Zoho Launches CRM for Everyone to Boost Collaboration Across Company Teams

Zoho just introduced Zoho CRM for Everyone, an enhancement aimed at democratizing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools across all teams within a company. The announcement came at its annual Zoholics conference in Austin, Texas.

This initiative promises to improve customer growth and enhance customer experience by providing every team with the tools needed for active contribution.

Traditionally, CRM systems have been primarily managed by sales departments, the custodians of customer relationships. Zoho’s innovative approach enables all teams involved in customer operations—ranging from solutions engineering and sales enablement to customer onboarding and advocacy—to coordinate customer deliverables seamlessly from a unified platform.

According to Zoho, this will not only improve visibility for stakeholders but also reduce coordination gaps, shorten turnaround times, and elevate the quality of customer interactions.

Liz Miller, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, underscored the shift in CRM strategy that CRM for Everyone represents.

“Modern CRM strategies demand participation from the entire enterprise, orchestrating revenue-driving actions that require cross-team visibility and collaboration,” Miller says.

She highlighted that Zoho’s initiative aligns with modern engagement strategies by positioning CRM at the core of business operations, enhancing cross-functional collaboration to strengthen customer relationships and drive profitability.

Mani Vembu, Zoho’s Chief Operating Officer, critiqued the traditional CRM systems that have been developed and maintained by IT departments primarily for sales workflows. Vembu explained that these systems, although rich in customer data, have often functioned in isolated silos, limiting access and collaboration across the company.

“Zoho CRM for Everyone shatters these barriers for the first time,” Vembu says, “allowing various teams within the sales process to contribute productively by reducing CRM complexity and fostering greater involvement.”

Zoho CRM for Everyone introduces several new features designed to enhance cross-functional collaboration:

• Team Modules: Teams can now create custom data modules with specific permissions and workflows, tailored to their unique needs within the CRM system, all while under IT governance.
• Requester Profile: This feature enables team members to raise requests for deliverables or contributions from other teams directly within the CRM, improving the transparency and tracking of internal collaborations.
• Redesigned User Experience: To support this shift in CRM usage, Zoho has overhauled its interface to allow for simpler navigation between different team modules and spaces, catering to a range of user roles and facilitating a no-code or low-code approach to workflow management.

Furthermore, this release significantly advances accessibility within Zoho CRM, addressing the needs of users with visual and motor challenges, ensuring that the system is usable for a broader audience.

With CRM for Everyone, Zoho is setting a new standard in the CRM landscape by empowering all teams to manage their customer relations activities within a unified and accessible platform, promoting a more interconnected and efficient approach to customer management. This move is poised to transform how companies engage with their customers, ensuring more integrated and profitable relationships.