A few months ago we started rolling out a preview of our new, totally-rebuilt Zoho CRM UI. We took a close, hard look at how users were interacting with our app, and how we could make it easier for them to achieve their daily goals. Our goal was to make users spend less time inside the Zoho CRM app, so they can spend more time selling.
So we re-designed many workflows and screens inside our app. A small example: we realized that everybody wants to add notes to their contacts/prospects. So, we made it very simple for them to add more notes. We streamlined how we show contact information. We made it easier for a sales rep to check availability for scheduling a follow-up call with a prospect right from the contact screen. We made several other changes - big and small.
The feedback we got from users has been overwhelmingly positive, and we're pretty thrilled about that. But that's not all we have been working on. We have also been busy building a lot of new things we know you will love. We kept this as a surprise for all of our users - and here it is. Stay on top of what's happening on your sales pipeline with Pulse
Just like you can follow people on Twitter, now you can follow a particular lead, deal, contact or account in Zoho CRM. Sure, you can always run a report, but Pulse takes sales tracking to the next level by allowing you to follow what's really important for you. But that's pretty much where the Twitter analogy ends, because we've taken it a couple steps further. How? First, you can create rules that will automatically "Follow" a deal for you when some conditions are met. But my favorite part is this: you can also follow what's NOT happening in your business.
With this latest Zoho CRM update, you can now build custom apps that access data inside your CRM system easier than ever before. For example, if you want to build a Travel Expense app, you can have one field ask what account or deal t his travel was related to - and display a list of deals right from Zoho CRM. Of course, you have always been able to build this with an our API, but this update makes it easier for you to build apps with Zoho Creator - so there's no coding required, just drag-and-drop. In addition, you are able to add these custom apps as tabs inside Zoho CRM.
Connect with your Customers on Social Media
Zoho CRM now allows you to link a CRM contact with their LinkedIn profile. So you can not only very easily get their position, company, city and more - but now you will also be able to keep up to date with their business and professional activity. You can even see their picture directly in your Zoho CRM contact. You can even send a note to your contact through LinkedIn right from Zoho CRM.
Webhooks make Zoho CRM even easier to integrate
We've had a pretty good and liberal API program for a while. But say for example, you want to update your inventory system every time you close a deal. How can you alert the external system that something just changed inside Zoho CRM? That's what webhooks are for. Without getting too technical, every time some condition is met, Zoho CRM will send a quick message to your external system (your inventory system in this example) to give it a "heads up". After that, more complex processing might take place through the API.
This is a major release and a major milestone for us, and hopefully you will find it exciting and useful!
Rodrigo Vaca
Just like you can follow people on Twitter, now you can follow a particular lead, deal, contact or account in Zoho CRM. Sure, you can always run a report, but Pulse takes sales tracking to the next level by allowing you to follow what's really important for you. But that's pretty much where the Twitter analogy ends, because we've taken it a couple steps further. How? First, you can create rules that will automatically "Follow" a deal for you when some conditions are met. But my favorite part is this: you can also follow what's NOT happening in your business.
Let me explain. When you follow a deal, it's because you're interested in seeing what happens with it. But what happens if a week goes by and you haven't heard anything? How will you remember? Pulse takes care of that for you. In the Pulse tab inside Zoho CRM, you can view what is happening and what is NOT happening, and you can also set different time intervals for keeping track of your deals.
Build Custom Apps based on your CRM Data With this latest Zoho CRM update, you can now build custom apps that access data inside your CRM system easier than ever before. For example, if you want to build a Travel Expense app, you can have one field ask what account or deal t his travel was related to - and display a list of deals right from Zoho CRM. Of course, you have always been able to build this with an our API, but this update makes it easier for you to build apps with Zoho Creator - so there's no coding required, just drag-and-drop. In addition, you are able to add these custom apps as tabs inside Zoho CRM.
Connect with your Customers on Social Media
Zoho CRM now allows you to link a CRM contact with their LinkedIn profile. So you can not only very easily get their position, company, city and more - but now you will also be able to keep up to date with their business and professional activity. You can even see their picture directly in your Zoho CRM contact. You can even send a note to your contact through LinkedIn right from Zoho CRM.
We've had a pretty good and liberal API program for a while. But say for example, you want to update your inventory system every time you close a deal. How can you alert the external system that something just changed inside Zoho CRM? That's what webhooks are for. Without getting too technical, every time some condition is met, Zoho CRM will send a quick message to your external system (your inventory system in this example) to give it a "heads up". After that, more complex processing might take place through the API.
This is a major release and a major milestone for us, and hopefully you will find it exciting and useful!
Rodrigo Vaca
