Introducing Zoho CRM for Everyone: A reimagined UI, next-gen Ask Zia, timeline view, and more

Introducing Zoho CRM for Everyone: A reimagined UI, next-gen Ask Zia, timeline view, and more

Hello Everyone,

Your customers may not directly observe your processes or tools, but they can perceive the gaps, missed hand-offs, and frustration that negatively impact their experience. While it is possible to achieve a great customer experience by increasing resource allocation to break silos, hiring additional personnel to address gaps, and purchasing more tools to enhance team coordination, it isn't feasible to provide a superior customer experience if these elements aren't holistic and user-friendly. In the last 20 years, our mission at Zoho CRM has been to enhance the effectiveness of our product to maximize user productivity and aid organizations in serving their customers. We're committed to addressing these challenges by relentlessly reimagining our product and staying at the forefront of technological evolution. Today, we're excited to announce the next evolution of Zoho CRM, which tackles these business challenges head-on—and with a shiny new UI!

What’s New in Zoho CRM 

We're introducing several new features that transform our CRM from a SFA-specific solution into a unified platform for all customer-facing teams:
  1. Zoho CRM for Everyone
  2. Next Generation Ask Zia
  3. Reimagined User Interface
  4. Additional Module Views
  5. Interactions Tab
  6. Dark Mode

1. Zoho CRM For Everyone  (#CRM4E)

Zoho CRM for Everyone was first made available to a select group of customers and partners through our early access program in July 2024. During this phase, our early users explored its new UI and powerful features. Their feedback has played a crucial role in shaping and refining the experience. We're truly grateful for their participation, insights, and trust. With their support and input, we've strengthened the product and are now excited to make it available to all of our users.

With #CRM4E, we aim to bring every customer-facing team—including sales, marketing, onboarding, legal, support, and more—onto a shared CRM platform where your entire organization can collaborate seamlessly. It empowers organizations to break down silos with dedicated team workspaces, eliminate redundant efforts through customizable team modules, and bridge communication gaps using built-in collaboration tools, all within a single, unified system. Teams get the tools they need without compromising on clarity, data security, or administrative control.

#CRM4E is built based on three core principles:
  1. Democratize the CRM software to allow multiple teams to work on the same platform.
  2. Empower teams to automate processes easily and be productive.
  3. Provide better coordination between teams to bridge communication gaps.

Teamspaces

Teamspaces are dedicated workspaces in Zoho CRM that enable each team to operate independently while staying connected to the broader customer journey. Teams only see what's relevant to them, which makes work more focused and efficient. Learn more about teamspaces.

Team Modules 

Teams can create and configure their own modules to carry out their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. Learn more about team modules.


Watch this video to learn more about Team Modules.

                 

Requesters 

There's a new way to coordinate between multiple teams in the CRM system. Sales can send onboarding requests, marketing can collaborate with legal, or support can put advanced tickets in front of developers. The right team member can provide support at the right time in Zoho CRM. Learn more about Requesters.

Every team works differently, and Requester settings give teams the flexibility to define how they want to handle incoming requests. Learn more.

Connected Records 

With Connected records, we enable teams to share contextual information and stay aligned through record connections across modules. Learn more about connected records.

Connected Workflows 

We've taken it one step further by enabling teams to automate cross-team processes, which brings efficiency to every stage of your business process. Currently, this feature is in testing mode, but we'll release it to the public soon.

Team Users 

We've been emphasizing the importance of bringing every customer-facing team onto a single, unified platform while allowing them to work within their own dedicated workspaces. Naturally, you might wonder: If I'm onboarding multiple teams to use only their specific Teamspaces and access modules relevant to their tasks and not the entire CRM why should I pay the full price of a regular CRM license for them?

Well, great news! You don't have to pay full price to users who only use a small portion of the CRM system. We're introducing team user licenses, which provide limited access to Zoho CRM, in order to encourage more and more users to get onboard and leverage this powerful system for their specific processes at a nominal rate.

Pricing  
  1. USD 9 / team license / month (paid yearly)
  2. USD 11 / team license/ month (paid monthly)

#CRM4E on Mobile Apps    

Once you've configured your Teamspaces and team modules in Zoho CRM's web version, users can also access them in our mobile apps for iOS and Android. In the mobile app, users can:
  1. View and switch between Teamspaces directly in the mobile app.
  2. Access and manage records in your team module based on your team module profile permissions.
  3. Quickly add and track requests using the My Requests tab.

 2. Next generation Ask Zia 

This year, we released several Zia features for Zoho CRM. Now, with its redesigned interface and expanded capabilities, Ask Zia is evolving into a smarter assistant that helps you get things done faster, without switching screens or writing reports manually. You'll now find the Ask Zia icon on the next-gen vertical settings bar, right below the search icon.

Ask Zia can interpret your natural language input and convert it into a structured module layout. Whether you're managing client onboarding, handling service requests, or setting up an internal project tracker, you can simply describe what you need, and Zia will take care of the initial configuration. This makes it easier to build modules aligned with your business processes, especially for users who prefer describing their requirements over configuring them field-by-field.


3. Reimagined User Interface 

We've reimagined Zoho CRM's existing user interface to accommodate the needs of the modern workforce and make it easier to configure key settings like modules, reports, and dashboards, as well as several other intuitive functionalities, like new module views, the Interactions tab, dark mode, and more.

We've moved the menu options from the top band menu bar to the left-hand side vertical sidebar, which is now a highly functional piece of UI with contextual shortcuts for quick settings, folders for better module organization, and more.


Watch this video to get an idea of how your CRM could look!
                        

You can use contextual shortcuts to Zoho CRM's Setup options on the sidebar. For example, you can create modules or folders directly from this sidebar without having to navigate to the backend Setup page.



Create Folders


You can organize your modules into Folders for easy access. Folders, as you may know, are a great way to consolidate and group different modules of a broader function for easy access. For example, you can group Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Deals into a folder called "Sales Modules". Or modules such as Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Invoice could be grouped into a folder called "Inventory Modules". This allows you to clear clutter and bring a sense of order into your CRM. Check out the gif below to learn how to create folders. Learn more.



You can also directly create layouts, webforms, wizards, Canvas pages, and more from the sidebar.


4. More Module Views 

So far we offered List View, Kanban View, Canvas, and Sheet views. In this update, we provided Chart View, Grid View, Timeline View, and Split View to improve the navigation and make users more productive.

Chart View 

The chart view makes it easier to gain quick insights from your CRM data. By converting raw information into easy-to-read charts, it helps you spot trends, recognize patterns, and make smarter, data-driven decisions to enhance your sales strategies. Learn more.


Grid View 

In the grid view, module data appears in a spreadsheet-like interface where users can manage multiple records in tabular format—which is ideal for teams who need a fast, flexible way to manage records without switching between multiple screens. We'll release this feature to all customers soon.

Timeline View 

Use this view to get a visual representation of all records in your module plotted over a specific period of time. View records by day, week, month, or quarter to derive important time-centric inferences. Learn More.

               

Split View 

Segment records in your module by splitting them into multiple tables based on key characteristics like picklist fields, users, or other criteria. Users can simultaneously view and manage data from different categories (arranged in tables) side by side. Learn more.

               

 5. Interactions tab 

The Interactions tab offers a chronological view of each customer's journey and interactions across various channels in your CRM. Learn more.

                 

 6. Dark Mode 

Switch your user interface between night, day, or auto modes to adapt to your working hours, visual preferences, or system settings. Learn more  


   Watch the video below to learn how to switch between night, day, or auto modes.
              

How to access New UI and features?  

Existing Zoho CRM  Customers?

Over the past year, we offered early access to the #CRM4E, new UI, and other features to a select group of customers and partners as part of our Early Access Program. Take a look at some of our customer testimonials for the new UI and #CRM4E. The results have been promising, with strong conversion rates and significant improvements to user productivity. After careful evaluation of feedback, we're excited to make this enhanced version publicly available.

As an existing Zoho CRM user, you now have access to a more inclusive, collaborative, and scalable system. Whether you're part of a small team or a large enterprise, #CRM4E makes it easy to onboard other departments without complicating your CRM experience. 
Please note that you won't be forced to switch to the new UI immediately; you can explore the new interface and features through a guided switchover process.

Switching to the Next UI

Step 1: A banner will be displayed at the top of the screen for all Org Admins. You can simply click Access Now to switch to the new UI.


Step 2: Go through the onboarding tour to learn what you can do in this new version.


Step 3:  You can extend this access to other users in your organization immediately or later. Once extended, all users in the organization will see the same banner at the top of their screens to access the new UI.

We've observed early adopters experience faster deal closures, higher productivity, and better cross-team coordination, and we're excited for you to experience the same!

New to Zoho CRM?

We opened up the new UI and #CRM4E features to a small percentage of new signups for more than six months. Starting today, new Zoho CRM users will only be able to access the new UI to ensure they'll have access to all of our latest updates.

What Next? 

We hope you enjoy using our all-new Zoho CRM platform to elevate your experience. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or need help. In the coming days, we'll also post a series of articles and host webinars on each of these features to help you implement them faster. Stay tuned!

Log into Zoho CRM now to start experiencing the future!


Thank you,
Serena Woolridge,
The Zoho CRM Marketing Team