Zoho Unveils CRM for Everyone, Promises “True Democratization”

Zoho has launched its CRM for Everyone solution in a bid to “democratize” its customer relationship management offerings.

Announced at the company’s annual Zoholics conference, the new capabilities will provide each individual company team with its own space, where they will be encouraged to actively contribute and enhance customer growth and CX.

Described by the company as the “first true democratization of the CRM paradigm,” the solution will enable cross-functional access – empowering teams and users to manage their own workflows autonomously.

These new collaborative features will allow sales teams, as the main custodians of customer relationships, to spread information and coordinate customer deliverables across areas such as solutions engineering, contract management, sales enablement, and customer onboarding – all from within a single platform.

Zoho claims that CRM for Everyone will enhance visibility for all stakeholders in the customer journey, close coordination gaps, shorten turnaround times, and improve the quality of the customer experience.

Indeed, Sridhar Iyengar – Managing Director at Zoho Europe – explained how the new capabilities will help to eliminate silos and boost customer experience offerings:

“Over the years, it [the CRM system] has accumulated a wealth of customer context, but access to the CRM is strictly rationed, and teams are forced to operate on their own islands with limited context.

This is fundamentally antithetical to a great customer experience. Zoho CRM for Everyone exists to break down those silos, unifying all customer operations teams onto the CRM to deliver better customer experiences.

So, let’s take a closer look at some of the additional CRM for Everyone features.

Achieving Democracy

In discussing precisely how companies will be able to benefit from the added cross-functional capabilities of CRM for Everyone, Zoho outlined examples such as account managers being able to involve solutions engineers for product demos, and specialists having the ability to track customer onboarding,

The company claims that while each role/team may use different core applications for detailed tasks, the new solution will allow them to converge on the CRM for shared customer responsibilities.

The potential of Zoho’s latest CRM enhancements was discussed by Liz Miller, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, who described the tool as a “solution that meets the modern sales and engagement strategy, reaching beyond the stagnant notion that CRM is a record or a database.

It applies connected collaboration and a project management mindset to the operations of building durable customer relationships through cross-functional actions in order to seamlessly drive more profitable relationships with customers.

While Zoho confirmed that it will be adding more capabilities to the solution in the coming weeks, in the meantime, the company highlighted the following three features:

Team Modules

Business teams can independently create team-specific data modules, which include custom fields, permissions, and workflow automation, all under IT governance.

Each team has a dedicated space for these modules, consolidating customer-facing processes on a unified platform enriched with comprehensive customer context.

Requesters

When a team member requires a deliverable or contribution from a colleague in a different team, they can raise a request in the appropriate team module. Requesters can then track the status of their requests, removing any uncertainty in collaborative efforts.

Refreshed User Experience

Zoho CRM’s interface has been redesigned for improved usability across various roles and functions. Teams can now organize their data into modules within dedicated Team Spaces and easily switch between them.

In addition, users can manage workflows with no-code or low-code options, eliminating the need for advanced IT skills. This update also significantly enhances accessibility, supporting users with vision, motor, and interaction needs.

For Miller, the combination of these new tools and capabilities places Zoho at the forefront of the CRM sector, as she explains:

Modern CRM strategies demand that the entire enterprise contribute and orchestrate actions around revenue-driving motions that require visibility and collaboration across teams.

“This is what stands out about Zoho’s vision for CRM for Everyone.”

More News from Zoho

Announced in September of last year, Zoho has revealed that the company has reached 100 million users across more than 55 business applications, becoming the first SaaS company to do so without external funding.

Zoho’s user base grew from one million in 2008 to 100 million over 15 years, with the last 50 million joining in the past five years.

The company also boasts 700,000 customers across 150+ countries.

Zoho attributes this growth to “providing accessible technology” and “promoting sustainable growth.”