Item: Zoho CRM
Rating: 9
Author: Joe Martinez

Overall Satisfaction with Zoho CRM

Pros and Cons

Pros

Ease of use for the outbound sales force, very little training required
Dashboards and Sales Reports are very easy to create and use, yet powerful
Territory Management tools and permissioning tools allow for complicated lead assignment rules
Add-ons, of Zoho Apps , Google Apps, other Apps, make for a very powerful suite
Zoho Creator allows someone without programming skills to create custom modules for CRM. The nature of our business required a custom module to catalog a client visit and the required data points

Cons

The tools to create and edit templates are too simplistic and limited, need more drag-and-drop functionality
Campaign management tools are somewhat cumbersome, especially when importing leads from tradeshows
Integration tools are great for small businesses, but limited for companies with technology legacy issues

Return on Investment

Customizing Zoho without the expense of consultants or programmers gave us immediate results
Communication tools and assignment of tasks has led to a much more efficient way of communicating between our customer service representatives, our Regional Sales Managers, and our Distributors
The wealth of sales reports created and integrated from our AS400 to Zoho using Zoho Reports have made management extremely happy

Cost factors and ROI are always the driving force on adoption, implementation and retention. When and if our ERP systems are upgraded, we will see what CRM capabilities are offered and a decision will be made whether to keep Zoho or use CRM tools offered by ERP product.

Likelihood to Recommend

I did, and I have. A former colleague has a start-up digital magazine I showed him why Zoho was perfect for his three person company. I am his Zoho administrator as a side hobby which almost serves for me as a testing platform. Useful advice for small groups implementing Zoho is don't integrate/turn on everything at once. Adoption by the users in manageable chunks will be easier in the long run.

I have used CRM's and Salesforce Automation Tools from the beginning. I will skip Filemaker Pro, Act! and Goldmine and say SalesLogix was the first CRM I used and SalesForce.com was the first CRM I loved to use. The reason I appreciate Zoho so much is that SalesForce.com has become, for lack of a better term, too Fortune500. The tools and features are way beyond what Zoho offers, but cost of implementation and customization is way beyond most small business entities. The simplicity of Zoho and the low entry cost is what sold me.

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