Today I went back and looked at the current posting of the ZCRM "
Roadmap" to see what features and upgrades are on the horizon.
The good news is that almost everything that was on the "original" roadmap has been addressed. After the updates posted on April 1 and April 7 only a handful of items remain open. ( you might want to update the road map to reflect the recent updates too)
The Disappointing thing was that nothing has been added to the roadmap as Zoho has chipped away at the list of improvements.
I know that a fairly significant UI update is in the works. But I am also concerned about several key functional issues that still need to be addressed. So here is MY list of critical items that I would like to see on the ZCRM roadmap for 2011.
- Do a better job of true relationship tracking. It is still far to cumbersome to set up the modules so that data gets associated with the right records and that fields get updated universally.
- Improved Reporting capabilities. Right now it appears that there is no way to do very basic sales management analysis using the ZCRM reports. You cannot calculate any close/win ratios. this is a VERY basic sales management metric that should be in place.
- Support for multiple e-mail addresses for each contact. There are literally hundreds of posts to the forums pleading for this capability.
- Improve the ease of associating records with each other. Specifically, I would like the ability to do a 1:NN association of records. As an example, if I have a Zoho Meeting with multiple participants to discuss 2 or more Potentials I would like to enter the details on ONE screen and then update all the pertinent records simultaneously. Now I have to update every contact record and every potential record manually, and I still do not get the data properly linked. this is a significant drawback as it causes a lot of unnecessary data entry that discourages user adoption.
- Allow users to disconnect pricebooks from inventory. I want to have the ability to create budget quotes using a pricebook that is not tied to inventory.
- Improve searching capabilities in the Quotes/Pricebooks. Right now the way to select items from a pricebook to place in a quote is very cumbersome. It involves a lot of scrolling and tabbing through screens.
- Navigation issues - there needs to be a better way to return users to previous screens. For example, if I click on a completed task that is associated with a potential and then I cannot click on the "back" button on my browser to return to the previous record. Instead it takes me to the first record in the default view list for that module. I then have a whole heap of mouse clicks needed in order to get back to the desired record.
- Make the default display for ANY calendar function the current date. If you are working with anything that is past due or if you need to move up a due date it is a big pain to have to have to navigate through the calendar with extra mouse clicks to get to the current date.
- In the mobile app give users the ability to define what fields to display in the various views. The default fields really do not lend themselves to summarizing info - particularly in the Potentials module.
I am sure others have ideas as well.