When it comes to choosing a Zoho partner to be your number one resource for all things Zoho, you already know you have options – pages and pages of them, according to Zoho’s list of resellers. We’re acutely aware of this, and we’re so glad we have your attention right now. Knowing you have so many options means we’ve had to go to great lengths to differentiate ourselves from other firms – and, having spent nearly six years as a Zoho partner, we can confidently say we offer just the service you need to ensure your success on the platform. Whether it’s a customized consulting session, a made-to-order automated solution, or even an integration to a third-party system, we’re committed to growing your business with Zoho.
Unlock Success with Our Zoho Implementation Partnership
Consulting Services
As a Zoho Premium Partner and Zoho Certified Consultancy, we focus on expertise, impact, and efficiency. We aim to bridge the gap between a business’ needs and available technology solutions, bringing a specialized skill set that enables you to make smart technology investments, improve your practices, and save time and money. Our Business Process Analysis (BPA) aims to increase your company’s efficiency, using the Zoho stack as a framework, and ensure a successful implementation by allowing us to truly understand your sales and operations processes with an in-depth review and analysis. And, with a range of optionsfor your other Zoho needs, we are here to maximize your potential!
Zoho ERP
Not all businesses are alike, and this is especially true of manufacturers and distributors. With Zoho ERP software, you’ll be able to customize every aspect order management and vendor tracking with the power of Zoho Creator, as well as generate accurate insight into performance by syncing with inventory and financial data. Zoho ERP is the solution for businesses who are seeking to create efficiency, automate processes, gain insights and more. Update: Zoho ERP has evolved into the FieldTech suite, which packs all the features above and more. It’s great for businesses in field services, construction, manufacturing/distribution, and tech/SaaS.
Integrations and Custom Solutions
We are proud to have a team of developers and strategists who are focused on solving any problem that comes our way. Having this team in our very own office means we can think of solutions and build them relatively quickly. In fact, this is how we created custom add-ons like our Commission Calculator and our SmartScheduler. We also provide completely customized integrations to programs like QuickBooks Desktop, Online, and Sage Intacct, and we provide even more plugin power for Google Apps, and more.
Team Training and Support
When it comes to an implementation of any kind, if your staff is not trained on the new software system, they won’t know what to do once the job is over and the consultant is gone. With the ZBrains team, you don’t have to worry about that! We offer training on Zoho applications to ensure that your team has everything it needs to be fully on board. We work with every level of management to ensure success, and even provide annual support plans for that extra push you might need throughout the year.
Want to learn more about us? Check out our one of our case studies here or here to learn about how we’ve helped them or Meet the Team!
Interested in learning more about Zoho? Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we will contact you!
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Zoho Vault Review: Is This Password Manager Right for Your Business?
If you’re looking for a reliable password manager that can provide top-notch security for your sensitive data, then Zoho Vault is definitely worth considering. As evident from their strong security protocols, Zoho takes security very seriously and their commitment to data protection extends to Zoho Vault, an app specifically designed for managing and securing sensitive information. With ISP/IEC 27001 global level security standards and SOC compliance, Zoho Vault provides a robust solution for businesses looking to safeguard their passwords and confidential information.
Experience Enhanced Business Security with Zoho Vault
First Off, What is Zoho Vault?
Passwords have become pretty elaborate these days, and if you count the number of online password-protected accounts you have, it’s no coincidence that our inboxes become flooded with password retrieval emails, especially if you’re using unique passwords for each individual account that you have (which you should!). Password management is a great step you can take to organize and protect your passwords and solve the aforementioned problems. Zoho Vault helps you manage all of your passwords in one place – and, it doesn’t just store passwords: it protects your other secrets as well!
Zoho Vault Features
Organization
Keep your secrets stored and organized in Zoho Vault! While primarily used for password storage, Vault can also be used to store other important information. This includes bank account details or sensitive employee data. You can create your own digital chambers or use Zoho’s provided chambers to organize your data (called secrets in Zoho Vault parlance) by type or by other factors you set. A few of the default chambers include: bank accounts, email accounts, web accounts, operating systems, and other secrets such as social security numbers.
Share with Your Team
Have members of your team that need access to the same passwords? With Zoho Vault, you have complete control over who can access your secrets. You can assign roles or owners of the contents in your vault and create user groups. This means you can ensure that your team can access the secrets or chambers they need. Secure Zoho Vault secrets with easy access removal, ownership transfer, and emergency contact designation.
Main passphrase
For an added level of security, Zoho Vault requires a master passphrase to access your secrets. To use Vault effectively, users create a master passphrase that only they know. Zoho never stores this as an encryption key, so remembering this passphrase is essential for accessing Zoho Vault – period.
Extensions and Single Sign-On (SSO)
If you’re on a secure computer, you may consider using the Zoho Vault browser extension. This allows Vault users to easily use stored secret login credentials. They can access their respective accounts without manually enter usernames and passwords. With one-click auto-logon, you can manage passwords, automatically log onto websites or applications, access passwords, and add new secrets without leaving the site or tab you’re in.
Mobile and Offline Access
For another layer of security, Zoho Vault allows for cold data storage – that is, users are allowed to download stored secrets to their desktop computers or mobile devices. Secrets downloaded this way are stored as HTML. As a result, they can be completely disconnected from the internet, but are still protected by the master passphrase.
Zoho Vault Review: Pros & Cons
Regarding password security, Zoho Vault stands out with its impressive features. Thanks to robust security measures like strong encryption, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and role-based access control, your passwords protect against unauthorized access.
Navigating Zoho Vault is a breeze, thanks to its user-friendly interface. Whether you’re tech-savvy or not, managing your passwords becomes a seamless experience with Zoho Vault across various platforms like web browsers, desktop applications, and mobile devices.
Collaboration and security go hand in hand with Zoho Vault’s secure password-sharing feature. Team members and colleagues can access shared passwords without seeing the actual password, ensuring sensitive information remains protected.
Monitoring password access and spotting suspicious activities is easy with Zoho Vault’s detailed audit trails and reports, adding an extra layer of security to your account.
On the downside, the accessible version of Zoho Vault has its limitations. For users with extensive password management needs, upgrading to a paid plan might be necessary.
While Zoho Vault integrates well with other Zoho products, there could be some limitations regarding integration with specific third-party applications.
The tool’s advanced features require some time and effort to grasp fully, making it challenging for some users to utilize its full potential.
Zoho Vault FAQ:
Q1. Can I use Zoho Vault for personal purposes?
A1. Absolutely! Zoho Vault caters to both individual users and businesses. The free version is perfect for personal use and offers essential password management features.
Q2. Can I securely share passwords with my team?
A2. Yes, Zoho Vault allows you to share passwords securely with your team using role-based access controls and permissions, ensuring only authorized individuals have access.
Q3. How does Zoho Vault ensure password security?
A3. Zoho Vault ensures the security of your passwords through strong encryption protocols and multi-factor authentication. Additionally, it provides audit trails and reporting for monitoring and tracking password activity.
Q4. Can I access Zoho Vault on my mobile devices?
A4. Absolutely! Zoho Vault provides dedicated mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, enabling secure access to your passwords on the go.
Q5. Are there any limitations in the free version of Zoho Vault?
A5. While the free version is an excellent starting point, it does have some limitations on the number of passwords and sharing options available. Upgrading to a paid plan unlocks more advanced features and capabilities.
Conclusion:
In summary, Zoho Vault is a trustworthy and secure password protection solution that offers robust features and ease of use. Its advanced security measures, cross-platform compatibility, and secure password sharing make it an ideal choice for individuals and businesses. However, it’s essential to be aware of the limitations of the free version and consider an upgrade to access the tool’s full potential. Zoho Vault provides a solid password management solution to keep your digital credentials safe and organized.
It’s no Secret – Your Secrets Need Protection These Days
As you may recall, 2015 was the year of the data breaches (Target, Home Depot), but hackers seemingly grow more sophisticated by the minute. Now, even credit reporting agencies like Equifax aren’t impervious to breaches. Let Zoho Vault add an extra layer of security to the place you need it most – your business and your personal information.
Pricing for Zoho Vault begins at free for personal use and $1 per user a month for the standard version. Interested in learning more? 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 call you!
CRM Review: Zoho vs GoldMine – A Comprehensive Comparison
In the days ofcryptomining, is all that glitters really gold?Cryptocurrency may just be a buzzword to some, but it shows just how inclusive the internet is when looking for solutions to different problems! Zoho’s millions of users rely on them to maintain their software, so you can trust them to handle website bugs. In fact, before we bring you onto our team as partners, we want you to explore various solutions; we’re so confident in Zoho, we know that they’ll offer the best solution to you every single time. We are setting our biases aside to compare Zoho VS GoldMine CRM and give you an honest comparison between the two regarding safety & security, integrations, performance, and of course costs.
Zoho vs GoldMine CRM: Which Cloud Solution Soars?
Safety & Security
When comparing Zoho VS GoldMine CRM, or any CRM for that matter, security is key. Zoho is stacked with nearly 30 million users worldwide, from small to large organizations, so security is paramount. If you run one of the oldest versions of GoldMine CRM, you’re aware of administrator “master rights” and how admin rights protect your precious information on your server. GoldMine’s newer, cloud-based iteration doesn’t provide many details on its security – but, it is clear that you are not actually reliant on GoldMine CRM for that data security, but on another provider. Zoho holds ISP/IEC 27001 global level security standards (tested independently) as well as SOC compliance. Not to mention, they outline their security measures to assure you that your information is well protected.
The Winner: Zoho
Integrations and Compatability
Zoho partners are positively flooded with requests to integrate outside applications with Zoho, or even create new apps within the Zoho environment, and there’s no end to that in sight. Zoho’s comprehensive package of apps called Zoho One offers 40+ integrations to start! That includes nearly anything you can imagine for a business, from accounting and inventory to sales and human resources. Conversely, for GoldMine CRM, integrations are somewhat limited: QuickBooks and Windows (presumably the environment on which you’d install GoldMine) are your top options. However, as a cloud solution, Zoho is able to run on many common browsers, including Safari 4 and above, Chrome 17 and above, Mozilla Firefox 17 and above, and Internet Explorer 9 and above. All of Zoho is also mobile- and tablet-ready, whereas GoldMine CRM has to rely on middleware, called Dejacloud, to add this capability.
The Winner: Zoho
Performance
GoldMine CRM may have been top-of-the-line at one point, but today its outdated interface requires more server-related maintenance just to upkeep – which is typical of on-premise systems – and this is work that most businesses find they just don’t have time to do any longer. On the other hand, Zoho and its suite of apps are completely cloud-based, which means all server maintenance is handled by Zoho themselves (hence the monthly fees you pay to use the software). Accessing Zoho CRM via the web means you need only have a working internet connection to have all the capability you need – no costly dedicated servers, or dedicated IT professionals (at least in this regard). Of course, every website has bugs from time to time, and hardly any are up 100% of the time – but, putting liability in the hands of someone else – and knowing that the company liable for maintaining your software also does it for millions of other users at the same time – should instill a fair bit of confidence in Zoho.
The Winner: Zoho
Price
Small business or large enterprise? Find out which CRM is right for you: Zoho or GoldMine. However, to put it succinctly:
Choose your CRM model: GoldMine’s “Own It” or cloud-based option starting at $60/mo per user.
Zoho One’s all-inclusive subscription begins at $45/mo per user, and a very basic Standard CRM package beginning at $20/mo per user.
The Winner: Zoho
We understand this isn’t enough to answer all your CRM questions. If you’ve been using GoldMine CRM for some time, switching it up entirely may seem especially daunting. But, learning about other options as a first step before diving in headlong doesn’t have to be.
Contact us to learn more about Zoho or discuss Zoho vs GoldMine: (888) 207-4111 or click below. We are proud to be a Zoho Premium Partner and are ready to help you make the move to this CRM that will be an ideal fit for your business.
Passing knowledge from one party to another can encompass a wide range of emotions, from the banal to the bang-up. But often – especially as collective attention spans dwindle to an average of 8 seconds – these tend towards the first option, and this makes it difficult to get anything worthwhile done during a presentation at all. Zoho knows about these struggles, and they’ve come up with a handy way of not only delivering engaging presentation content to your audience, but letting you know exactly how to improve so you never miss a beat again. Zoho ShowTime is a virtual training solution made for the digital age.
Here’s how Zoho ShowTime will change the way you present!
Reach Out to Anyone, Anywhere
Whether you are an educator, trainer, or presenter, planning training sessions and presentations of any kind can be strenuous, especially so if you have attendees from different corners of the globe. Last-minute travel and meeting space arrangements can be costly and ultimately unproductive. However, with Zoho ShowTime you can include everyone you need present through both audio and video conferencing. You can bring your presentation to the fingertips of your attendees through their personal computers or their mobile devices, making it easy to engage them wherever they – and you – are.
Standardize Training
If you have a large audience or many team members working remotely, it can be difficult to get everyone in the same room for a training session. Zoho ShowTime solves this problem! Whether it be for large groups or face-to-face sessions, ShowTime allows you to get everyone on board and give the same attention and information to your entire audience, ensuring you don’t have any knowledge gaps from one attendee to the next.
Customize For Your Needs
ShowTime simplifies the scheduling and registration process, allowing you to invite all trainees virtually and making it much easier for those who aren’t present physically. Zoho ShowTime allows you to customize and name your sessions as needed, as well as gain valuable insight on your attendees with specialized registration forms. You can further customize your experience by using the ShowTime plug-in for PowerPoint, which allows for creating entire presentations outside the standard ShowTime platform.
Interactive Training Environment
Worried about losing your attendees’ attention during your session? ShowTime’s interactive environment makes everything much more interesting for your audience. Presentation attendees can virtually “like” slides within a presentation, use the in-app chat, or respond to you directly with a virtual Q&A. You can also create live audience polls with multiple choice questions, ratings, and text-box responses. With screen sharing, attendees can review prior slides to clarify ideas, make connections, and enhance their learning.
Content Library and Knowledge Base
Once your presentation is over, it can be difficult to recall what you learned afterward. To remedy this, you can save presentations to the ShowTime course library or knowledge base for future use, along with any polls you administered – or, you can make past content available on your personal profile. Shareable links make it easy to pass content around on social media, so you can use it to further relationships with new clients who may be interested in your work!
Analytics and Feedback
And for the grand finale, analytics on engagement! ShowTime will track any session details to give you more insight into where you did, or did not, connect with your audience. Detailed analytics and reports are based on poll and chat engagement, likes, and ratings. Analytics and feedback will help you gauge the effectiveness of your training efforts to help you to improve future sessions!
There is a free version of Zoho Showtime available, with paid plans starting at $7 per user per month. Interested in learning in learning more? We areZoho certified consultants here to help. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below to have us call you!
Published on: December 13, 2017Category: Certified Zoho ConsultantsLast Updated: September 21, 2023 Comments: 0
As 2018 looms just ahead, the activity du jour in our personal lives is the new year’s resolution. These resolutions usually come without much thought, and fittingly they rarely come to fruition. However, as a business owner you think about a good deal more than simple resolutions: your needs are complex, and they depend upon the activities – and indeed, the needs – of other people and things in your organization. So, your resolutions require the planning necessary to take all those things into account.
Organizing the needs of your entire business can seem like a daunting task, but we’ve put the best 10 points together to get you started off on the right foot, and to make sure your new year’s resolution for your company is backed by solid processes and reasoning, a resolution you can truly keep.
Here are 10 Tips for Preparing Your Business for the New Year!
1. Review Your Year
First and Foremost, take a look at your company as a whole. No matter what type of business you have, taking a look at your business performance and infrastructure is vital to creating a strategy for the new year. From sales metrics to manufacturing costs, it’s important to know where you’ve been to determine where you are going. Reviewing your year will help you create a secure infrastructure and better understand your company’s growth, scalability, and potential weaknesses. This could mean surveying different department heads, or reviewing past performance reports in your CRM to gauge where you might be headed in 2018.
2. Review Customer Experience
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your customers and survey them about their experience with your company. It will help you determine if there are any shortcomings when it comes to customer happiness and help improve these for the coming year. This is also a great time to ask for testimonials from your happy customers, and perhaps sending out an accompanying survey from which to gather more actionable data. Featuring testimonials on your website can improve your opportunities with future customers as it instills trust, in fact, 85% of consumer trust online reviews as much as they would a recommendation from someone they know.
3. Get Informed!
Take time to do your research on new trends for the year. Whether it be marketing or consumer trends, it’s important to stay informed and ensure that your business’ goals are in line with the rest of the market. It’s also important to do research on any new laws taking effect, and how those may affect your business. For example, in California, we have few new laws and changes regarding leave of absence, hiring practices, and workplace safety and workers’ comp. You can learn more about those laws here.
4. Start with a Clean Slate and Organize
Is your desk, or desktop, cluttered? Or maybe your emails and calendars have just gotten out of control. It’s important that you start the New Year with a clean slate. Take some time to declutter and organize! Start the New Year fresh and put your mind at ease with a clutter-free workspace, a clean calendar, and without 999+ unread emails.
5. Set Goals and Business Resolutions
We normally set personal New Year’s resolutions, but why not set business resolutions as well? With the information and data you’ve gathered from your company review, your customers, and trends, you’re perfectly within your ability to set goals for yourself and your team. Make sure your team is aware of the importance of your business resolutions, how these will affect their day-to-day work, and how these fit in with (or change) the overall vision or goal of your organization.
6. Speak with your Team
It’s important to stay in touch with your team’s needs and processes. That way you can be sure that they have allotted the right tools and resources to complete their jobs efficiently. Be sure to take note of any bottlenecks and how those can be resolved. Your team may have great insights about working out inefficiencies in the day-to-day processes that they are a part of!
7. Refresh your Skills and Those of Your Team – Training
The New Year is a great time to refresh skills! Just as systems and applications used day to day may have several updates throughout the year, it is important that your team also receives updates so no one falls behind and everyone is on the same page. Hold training sessions for your team to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of your processes and systems. Here at ZBrains we offer Zoho CRM training – even for our own staff, on a set basis!
8. Evaluate your Finances
Take the time to compile financial reports from the past year. Review your growth and revenue to evaluate your company’s spending versus your company needs. This will help you to plan where your company can spend more for maximum benefit, and where you can cut costs and negotiate pricing. As well, make sure your payroll and accounting softwares are up-to-date to ensure those systems are running efficiently in the new year.
9. Marketing Optimization
Marketing trends change quickly, and it is important to start the year off with a fresh marketing plan and revamp your image. Create a content calendar for the year highlighting campaigns, important holidays, and events. Overhaul your social media accounts with new branded imagery and messaging in line with your new business resolutions. Looking back on the performance of the past year can help you shape your lean, mean, marketing machine.
10. Optimize Your Business
After reviewing the steps above it’s important to ask yourself a few questions. How can you improve? Are you using any outdated systems which seem to be slowing your team down? Is your CRM able to integrate with your daily apps, even on the go? Now is the time to implement changes and ensure your business is using the proper software and applications to run efficiently! Leave your outdated systems in the past and make the changes to enable your team in the new year. We here at ZBrains are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help you with Zoho implementations, integrations, or custom add-ons like our Commission Calculator or SmartScheduler.
Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the link below and we will call you! You can also check out a few of our past blogs listed below for more ways Zoho can optimize your potential!
It’s often said the current generation is one of instant gratification. Credit card purchases and same-day deliveries are a testament to this – but, the same can even be said of field services and installations. Elements of the job that used to require picking up a phone, paper calendars, and a physical survey of your team now happen in an instant with email, cloud-based calendars, and automated everything else due to the advent of the internet in general. For an industry that is expected to grow to $4.45 billion by 2022 (at a 16.5% compound annual growth rate), it means that quick service and an enhanced customer experience are key – and, thankfully, it’s never been easier to do it and benefit from it. Optimizing your scheduling process and making your business more efficient will put you ahead of the game.
Here are 5 ways you can increase efficiency with scheduling.
1. Find a scheduling tool that integrates.
A scheduling tool that can integrate with your employees’ calendars is important because it helps to ensure that none of your technicians will miss their appointments. If it integrates with your CRM, then it is even better! Your employees will be able to access customer information necessary for their appointments with the click of a button.
2. Google Maps and Drive Time Calculation.
Having to plan out routes for your employees while scheduling can be time-consuming. Let SmartScheduler be your dispatcher and calculate it for you, providing drive time calculation and optimal routes! Also, save your accounting department the hassle of working through mileage payouts by automatically tracking actual miles traveled through drive time calculation and google maps integration.
3.Your customers can schedule themselves.
Streamline your efficiency and your bottom line. Giving your customer the opportunity to book appointments on their own time is a huge benefit: they don’t have wait to call in during office hours, speak with an agent, and go back and forth looking for a time that works. Instead, they can just search for times that work for them! This also leaves your staff open to do other tasks, and takes the stress away from waiting by the phone.
4. The scheduling process is automated.
The best way to increase efficiency when it comes to scheduling is to automate it! We know that dropping numerous tasks at hand to set appointments for your employees or yourself can be a hassle, especially when you have to take multiple factors into consideration, like expertise or territory. In fact, California-based company Energy Datametrics found that their productivity increased by 15% after they started using scheduling software.
5. Find an App that can do it all!
Our SmartScheduler can! The SmartScheduler help you, well…schedule smarter! It integrates with Zoho CRM and we’ve just added new features to allow your customers to schedule online. We are always keeping our SmartScheduler app up-to-date and we can scale it to your particular needs. Optimize your potential and become more efficient with our SmartScheduler! Check out our recent webinar for a more in-depth look at how the SmartScheduler works.
Interested in learning more about Zoho or our SmartScheduler? Or reach out to a member of our team! Our Zoho Certified Consultants are here help! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111, or click the button below and we will call you!
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Zoho Notebook Review: New Feature Alert – Get Organized!
Zoho seems to be the king of expanding already complex applications into tools you can use to run entire departments of businesses – but, as it turns out, they’re also pretty adept at taking smaller, simpler tools and making those better, too. Take Zoho Notebook, for example: Zoho’s answer to apps like Evernote takes the simple act of taking notes on the fly – something most of us really benefit from doing – and combines it with some great features you may not even know you needed – or, wonder how you ever went without them before.
What is Zoho Notebook?
Zoho Notebook is a (free!) note taking application available across several devices. It allows users to easily take notes which are synced to the cloud so they are always up to date. You can create text notes and checklists, flesh out ideas with a dedicated notecard, and even record audio to go with your notes. You can organize your cards into different notebooks with customized titles and covers to keep yourself organized. Share your notes with others over SMS, email, iMessage, and AirDrop, or keep them private with passcodes. This free note taking app simplifies the note taking process and has been made even better with its recent updates!
What are the New Features?
Intelligent Formatting
Worried that your notes will become distorted or lost when switching between devices? Well, worry no more! With Zoho’s new Smart Cards, the content of your notes is formatted intelligently into simple and clean notecards. Saving a link to an article or webpage? Zoho Notebook will put the headline and main image at the forefront, instead of just a long link. It also makes saving video links to your notes easy: when you save a link from Youtube or Vimeo, Notebook will show a video preview on the card and play it in a distraction-free area when opened. You can now even scan documents to Notebook! With text, audio, sketch, and recipe cards, Notebook’s smart cards take note-taking to the next level!
Notebook for Web
Zoho Notebook originally began as a mobile app but has now expanded into a true online repository! Notebook for web syncs seamlessly from your mobile devices to your desktop. Want to take notes while browsing the web? You can now use extensions which are available for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox to simply drag and drop content and cards across apps. You can save articles (without ads) using Clean view, and clip text and images to save to cards. Protect some of your notes, or extend protection to all of them, using passcodes to ensure your privacy. The simplicity of Notebook will help you stay organized with ease.
Notebook for Mac and iOS 11 Support
You can now do more with Notebook for Mac! Zoho has optimized the experience for Mac users by expanding the drag-and-drop features. Need to save a checklist to your iOS reminders? Well, you can! Zoho has also added support for the drag and drop feature to the iPad Pro, allowing you to multitask and easily manage your notes from even more devices. Other improvements include the ability to unlock your notes using FaceID or Touch ID (depending on the device), making security even better.
Interested in learning more about Zoho Notebook or Zoho in general? Contact a member of our team today! At ZBrains, we provide tailor-made Zoho solutions for your business. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111. R click the link below and we will call you!
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If you’re reading this blog, you already know how powerful a CRM implementation can be to your business. Not only acting as a simple database of contacts, it gives you the power to project future revenue, which can factor into all manner of things related to your business, including whether or not to grow the business – and in which direction. However, as implementing a CRM can be such a comprehensive process, the stories are many where business owners were severely hampered by a CRM that didn’t turn out to be as adaptable as it seemed, or even more held up when a CRM actually decreased productivity because the staff didn’t know how to use the system or didn’t trust it.
Sometimes, the CRM itself is indeed to blame for these problems, but more of the time, these failed implementations rest squarely on the shoulders of the deployment team (or lack thereof) doing the work. The solution to the problem, then, seems to be to make sure proper data is conveyed to that deployment team to make sure that a CRM implementation takes every known business situation into account… But, how can you do that effectively?
Fortunately, at ZBrains, we’ve been down this road and heard this story many a time. Based on our years of experience, this is what we recommend to make sure your system works just the way you expect it to and doesn’t end up hurting your business or going to waste.
Successful Zoho CRM Implementation: Key Factors:
The Right Fit
First off, ensure the solution is the right fit for your business. It’s important to verify that it has the capabilities to fit into and improve your current processes. Whether it be to match and improve your sales flow or to simplify your email marketing, your chosen solution should encompass all of your business needs. If the CRM implementation can adapt to your business, then your employees can more easily adapt to the implementation.
It Integrates With Your Daily Apps
Don’t divide your business up into different applications. Switching back and forth between tabs can be time-consuming. The business solution that you choose should integrate with your daily apps seamlessly. Being able to integrate with your chosen email client, accounting software, or marketing tools helps a good deal to avoid problems like duplicate or bad data. You can read more about the troubles bad data can cause here.
Training your Staff
Make sure that both you and your team understand how the new CRM implementation will work with your business. Without the team’s understanding, they will not be fully on board with the new solution, or won’t use it properly. When partnering with a consultant for your implementation, ensure that they will also take the time to train you and your staff – because you want your staff confident in the solution once the consultant is gone. Here at ZBrains, we take the time to train your team on the CRM or other Zoho apps, and even work with every level of management to prepare your team even better. Learn more about our CRM consulting services here!
Employee Buy-In
You want your team engaged before, during, and after the implementation process. It’s important to get an employee buy-in through proper training, but you can ease the buy-in process (and indeed we do this with upper management) through something like a Business Process Analysis (BPA), to ensure that everyone is onboard. With a BPA, we interview key personnel to get an idea of what a Zoho implementation will be able to fix and how you’d want to scale the system as you grow. Then, we deliver the findings to you in a formal document called an Executive Summary. Positioning Zoho as something that will make life easier always helps with employee buy-in, and the Executive Summary explains and reinforces exactly how that can be done.
When it comes to any new implementations, it is important that your company can adapt to those changes easily. By choosing the right partner and keeping these 4 things in mind, you will be on the road to a successful CRM implementation.
Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of the ZBrains team today! Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below to choose a time that works best for you!
It’s Thanksgiving! It’s the perfect time to chow down, visit family and friends, and be happy and thankful for everyone in your life. In the spirit of the holiday, we would like to share some of the Zoho Apps that we are most grateful for with you! They can help you to optimize your potential and can keep you on-track and ready to close more, win more, and earn more.
Here are 4 Zoho Apps that we are grateful for!
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a powerful cloud-based customer and prospect management solution for your business. It is your most basic database where you can reach out to your customers and reference past work or projects, as well as forecast future sales – which you can use to make key decisions about your business. With Zoho CRM, you can set tasks and reminders to reach out to your customers in a timely and convenient manner, all for the purpose of giving your customers a smoother journey through your sales funnel. With a multitude of integrations, add-ons, and applications you can customize this CRM to fit your specific, unique business needs. Check out just how easy it is to migrate to Zoho!
Zoho Sprints
Simplify project management for your business! This agile project management app designed to manage software sprints and help everyone get over their respective hurdles. A simpler project management solution than Zoho Projects, you can manage and track your team’s time and see where everyone stands using the Scrum Board. Use analytics which update in real time to help you make predictions, make adjustments, and identify bottlenecks. All of these features will make sure that your team is operating efficiently. Learn more here!
Zoho Campaigns
Being able to keep in touch with your customers and prospects is important: it can convert uninterested leads into warmer prospects, and it can turn one-time customers into lifetime family members. Instead of toggling between various different apps for email marketing, you can use Zoho Campaigns. It integrates with your CRM to ensure that your data is always up to date. Campaigns also gives you massive insights into your email marketing campaigns so you can know how they performed and automate follow-up campaigns. Best of all, the integration with Zoho CRM offers unparalleled visibility into those engaged with your content and pipeline. Learn more about the power of Zoho Campaigns!
Zoho Desk
Good customer service is important! Happy customers make life so much easier. Zoho Desk is that all-encompassing solution for your business in need of a ticketing system. Desk is context-aware and designed so your service never misses a beat. With in-depth reporting for management, detailed tickets and time tracking for agents, and a knowledge base for customers – this Zoho app help cover every level of customer service.
Love all of these Zoho Apps? Well, they are all included with Zoho One! If you are interested in learning more feel free to reach out to our team. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 and schedule a consultation at a time that works best for you. You can also sign up for a free trial of Zoho by clicking the button below!
We here at ZBrains wish you a safe, happy, and delicious holiday!
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One of the most exciting things about the world of software today is how easy it is to do, well… anything. Computers are doing things today that we previously wouldn’t have even dreamed of, and, in doing so, opening our minds up to even more possibilities and, thankfully, giving us the tools to see those possibilities come to fruition before our very eyes – and keyboards. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are typically thought of as the forerunners in software innovation, but… what about you? You probably have all kinds of ideas about how to make your own business run more smoothly, and, if you’re reading this blog post, you’ve likely started your foray into Zoho and its suite of apps. So, what about all the things you want to do that Zoho’s standard apps just can’t do for you? Zoho Creator, as Zoho Corporation’s platform as a service (similar to force.com), is Zoho’s answer to nearly any gap you might come across, and then some.
Empower Innovation with Zoho Creator
How exactly will those tools help? To get you (or your Zoho consultant of choice) started, here are 4 ways Zoho Creator fills gaps in your business processes and generally makes life better.
Functionality and Mobility
Creator makes it easy for you to build custom applications for your business to automate your business process and reduce your workload. With its drag-and-drop interface, you don’t need to a be a programmer to build applications. Manage your data and collaborate with your colleagues using app-level and form-level sharing, and even give clients access to certain records or data with the client portal add-on. You can also stay connected with Creator’s native mobile apps, which allow you to take your data everywhere.
Gain actionable insights with custom reporting
With Zoho Creator you can create custom charts and generate reports with variables as you see fit for your business. Gain actionable insights through Creator by easily identifying trends or by setting benchmarks. These insights can be followed up by automated actions which can be easily set up. You can trigger these actions to occur based on different contexts – for example, send out an email to customers based on where they are in your order process. Reporting in Zoho Creator allows you to see business information with context and optimize your potential with meaningful data.
Simplify your day with automation
Save time with built-in workflows. Trigger actions based on customer information or actions, and map the information in the database. Using conditional statements and built-in functions you can configure approval systems and define rules for processes, allowing you full control over it all. You can also set up notifications, reminders, and schedule tasks through Creator to avoid delays and ensure your customers are happy.
Integration is key
Zoho Creator connects with standard Zoho apps with relative ease; it also connects to other Creator apps. This opens up realms of possibilities like connecting various ERP apps into an ERP suite on Zoho, then connecting that to your Zoho CRM.
When it comes to building an application for your business, it is important that it can integrate with your other business apps to ensure that you are receiving all the necessary data. Zoho Creator integrates with several apps including Zoho apps, Google apps, QuickBooks Desktop and Online, and PayPal. Creator makes data collection easy, and you don’t have to worry about manually inputting data.
Zoho Creator starts at $15 per user per month*, which is a great deal. Save time and money by creating a custom application for your business needs. *Pricing updated June 2021
Did that get the innovation juices flowing? Or, just interested in learning more? Contact a member of our team today!
Consulting Services
Zoho CRM
Zoho Sprints
Campaigns
Zoho Desk
