What is Wrong with Zoho CRM and How to Fix it -- But first the good news....
I have recently been evaluating all the major CRM platforms aimed at small to medium businesses. This has included:
The first thing that I want to say about Zoho is that it is very impressive: Fast, comprehensive, outstanding contextual gadgets for gmail, google apps integration, a very good Quickbooks accounting integration, and much much more. For the price, this solution is super powerful.
As this impression formed, I began to see more of the constellation of Zoho offerings. I could not believe the number of applications they had. It was exciting because one would assume that if there is an invoicing application, a calendar, an email, and on and on, they would all integrate very well. What I came to realize is that these were all created in what looks like island teams with some consideration toward integration, but that was not the initial approach. What started as excitement became concern and disappointment.
I am a big fan of Zoho and impressed with all they have done. I think they are inches away from being great and taking on all comers. But, to do so, is going to require a fundamentally different approach to their thinking, the market, and the powerful assets they have created. And, it has nothing to do with lack of technical expertise. I am taking the time to write this novel because I am hoping it will help Zoho focus on what is important and also help new users see the incredible line up of tools that Zoho has created, but also understand the limitations right upfront so that they can plan for them.
With that said, here is what I think Zoho should do to fix their CRM (I say fix because in the eyes of the users, these are not enhancements, they appear to be oversights or design flaws considering how well other things are done):
1. Lack of integration with Zoho Invoice: The invoicing feature of Zoho CRM is natively very simple, and not usable for most organizations. Zoho Invoice on the other hand is a very impressive tool and I have to say much better than FreshBooks or the like. It is astounding to me that Zoho and Invoice are not fully integrated at this point. You can bring account information into Invoice, but you cannot pull anything back into CRM from Invoice. This integration is noted as a high priority has been promised fro Q2 in the forums, but I have not seen any feature list to say what the integration will be.
Suggestion: Integrate all the account information from CRM into Invoice. Keep Invoice as a separate app that is accessible in CRM if you like, no problem. Put "hooks" into the CRM on things like cases so that hours can be tracked directly from those cases without the time consuming requirement to create a project first. Also, make sure you do not break the Quickbooks integration of CRM when you bring over Invoice. Figure out how to feed those invoices in there and synchronize the Invoice information with QB.
2. Lack of Calendar integration with Google Calendar: This is listed on the roadmap for the CRM. At this point, they should have a release date posted, however. Zoho has done a great job with the contextual gadgets in Gmail, so I am sure the calendar will be good. Even without all the fancy things, people are dying to have the ability to be able to see their calendars in CRM, and create an event that links to a contact or account. Even batchbook does this.
3. Lack of gadgets on the dashboard: I can't believe that there are not more options for dashboard items. Whether twitter feeds, facebook feeds, stocks, world city time/weather, or whatever. People use the CRM all the time. You WANT them to stay looking at it and the best way to do that is to give them some fun stuff and some diversity of information flow right on their dashboard. I think the best way to do this is to set up a framework for people to create these and let they go at it. Web tabs are not even close to the same thing.
4. Campaigns are a shell: One of the very surprising things I have come to realize is that the campaigns functionality at this point does not have built in email campaign capabilities where you can create a list, send a newsletter and track outcomes for example. To my knowledge (please correct me if I am wrong), it does not have the ability to track any kind of email based campaign like Sugar, SF, or others. Campaigns are basically a place where you can store lists, and track what account was part of what campaign.
5. Integrations are really missing: Most CRM's today are valued on their native functionality and how well they integrate with other applications. Zoho's own applications do not yet integrate well between each other, and I cannot understand why there are not more integration options for everything from customer portals, to online marketing management, and accounting. I understand that Zoho is active in all these places, but it really makes it tough to "work online" as envisioned when you have to jump between so many applications. There needs to be a framework so that 3rd parties can add contextual features when the integration is done. Examples: "Send invoice to Xero", "Send campaign list to Mailchimp" etc. This is not just an API push/pull but the ability to integrate the workflow.
6. No functional customization whatsoever: One of the biggest challenges facing any user/admin of Zoho CRM is that you cannot add anything. No buttons, no logic hooks, no objects. You can change layouts, define workflows (which are nice), put in custom fields, but you cannot create objects and institute any kind of native functionality. A rich external API exists, but it is not the same thing. This leaves many of us severely hamstrung. In most cases, I could get past these hurdles if integration among Zoho's own apps were strong because I could find a way to "get it done" somehow. Without that, you are really stuck.
7. Is Creator the answer? Creator is an online database application that is gaining steam. Zoho has now allowed builders of these applications (users) to access information from the CRM package to build little apps in Creator. This is great news. The bummer, though is that no inverse integration has been announced as of yet. This means that you can't use Creator to build a module (for you SugarCRM users) or an Object (for you salesforce peeps) to expand functionality based upon a new entity of any kind.
8. Evangelism: Sounds fancier than it really is. Zoho is a massive set of applications. There is a tremendous amount of work to do to help users understand how the pieces can be used.... together or independently. I would strongly suggest some "Solution experts" that listen carefully to what the customer is trying to accomplish (not the specifics) and then provide them with options on ways they could do that with Zoho. This kind of relationship with existing and prospective clients would be so much more effective than what currently happens. Most of my contact with Zoho support resources have been very binary. I explain an issue to them, and they tell me they can or can't do that. Rarely does the individual attempt to own/understand my issue, they never commit to a timeframe on any pending features, and do not seem to have an organized place where a user can get updates (frequently) on hot topics through a moderated forum. I find the same questions I have asked over and over again in different ways, but there is usually not a good single place where that topic is discussed (like the lounge does) with some updates given along the way. I found a few threads where the forum moderator asked the users what they wanted in an upcoming release of Invoice. That was great.
So, what are my top requests of Zoho?
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The first thing that I want to say about Zoho is that it is very impressive: Fast, comprehensive, outstanding contextual gadgets for gmail, google apps integration, a very good Quickbooks accounting integration, and much much more. For the price, this solution is super powerful.
As this impression formed, I began to see more of the constellation of Zoho offerings. I could not believe the number of applications they had. It was exciting because one would assume that if there is an invoicing application, a calendar, an email, and on and on, they would all integrate very well. What I came to realize is that these were all created in what looks like island teams with some consideration toward integration, but that was not the initial approach. What started as excitement became concern and disappointment.
I am a big fan of Zoho and impressed with all they have done. I think they are inches away from being great and taking on all comers. But, to do so, is going to require a fundamentally different approach to their thinking, the market, and the powerful assets they have created. And, it has nothing to do with lack of technical expertise. I am taking the time to write this novel because I am hoping it will help Zoho focus on what is important and also help new users see the incredible line up of tools that Zoho has created, but also understand the limitations right upfront so that they can plan for them.
With that said, here is what I think Zoho should do to fix their CRM (I say fix because in the eyes of the users, these are not enhancements, they appear to be oversights or design flaws considering how well other things are done):
1. Lack of integration with Zoho Invoice: The invoicing feature of Zoho CRM is natively very simple, and not usable for most organizations. Zoho Invoice on the other hand is a very impressive tool and I have to say much better than FreshBooks or the like. It is astounding to me that Zoho and Invoice are not fully integrated at this point. You can bring account information into Invoice, but you cannot pull anything back into CRM from Invoice. This integration is noted as a high priority has been promised fro Q2 in the forums, but I have not seen any feature list to say what the integration will be.
Suggestion: Integrate all the account information from CRM into Invoice. Keep Invoice as a separate app that is accessible in CRM if you like, no problem. Put "hooks" into the CRM on things like cases so that hours can be tracked directly from those cases without the time consuming requirement to create a project first. Also, make sure you do not break the Quickbooks integration of CRM when you bring over Invoice. Figure out how to feed those invoices in there and synchronize the Invoice information with QB.
2. Lack of Calendar integration with Google Calendar: This is listed on the roadmap for the CRM. At this point, they should have a release date posted, however. Zoho has done a great job with the contextual gadgets in Gmail, so I am sure the calendar will be good. Even without all the fancy things, people are dying to have the ability to be able to see their calendars in CRM, and create an event that links to a contact or account. Even batchbook does this.
3. Lack of gadgets on the dashboard: I can't believe that there are not more options for dashboard items. Whether twitter feeds, facebook feeds, stocks, world city time/weather, or whatever. People use the CRM all the time. You WANT them to stay looking at it and the best way to do that is to give them some fun stuff and some diversity of information flow right on their dashboard. I think the best way to do this is to set up a framework for people to create these and let they go at it. Web tabs are not even close to the same thing.
4. Campaigns are a shell: One of the very surprising things I have come to realize is that the campaigns functionality at this point does not have built in email campaign capabilities where you can create a list, send a newsletter and track outcomes for example. To my knowledge (please correct me if I am wrong), it does not have the ability to track any kind of email based campaign like Sugar, SF, or others. Campaigns are basically a place where you can store lists, and track what account was part of what campaign.
5. Integrations are really missing: Most CRM's today are valued on their native functionality and how well they integrate with other applications. Zoho's own applications do not yet integrate well between each other, and I cannot understand why there are not more integration options for everything from customer portals, to online marketing management, and accounting. I understand that Zoho is active in all these places, but it really makes it tough to "work online" as envisioned when you have to jump between so many applications. There needs to be a framework so that 3rd parties can add contextual features when the integration is done. Examples: "Send invoice to Xero", "Send campaign list to Mailchimp" etc. This is not just an API push/pull but the ability to integrate the workflow.
6. No functional customization whatsoever: One of the biggest challenges facing any user/admin of Zoho CRM is that you cannot add anything. No buttons, no logic hooks, no objects. You can change layouts, define workflows (which are nice), put in custom fields, but you cannot create objects and institute any kind of native functionality. A rich external API exists, but it is not the same thing. This leaves many of us severely hamstrung. In most cases, I could get past these hurdles if integration among Zoho's own apps were strong because I could find a way to "get it done" somehow. Without that, you are really stuck.
7. Is Creator the answer? Creator is an online database application that is gaining steam. Zoho has now allowed builders of these applications (users) to access information from the CRM package to build little apps in Creator. This is great news. The bummer, though is that no inverse integration has been announced as of yet. This means that you can't use Creator to build a module (for you SugarCRM users) or an Object (for you salesforce peeps) to expand functionality based upon a new entity of any kind.
8. Evangelism: Sounds fancier than it really is. Zoho is a massive set of applications. There is a tremendous amount of work to do to help users understand how the pieces can be used.... together or independently. I would strongly suggest some "Solution experts" that listen carefully to what the customer is trying to accomplish (not the specifics) and then provide them with options on ways they could do that with Zoho. This kind of relationship with existing and prospective clients would be so much more effective than what currently happens. Most of my contact with Zoho support resources have been very binary. I explain an issue to them, and they tell me they can or can't do that. Rarely does the individual attempt to own/understand my issue, they never commit to a timeframe on any pending features, and do not seem to have an organized place where a user can get updates (frequently) on hot topics through a moderated forum. I find the same questions I have asked over and over again in different ways, but there is usually not a good single place where that topic is discussed (like the lounge does) with some updates given along the way. I found a few threads where the forum moderator asked the users what they wanted in an upcoming release of Invoice. That was great.
So, what are my top requests of Zoho?
- Fully integrate Zoho Invoice and allow for time tracking within the CRM so that we can bill for it.
- Give us a fully functional calendar in the CRM, syncrhonized with google calendar.
- Provide some great gadgets (dashlets) for the dasbhoard and a framework for others to make more
- Step up the integration push: Xero, Saasu, MailChimp, and other popular packages. I am not sure I am okay with the "intermediary" cloud connector services that are popping up. Examples are onesaas and the like. Better that my data goes from Zoho to Xero and nowhere in between.
- Beef up the campaign module or integrate with a strong contender like MailChimp (directly)
- Put out some roadmaps, even if only feature lists 60 days in advance of release. Help us plan for the future. We are basically betting on Zoho for our businesses.
- Last but not least, change the approach to selling and supporting this powerful and wide set of software solutions.
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