. This is a great tool to use for reaching out to your customers to easily collect information. You can fully customize the forms to match your company’s aesthetic. The easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor allows you to build forms to ask the right questions, and includes the ability to perform calculations and use conditional logic.

Zoho Forms Homepage

Along with these basic functions, you can also customize field rules, form rules, and personalize the end pages. You can share these forms through public links, email campaigns, or embed them on your web page! Reach your customers wherever they are and customize your email notifications so you know exactly when a form is submitted! Zoho Forms also integrates with Zoho CRM, Campaigns, and Desk, helping you stay on top of your data!

New Features!

Zoho Forms Now Accepts Payments

zoho forms paymentsYou can now accept payments to your organization from right within Zoho Forms, saving you even more time and improving your customer experience! With the addition of a payment field, you can now accept payments or donations in fixed or variable amounts. Collect payments in your preferred currency, through your choice of these pre-integrated third-party gateways: PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.

The Addition of Group Choices

Organize the dropdown fields of your form with the addition of group choices! This allows for further customizing your dropdown choices by categorizing them under a parent choice. For example, if you run a sports equipment store and you’re gathering information on what equipment your clients need based on which sport they play, you can create an option for Baseball with the group choices being, baseball bat, glove, and cleats. You can then create a second for Football with the group choices being helmet and shoulder pads.

After creating your group choices, you can further customize the information your client sees to only show options relevant to them in the field rules tab. By using our previous sports example, you can add an additional field to your form to include Sports options. Then, create a field rule to only show the group options which are related to their previous answer. So if they choose Baseball, the grouped options will only show the Baseball equipment options, and will not include options for other sports.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we’ll reach out to you. You can also register for our upcoming Zoho Q&A webinar tomorrow, Friday, Feb 9th at 9 am PST. Ask your Zoho questions, and if you stump us, we’ll buy you coffee!

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zoho zbrains field services

The Zoho, ZBrains, and Field Service Relationship

What is Zoho Field Service and how does it relate to ZBrains? Discover the importance of their offerings for field service companies and improved customer experience.

zoho field services architect

What is Zoho?

Zoho is a cloud-based business suite geared to optimize your business by automating processes.  Zoho encompasses not just customer management, but finance, project management, and a host of other business needs.  Using all these apps effectively can be a lot to handle – and to boot, last year Zoho introduced Zoho One, its entire suite of 35+ apps, in one platform.  This has given users access to many more apps than before, many with overlapping functionality. Discovering the potential of different Zoho apps can be overwhelming amidst daily office or field work.

Who are ZBrains?

ZBrains is a Zoho Premium Partner that focuses on adding value to Zoho’s existing ecosystem, with a focus on field services companies.  Our services include process consulting and training on various apps, providing integrations to different third-party apps, and even implementing custom add-ons to automate setting service appointments, optimize service or delivery routes, create mobile work orders, and even calculate commissions.  Our in-house developers and consultants make sure you have an open line of communication to our home office.

Find out below how the union of Zoho & ZBrains is beneficial for your field service business:

zoho field services mobile devices

Integration

Imagine this: a field technician arrives at an appointment to meet with a customer, only to discover he is unprepared: A communication error in your scheduling department has caused him to bring improper materials to the appointment. This situation likely not only upsets your customer, but can also have a negative impact on your bottom line. Thus, having all elements of your business integrated is essential: It helps to avoid miscommunications and eliminates human error caused by manually transferring information. According to Field Technologies online,  the most important concept in field service management is integration. Here at ZBrains, we can help you do this with Zoho solutions tailor-made for your unique business needs.

Automation

By automating your general workflow with Zoho Field Service, you can let your software do the grunt work and keep the hard decisions for yourself. With Zoho One, you have access to apps that not only help your CRM run smoothly but can help you in all areas of your business.

Mobile-Readiness

Increased real-time information is the unity of the cloud and mobile devices. If you’re out in the field, it’s important that you stay apprised of any scheduling changes or updated client information. Zoho has developed their apps to work with you wherever you may be accessing them through your phone, tablet, or other device!  To match this, we’ve made our Zoho SmartScheduler to work on all mobile devices as well! It will schedule your appointments for you, taking into account parameters you set, including territories and areas of expertise. With drive time calculation and Google Maps integration for drive time calculation, it’s the only scheduling optimization tool you need!

zoho field services happy customer

Better customer experience

Integrating and automating systems boosts data accuracy and productivity across departments for faster response times.. Accurate on-the-go info keeps customers engaged. Integration, automation, and mobility allow for relationship building. When they’re happy, you get more referrals and repeat business, leading to a healthy bottom line.

ZBrains is able to ascertain just how Zoho can be best used for your business by engaging you in an exploratory consulting session called a Business Process Analysis.  In this session, a ZBrains consultant takes full stock of your business and can recommend a Zoho solution that is customized for your business – and then, construct the resulting system according to that vision.

 

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we’ll reach out to you. You can also register for our upcoming Stump the Chump webinar tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 26th at 9 am PST. Ask your Zoho questions, and if you stump us, we’ll buy you coffee!

 

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zoho wordpress lead magnet

Generate More Leads with the Zoho WordPress Plugin

Generate more leads with Zoho’s WordPress plugin, which integrates your website with Zoho CRM to track visitor behavior and capture leads directly into your CRM system.

Your business’ website provides clients, or potential clients, with the best information for them to make informed decisions. There are many ways for them to land on your page, but do you have a sense for why they are landing there? For example, are they researching their options, or are they already motivated buyers? Considering 79% of leads never convert into sales, and underdeveloped lead nurturing tactics are often to blame, it’s important for you to know your lead conversion rate.

Understanding and capturing the visitors to your website is crucial to maximizing your website as a functional sales tool. Making it easy for your potential clients to get in touch with you is crucial, and no one understands this better than both Zoho and WordPress. The two have teamed up to introduce a new Lead Magnet update! Now, you never have to miss the window of opportunity to capture and qualify a lead to close a sale!  

zoho wordpress new lead magnet

Here’s how you’ll improve your lead conversion rate with Zoho WordPress PluginNew Lead Magnet

Quality Information, Faster Response

The conversion rate yardstick is not static, as it depends on your business’ definition of a qualified lead. For some, it may just be an email address, but for others, you may want to know the size or location of the business, the needs, or the authority of the person in contact with you, among other factors. With the Zoho CRM forms plugin for WordPress, you can easily create forms using Zoho CRM webforms or the Contact form 7 plugin. The lead information that’s entered is automatically pushed into your CRM. You’ll never miss an incoming lead, and even better, you’ll be equipped to respond to them faster!

Customize Forms

Every business is unique, and so it follows that the information you collect from your prospects is unique as well. This plugin takes that into account and allows for mapping custom fields from the Leads module of your CRM.  However, the plugin does not limit you to only capturing lead information. With this new lead magnet plugin, you can send information to custom modules created in the CRM, so everything a prospect or contact can tell you is recorded properly.

Simple Installation, Configuration & Use

zoho wordpress new lead magnet

You can install the Zoho CRM forms plugin from the WordPress plugin marketplace with just a few easy clicks. After that, creating a form from the plugin interface incredibly simple. It’s light on code, so you’ll only need to do a few drag & drops and copy-pastes, then your form short-code will be ready for use anywhere on your WP site.  If you’re already on Zoho CRM and host your website from WordPress, the new lead magnet plugin is free to use!

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we’ll reach out to you. You can also register for our upcoming Stump the Chump webinar on Friday, Jan. 26th at 9 am PST. Ask your Zoho questions, and if you stump us, we’ll buy you coffee!

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zoho erp to scale your business

Scale Your Business to Excellence with Zoho ERP

Revolutionize Your Business Operations: Scale to Excellence with Zoho ERP

When it comes to scaling your business with Zoho, lots of kinds of businesses have a good trajectory – but, that’s not always the case for manufacturers and distributors.  Out of the box, many of Zoho’s apps, even Zoho Books and Inventory, simply don’t stand up to the customization needs of those kinds of businesses, so those companies are forced to either limp along with lackluster procedures and reporting, or pack up and go elsewhere entirely.

But, a proper ERP solution doesn’t have to be outside Zoho at all, in fact.  Zoho ERP harnesses all the power of Zoho Creator to do the things that regular Zoho apps don’t do.  That is, it takes the best of what’s already there and customizes it to make it even better.  Many business owners know exactly what they need their systems to do, but just don’t know how to get them in place.  Would you benefit from having an ERP add-on to manage your orders and inventory?

Here are four ways Zoho ERP picks up the slack and helps you take back control of your business.

Order Management

Zoho ERP’s ability to split purchase orders into multiple sales orders, and to split a single sales order into multiple purchase orders, comes in handy for many manufacturers and distributors.  The add-on allows for storing unused line items in their own repositories, and then picking your preferred vendors from a list for any given item.  Then, you can send them off to be fulfilled with just a click.  Additionally, Zoho ERP fills the gap that Zoho Books leaves open, which is customizing products at the line item level (for freight amounts and the like).

Synchronization

Zoho ERP being built on the Zoho Creator platform means syncing with any back-office software that has an accessible API. From buying inventory to shipping goods, you can track all data across platforms, from start to finish, so you can keep your company moving as smoothly as possible.  Among the objects you can integrate: Receipt of goods, purchase orders, and bills.  Zoho ERP connects with your Zoho CRM as well, giving enhanced visibility to certain users directly inside the CRM, so you never have to have multiple tabs open.

Fulfillment

All the fulfillment data you need are right at your fingertips with Zoho ERP.  The system not only tracks inventory on hand, but also the inventory you need to purchase in order to fulfill upcoming orders.  Zoho ERP can even take past PO history, along with SO, Quote, and Invoice history, and use that to project future needs for your business, saving valuable time every time you run a report.

Insights

Understanding your customer is one of the more important aspects of running a business. Without them, would you even be in business?  With data collected from sales orders and invoices, shipping and return information, as well as key customer information and communication tracking, you’ll have a better understanding of how to scale your business to better serve your customers, resulting in more positive results and ROI.

Here’s what our clients say:

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or contact us and we’ll reach out to you. 

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Zoho Projects hero

Zoho Projects Review: Enhanced Dependencies & Gantt Chart

Effortless Project Management: Explore Zoho Projects’ Enhanced Dependencies and Gantt Chart Features

Before project-based business software headed to the cloud and became the flexible family of apps we know today – like Zoho – lots of companies were forced to bend to the will of their software, and had procedural problems because of that.  Businesses handling lots of projects have been hampered by a limited way to visualize task dependencies, non-intuitive reporting, and a general lack of integration with other apps.  In some cases, companies have even found it easier to simply track projects with spreadsheets – and, that comes with its own host of issues.  What can a company in that situation do?

Fortunately, Zoho has revamped their Projects app to bring those very elements to the businesses that need it the most.  The updated Zoho Projects includes better reporting, more task dependencies, and a host of integrations that make data flow automatic, so you can focus on doing real work.

Here’s a rundown of the new features in Projects.

Enhanced Gantt Charts

The success of any project is ultimately measured by two questions: Was it on time, and was it within budget? In project management, these two conditions are managed by a tool called the Gantt chart. The updates to Zoho Projects has enhanced their already great Gantt charts.

Supports all Task Dependencies

Gantt charts organize tasks based on dependencies, and they help you visualize a critical chain of tasks that have to be completed as assigned in order to keep a project moving at its scheduled pace. Inevitably, when projects start creeping outside of their timelines, rising costs come with them, so it’s important to keep on top of tasks as closely as possible. Zoho Projects has always been a great tool to manage Finish to Start dependencies, but is now prepared to provide four more!

Here’s a refresher on the five task dependencies now supported in Zoho Projects.

Finish to Start – A task or activity is unable to start until a previous task or activity that it is dependent on has finished. For example, in a construction project, you can’t install a door or window until the framing is finished.

Start to Start – A task or activity must start before another activity can begin. For example, furniture can’t be installed until carpet installation has begun.

Finish to Finish – A task or activity must be finished before another activity can finish. For example, a new electric dryer can’t be tested before the proper electrical wiring had been placed.

Start to Finish – An activity must start before another activity finishes. For example, old plumbing pipe must be removed before new pipe can be set in its place.

Unscheduled Tasks – Predefined dependencies for tasks that don’t have a start or end date.

View and Edit Dependencies with Ease

The new Gantt Chart eliminates the Dependency Tab from Zoho Projects. Now, you can view, edit, and reorder your dependencies by clicking and dragging between the Jump to task bar icons in the left panel. The dependency graph is also available in the Task Details page, where you can view and edit the dependencies that a task shares with other tasks. You can even set your preferred or most frequently used dependency types as defaults by going to the Setup page and choosing Task and Timesheet under Org Settings. It is here that you can also decide which actions should occur when a task is advanced, postponed, or rescheduled.

Project Timeline Gantt Chart

Every great tool is made better when it provides valuable feedback into the health of your business. In this case, the new Project Timeline Gantt chart update provides insight into the progress and health of your projects. You can quickly get a clear visual of your projects and upcoming milestones, and even get all details of a task, including: percentage complete, duration, start date, end date, and owner. The Gantt bars show the lengths of time your projects span and how far along they are, while an easy drag-and-drop helps you reschedule tasks if needed. You can also edit tasks and milestones directly inside the Gantt chart, saving from you having to switch to another view.

Manage your People, and your Meetings

All, successful projects depend on a host of other factors in conjunction with a well-laid schedule. Zoho Projects is prepared to help you manage them that much better! Every project needs manpower, but scheduling the correct people has historically had to be handled separately—until now.

Zoho People Integration

Zoho People now integrates with Projects! This allows for both vacation and time-off requests, as well as managerial approval, all within one platform. It also allows for enhanced visibility and mitigates issues that may arise when your workers are unavailable. Work can be reallocated, as employee leave data is reflected in both the Project Calendar and Resource Utilization chart.

Zoho Meetings Integration

The new Zoho Projects not only helps you manage your team better, but it also helps you manage your time better.  We all know the amount of time it can task to set up and coordinate meetings with your team, whether they happen frequently or they’re just last-minute. With the new Zoho Meeting integration, you easily meet with your team to collaborate and provide clarity, resolve issues, and help make decisions by simply click Meet Now on the Task Details page!

Customized Controls and Views

Zoho Projects has a few more updates which will help your projects and your workflow run more smoothly. For example, using timers within a task or project used to mean you had stop and restart from the beginning. Now the timers have been enhanced to  allow for pausing and resuming tasks while you take a break or switch to a new task. Zoho Projects has even added new custom views and capabilities for creating task views based on the field value conditions that you set. Furthermore, you can filter tasks from your master list and save those filter criteria as a new view. This update helps you get to the information you need more efficiently.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we’ll reach out to you. You can also register for one of our upcoming Stump the Chump webinars Friday, Jan. 19th at 9 am PST or Friday, Jan. 26th at 9 am PST. Ask your Zoho questions, and if you stump us, we’ll buy you coffee!

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4 ways the commission calculator saves time.

Commission Rate Calculator: Simplify Your Sales Process with ZBrains

Simplify with the ZBrains Commission Rate Calculator

When it comes to keeping your business afloat, there’s something that’s even more important than improving sales or internal processes: paying your employees on time. Of course, employees who aren’t paid on time generally aren’t so thrilled to be working, and even businesses with the most efficient processes can suffer from low employee morale if your staff aren’t paid on time. And, even if you do manage to make payroll with time to spare, how much time are you spending manually calculating commissions? And, how much time would you save if those calculations were all done for you?

The ZBrains commission calculator is designed to take the hard work out of your commissions process, and not only save you valuable time every sale, but potentially save your employees from ever worrying about when their next check will arrive.

Here are 4 ways our commission rate calculator makes for happy salespeople and happy profits!

zoho crm integrationSave Time and Customize

Manually tracking and calculating each salesperson’s commission can be time-consuming for your accounting department. Let the Commission Calculator do the work for you! Automate the various commission structures you employ, such as sliding scale, split, profit-based, and payment-based, or achieve maximum flexibility with commission override capabilities. You can also assign multiple structures to one employee if needed.

zoho surveyEliminate Human Error

We’re all human and we make mistakes. No two sales teams are the same in size and scope, just as no two commissions are the same in size and scope. When your accounting department is calculating commissions, there may be the occasional mistake made. With the Commission Calculator, the process behind calculating commissions has a standardized method, so you can guarantee that the parameters you set will yield the same results every time. Coupled with automation, you can eliminate many possibilities of human error while calculating commissions.

zoho crm integrationIncrease Your Mobility

The commission calculator process is so simple, approval can be done anywhere, with whatever device you choose. You can even assign bonuses and override previous approvals, all while on the go! Not to mention, it can integrate with your ERP system, allowing your accounting department streamlined and automated access to information.  This ensures you never have to wait to reward your employees, which will keep them happy!

zoho supportKeep Your Team Motivated

An added bonus is that you can include incentives and challenge employees with a little gamification to make sales goals fun and challenging. And, for those who aren’t so into games, the Zoho Creator portal add-on allows any sales team member access to their statistics on the fly, so they know exactly what their sales figures are at any given time.  With such ease of use, the commission calculator affords your sales team valuable time to spend on closing more deals, which in turn makes them (and you) more money, which in turn leads to more growth…which in turn leads to a happier, thriving business.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team today! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the link below and we will reach out to you!

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A look at Zoho updates in 2017

A Look Back At 2017 : Zoho is Growing!

Zoho’s Rapid Growth in 2017: New Features and Updates

2017 is suddenly behind us – and, for some, the year probably seems like it’s

flown by.  Interestingly, it’s said that the more new life experiences you accumulate, the slower time seems to go by – and, if that’s true at all, Zoho Corporation must have had the slowest-feeling year of all, as they revamped a significant portion of their offerings.  But, this is about the only area Zoho did anything slowly.  With 50 new features, 100 marketplace extensions, and 4 product updates every week, Zoho is definitely growing! Here is a recap of some of Zoho’s new features and updates from 2017!

The Newest Additions

Zoho One – The biggest and most exciting development from is Zoho One. This revolutionary all-in-one business suite packs a punch with 35+ applications, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho Campaigns, Creator, and more! Account administrators have one secure account for applications and overall control, giving them the ability to access all programs from just one account.

Zia – Zoho’s AI-powered sales assistant that helps you make the most of your CRM account. She learns the ins and outs of your business by studying the strings of activities performed every day by you and your team. Zia then interprets performance and anticipates the needs of your business, providing solutions to you on-the-fly, detecting anomalies in your activities, and making suggestions to automate workflow!

Zoho Sprints – This agile project management solution encourages and enables teams to focus their energy on building the best products possible. Your team can take a look at the big picture with an easy-to-read dashboard. Track your team with the scrum board, and log time with the Timesheet function. Advanced reporting will give you actionable insights into your team’s progress and predict any roadblocks or bottlenecks in your process. In short, Zoho Sprints enables your team to get ahead and be prepared for the next development sprint.

Zoho Cliq – Easily communicate and collaborate with your colleagues with Zoho Cliq. Zoho’s new chat app eliminates the standby time of waiting on email responses from your team and allows you to exchange ideas more fluidly. Multi-panel chat, unlimited file sharing, and audio and video functionality keep your conversations at the forefront of your mind and easily accessible. Not to mention, it integrates, it’s secure, and it’s mobile!

Updates to Your Favorite Applications

New Zoho Campaigns UI – Zoho Campaigns got a facelift this year with a sleek new interface design. Along with the new look, you can get even more from Zoho Campaigns now with a customizable dashboard, image editing capabilities, additional automation, and more advanced reporting. Take your email campaigns to the next level!

Zoho Social now Adapted for Digital Agencies – Zoho Social also got a great update that makes it much easier for digital agencies to manage their clients’ social media platforms. With this new version of Social, agencies can manage all their client accounts from one platform. It also allows for agency branding and logos, with increased collaboration abilities to keep your team and your clients in the loop.

Zoho Notebook Improvements – Notebook began as a simple note-taking app on mobile but has now adapted to become even smarter, and now works as a desktop application as well. Added Mac and iOS 11 Support expands the devices from which you can use Notebook. With new intelligent formatting, Smart Cards, and document scanning, you can simplify and ease your note-taking process even further.

CRM Improvements

Marketplace Extensions – In 2017, Zoho expanded its marketplace to allow Zoho CRM to integrate with some of the biggest technology partners out there! With more than 80 new extensions available, you can optimize the potential of your CRM further than ever before. These new extensions will not only help you make the most of your CRM but can also help your business run more efficiently and avoid juggling multiple systems.

New Integrations and Platforms – Zoho CRM has further increased its capabilities with new integrations and platforms! The Finance Plus integration allows your sales reps to easily track the details of their deal expenses in the CRM. The Telephony Platform integration allows you to bring all of your phone conversations, including call recording, into the CRM. The SalesSignals platform helps consolidate all of your notifications, such social media, email, and third-party apps, into an organized timeline. These are just 3 of the new integrations that were released this year!

CRM Improvements – Amidst all the improvements to the other Zoho apps, Zoho has also polished up the CRM itself. Updated workflow rules make automation easier and advanced filters which update in real-time help you keep track of your leads. Speaking of leads, you can now add leads directly from social media, and use new lead scoring rules to ensure you focus on the right leads in your funnel. And, don’t forget the new Sticky Notes to help you stay on top of it all!

How Zoho can help you with your bad data

We know that was a lot to take in, and Zoho is improving faster each day, seemingly.  Now, you can catch up with the big boys, improve your business, and slow things down a bit yourself – only figuratively, though.  Check out Zoho’s 2017 recap for more updates and improvements!

Interested in learning more about Zoho, or have a question? Reach out to our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help with all your Zoho needs.  Give our team a call at (888) 207-4111, or click the button below and we will reach out to you!

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The Benefits of Business Process Analysis for Your Business Success

One of the most common things we hear from our clients when we speak to them for the first time is that they know Zoho is capable of handling their business. They’re just not sure how – or, they wish they had figured out the correct way to use Zoho before.  This is where the importance of a business process analysis comes into play. Setting your business software up correctly gives your sales, operations, accounting, and other departments the ability to communicate effectively. Many business owners are left wondering what to do after seeing a demonstration of Zoho, or worse, after a failed implementation.

Fortunately, there is a way around this.  By sitting down with a ZBrains Zoho expert and deep-diving into your system, we can deliver to you the exact method by which your system can be implemented in order to ensure the most success for your business down the road.

5 Tips for Successful Business Process AnalysisBusiness Process Analysis

zoho surveyA Thorough Review of Your Business

A Business Process Analysis is an integral part of all ZBrains consulting projects. In order to help your business overcome its challenges and hurdles, we must fully understand it first. We will sit with your team to thoroughly review your sales and operations processes, as well as the systems you use for them, so we can understand where you may be falling short currently, and what you will expect when using Zoho to its fullest extent. Analyzing expectations and performance gaps in your business processes takes an even broader look at your business, from the perspective of the world at large. A BPA ensures that we can develop the best solutions and a successful implementation that fits with your business processes.

zoho surveyGet Your Team On Board

In order for an implementation to really be successful, you’ll want your team engaged before, during, and after the entire process. It’s important to get buy-in from your employees through training, but you can also ease that buy-in process through the Business Process Analysis, which gives your team a firsthand look at the planning phase for your improved system. With a BPA, we conduct interviews of department heads or other key personnel in order to first see what Zoho will be able to fix currently, and also how the system will scale along with your business over the years.  We then deliver our findings to you in an Executive Summary document.  Positioning Zoho as a tool to make work easier will help get your team on board. The Executive Summary explains exactly how the system will work in order to do so.

zoho surveyBridge The Gap

Where are you, and where do you want to be?  Posed as technical questions, our BPA puts your systems to the test. First, we take an in-depth look at your business’ procedures and systems, examining their purposes, identifying any weaknesses. Places where the results fall short we determine a way (or ways) to fix them. Our experts examine the gap(s) in your system. Then we help determine whether the system can handle other task. And additionally, whether the tasks can be delegated or implemented somewhere else, or if another option can achieve the same end.

zoho surveyIdentify Current & Future Challenges

By taking a look at your business through the lens of technology, we are able to identify not only your current challenges, but potential future challenges. With our BPA we can help you determine which departments can work in greater synchrony to create the good kind of change: increased top line, increased bottom line, and increased relevance in today’s technological world. We’ll even increase visibility with better reporting into your business. With this data, you can make actionable decisions, predict trends, and prepare for any roadblocks to your success. For example, you can determine where a department is struggling to better tailor training to remedy any issues.

zoho surveyOpen The Door To New Solutions

Our overall goal is to consolidate your business operations into a centralized platform with Zoho as the hub. Based on the thorough BPA, we can make expert recommendations. For example: what can be changed, augmented, or implemented to meet your goals? We give you a strategy that to execute with precision. Then you can create a successful business plan for the upcoming quarters and beyond. Using our BPA has helped our clients increase visibility into their respective companies. They get better data and reporting, save time, and integrate systems for one cohesive machine.

Interested in learning more? See how we’ve helped clients in the past! Reach out to a member of our team today! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the link below and we will reach out to you!

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The New Zoho Campaigns UI

The Zoho Campaigns UI Has A Fresh New Look

Experience the New Look of Zoho Campaigns UI: Enhanced Design for Improved User Experience

Keeping your customers and clients-to-be engaged when they have so many other things going on in their lives is one of the most valuable things one can do when managing a business – otherwise, what are you to them?  Will they even remember you after your most recent conversation?  Zoho Campaigns is Zoho’s email marketing tool, and although it’s historically been a fine tool for sending emails and tracking statistics, it’s just added a load of customizable options and a good dose of marketing automation –  so you can engage your audience even more easily, and do it in style through the new Zoho Campaigns UI.

Here are 6 great ways the new Zoho Campaigns UI helps keep your marketing machine in gear and can help keep you at the top of your audience’s minds.

1. Updated interface designed your way.

The new Zoho Campaigns UI allows you to work smarter with a new, customizable dashboard, to maximize your efficiency. With this dashboard you can get an overview of your email campaigns, and add only the widgets that you want to see, so you aren’t wasting valuable space on your screen. With the My Short tab, you can achieve smooth transitions with tabs that group your favorite features together, allowing for effortless focus on just the tasks that make up your workday.

2. Advanced Email Design Capabilities

Creating email campaigns has now become even easier. The new Zoho Campaigns UI allows you to create responsive and more complex email templates. The new drag-and-drop editor makes building email templates easy, and the new UI also makes it much easier for you to add pre-header text, attachments, and links to your social media pages. You can even preview what your campaigns will look like on any device using the built-in Litmus test. Want to go back to a previous version of your email? Well, Campaigns now saves all past iterations so you can!

3. New Image Editing Precision.

In the previous version of Campaigns, you could only upload and resize an image.  Now, you can combine your creativity and knowledge with added tools that allow for editing images from within Zoho Campaigns. That means you can crop, retouch, and even add text to the images that you upload! You can extend your creative capabilities with more image editing options. And increase your ability to connect with your audience by using engaging images.

zoho campaigns ui dynamic-content-updated4. Automation Puts More Flow Into Your Workflows.

Gain back valuable time in your day with expanded automation. With a number of added customizable autoresponders, triggers, and workflows, you can target your audience based on their behavior, clicks, and actions. Take automation a step further with the introduction of dynamic content, which can change the content of your emails based on subscriber or list segmentation. Ensure that your clients aren’t bombarded by emails by setting up your own rules.

5. Define User Roles and Permissions.zoho campaigns ui roles-and-privileges

Ever worry that a new Zoho Campaigns user will accidentally delete one of your email campaigns? Well, the new Zoho Campaigns UI even takes care of this problem with new settings for team member permissions and roles, just like in the CRM. You can also set managerial approvals so no campaign ever goes out without being approved first!

6. Reporting Features to Campaign Smarter.

Knowing how your campaigns are performing is integral in the structuring and design of future campaigns. The new UI allows you to track your campaign’s success with comprehensive analytics on a customizable dashboard. You can drill down into your campaign data even further than before with reporting on specific devices, email clients, and browsers that your clients used to view your campaigns. Add Google Analytics to Campaigns and track activity back to your website, and suddenly you have access to much more data – and ways to bridge gaps to connecting with your clients – than ever before.

The new Zoho Campaigns UI is available for all users! Pricing for Zoho Campaigns begins at $6/mo for unlimited emails and up to 500 subscriptions. Interested in learning more, implementing Zoho Campaigns, or starting on another Zoho app like Marketing Automation? Contact a member of our team! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we will reach out to you!

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