Hi,

I am a strong Zoho CRM user and I spent a fair amount of time configuring the Zoho Email integration with CRM.  At first it looked like a killer feature and I was excited about rolling it out to the rest of my company but there are some serious flaws that need to addressed before it can be considered for any organization.  At this point I would consider ZMail to ZCRM a strong proof of a (great) concept.

My goal with this post is to try and get the Zoho team to spend more resources on this and other important topics even if it comes at the expense of creating Fake Office websites, videos, blogs and tweets.  I wish I was kidding about the fake office stuff but nope.  http://blogs.zoho.com/general/fake-office-the-tweets-the-website-the-movie

So here are the deal breaker issues with Zoho Mail integration to Zoho CRM

1. No IMAP support for ZMail, just POP3.  This means no Smartphone (iPhone) or Exchange integration.  You can link to Exchange via POP3 but then Zoho Mail will automatically mark all incoming messages as read in Outlook.  If you have Zoho Mail host your domain email then you lose all syncing features with other devices.  So your choice is either gain links between CRM and Email but lose meaningful connectivity with other devices.  Personally I have had a Smartphone for about five years now and refuse to give up the sync between calendar, contacts and emails.
   
   It is possible to have gmail host your email and link to ZMail via POP3 but that creates other sync issues as well as managing two accounts.  IMAP and Exchange are pretty standard interfaces, it is not clear to me why this was not done at introduction.  It is clear that their strategy is to play nice with Microsoft products.  At last count there were six Zoho integrations to Microsoft but no Exchange and according to Zoho support "we are unable to commit any timeline for IMAP"
   
   
   
2. When ZMail archives your email it archives the linked email in CRM as well.  So no old mail in a CRM record.  What is the point of email in a CRM system if you do not have any history?  I thought this was bad until I got to the next item.
   
3.  When you deactivate a user in ZCRM or deactivate the ZMail integration in ZCRM all of the attached emails are deleted.  Yes I said DELETED.  See picture.  WTF were they thinking when they came up with that one?  Do they think that we will never change employees?
   
4.  It only links one email per lead/contact record.  This means that any email from the same contact that is different will never be linked.  Again, WTF?
   
5. Each user has to check "Share Emails" on each lead contact record.  If they do not check it then the rest of the team can not see the emails.  I understand the privacy functionality but the admin default should be checked.  It is impossible to make sure each user shares each and every email.  The power of linking emails in CRM is greatly diminished if the email is not shared.