In general, products are only as good as those who use them. When it comes to Zoho CRM, the greater the user needs, the greater the product must be enhanced in the form of workflows, blueprints, third-party integration, and more.
These customizations inside a product can be done using the developer tools present inside Zoho CRM. However, in terms of usage, some customizations are specific to an organization while others are more global. For example, a use case for a workflow directing a unique sales process might be specific to a company. However, SMS integration is a globally required use case.
The platform-oriented approach to customization
Using the platform as a development medium helps you reach beyond your existing clientele to a wider audience. Also, if you are already a CRM developer, development on a platform is the next level to reach.
By improving your existing skills, you can use the Zoho Developer platform to create workflows, customizations, and third-party integrations faster and easier. Getting listed in the Zoho Marketplace will showcase your extensions (customizations and third-party integrations) to anyone around the world. Additionally, if you set a price for your extension, you can turn your development efforts into an income stream.
How we used Developer to customize CRM for a client
Recently, we had a case where a prospect needed a nested commenting feature for Leads/Contacts inside Zoho CRM. Even though there were built-in notes inside the product, the customer wanted a threaded view of the notes. Moreover, they needed it within a week.
Well, we wanted to close the deal, so we took on the challenge.
There are two ways to go about this: either develop using the developer tools in Zoho CRM or use a platform like Zoho Developer.
Since we felt more organizations using Zoho CRM might also want a feature like this, we decided to create a global solution—an extension built using Developer. By listing an installable extension like this in the Zoho Marketplace, we can make it publicly visible and serve more customers simultaneously.
The time required to ship it out was concise, so we immediately got to work creating an extension that we now call Converse. Once ready, any organization worldwide with the same needs as our prospect would be able to install it.
Converse was built as a Widget using Zoho Developers JS SDK framework. In addition to starting a post and commenting on it, we've also allowed single-level nested comments. Additionally, you can edit and delete your own posts/comments. When you tag people from your organization with @mentions, Converse sends an automated email notification to the tagged users.
The use case was ready; the next step was to decide on how to build. For this, we used two components: Custom module and Widgets.
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Component
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Function
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Custom Module
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Comments and posts are stored and processed
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Widget
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i) Single-level nested comments
ii) @mentions
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When the week was done, so was the extension development. To showcase it to users worldwide, we'll soon be listing this extension in the Zoho Marketplace.
Things to know:
- Install Converse
- Source code for Converse from Github
- Learn more about Zoho Developer Platform
- Work with Zoho Developer Platform
Additional advantages of building with Zoho’s platforms:
- 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, mail and chat support from the Zoho Marketplace team to help you build and list extensions.
- New monetization avenues.
If you need to learn more about the platform, you can register for an online workshop.