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Maximizing Business with Zoho Expert: Solutions for Tech & SaaS

Published on: October 7, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRMLast Updated: September 21, 2023 Comments: 0

As a Technology and SaaS company, you’re managing leads, sales, deals, and likely managing subscriptions. Perhaps you are even using Zoho apps to do it. With Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho Subscriptions, and Zoho Books implementations, capturing your data across the business is covered.  It’s a great start to business problem solving.

But are you using that data to the fullest? 

Are you keeping an eye on the correct metrics for your Key Performance Indicators? In this article we share the top three problems that we see a lot of Technology, Saas, CaaS, TaaS, and Subscription-based businesses contend with and how to solve them. Keep reading to ensure that you’re resolving these possible lapses in reporting. Avoid these pitfalls that could be leaving a hole in your potential revenue.

Problem 1: You’re Losing Track of Subscriptions or Recurring Revenue

using kpis to measure successSome businesses use deals to keep track of annual subscriptions or contracts, but depending on your contract structure, this can lead to a case of counting your chickens before they’ve hatched. Keeping an eye on your KPI’s slightly shorter-term will give you a more accurate pulse on the health of the business. Business problem solving can start by tracking Monthly Recurring Revenue. 

What is Monthly Recurring Revenue?

“Regardless of your subscription model, monthly recurring revenue as a KPI is foundational to your business. Take the total number of paying clients by the average revenue per customer to achieve this figure. Straightforward really, but if you have a lot of pricing variants, it can get sticky. (Bonus points if you can segment your recurring revenue by new vs existing clients.) Taking into account your known churn rate when looking at MRR could give you insight into whether or not it’s time to acquire more accounts.”

Keep your Monthly Recurring Revenue data at hand when you add this metric to your executive dashboard. In Zoho CRM, or Zoho Analytics depending on your business need, you’ll be able to bring this KPI front and center, with the ability to drill down for specifics when you need them. You won’t lose track of subscriptions or recurring revenue as easily when you make it part of your organization’s KPI’s.

Problem 2: Your Quoting, Job Costing, and/or Sales Process is Complex

As the market space for SaaS and Tech businesses continues expanding, so must the service and product offering of many organizations. If your business model includes software services, plus physical equipment – and maybe even installation – then your quoting complexity certainly goes up a notch. 

people working on a whiteboardHere’s a quick bonus tip: With a solution such as a custom Zoho CPQ tool, built on Zoho Creator your org can use your own factors, triggers, and calculations. Then you’re able to assemble quotes that include software, hardware, and  services. (P.S. The app includes a quote configurator, as well as kitting or bundling!) 

With complex businesses, and complex quoting, so exists a complex and often longer-term sales process. They can be difficult to keep tabs on. This is where having the right tools and a handle on the right KPI’s can really help. Start by asking yourself some questions geared toward business problem solving. For example, do you know with certainty:

    • How many new deals are in your pipeline right now? 
    • Which deals are closing this week?
    • Do you have a deal that started out promising that is now going stale? 
    • Do you know why? 

There’s a KPI for that! Here we provided a little bonus tool suggestion with the customer Zoho CPQ tool. However, we recommend a very common tool with far-reaching KPI’s to keep tabs on quotes, your open deals, deals with subscriptions renewing soon, and more. It’s a sales pipeline.

Use a Sales Pipeline in Zoho CRM, in tandem with your custom Zoho CPQ tool, to have quick insight and a connection between the data in your deals and your sales process. Tracking pipeline data can help you:

    • Know when it’s time to dive into issues with sales staff, saving time and maybe even saving a few deals your org might have lost due to inattentiveness.
    • Identify patterns in pipeline data to help you identify your ideal customer to target as you search for new leads.
    • And if you are dealing with complex quotes and long sales cycles, you can also see when customers are dropping off at certain stages of the cycle. You’ll know the seat of the problem and won’t have to guess where to start adjusting your sales process.

This insight from an integrated Zoho solution can solve for complex sales processes and mean a big leg up against your competitors.

Problem 3: You Don’t Know if Your Current Clients are Happy.

Anecdotally, you can poll your sales staff on behalf of clients. Or you can talk to a few customers to find out what they do or don’t like about your offering. However, without an active effort to utilize data from Zoho CRM, Zoho Survey, and potentially custom Zoho Creator functions in this process, you may never know the full story. If this sounds familiar, actively start business problem solving for customer satisfaction.

Are there things you could be doing differently to ensure happy customers and what are they?

We suggest three KPI’s to track, both lead and lag measures. They can help you understand objectively if your clients are happy. This mix of KPI metrics provides a rounded set of information to indicate the overall health of your existing customer base. 

First, Churn Rate. 

The SaaS industry average is said to be between 5-7% annually. Do you know yours?

The outlay of cost (CAC) to acquire a new client is usually significantly greater than the cost of maintaining an existing customer. Right off the bat, this is a bonus because the lower your churn rate, the less you may have to invest in acquisition. Satisfied clients aren’t generally searching for new business solutions. So for this reason, we recommend keeping tabs on Churn Rate as a lag indicator of customer satisfaction. To do this, use Zoho tools to calculate the percentage of your cumulative cancellations over your cumulative sign-ups every month. 

Secondly, On-Time Delivery. 

On-Time Delivery is a process metric that can tell you if your operations are working as intended. However, on-time delivery can double as a lead measure for customer satisfaction. In most cases, if your staff have promised a delivery date, and it has lapsed (calculated as a rate of deliverables made on time) there’s a very good chance that customer perception will be impacted. Knowing your baseline for on-time delivery, and acknowledging anomalies alongside other satisfaction metrics could be a simple way to stay aware of potential negative trends.

And if you need assistance with this or any KPI’s, Zoho’s many tools are indispensable. Zoho’s almost endlessly customizable with the Creator app. It allows you to create the features you need to capture the data your org needs including on-time delivery and churn rate. Zoho Creator  puts the tools to innovate and improve squarely into your hands.

Finally, Net Promoter Score. 

Net Promoter Score is used widely to measure customer satisfaction. Zoho Survey is a perfect tool for measuring this, and straightforward to do. With a single question, customers are identified as Promoters, Passive, or Detractors. We suggest adding in a comment field in order to collect statements if your customers wish to leave one. Using the quantitative data of the 1-10 rating, alongside the qualitative comment data, you open the door to actionable insights.

Ready to start solving business problems and empowering your organization through better use of the data you’re collecting? Instead of leaving it to chance, contact us for an assessment that’s geared specifically to your business. Whether you’re in SaaS, other technology, or you use subscriptions in any form, the ZBrains team of Zoho Certified Consultants are eager to help.

October updates from ZBrains

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | October 2020

Published on: October 6, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho Bugs, Zoho Corporation, Zoho FeaturesLast Updated: May 10, 2023 Comments: 0

As you likely know through experience, Zoho is a diverse and dynamic ecosystem of applications and is constantly updated and improved. While we know that not every change will immediately improve your system, we’re striving to ensure that the most up to date information about Zoho Updates is available and shared with you regularly. It’s our hope as your partner that this information will inform any required updates to your systems and minimize unnecessary impacts to business. Each month we’ll post this short digest with information including:

  • New features for Zoho apps
  • Application updates from Zoho
  • Issues that might impact your system

We’d love to know if this update is useful for you. Let us know in the comments what else we can include to help provide you with the latest from Zoho to make your day easier.

Here are your What’s New updates for October 2020. 

 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

Zoho Books

  • Introduced discount at the line item level for bills and purchase orders.
  • Get a faster at-a-glance view with this Zoho Books business performance ratios improvement. See the details here.

ZOHO UPDATESApplication Updates from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

  • Lots of updates and improvements recently in Zoho Creator, so we’ll give you the highlights here.
    • You’ll see improvements in security, SMS default functions, and a greater flexibility with API permissions by user. 
    • Export settings have increased to 100,000 records.
    • Now you’ll find more flexible styling options in iOS. 
    • Most recently, Zoho Creator offers greater connectivity and Zoho-to-Zoho integration. You can connect custom functions with Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Subscriptions, and Zoho Inventory. 
  • These are just a few of the highlights of what’s new in Zoho Creator, please see the full technical documentation from Zoho for more. 

Additional Critical Notes on Zoho Creator Updates

  • Effective end of October, 2020 Zoho is making a change to the notations used in API Names. If you are using Smart Scheduler for FieldTech or any other custom extensions, please schedule your updates. Zoho Creator is moving from Dot (.) notation in API Names to the Double Underscore ( __ ) notation for all components and Removing Dot(.) and Double Underscore(__) Notation for Default fields of Custom Modules created in Zoho Extensions.
  • Recently Zoho announced the end-of-life for Creator API v1 on February 3, 2021, and will require a migration to Zoho Creator API v2. The application will remain compatible until then; however, we strongly recommend scheduling your analysis and migration in advance in order to avoid any interruptions in service.  This change applies to you if you are using the v1 API and syncing w/ CRM, Books, or any other application. The API for v2 is already released. Next, we suggest getting started as quickly as possible because the timeline for your migration is variable depending on the complexity of your solution. Contact us any time to schedule your migration analysis.

 Zoho CRM

  • It’s time to update your browser for CRM. Zoho has upgraded the default browser version for CRM to facilitate features like widgets and scripts. Change effective October 15, 2020. For documentation on the most current specifications, please see the updated system requirements documentation.

Zoho Books

  • Firstly, Zoho Books has provided a new option to use the suggested rate when categorizing bank feeds in foreign currency with transactions in Books.
  • Next, you can save a step with this new update, “[Books] Provided the option to choose a payment mode from multiple payment modes if you mark the option ‘I have received the payment’ while creating an invoice.”
  • Update allows time-savings with the “option to configure auto-apply credit notes and excess payments to recurring invoices.”

 

Zoho BugsIssues Notices from Zoho

  • For now, we don’t have any notable issues to share, but keep your eye on this section for future updates about issues.

 

 

 

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

 

Connect with a Consultant

 

Zia Zoho CRM

Zia and Zoho CRM: How AI Can Up Your CRM Game

Published on: October 1, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRM, Zoho FeaturesLast Updated: June 14, 2023 Comments: 0

Today we want to introduce you to Zia, Zoho CRM’s AI-driven conversational assistant who you can chat with via text or voice, and who can provide sales insights or even remind you of tasks. This is just the start of what Zia can do. In this article we’ll cover:

  • Spending less time in your email
  • How Zia helps you get in front of your customers at the times best for them
  • Generating reports and getting quick answers to your reporting questions with Zia
  • How Zia helps to notify you of abnormal sales metrics
  • Maximizing your cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
  • And believe it or not, more

Stay tuned for all of the areas that Zia can assist, but first a bit more about how Zia does what it does in Zoho CRM. Zoho says,

“[Zia] optimizes your CRM data through data mining and machine learning to deliver key business information such as sales predictions, suggestions, and alerts. It is not only based on what goes into the system, but Zia even learns how each salesperson uses Zoho CRM from all her analysis.”

The result is better, more informed – and personalized – communications for sales and marketing with your prospects and leads. Let’s take a closer look at all the ways that you and your team can interact with Zia to shave time off common tasks from calls to reporting, and gain more insight into the world of your customers’ behavior. If you want to know how to use Zia in zoho CRM, keep reading. 

• Spend less time in email with Zia.

In email, something we all use daily, Zia is able to streamline work by identifying and extracting tasks. Zia can set appointments directly from email. How much time could that save you in a week?

It can also mark sentiment of email messages. Then you can easily recognize requests, queries, complaints, or other types of messages. This helps you easily identify potential escalations like complaints allowing you and your employees to organize what should be prioritized. Then, take this data one step further to segment records based on email sentiment – positive, negative, or neutral. For example, you can find all recent negative sentiments and schedule appropriate follow up actions like phone calls or meetings. 

This is just the start of what Zia can do.

• Zia answers when you ask. 

If you have questions about the data you keep in CRM, simply ask Zia to receive information quickly such as: 

  • a list of your open tasks for the day
  • which deals are closing in the next 30 days
  • or get granular and ask more complex questions

You can ask about sales numbers, or search anything in CRM when you type the word “search” and then the term you are looking for. Add skills for Zia to complete actions for you like creating tasks, changing deal stages, converting a lead, and placing a call to a contact. The functionality here goes much deeper of course, and we’re happy to answer your questions about Zia so contact us any time. 

• Contact your leads and customers at the right time with help from Zoho CRM Zia.

At the beginning of this article we mentioned that Zia learns from and uses behavioral patterns to do its work. Some of the behavioral patterns that Zia looks at includes “Best Time to Contact” information. In contact records you can view the best time for a call or email based on what Zia has learned from the contact behavior, as well as the agent behavior with that contact.

Now, anytime you want to do outreach take a quick look at the “best time” suggestion to improve those communications and increase your chances of connecting. (You can look for times both today or in the future if the best time for the day has already passed!) Tack on Zia reminders and double-down on your AI-powered successes. This feature works when you select your tasks for a day and ask Zia for reminders. It even takes into account the “best time” data so you don’t have to.

• Zia in Zoho CRM can recommend products, increase engagement, and improve customer experience.

[caption id="attachment_5689" align="alignright" width="467"]ZBrains Zia and Zoho CRM
Zia aggregates behavioral data points from many areas of the customer journey, then provides actionable recommendations for your sales and marketing teams.[/caption]

Using self-learning, Zia’s Recommendation tool can help you by finding behavioral patterns that can be used to position the right product at the right time, to your customers. You choose the areas where you want Zia to provide recommendations, then connect standard or custom modules to define the desired recommendation model. 

Zia aggregates behavioral data points from click-through rates and conversions, to revenue and cross-selling, and then provides actionable recommendations. Whether you’re looking for e-commerce or other online sales recommendations, Zia can be configured to help. 

Additionally, your customer’s preferences can be leveraged even more when Zia is used to place preferred content, products, and more to increase the efficiency of your lead nurturing campaigns, increase engagement, or improve customer satisfaction. This is the power of delivering the right messages at the right time.

• Get better predictions and get trend notifications with Zia.

CRM Administrators can take advantage of the prediction tool to find key business indicators such as the likelihood of a lead converting to a deal, revenue forecasts, and how likely it is for a site visitor to convert on – or purchase – a product. You can set up Zia predictions for both standard and custom modules. It requires 24 hours and a minimum of 200 matching training records or that contain data relevant to the prediction. 

When a prediction is configured, a custom field is visible on each record. Creating a prediction using Zia is relatively straightforward, but as always you can contact a ZBrains Zoho Certified Consultant if you’d like to get a running start.

In addition to predictions, Zia also looks for trends, and can alert you to spikes or dips without the need for you to check on a dashboard daily. You’ll get notifications about leads, contacts, deals, tasks, events, calls, email and more depending on the components you select for Zia to watch. An enviable tool for any sales manager, Zia analyzes the data and lets you know when significant changes occur. To see them check the Zia notifications in the lower right corner of your screen.

• Streamline tasks with an AI assistant, Zia.

What if your AI assistant Zia could recommend workflows, or tasks you repeat often, and streamline them for you? 

By enabling Workflow Suggestions, it can! 

Zia notifies you when it recognizes a new suggestion. Then you select if you’d like to use it or not. Automated workflows are suggested for and can be created in Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Deals. 

A great example of this is, you may have several workflows already in place to help you manage follow-ups with your leads. And you may have leads that find you and engage with multiple campaigns. Zia can help by notifying you when leads may receive multiple campaign or auto responder emails in a single day.

Through behavioral learning Zia will recommend workflows for the manual activities that you repeat often, like the example above. Remember to check your Zia notifications to see them.

• Put an end to confusing record owner assignment rules, let Zia do it!

Confusing rules about client territory, industry, interest, or preferences, in tandem with agent availability are remedied with Zia’s record owner assignment. Zia suggests automated assignments based on how your current CRM records are assigned. 

For example, all customers in New York interested in product AA, should be assigned to agent Jane Smith. Record assignments can also be split based on the customer’s preferred form of communication. For example, if only an email address exists on a record, it should be handled by agent Richard Nguyen, and if only a phone number exists then the request should route to another agent. 

Similar assignments are made based on agent or user availability and their workload! Once you define and set them up with Zia, you can stop referencing protocol documentation. You put an end to emailing a team to find out who is available to take a new lead.

[caption id="attachment_4513" align="alignright" width="500"]how to use zia in zoho crm Streamline your Zoho CRM activities, automate repetitive tasks, and let Zia do data entry or answer those quick questions that pop up throughout the day.[/caption]

• Let Zia do the new record data entry.

Everyone finds it bothersome when a new record is entered in the system and the information is incomplete. Is that true for you, too? From information entered in Leads, Accounts, and Contacts, Zia will crawl the web and look for corresponding data matches including:

  • social media handles
  • complete address
  • phone numbers
  • email addresses
  • industry type

You and your team are set to save a few minutes here and there doing data entry. We all know that these little tasks add up over time.

So, once you have enabled data enrichment and mapped fields, Zia collects and enters the data for you whenever a record is created or edited. Of course, security is always a concern.  Zia does not store any information. It only accesses public information shared on the internet.

• Use Zia as your FAQ source.

Last, but certainly not least, Zia can act as your Zoho CRM FAQ. Have a question about something in the Zoho ecosystem? Type your question in the “Ask Zia” chat at the bottom right of your scree. Then see relevant articles and information to start your research.

Are you interested in learning more about Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant? Ready to start? Contact us!

Connect with a Consultant

Customer Segmentation

Customer Segmentation using RFM Model in Zoho CRM

Published on: August 7, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRMLast Updated: March 29, 2023 Comments: 0

Unlocking Marketing Success with RFM Customer Segmentation in Zoho CRM

Off the top of your head, you can probably think of a handful of your ‘best customers.’ Those that have purchased recently, purchase regularly, and spend a decent amount with your company. Have you considered using the RFM model widely applied to your entire book of business? RFM segmentation model allows you to segment or group your customer data for even deeper insights.  This means groupings like, “Best Customers,” “Loyal Customers,” and “At Risk Customers” are relatively straightforward to capture. And you can do it now in Zoho CRM! 

Keep reading to learn more about the RFM model and how you can put it to use in your business. 

 

What is the RFM model?

This acronym stands for Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value. This model, while not new, can provide you with new levels of customer information when using the data points in tandem.

  • Recency: how recently did your customer purchase from you?

  • Frequency: how frequently does your customer purchase from you?

  • Monetary: how much does your customer spend with your business?

The three dynamics of data in this model combine to give powerful information to your customer behaviors, and can help with strategy, planning and sales approach. In Zoho CRM, this model comes with some predefined and weighted values which makes implementation very straightforward. But first, let’s take a look at a little more about how the RFM model and customer segmentation can benefit your business. 

 

How does the RFM segmentation model benefit your business?

Segmenting RFM data can benefit your business in several ways across sales and marketing departments. At the crux of it is the value in knowing your customer. However, here are a few additional points that illustrate how RFM segment data can be beneficial:

  • You can speak to the right audiences at the right time (targeted marketing). When you ensure your promotions are timely and accurate, you improve customer satisfaction and retention. This can ultimately impact your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), an important KPI for a lot of industries [link Saas & Tech KPI’s article].
  • Timely, targeted messaging ensures you avoid marketing fatigue among your audience.
  • When you know your customers and in which segment of the RFM model they reside, you can better allocate your marketing budget.
  • RFM data can show areas with growth opportunities. For example, that could look like incrementally increasing the frequency of orders a customer makes with your company. Or inversely, using recency data to identify and re-engage customers who may not have purchased recently.

Because the RFM model is numerical, straightforward, and intuitive you will find that its output is relatively easy to understand and interpret. The result is a high-level view of customer behavior that can be mixed and matched for new sales and marketing approaches that weren’t previously possible without the data.

 

Combining RFM with other Data for deeper insights

Customer groupOn its own, RFM segmentation data is powerful, but having these metrics to combine with other key performance indicators can provide even greater value. Use the data for the successful customers you already have to determine what you did to acquire them, and then apply this new knowledge to your next acquisition efforts to save time and money.

An example of this would be to take your highest performing segment (where Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value all rank highly), and overlay geographic data. From this you may be able to see which areas of the country, or world, your best customers reside. Then you can use this information to craft targeted messages to ‘look alikes’ for an acquisition campaign.

Similarly, you can combine RFM data with age, gender, title, products purchased, sales agents they interacted with, company size, and on and on. The result is you can answer such questions as:

  • Where are my best customers located? 
  • How big are their companies? 
  • What is the title of the person who converts? 
  • What does the product mix of our most successful customers look like?

And with those answers you can model your business to meet the needs of your best customers. 

We hope you’re convinced that the information RFM captures for marketing, sales segmentation, and business strategy can take you a long way.

 

Put RFM Scoring into Action with Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM introduced this new segmentation feature in 2020. The system comes with some widely applicable segments already defined, with the scoring matrix already completed. The scoring for each segment of R, F, and M ranges between 1-5 points. The number 1 indicates low performance and 5 is high performance. It is probably best to customize your segments based on your business. However, the predefined segments give you a good starting point.

An example of segments could include,  “A+ Customers”  or best customers who purchase recently, often, and have a high spend. Your “Loyal Customers” might have a good spend and be responsive to promotions. There are a few others in addition to “At Risk” or “Churned Customers” who generally had a high spend, but have not purchased in a while.

Finding these segments in your Zoho CRM is as simple as applying filters to your account list. At that point, you can apply tags, and use them in your sales and marketing campaigns. 

 

Interested in putting the RFM Model and customer segmentation to work in your Zoho CRM? Start a conversation with one of our Sales Architects.

Should you choose Zoho FSM or FieldTech?

Published on: July 22, 2020Category: Zoho ERP, Zoho FSMLast Updated: October 21, 2024 Comments: 0

Should you dive into Zoho FSM?

zoho fsm or fieldtech

In 2019, we got the first glimmerings of a new Zoho app called Zoho FSM, or Field Service Management.  Now over halfway through 2020, Zoho has been slowly–very slowly!–opening the gates to this app and allowing both Zoho partners and users to test it.

And of course, the testing phase is part of any successful app rollout, especially when it’s something brand-new like Zoho field service management.  Zoho has toed the ERP waters before with their combination of Zoho Books and Inventory.  However, Zoho FSM is their first foray into something even grander, something that could dovetail onto that stack and turn Zoho into a real ERP contender.  The question is: Is Zoho FSM enough?

If you’ve known Zoho for any length of time, you know that improving their software continuously is one of their strong points.  They’re one of the companies that seem to lead in this category, giving you real value every time you renew your monthly subscription to one of their apps.  As opposed to some companies, whose software you may use every month, but it’s basically the same software–and, additions of new fields in a module are cause for New Release! announcements.

Hot Take: How do we feel so far?

Even with knowing all this, it’s tough to say how quickly Zoho FSM will be able to deliver on its promise.  But, we at ZBrains are hoping Zoho is able to push this app out to market quickly.

Now… that may seem like a strange comment for someone unfamiliar with what we do at ZBrains.  But, to explain: we don’t just provide Zoho consulting services here.  We’ve actually developed a whole ERP framework for Zoho called FieldTech.

So, at first glance, it would appear that this field service management app from Zoho is in direct competition with the FieldTech offering.  And, sure, in some ways, it is.  But, not in all ways, as we’ll discuss soon.

zoho fsm or fieldtech

So, why is the addition of Zoho FSM a good thing?

It’s a good thing because it gives you, as someone who may want us to help you one day, one more potential option for your field services, construction, manufacturing, or tech business to use as a field service management platform.  Connect that to your Zoho CRM, and suddenly managing your entire business through Zoho doesn’t seem so insurmountable.

Of course, we’d love for you to use our FieldTech offering.  But, we understand it may not be for everyone.  Zoho Field Service Management seems to be geared more towards scheduling appointments or work orders, work order management, and invoices related to those WOs.  FieldTech, on the other hand, tackles those areas and adds the possibility of custom quoting, advanced inventory management, shop orders, job costing, and commission calculation.  So, whereas Zoho FSM is one single app, FieldTech has a Service Order Management component–and a suite of other, connected field service apps.

The costs of using FieldTech versus Zoho field service management are different, too.  Zoho Field Service Management offers a price per appointment model, whereas FieldTech’s pricing is per user.  If a company needed to decide between the two platforms based on pricing alone, it’s hard to see which way the org would go.  At least so far.

But, essentially, as long as you’re using a Zoho service to manage your field service business, that’s a victory for us.

Does this mean we’re going to stop developing FieldTech?

Quite the contrary!  We aren’t privy to Zoho’s overarching vision for this app, or vision for any other apps they may want to connect to it in the future.  If Zoho stopped at just field service management, that would be fine.  But, as you can probably tell by the host of other features inside FieldTech, we’ve never intended to stop there with that suite.  We improve the platform on a weekly basis, and it’s only a matter of time until we release some new apps for the suite.

We’re guessing that Zoho’s FSM app will work well for users with a simpler use case.  And, our FieldTech Service Order Management app will work better for organizations with more complicated needs–either just for field service management, or organization-wide.

Exploring whether Zoho FSM is a suitable choice for your business

The testing phase is a crucial aspect of a successful app rollout, particularly when it involves something as innovative as Zoho Field Service Management. Zoho, already known for its ERP tools like Zoho Books and Inventory, is taking a significant step forward with Zoho FSM, aiming to position itself as a formidable ERP contender.

Can Zoho FSM meet your needs effectively?

If you’re familiar with Zoho’s track record, you know that continuous improvement is at the core of their software development philosophy. Unlike some companies that offer stagnant software, Zoho consistently enhances its applications. This commitment ensures that Zoho FSM will evolve to meet the changing demands of businesses.

Considering Zoho’s commitment to improvement, what can you expect from Zoho FSM in the future?

To provide a clearer picture, let’s compare ZBrains‘ FieldTech and Zoho FSM. While Zoho FSM focuses on scheduling appointments, managing work orders, and related invoicing, FieldTech goes a step further. It offers features such as custom quoting, advanced inventory management, shop orders, job costing, and commission calculations.

The addition of Zoho FSM is a positive development for businesses. It offers an additional option for managing field services, whether your business is in construction, manufacturing, or technology. Integrating it with Zoho CRM simplifies the management of your entire operation.

How does the introduction of Zoho FSM benefit businesses?

Looking ahead, both Zoho FSM and FieldTech have their unique strengths. Zoho FSM may suit simpler use cases, while FieldTech excels in complex scenarios. Zoho’s vision for FSM may evolve, and the choice between the two depends on your organization’s specific requirements.

What should you keep in mind while picking between Zoho FSM and FieldTech?

It’s also critical to stay up to date with Zoho’s continuous improvements in this area. At ZBrains, we provide a free introductory consultation to help you make informed decisions about Zoho FSM, FieldTech, or any other Zoho service that may have an influence on your organization.Here are some actionable steps you can take regarding Zoho FSM.

In conclusion, the introduction of Zoho FSM represents a strategic move aligned with Zoho’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. It presents an opportunity for businesses to streamline their field service management processes and integrate them into a comprehensive ecosystem. Ultimately, your choice between Zoho FSM and FieldTech will depend on your organization’s unique needs and goals.

What should you do with regards to Zoho FSM?

zoho fsm or fieldtech

If you have access to the app, test it!  We’ll certainly be doing the same.  Any experience you have on the Zoho platform will help you make a more informed choice about which apps will work best for you.

As always, we will keep you in the loop about any Zoho FSM developments.  And, when the full version of the app finally comes out, rest assured we’ll provide a full breakdown of features, as well as an official comparison between FSM and FieldTech.

If you’re still a little in the dark about what to do, get in touch with us for a free introductory consultation, where we can talk about how FSM, FieldTech, or any other Zoho app would potentially affect your business.

Zoho CRM Activities

Are you maximizing Zoho CRM Activity capabilities?

Published on: July 14, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRM, Zoho FeaturesLast Updated: July 1, 2024 Comments: 0

Is your organization getting the most it can out of your Zoho CRM activity data? Capturing CRM data is the heart of reporting and analytics for a lot of decision makers, and falling short in this arena can impact your business. Access to good data is a lifeline. 

It’s easy for users to fall into routine, and to use their CRM in the same old ways that are comfortable, familiar, and feel simple. And that’s the catch — it feels simple — when in reality, a slight change in a user’s data entry habits could garner information and efficiency gains for your business. Keep reading to find out if you are utilizing your Zoho CRM activity data capturing capabilities to the fullest. If you already are, maybe it’s time to consider employing some of Zoho’s newest features.  

Zoho CRM Activity: Are Users Utilizing It?

A number of Zoho CRM Activity features are standard and you may not be using them now.  Here’s a short checklist of low-hanging fruit you should really consider if they’re not already a part of operations.

⬚ Calendar Sync

Zoho CRM syncs with the following calendars:Whether you do it yourself using Zoho Creator, or work with a consultant like ZBrains, custom functions serve to assist in bringing your vision to reality.

  • Gmail / Google
  • Office 365
  • Outlook
  • Apple Calendar
  • Zoho CRM Calendar

Synching your calendar to Zoho CRM allows functions such as calling directly from the calendar for your scheduled activities. And it streamlines scheduling those follow up calls! 

Calendar sync also improves visibility with your teams. Calendars can be shared so other users can view them, and users can set email reminders for the people they’re engaging with. With a sync to Zoho CRM, users are able to edit and view their calendar activities on any device wherever they are.

⬚ Mobile Sales App

Speaking of “wherever,” the mobile sales app for Zoho CRM is another powerful tool for your teams in the field. From sales to service technicians, none of us is really ever without our mobile phone these days. Is your organization taking advantage of these opportunities to reference and capture data on the go?

  • Use global search to look up contacts, and call directly from the app. Notes can be typed in or use the voice-to-text feature by speaking notes into your phone!
  • When working offline, any changes made to Zoho CRM will automatically update and sync when you reconnect. No more wasted flight time, or worrying about not having a connection in the field.
  • With Zoho CRM mobile app, every activity for your day is available any time, and new ones can be scheduled there, too.
  • Find customers and prospects in your vicinity by viewing the map. Get the most out of sales conversations when you brush up on their details before calling or stopping in. (P.S. It can also navigate to the account address!)
  • Zia is available in Zoho CRM mobile app. This AI acts as a virtual assistant that can help with simple tasks like changing a deal status, calling contacts, creating a new record, and adding notes to records.

⬚ Workflow Automation

Being timely in interactions with leads and contacts is an essential part of ensuring a great customer experience. Zoho CRM helps with this when you implement Workflow Automation. After setting up, it can alleviate all the smaller tasks associated with a sale. Your team will appreciate the automated forms, reports, CRM notifications, and contact or lead follow-ups. Cutting down the noise helps create more space for efficiency. Your teams gain the time required to close deals, resolve customer pain points, and keep on top of upsell opportunities. 

Don’t forget — workflow insights show you what’s working, or not.

⬚ Custom Functions

Perhaps your Sales, Marketing, Operations, or Finance departments are all using Zoho and your business has a particular process that can’t quite be captured by Zoho’s many standard functions – enter the custom function.

Whether you do it yourself using Zoho Creator, or work with a consultant like ZBrains,  custom functions serve to assist in bringing your vision to reality. 

New Features in Zoho CRM for Activities and Beyond

At ZBrains, we took a particular interest in a handful of the new Zoho CRM features this year. Maybe you’ve already seen them? If you’re using any of these, are there opportunities to improve and refine your processes across departments? From segmentation and attribution to analytics, and sales pipelines, these new features allow you and your teams to get focused using a data-driven approach to business. Let’s take a look:

Customer Segmentation

Customer lifetime value is an incredibly important metric for most businesses because we know it’s easier to convert a sale when your client knows you already. Use this feature to find your most valuable customers  based on a model of recency, frequency, and monetary value of their purchases. Gauge their lifetime value with this tool and let your sales and marketing professionals identify existing up-sell or cross-sell opportunities.

Your business can further segment customers for focused selling or special campaign initiatives using dimensions like  product interest, geography, industry, or a combination of factors.

Call Customization

Now you can customize your incoming and outgoing call details. Capture sentiment, call purpose, or any data needed using pick lists, text fields, and more. Call customization can also include Workflows, allowing you to streamline the data required for various types of call interactions.  

Webform analytics & testing

Webforms in Zoho CRM is key in capturing new leads and the interests of your website visitors. Boost lead generation efforts with webform performance analytics. This new feature allows you to track webform fields and geographical information so you can more easily identify why your forms aren’t converting and revise them for better outcomes. Lead revenue can be attributed to your webforms, giving your business and end-to-end view of the most profitable leads.

A/B testing gives you the data needed to refine and improve lead capture with webforms. Your marketing team are not a mindreader, but this tool can get one step closer to delivering what appeals most to your website visitors. 

Remember, your webforms can connect right up to Workflow Automations to inform your sales agents immediately when valuable new leads enter the pipeline.

Marketing attribution

New Marketing Attribution features allow your business to fortify the connection between sales and marketing and continuously refine for results that improve over time.  You can identify:

  • Which campaigns result in the best ROI.
  • Which campaigns have attributable revenue.
  • Overall campaign performance.
  • Best performing sales & marketing channels.
  • Sales pipeline effects of your campaigns and more.

Multiple Pipelines

Every business is slightly different, and yours is likely no exception. This could mean that within your business you experience the need for multiple sales pipelines in order to accurately capture data like sales and marketing activities about your lead-to-customer journey. 

The new Multiple Pipeline feature in Zoho CRM enables your teams to capture that data in a meaningful way allowing for special pipeline factors like geography or territory, product line, and more. With multiple pipelines, you can create custom stages with specific activities and data entry requirements to meet your business needs. Then you can use this data in reporting to analyze your sales pipeline performances. 

Intelligent Automation

Earlier in the article, we mentioned Zia, the Zoho AI application that can help with tasks like creating activities, placing calls, and more. But with recent feature updates, Zia now assists with Intelligent Automation. It can suggest macros to automate that make the life of a sales agent or consultant much simpler, alleviating repetitive tasks that somehow suck up hours each week. Zia uses your routines to suggest macros, but they can also be created independently. 

Which repetitive sales routines would you automate?

Final Thoughts on Zoho CRM Activity uses and New Zoho CRM Features

No one knows your business better than you – so, you shouldn’t feel pigeonholed to use Zoho in a way that doesn’t make sense for your teams and your business. You can take advantage of the features we talked about above, gaining traction by employing their benefits and customizing your Zoho CRM environment. 

Whether you’ve decided to start on your own and need a little help, or are interested in assistance from our certified Zoho professionals, we’re here to sit down with you in a consulting engagement called a Business Process Analysis. [link Zoho Difference] Our goal is to learn about your business and offer a solid plan for moving forward – a technological roadmap.  Your plan will contain a certified Zoho solution, something we can stand behind. Contact us any time. 

QuickBooks to Zoho Books Migration: Simplify Your Accounting

Published on: July 13, 2020Category: Zoho BooksLast Updated: May 8, 2024 Comments: 0

Migrating from QuickBooks to Zoho Books

What you need to know when you migrate quickbooks to zoho books

According to Zoho Corporation, a lot of companies moving from another accounting system onto Zoho Books move there from QuickBooks.  And, whether those companies previously use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, the reasons for switching onto Zoho are easy to see.  Well, easy for us to see, anyway.  But they aren’t so obvious to everyone else, who may not think about these problems as often as we do.

In this post, we’ll explore some common reasons for switching. We’ll then dive into some considerations to make before switching.  And, although we’re talking about Zoho Books today, you can apply this knowledge to any software, Zoho or otherwise.

First, here are some common questions we encounter when letting our customers or prospects know that switching is an option: 

Why migrate to Zoho Books if you’re already in the cloud with QuickBooks Online?

migrate quickbooks to zoho books

Not all cloud systems are created equal!  Although QuickBooks Online is a relatively new platform, companies tend to switch from QBO to Zoho Books because:

  1. Zoho Books provides many of the same features as QuickBooks Online–and then some.
    • Books allows for Sales Orders, which QBO does not account for as of this writing.  
    • Moreover, Zoho Books natively integrates with Zoho Inventory, which adds features that make the combination of Books and Inventory more comparable to QuickBooks Desktop.
  2. Zoho Books integrates seamlessly with Zoho CRM.
    • While there is an integration between QuickBooks Online and Zoho CRM, any consultant worth their salt will tell you a third-party integration is a system’s weakest point.  Zoho’s native integration eliminates that weak point, giving you a seamless data transfer; for companies that have already chosen Zoho CRM as their customer hub, moving finances onto Zoho Books seems like an even more intuitive decision.
  3. Zoho Books is more affordable than QuickBooks Online.
    • Zoho Corporation puts out a good comparison sheet to illustrate this point.  The more users you add to Zoho Books, the more money your company can save in this way.

compare Zoho Books and QuickBooks Desktop

How can Zoho Books possibly contend with QuickBooks Desktop?

While QuickBooks Desktop is a bit of a heavyweight in terms of functionality (not to mention ubiquity!), Zoho Books is more than able to rise to the occasion when pushed to the limit. 

Companies often move from QBD to Zoho Books for these reasons:

  1. Cloud-based software gives businesses more flexibility than on-premise software does.
    1. With data breaches on the rise, many companies would much rather offload security responsibilities onto a third party than take on any additional risk themselves.  Zoho takes this responsibility very seriously and uses the most up-to-date encryption possible in their apps–and has been recognized internationally for it.
    2. Cloud-based software means rather than scheduling and installing updates and patches to your accounting system–and paying out the nose for the privilege–updates happen on-the-fly as part of your monthly recurring SaaS (software-as-a-service) fee.  That means no more scheduled downtime for maintenance, and what usually amounts to more money in your pocket.
  2. Zoho Books provides a much more stable integration with Zoho CRM than QuickBooks Desktop could put together.
    1. Like with QuickBooks Online, there is an integration between QuickBooks Desktop and Zoho CRM.  But, introducing a hybrid-cloud integration like this is bound to put some strain on the system overall; incidentally, third-party integrations like this are the more failure-prone points of any system.  Conversely, Zoho Books’s integration with Zoho CRM is native, cloud-to-cloud, and nearly instant.
  3. Finally, combining Zoho Books plus Zoho Inventory gives a business nearly as many features as are in QuickBooks Desktop.
    1. It isn’t a perfect analog, of course, but using Zoho Inventory in tandem with Books gives the user an experience much closer to QuickBooks Desktop.  This includes inventory and shipment management, multiple warehouses, online store integration, workflow automation, and more.

What to consider when switching from QuickBooks to Zoho Books

how to migrate from quickbooks to zoho books

Despite the apparent similarities between QuickBooks and Zoho Books, switching over isn’t such a plug-and-play operation.  It requires a good deal of knowledge: of QuickBooks, of Zoho Books, and of your team’s own ability to learn new software and procedures as needed.  

For those considering making the switch themselves, we recommend evaluating your own QuickBooks configuration, and then activating a trial of Books. Then, you should go through every possible setting and see how easily you can mentally recreate your organization’s QuickBooks configuration. Take note when you come to a setting you don’t understand or that would change how your organization does business; there will likely be some.

After this, will you know if Books is the right choice for you?  Probably not just yet.  You should still confer with your team and ensure you get buy-in, or at least reaffirm that your team of old dogs can still learn new tricks!  Then, it’s time to put your implementation plan together in earnest.  You’ll need a tight schedule, perhaps a Gantt chart, and definitely a project manager.  Also, a data flow model to visually account for any new systems.  This can keep your own plans in line, as well as let any other parties know exactly what you’re doing.

The truth about switching from QuickBooks to Zoho Books

If all this seems like a lot to bite off and chew, make no mistake.  It is.  We’ve heard no shortage of Zoho deployment horror stories over the years.  And, that’s no fault of Zoho’s!  The reality is most businesses cannot afford to drop what they’re doing and devote all their time to learning a new software system.  That goes for the features, the implications for future business, and the effect on company culture.  And, for this reason, projects like these tend to fail; there simply isn’t enough time that many can reasonably devote to a project like this and still maintain their business.  

Some even try to cut losses by hiring a Zoho specialist.  And, it’s at that point that many customers tend to find us!

Why use a Zoho consultant to ease your switch from QuickBooks to Zoho Books?

quickbooks to zoho books migration

The good thing about hiring a Zoho consultant in cases like these is, aside from being able to manage an implementation project of this magnitude, we’ve done projects like this many times before.

And, that doesn’t mean your implementation will be the same as anyone else’s!  Rather, it means we know all the ins and outs of planning and managing–and, we know the questions to ask you about your business so your implementation doesn’t turn out just like everyone else’s.  That is, so it works just for your business and your unique processes.

In this case, once we know the ins and outs of your processes within QuickBooks, we see how well those align with Zoho Books.  From there, we can see if you’ll need just Zoho Books, a combination of Books + Inventory–or perhaps something more customized on Zoho.  We may only be helping you deploy an accounting system, but that system can affect how the whole company does business.  So, we take a comprehensive approach when looking at something like this, culminating in an Executive Summary document, where we explain our project plan to you.

And then, once you agree with our deployment plan, it’s off to the races!  We get to work for you, and we meet with you throughout the project for consulting meetings and for various approvals of our work.  And, in the end, you receive a fully functioning Zoho finance system that functions as part of your company’s business software network.

Ready to see how making the switch would change your business?

Making the switch from QuickBooks to Books is an endeavor.  But, it doesn’t start that way–that’s just a chat.  Contact us today for an introductory consulting session!  We’ll explore at a high level how migrating from QuickBooks to Zoho Books can help make your Zoho system everything it can be.

Read more about Zoho Books! 

Zoho CRM Last Activity Field

Last Activity Time in Zoho CRM: Understanding Its Significance

Published on: July 1, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRMLast Updated: October 21, 2024 Comments: 0

If you’re like a lot of other Zoho CRM users, you’re using the application to track sales agent activity and customer interactions throughout your sales process. The information captured by the Last Activity Time in Zoho CRM helps you assess whether or not your deals and customer relationships are headed in the right direction. In this article you’ll learn exactly what this field is. You’ll see where it can be accessed. We also share the types of activities and updates recorded as Last Activity Time.  

So, what is Last Activity time in Zoho CRM? 

Each time changes are made on a record, Last Activity Time is there to track it. This includes activities ranging from adding notes or closing a task, to sending emails or editing fields. Everything tracked here can be used in reporting. An example might be a report on activity recency for your accounts in a certain region or for a specific sales person. Having the data available from the Last Activity Time field is the key to answering questions just like that. 

 

Curious about Zoho CRM’s Last Activity Time reporting?

This is a great question! Firstly, you’ll find that there are several key benefits to reporting on Last Activity Time that support your sales team, including:

  • CRM user sitting at a tablet computerCapacity Planning for Sales Agents; you may notice that a record owner has many records that haven’t been touched in awhile, but activity is high, perhaps they require some help, or it’s time to grow your sales team.
  • Gain Insight Into Cross-Sell Opportunities; you can segment your customers using RFM Scoring (Recency Frequency Monetary feature) or Account Score with Last Activity Time. This will help you identify and prioritize direct outreach to accounts who haven’t purchased in a while. 
  • Enhance Your Customer’s Experience; with Last Activity Time you can quickly identify customers that need engagement. Anticipate their needs by calling or outreaching to them before they contact you.
  • Better Business Through Reporting; looking to prioritize the best use of your valuable data, but need help to get your reporting up and running? Contact ZBrains.

If you’re taking notes, the Last Activity time in Zoho CRM is viewable in all modules with the exception of the Activities module. This means that you can use this field as a filter to do tasks like creating a filtered segment in your Leads module, or do the same in Accounts to see quickly how many accounts may need an outreach. 

To use this field in Reports, you’ll find it is available for Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Deals; and the questions you can answer are more or less limitless when your good data is put to use in Reports!

 

Which Activities and Updates will record as Last Activity Time?

Learn the nine primary ways that Last Activity Time is recorded inZoho CRM. It is helpful to know this information to understand the reporting or any filtered lists you reference. For example, bulk actions like restoring accounts could skew your report if you are looking for recent activities on a set of records. You may not see the results you are looking for if you are looking for data on completed Tasks in Last Activity Time (they’re not tracked here!).

  1. When you edit fields in a record.
  2. When you add new Activities, or update Activities such as Tasks, Events, and Calls.
  3. Adding a new Note or editing a Note will record.
  4. Sending Emails to Leads and Contacts in Zoho CRM will update this field.
  5. Last Activity Time is recorded when you change the Owner of a record.
  6. Adding Deals and Contacts under an Account will record it.
  7. Deleting or restoring a record, whether individually or in bulk.
  8. When you add or delete a record, it will record this field. One caveat here is, this does not include when you delete a record associated with the parent record. 
  9. Closing a Task will record; however, this does not apply to Events.  After the End Date, Events are automatically moved to closed activities.

How are you going to harness the data captured by Last Activity Time in Zoho CRM? 

Whether you’re questioning how to get the most out of your CRM data or looking to make improvements to your sales dashboards and reporting capabilities, the ZBrains team of Premium Partner Consultants  is here to help. Don’t hesitate to let us know how we can help with your digital business transformation along any step of the way from implementation and customization to consulting. Contact us any time!

Zoho Adds Even More Value with Free Remotely Suite

Published on: April 29, 2020Category: Zoho CorporationLast Updated: April 14, 2023 Comments: 0

Zoho Remotely is free until July 2020

zoho remotely

In times of crisis, Zoho really seems to have their finger on the pulse of their customers.  They know well that many of their customers are SMBs.  And by that logic, the coronavirus pandemic likely affects a great number of them.  So, Zoho did what it does best: it added even more value to their customers’ experience with the Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP).  ESAP allows customers (still, as of this writing) to apply for Zoho licensing forgiveness if their organizations include 25 or fewer users.

But, obviously, not every organization is going to fall into that category, and some are still needing assistance.  To that end, Zoho has made an entire suite of their products free to use through the end of June 2020.  That suite, called Remotely, is made of apps already in the Zoho One suite, but which are designed specifically for remote collaboration.  And, in a time where many now work from home by default, what could be better?

Remotely includes these Zoho apps:

  1. Projects, for collaboration on team projects.
  2. Sprints, specific to remote teams collaborating on software sprints.
  3. Cliq, for sending instant chat messages to colleagues across your organization.
  4. Meeting, for virtual meetings with groups–for sales, support, or otherwise.
  5. Assist, for remote one-on-one support sessions (including mouse control options) with clients.
  6. Lens, similar to Assist but accesses a client’s smartphone’s camera to identify physical (non-software) problems.
  7. Show, for putting together presentations for clients.
  8. Showtime, for giving training content to your clients.
  9. Workdrive, Writer, and Sheet, similar to Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets, except integrated with your Zoho environment–great for storing files related to your clients or projects.

zoho remotely

Chances are your business needs more software than just Zoho Remotely to achieve success.  For example, you’ll notice the suite is noticeably lacking the CRM, help desk, finance platforms, etc.  But, if you would benefit from using even one of these apps in the Remotely suite, it could be worth a look.  You may end up using a combination of a la carte apps plus the Remotely suite.  Or, even Zoho CRM Plus and the Zoho Remotely suite.

If you aren’t sure what to do, let us know when you contact us.

Who benefits most from Zoho Remotely?

Aside from the obvious–that the suite is geared towards teams who work remotely–it seems Zoho Remotely is designed for teams in specific industries, too.  This makes more sense if you consider Remotely has existed in Zoho’s library since long before the recent pandemic.  In fact, Remotely has been around since 2019.

While many of the apps included in Zoho Remotely truly are general-purpose, others are quite specific.  The more general apps include:

  • Projects
  • Cliq
  • Meeting
  • Show
  • Workdrive, Writer, and Sheet

zoho remotely

Projects is a good app for any team needing to collaborate on a project that requires multiple steps or dependencies.  Cliq is Zoho’s equivalent of Slack, making it a great intra-office communication tool.  Meeting is similar to Zoom, meaning virtual conferences are on the table.  Show is like PowerPoint or Google Slides.  Similarly, Workdrive, Writer, and Sheet are similar to their Google Apps counterparts: Drive, Docs, and Sheets, which many businesses already use today.  With the possible exception of Projects, one could argue nearly any organization could benefit from using this combination of apps.

So, what about the more specific apps not included here?

More industry-specific apps in Remotely include:

  • Sprints
  • Assist
  • Lens
  • Showtime

Zoho Sprints is geared towards software development sprints; so, tech companies developing programs or apps would find it useful.  It isn’t uncommon for companies like this to employ a remote workforce anyway, so this app’s inclusion in the suite makes sense.

Zoho Assist is similar to Zoho Meet, except it’s used for one-on-one support sessions rather than team meetings.  It gives the presenter the ability to control a guest’s mouse (with their permission, of course), making it great for technical support cases.  Again, this sort of work is usually done remotely anyway.

zoho remotely

Zoho Lens is somewhat similar to Zoho Assist above, what with its device-controlling attributes.  However, Lens gives the meeting originator access to a participant’s smartphone camera, allowing them to see whatever the camera sees.  This is useful when diagnosing certain mechanical problems–or others where a visual display is important.  Again, this would necessarily be remote work, as the only alternative would be to bring an additional person to the work site.

zoho remotely

Zoho Showtime is like PowerPoint, or Google Slides, except it’s specifically made for showing training content.  In it, you can not only show special training videos, but also administer quizzes and track engagement.  As with the other aforementioned apps, this is necessarily a remote job.  The next-best thing would be to get your staff into a classroom, which is hardly ever feasible in the best of times–and especially not in today’s climate of perpetual social distancing.

Little confusing?  You’ve got power in your corner

Times are difficult enough these days, and while Zoho means well to add another software choice to its arsenal, some may not have the time to really sit down and analyze whether using it would be a good idea.  (Choosing the wrong software and/or provider seems to be a popular reason system implementations fail, when they do.)

If that sounds like you, just let us know and we’ll be happy to analyze your situation for you, then let you know if you’d benefit from using Remotely.  You don’t have to take a big chance on something like this; leave it to a team of experienced Zoho consultants to lend a hand and put you back in the Zoho power seat.

 

zoho for enterprise businesses

Zoho’s Evolution: Empowering Enterprises, Forging Partnerships

Published on: March 27, 2020Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho Corporation, Zoho CRMLast Updated: July 10, 2023 Comments: 0

Zoho Corporation is looking to revamp its image as it grows, adding more partners who service larger businesses.  Historically, Zoho has been known as an inexpensive software option, especially useful for smaller businesses.  However, when enterprise-level customers do come knocking, they’re frequently impressed.

Zoho has done just fine by gathering up smaller businesses, making the relationships “sticky” with suites of apps like Zoho One, and growing with (until recently) hardly any US advertising.  But, Zoho is showing Salesforce isn’t the only game in town for larger businesses.

So, what does this mean for Zoho Corporation, for you (whether part of a small business or a larger one), and for us as Zoho consultants?

No matter what, Zoho still wants to help you

Businesspeople shouldn’t look at this move by Zoho as an eschewing of the company’s roots.  Rather, smaller businesses make up the vast majority of the global market.  And, chances are larger businesses have even more connections to smaller businesses that Zoho can use to its advantage–namely for referrals.  So, no, Zoho won’t likely turn into a one-dimensional company from this move.

zoho for enterprise businesses

Is it better to be big, or small?

The question remains: Is Zoho still better suited for larger businesses, or is it better for smaller ones?  Zoho purposefully paints with a very broad brush, offering software packages suited for both larger and smaller enterprises, with pricing plans to match.

The answer is it doesn’t really matter, and it all depends on your preference–as always.

Zoho purposefully gears themselves towards smaller organizations.  

Their competitive price points make the barrier to entry very low.  As well, Zoho’s plasticity makes it easy for some businesses to turn on an app and start using it in production right away.  And, suites like Zoho One or Zoho CRM Plus provide a whole system of apps for less than their constituent parts combined.  Recent additions like Zoho Remotely and the Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) ease small business pains related to working from home, or from the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

zoho for enterprise businesses

Zoho Corporation clearly values their SMB clients greatly.  However, they expect some companies to grow larger as a natural function of their success.

Zoho’s customizability makes it a perfect choice for enterprise-level companies.

Anyone can turn on Zoho CRM and start tracking lead data.  However, many Zoho apps boast a slew of features specific to automating workflow and simplifying processes for large departments.  (Take blueprint, for example, available in Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk too.)  Many Zoho apps can communicate with each other.  Others can also integrate with third-party apps like QuickBooks Desktop.  Furthermore, Zoho’s platform-as-a-service, Zoho Creator, puts it on par with Salesforce by allowing for creating custom apps and connecting with Zoho CRM.

zoho for enterprise businesses

Clearly Zoho has designed their apps with both small and large companies in mind.  Some businesses may have growth plans that don’t include Zoho.  And, for some, that is to be expected, a natural part of growth.  But, Zoho purposefully designs software to last, and includes “sticky” apps that companies won’t want to stop using after starting to use them!  So, even if some companies actually plan not to use Zoho forever, they sometimes find their plans change due to their users benefiting greatly from using the software.  Again, this is a natural part of growth as a company.

What does this push to enterprise businesses mean for us as Zoho consultants?

As Zoho consultants, our job hasn’t changed.  No matter the size of your business, our job remains to devise the best Zoho solution for you given your business goals.  We’ve done this for one-man shows and we’ve done it for companies with hundreds of users.

If Zoho begins to attract more large companies, however, Zoho Corporation will likely begin expanding upon newer apps like MarketingHub. They’ll also probably offer more industry-specific solutions, and improve upon Zoho Creator.  Zoho will probably release those improvements to larger and smaller companies alike.  And this, in turn, makes our job that much easier, as it makes Zoho that much easier to sell.

And, whether Zoho adds functionality to Zoho Creator itself or creates new apps specific to industries like field services, construction, or manufacturing, larger companies have everything to gain.

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