Zoho CRM Blueprint 3.0 — What's in store for you!

Zoho CRM Blueprint 3.0 — What's in store for you!

Hello everyone,

We hope all of you are doing well. We are excited to let you know that we have launched a set of useful enhancements in Blueprint. Here is a rather elaborate post on what those enhancements are and what to expect. Feel free to get back to us with any questions you may have.

Summary of enhancements:

  1. SLAs now support automated actions apart from existing default email alerts.
  2. "Same-state looping" has been introduced.
  3. The During Transition settings now let you mandate Tags.
  4. Introducing Automatic Transitions (Early access only*):
    Avoid process delays by automatically pushing records from one state to another after the passage of an acceptable time period.
  5. Introducing Mass Inclusion/Exclusion of records (Early access only*):
    Whether you want to include records into a Blueprint or take them out of one, you can now do so in bulk.

1. Automated actions now supported in SLAs.

SLA or Service Level Agreement in Blueprint, is a setting that enables you to keep a track of records that are falling behind in a process. How is this done?

By triggering a standard escalation alert to yourself or your team members, whenever a record has rested in a particular Blueprint State for more than a defined period. This way, you can take note of records that have stalled within a Blueprint and take further action on them before further delay.

Now in addition to standard email alerts, you can also now configure custom email notifications, tasks, field updates, run a custom function, or trigger a webhook as part of automated actions in SLAs.

For example, let's say that as per your process, you want to be alerted whenever a record has stayed in the Negotiation State for more than 5 days. For this, apart from the the default email alert you can choose to automate a field update where a field called "Urgency" gets updated from "Mild" to "Severe" whenever a record has stayed in the Negotiation state for more than 5 days. Later you can filter out records for which the urgency is severe and prioritise their transitions first.

2. Same-state looping

A process often contains steps which you have to attempt multiple times for it to be successful. A typical example would be an attempt to contact a customer. In order to gather their requirements you will have to call them. But often they may be unavailable or may ask you to call later. Unless you speak to them you cannot go to the next stage, so you have to stay in the same State until they answer. However your staying in the same state doesn't also mean you did not do your job — you just have to try multiple times until you are successful.

In such cases, you can now create a transition that "loops back" to the same stage. The From and To state is the same. For example, in the following deal follow-up process, you can use the "Retry contacting" transition infinite number of times, until you are successful in which case you will select Customer Available and progress further.

3. Mandate tags in the During Transition settings

You may now mandate tags as part of the During Transition section of a Blueprint. The transition owner would then be prompted to enter a value for tags in order to complete the transition.

4. Automatic transitions

Automatic transitions have been introduced in Blueprints, to help you combat process delays. Often, a record that traverses through a process tends to stagnate in a particular state and you may not even realise it. This causes unwarranted delays. One thing you can certainly do is set an SLA for the state and be notified whenever there's an escalation.

But ultimately, SLA is also a notification or a task/field update of sorts— the record at the end of the day, needs your manual intervention in order to progress further in the process. If you only want to be notified of escalations, you may configure SLAs. On the other hand, if you want the system to act and automatically move a record from one state to another at any point, you can now create automatic transitions.

So what are automatic transitions and how do they work?

An automatic transition is one in which a record in a Blueprint automatically moves from one state to another, after a specified "Wait" time has elapsed.
As per the process, in order for a record to go from State A to State B, you will have to perform a Transition A. If this Transition A has not been executed within a said time period, say, 5 days, then the Automatic Transition configured for that state will get executed and the record will be pushed forward automatically to another state in the Blueprint as per the configuration.

For instance, in the following screenshot, CRM will wait for one of the transitions to take place: Either "Confirm Interest" or "Drop deal". If no action is taken on this record until a said date, the record will be moved to the "Price Quote" stage automatically and the users can take it up from there.


To configure an automatic transition

Select the Automatic Transition checkbox as you create a regular transition.

Then, mention a "Wait time" and corresponding automated actions.

According to the following screenshot, the deal follow-up process flow has a handful of major steps to be performed before a price quote can be drafted — namely, Contact establishment, qualification, needs analysis and value proposition. If a particular deal has moved to the "Contacted" stage but the user has not taken the action required for Qualification, Blueprint will wait for 5 days and directly move it to the "Id.Decision Makers" state. From there the user concerned can take over drafting a price quote.



A price quote cannot be created without knowing requirements, contact details etc, so there the action items from previous states can also be done altogether at this point, without wasting any more time.

5. Mass Inclusion and Exclusion of records to a Blueprint

While creating a Blueprint for a module, you have the option to specify entry criteria. When you specify one, only records that meet these criteria can go through with the Blueprint.

Well, an important point to note is, only records that henceforth meet the criteria can go through with the Blueprint. So what about existing records? How can you get already existing records that qualify for the Blueprint into the Blueprint.

That is where the mass inclusion of records come in. With this enhancement, you can easily include a bulk of records by specifying your desired criteria. All you need to do is go to Bulk Include > define conditions to pull out the records you have in mind > click Include.

Also, if you have the need to "exclude" records in bulk from an existing blueprint, you can filter them out in a similar way.

When is it ideal to include/ exclude records in bulk?

  • Bulk inclusion: When you have created a new Blueprint and you have existing records that qualify to enter the Blueprint, you can include them in bulk.
  • Bulk exclusion: When you want to push records from one Blueprint to another, or you want to disassociate the records from a Blueprint altogether.
We hope you find these updates useful. If you have any questions or suggestions on this subject, please let us know by commenting below.

(*) Early access: Automatic Transitions and Mass inclusion/exclusion of records are early access features which will be enabled for those who have request them. This will be done in batches. 

If you are interested in gaining early access to these two features: SUBMIT YOUR REQUEST HERE. 

Further reading: 


    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner






                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                              Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ








                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Zoho Recruit > Email Templates

                                                                                                              Dear All Background: We are using Zoho Recruit for the 4 business units under our group of company it our posting our of Job it will be done via our internal recruiter. In the Email templates, i want to be able to insert the individual business unit,
                                                                                                            • Zoho Voice & Zoho Recruit/CRM

                                                                                                              Hello, I'd love to use Zoho Voice with Recruit and CRM but it would need something very important to me, that has been a game changer to my daily routine, like Calendly has been for scheduling interview. It's call transcription with AI. I'm using Noota
                                                                                                            • Change start time after starting the timer

                                                                                                              Hello Projects Community, an amazing feature would be to change the start time of a running timer. I know this from some other time tracking softwares. Any idea about this? Best wishes Niels
                                                                                                            • Sending possible. Receiving not possible.

                                                                                                              We are not receiving mail in our company email. Could you please solve this. It has been recurring and I want it to be resolved once and for all. Please help.
                                                                                                            • Problema para enviar y recibir correos

                                                                                                              Buenos días, mi cuenta de correo secretaria@construccmauro.com presenta problemas y no me permite ni me envía ni recibe correos, me sale este error.No fue posible enviar el mensaje; Motivo: 554 5.1.8 Correo electrónico bloqueado saliente.  Aprende más., Agradezco
                                                                                                            • Data access tasks like 'For each record' aren't supported for 'integration forms'.

                                                                                                              My code is not running because i get the error "Data access tasks like 'For each record' aren't supported for 'integration forms'." I have my integration setup with Zoho CRM + Zoho Creator, the form is visible and working on my zoho creator however in
                                                                                                            • Zoho Reports Not Grouping from Subforms

                                                                                                              I have created reports from a subform. We have a budget from a standard field, and the bills added to a subform. I've summarised the bills in a field. In edit mode, the bills are joined per supplier, which is what we want. But then it converts and separates/duplicates
                                                                                                            • Create Automation for the Field "Mark up by"

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, I'm importing expenses from Zoho Expense to Zoho Books. I want to auto-calculate the "Mark up by" field based on the custom field “Discount” I created before. The trigger of the workflow will be the creation of the expense itself. The
                                                                                                            • Free Webinar Alert! Before vs After: Proven ROI from Zoho CRM + Workplace Integration

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Workplace Community! Before: Scattered tools, lost leads, fragmented communication. Are you ready to stop the constant back and forth between tools to manage leads, emails, and team communication? After: Connected tools, streamlined processes,
                                                                                                            • Zoho Forms to Zoho Sign Integration - Fields Missing

                                                                                                              If a Zoho Form has image fields, it seems these can't be transferred to a Zoho Sign template for digital signature. Is there any way of pre-filling Zoho Form images onto a Zoho Sign template? Many thanks.
                                                                                                            • Is zoho SMTP slow today?

                                                                                                              Hi guys, Since yesterday I'm facing a slow communication over SMTP while sending emails. I already tried to use tls and ssl but nothing changes. There is anyone else experiencing related issues? I didn't find any maintenance in progress. Tested another
                                                                                                            • Link project invoices to sales orders

                                                                                                              As a business owner and project manager I create estimates with my clients which then become sales orders. When billing for project work I want to invoice against the agreed sales order. I see that I can create invoices and link them to sales orders in
                                                                                                            • The Urgent Need for Native Brazilian Payment Integrations: PIX and Direct Bank Connections

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Team, I am writing to emphasize a critical functionality gap for Zoho Books in the Brazilian market: the lack of modern, native payment gateway integrations. The current options are insufficient. The Mercado Pago integration, for instance,
                                                                                                            • How to Fetch Images from Related Modules in Zoho CRM Mail Merge Templates?

                                                                                                              Hi team , Hope this email finds you well. I have a requirement where I need to create mail merge templates within Zoho CRM in such a way that they fetch images from a record stored in a different module. The way it works is I have one module "A" which
                                                                                                            • Zoho Calendar (Refresh Rate)

                                                                                                              Why don't the calendars refresh more than every 12 hours? That is crazy. I cannot be the only user who wants to see this change? I see and understand that I can MANUALLY update them, but need them to auto refresh either (1) whenever there is a change
                                                                                                            • "In Zoho CRM, during the Blueprint transition to the QC stage, I want to make the 'Packing Proof' image field mandatory."

                                                                                                              @Dr Saurabh Joshi @Haiku Technical Support @Ishwarya SG @Sparrow Hill President @Hugh Marshall "In Zoho CRM, during the Blueprint transition to the QC stage, I want to make the 'Packing Proof' image field mandatory."
                                                                                                            • Flow Error

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Team, Any idea on this? This happens recently. Zoho Desk says "You are not authorized to access this resource."
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

                                                                                                              Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations
                                                                                                            • Books/Square integration with multiple bank accounts

                                                                                                              Hello, I need some workaround ideas! We have two parts of our business which have their own bank accounts and customers. We use 'locations' in Square to allocate the payments to the correct place and we use 'branches' in Zoho Books to define which transactions
                                                                                                            • Intergrating multi location Square account with Zoho Books

                                                                                                              Hi, I have one Square account but has multiple locations. I would like to integrate that account and show aggregated sales in zoho books. How can I do that? thanks.
                                                                                                            • [Webinar] Deluge Learning Series - Deluge Learning Series Built-in Functions in Deluge

                                                                                                              We’re excited to welcome you to the next session in our Deluge Learning Series – Built-in Functions in Deluge – Part 1. In this focused 1-hour live session, we will explore the practical use of built-in functions in Deluge scripting, with a spotlight
                                                                                                            • Zoho Hilfe in NRW für Kundenprojekt gesucht!

                                                                                                              Hallo, wir sind auf der Suche für ein Kundenprojekt, wer die Implementierung von Zoho übernehmen kann. Unsere Stärke liegt im Onlinemarketing, bzw. der Automatisierung mit Klick-Tipp und den Tools drum herum. In dem Projekt können wir dem Kunden mit dem jetzigen CRM nicht weiter helfen, bzw. ihn nicht auf die nächste Stufe bringen. Leider komme ich mit meiner Suche in Foren, SocialMedia und sonst wo nicht weiter.  Der Idealfall ist ein gemeinsamer Besuch vor Ort beim Kunden und hier eine Präsentation
                                                                                                            • Gaps in Core HR Functionalities in Zoho People

                                                                                                              Hello People team, We've been using Zoho People for quite some time now and truly appreciate its flexibility and customizability. That said, I wanted to share some feedback based on our experience implementing core HR processes within the platform. Several
                                                                                                            • Product and Service

                                                                                                              Hi guys, there is a difference between layout of product and service if Long Description field have some kind of text. Please see screenshot 1 for Service here: https://prnt.sc/7xWwPKd29nWP for Product here: https://prnt.sc/LGmtVd_U6H7q As you can see
                                                                                                            • Anyone Building AI-Based SEO Dashboards in Zoho Analytics?

                                                                                                              Hey everyone, I’m currently working on an SEO reporting dashboard in Zoho Analytics and looking to enhance it with AI-based insights—especially around AI visibility, keyword trends, and traffic sources. The goal is to track not just traditional metrics
                                                                                                            • Phone Number Integration

                                                                                                              I would like to be able to track my cell phone calls in the CRM.  So if a contact calls my cell phone number, a note of that phone call will be made in the CRM so that I don't have to remember to go back in and add the call manually. Is there a way to connect the CRM and my cell phone via a 3rd party? Such as Google Voice, Skype, etc. Its important that my clients don't have to call a new or different number and that sent calls use the same number as well. So if there is a way to connect my phone
                                                                                                            • Woocommerce Line Item Information

                                                                                                              I'd like to add each line item from a Woocommerce order to a zoho creator form record. The line items are found within the line items array, but I'm not sure how to get each item out of the array? Any help would be much appreciated.
                                                                                                            • Create Encrypted Zoho Forms URL for SMS Pre-Population forms using zfcrm_entity=

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Forms Community and Zoho Team, I’m trying to send a Zoho Forms URL via SMS with pre-populated CRM contact data, inspired by a post from four years ago by GlennP (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/passing-the-crm). Our form is
                                                                                                            • Sales IQ - Bot Builder - Forward to Operator Action Card Improvement

                                                                                                              Hi team, It would be a great improvement to have an additional branch out of the Forward to Operator Action Card. I would like to allow 10 seconds for an operator to pick up the chat, if they don't or if they reject the chat I would like the Bot to continue
                                                                                                            • Important notice: Migration is needed from the legacy ASAP to the latest ASAP Zoho Desk flow

                                                                                                              We recommend upgrading to the latest version, as the older version will eventually be discontinued and will no longer receive any further enhancements or bug fixes. We are announcing an important update concerning the ASAP help widget in Zoho Desk. The
                                                                                                            • NFC Support

                                                                                                              Hi, I would like NFC Support like Zoho Creator, to pre-fill field values by scanning an RFID device. Zoho Creator NFC here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4JoMWnF82I Both on a Field's User Input (Mobile Apps), in additon to QR Code & Barcode today,
                                                                                                            • Live webinar: Building brand consistency using Zoho Show

                                                                                                              Getting people to remember your brand isn’t easy. And if your branding isn’t consistent, it becomes almost impossible. One place where consistency really matters? Presentations. Whether it’s a sales pitch, an event deck, or a team update, your slides
                                                                                                            • Getting an error "Not able to connect server. Verify your network connection" during proforma invoice converting to invoice.

                                                                                                              Getting an error "Not able to connect server. Verify your network connection" during proforma invoice converting to invoice. 
                                                                                                            • calendar I created in Zoho Creator not being imported to Google calendar any longer

                                                                                                              A calendar that I created in my Zoho Creator app is no longer updating (or showing up at all) in my google calendar. It used to export appointments I set up in my app to google calendar. I cannot figure out how to correct this.
                                                                                                            • Quoting Subscriptions with one Time costs

                                                                                                              Hello all, We sell a subscription SaaS service for which we provide one-time services for implementation and customization. Using CRM quotes i was able to create customized total fields to show the total one-time costs, monthly cost, total subscription
                                                                                                            • Automatisez efficacement avec le nouveau concepteur de workflows flexibles

                                                                                                              Auparavant, l'automatisation dans les modèles de fusion de Writer se limitait à des actions simples comme « fusionner et stocker », « fusionner et envoyer par e-mail » ou « fusionner et envoyer pour signature ». En revanche, il était jusqu’à présent impossible
                                                                                                            • More context, fewer tabs: View lookup modules' data within a CRM Canvas page

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, How often do your users juggle multiple browser tabs just to piece together the full context of a record? This update can make their lives easier. You can now add lookup modules' fields to a Canvas detail view page and a Canvas list view
                                                                                                            • On click of the Blueprint transition (Qualified or Not Qualified), the 'Convert' option should be enabled in the Lead module.

                                                                                                              On click of the Blueprint transition (Qualified or Not Qualified), the 'Convert' option should be enabled in the Lead module. console.clear(); let convertButton = ZDK.Page.getButton('convert'); let leadStatus = ZDK.Page.getField('Lead_Stage').getValue();
                                                                                                            • Show all items making up the composite item in transactions

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho, Currently, when we select a composite item in Zoho Inventory for a transaction, we do not receive a breakdown of the individual items that make up the composite. This makes it challenging for our team to accurately pick, pack, and ship the
                                                                                                            • Custom Roles & Granular Permission Control in Zoho SalesIQ

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho SalesIQ Team, We appreciate the functionalities offered by Zoho SalesIQ, but we would like to request a crucial enhancement regarding user roles and permissions. Current Issue: At present, Zoho SalesIQ provides fixed roles—Admin, Supervisor,
                                                                                                            • Next Page