Howdy, tech wizards!
This week’s Kaizen explores how Catalyst Solutions in the Zoho CRM Developer Hub help import large volumes of data into Zoho CRM while improving data quality and simplifying the migration process.
Catalyst Solutions provide a library of independent, ready-to-use backend solutions called
CodeLibs. The
CRM Bulk Data Processor CodeLib helps handle complex data operations on large datasets. Following are the key benefits:
- Highly Scalable: Processes large datasets efficiently, supporting up to 200,000 records per API call.
- Automation Made Simple: Automate complex tasks like segmentation, data cleansing and lead scoring with minimal effort.
- Effortless Integration: Comes with pre-configured Catalyst resources such as serverless functions and data stores that integrate directly with Zoho CRM.
Business Scenario
Zylker, a manufacturing company, migrated over 3 lakh Lead records into Zoho CRM from spreadsheets.
Post-migration, the Lead data showed the following inconsistencies and challenges:
- Phone number field did not include country codes, or contained incorrect country codes. This inconsistency made it difficult for sales teams to contact Leads reliably.
- Identifying potential Leads for follow-up required manual effort and marketing team has to run generic campaigns without lead segmentation.
Using workflows before record creation to fix phone numbers for this volume would result in 3 lakh individual workflow executions, which can slow imports and cause partial failures.
Solution Overview
Zylker can use the CRM Bulk Data Processor available in Catalyst Solutions to address these challenges at scale.
The solution works as follows:
- Lead records are fetched in bulk from Zoho CRM using the Bulk Read API.
- The fetched data is temporarily stored to evaluate the priority and quality of each record. Based on this evaluation, the records are also segmented accordingly.
- The Country field value is used to identify and append the correct country code to the phone number.
- The processed records are updated back into Zoho CRM using Bulk Write API.
All operations are executed using pre-configured Catalyst resources provided by the CodeLib. You can explore the
Bulk Data Flow in Catalyst help page to understand how each resource participates in the processing pipeline.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure the following:
1. Log into your Zoho CRM and navigate to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Leads.
Create the following custom Single Line fields to map existing record data in Zoho CRM.
- Last Activity Days
- Web Engagement Score
2. Create the following custom Single Line fields to store the calculated values during bulk processing:
- Lead Score Value
- Lead Segment
- Sales Priority
- Data Quality Status
3. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Catalyst Solutions > Zoho CRM Bulk Data Processor.
4. Click Go to Catalyst and create a Catalyst account if required.

6. Create a new folder on your local system, which will act as a local project directory. Use the following command:
7. Navigate to the project folder in your terminal and execute the following command:
8. Follow the prompts to select and initialize your desired project from the Catalyst console.
When prompted to choose a feature, press Enter and proceed without choosing any feature.
9. Run the following command to install the CRM Bulk Data Processor CodeLib.
Step 1: Create a Cron Job
1. Open the Catalyst Console and navigate to the same project in which you have installed the CRM Bulk Data Processor CodeLib.
2. Go to Cloud Scale > Triggers > Cron and click Create Cron.
3. Fill in the following details:
- Provide a Name and Description for the cron job.
- Select Function and choose BulkJobScheduler from the dropdown in the Target Function field.
- Enter the following parameters and values:
MODULES -> Leads
FIELDS_TO_BE_PROCESSED -> Last_Name, Company, Mobile, Country, Designation, No_of_Employees, Web_Engagement_Score, Lead_Score_Value, Lead_Segment, Sales_Priority, Data_Quality_Status
Use GET Modules Metadata API and GET Fields Metadata API to get the API names of the required module and fields.
- Choose the Schedule Type as One Time for our use case.
Step 2: Configure Zoho CRM API Credentials
2. Generate a Grant Token with the following scopes:
- ZohoFiles.files.ALL
- ZohoCRM.bulk.ALL
- ZohoCRM.modules.ALL
- ZohoCRM.settings.ALL
- ZohoCRM.org.ALL
3. Follow the
OAuth Help Section for a step-by-step guide to generate Access and Refresh tokens for your Zoho CRM organization.
Store all the API credentials securely for later use.
4. To allow Catalyst to access Zoho CRM data, configure the stored API credentials as environment variables in the catalyst-config.json file within the BulkDataProcessor function.
These environment variables are used by
Catalyst Connectors to create access tokens for establishing secure connection between Zoho CRM and Catalyst.
Step 3: Add Business Logic
1. Go to com.processor.record.ZCRMRecordsProcessorImpl.java file of the BulkDataProcessor in the functions directory.
2. Override the ZCRMRecordsProcessor method with the business logic.
The complete code sample for this use case is available on
GitHub for reference.
Following is the major custom logic used here:
Phone Number Normalization:
This can be implemented in two stages, Country standardization and Phone Number formatting.
For country standardization, CountryStandardizerUtil maps different variations of the Country field in records to a single standardized country identifier. These variations may include,
- Country Names (India, Unites States, United Kingdom)
- Abbreviations (Ind, IN, USA, US, UK)
- Calling Codes (+91, +1, +44)
With this, we can ensure different interpretations of the same country are interpreted consistently during the process.
Once the country is standardized, Phone Numbers are formatted to E.164 format in the PhoneNormalizerUtil.
It removes all non-numeric characters and converts the Phone input to E.164 format with the respective country codes.
public class PhoneNormalizerUtil { private static final Pattern NON_DIGIT = Pattern.compile("[^0-9]"); public static Optional<String> normalizeToE164(String rawPhone, String countryCode) { if (rawPhone == null || rawPhone.trim().isEmpty()) { return Optional.empty(); } String digits = NON_DIGIT.matcher(rawPhone).replaceAll(""); if (rawPhone.startsWith("+") && digits.length() >= 10) { return Optional.of("+" + digits); } switch (countryCode) { case "IN": return normalizeIndia(digits); case "US": return normalizeUS(digits); case "UK": return normalizeUK(digits); default: return Optional.empty(); } } private static Optional<String> normalizeIndia(String digits) { if (digits.length() == 10) { return Optional.of("+91" + digits); } if (digits.startsWith("91") && digits.length() == 12) { return Optional.of("+" + digits); } return Optional.empty(); } private static Optional<String> normalizeUS(String digits) { if (digits.length() == 10) { return Optional.of("+1" + digits); } if (digits.startsWith("1") && digits.length() == 11) { return Optional.of("+" + digits); } return Optional.empty(); } private static Optional<String> normalizeUK(String digits) { if (digits.startsWith("44") && digits.length() == 12) { return Optional.of("+" + digits); } if (digits.length() == 10) { return Optional.of("+44" + digits); } return Optional.empty(); }
} |
Lead Priority and Segmentation
The lead priority is calculated using the Title, No of employees, Last Activity Days and Web Engagement Score fields in the record.
Each field value contributes a predefined number of points:
- If the job title indicates a senior role such as CEO, CTO, Director, or VP, 25 points are added.
- If the company size is 200 employees or more, 20 points are added.
- If the Lead has been active within the last 7 days, 15 points are added.
- If the web engagement score is 70 or higher, 10 points are added.
The sum of all applicable factors is returned as an integer and based on this score the lead's priority and segmentation is assigned as follows:
- High (Hot): score ≥ 70
- Medium (Warm): score ≥ 40
- Low (Cold): score < 40
public static int calculateLeadScore( String jobTitle, Integer companySize, Integer lastActivityDays, Integer webEngagementScore) { int score = 0; // Decision Maker if (jobTitle != null) { String title = jobTitle.toLowerCase(); if (title.contains("ceo") || title.contains("cto") || title.contains("director") || title.contains("vp")) { score += 25; } } // Company Size if (companySize != null && companySize >= 200) { score += 20; } // Recency if (lastActivityDays != null && lastActivityDays <= 7) { score += 15; } // Engagement if (webEngagementScore != null && webEngagementScore >= 70) { score += 10; } return score; } public static String deriveSegment(int score) { if (score >= 70) return "Hot"; if (score >= 40) return "Warm"; return "Cold"; } public static String derivePriority(String segment) { switch (segment) { case "Hot": return "High"; case "Warm": return "Medium"; default: return "Low"; } }
|
Lead Quality:
Lead quality is evaluated based on the validity of the Mobile and Country fields in the records.
- Clean: Both field values are valid.
- Critical: Both field values are invalid.
- Needs Review: Only one of the field values is invalid.

Write Back to Records:
The processed data is written back to Zoho CRM as follows:
- Mobile: Formatted phone numbers.
- Lead Score: Total score calculated from all applicable fields.
- Lead Segment: Segment derived from the lead score.
- Sales Priority: Priority assigned based on the lead segment.
- Data Quality Status: Overall quality of the Lead record.
if (normalizedMobile.isPresent()) { data.put("Mobile", normalizedMobile.get()); } data.put("Lead_Score", leadScore); data.put("Lead_Segment", leadSegment); data.put("Sales_Priority", salesPriority); data.put("Data_Quality_Status", dataQualityStatus); }
|
Step 4: Deploy to Development
You can find the complete code sample on
GitHub for reference.
Try it Out!
With the changes deployed to the Development environment, let us now test the solution.
We hope this Kaizen helps you import large volumes of data into Zoho CRM while improving data quality and lead intelligence using the CRM Bulk Data Processor.
Have questions or suggestions? Drop them in the comments or write to us at
support@zohocrm.com.
We will circle back to you next Friday with another interesting topic.
On to Better Building!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Topics
Applying Excess Payments & Conflict Invoices Due to Cancelled Items
I’m running into several issues that appear to stem from deeper-than-expected overlap between Zoho Finance (Books/Inventory) and Zoho POS. The level of coupling between these systems seems greater than what was originally communicated, and it’s leading
Convenience Fees
I use Zoho Invoice for invoicing my billboard customers. I have a few customers that want to pay using credit cards and ACH. As a result, I have integrated an Online Payment Gateway (Stripe) for these customers. I currently charge these customers a "Convenience Fee" of 3% for using this service as I typically only take checks as payment (and the gateway charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). I do this by creating a separate line item on the invoice and adding 3% to it. I would like to offer
HTML Tags added to Reports with Notes
Recently Zoho added the ability to markup text within notes. That way, users can change font size, colors, etc. It's a great change. However, since the change, reports that include a column for "Note Content" are printing HTML tags within the report.
New Feature: Audit Log in Zoho Bookings
Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce Audit Log, a new feature designed to help you track all key actions related to your appointments. With Audit Log, you can maintain transparency, strengthen security, and ensure accountability.
Restrict Payment Methods
Allow us to restrict certain payment methods specific for each customer.
Emails Getting Delay Error Messages - Status: 451
Hi. Hoping someone can help. I've been using Zoho for over a year now with no problems at all. Today, the majority of my emails I send out or reply to are getting this error: This message was created automatically by mail delivery system. THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE. The original message was received at Sun, 22 Dec 2019 18:20:19 -0800 from wazza@amninjas.com [wazza@amninjas.com] ----- The following addresses had fatal errors ----- [Status: ERROR, Address:
Add Domain
Hello Zoho Support, My Zoho Sites project accidentally auto-added domains with http:// prefix and duplicated domain entries. Current domains list shows: http://www.kinhtethethao.com.vn (Primary – cannot be removed) http://www.kinhtethethao.com.vn (verification
Kaizen #221: Workflow & Actions Reports APIs
Over the last few weeks, we have joined Zylker Cloud Services as they restructured their automation ecosystem using Workflow APIs and Actions APIs. Along the way, we discovered how to audit workflows, update old rules, create new ones, and manage associated
Having an Issue with the Entity ID
I'm having an issue when trying to use Zoho Flow and the notes function. I currently have it set up when a new response comes into a particular form, all of their responses will go into the notes section of their contact on the CRM. I'm currently mapping
For Each Loop in Zoho Flow
I am using Zoho flow to create rows in an google sheets for every new order in Shopify but the issue is that it is creating one row per order and all line items are comma separated values but I want separate rows for each line item. Is there a way to
Debug and Test not receiving updates
Hello, I've been trying to debug two of my simple flows between Zoho Projects and Clockify but it seems like the Debug and Test feature is not working for me. When I click the Play button on any of the flows and then perform the trigger actions nothing
Attendance, Reimagined: Smarter Views for Teams and Individuals
Tracking attendance shouldn’t feel like a chore. With the revamped Attendance module UI, Zoho FSM makes it easier than ever to monitor work hours, check-in activity, and team availability—whether you’re managing an entire workforce or just keeping an
Logistics Industry: Learn to create amazing appointment scheduling sites
In the logistics industry, the quality of service is something that cannot be shown to others unless they experience it. Sure, there are metrics that show how you fare when compared to your competition, but then, it only communicates little with respect to quality. The usual route which firms in logistics took are advertisements, to which the internet has opened alternatives in today’s digital age like websites and appointment scheduling sites. A great online presence can help you communicate with
Customer Management: # 1 Pick a Convenient Way to Onboard Customer
When Meera opened her bookstore, onboarding customers was effortless. A customer walked in, picked a book and left with a handwritten bill. As the store gained popularity, things changed. " Can I place an order over the phone?" a customer asked one day.
Fetch ALL items from Inventory and send to Google Sheet using Flow
The title says it all -- I want to fetch the Item name, SKU, Purchase rate, and Sales rate for ALL items in Zoho Inventory and have them populate a tab in an existing Google Sheet. I have already successfully made this work for one item, so the flow is
Why Document Integrity Matters at Every Stage of the Contract Lifecycle
Contracts are legal records that must stay authentic and traceable from creation to expiry or termination. In Zoho Contracts, several design decisions focus on protecting the integrity of every document. These measures ensure that no important details
affichage pièces jointes impossible
Bonjour, aujourd'hui je n'arrive pas à afficher ni à télécharger les pièces jointes dans ZOHO CRM. J'utilise Chrome, j'ai vidé les caches et les cookies. Mais cela ne change rien. Merci de votre aide
Reminder to renew subscription.
Whenever I try to add to one of my notes a " renew your subscription" window pops out and won't Close disallowing me to edit. Why should I renew my subscription on an application with at best such bugs and at worse such underhanded ways to force ren
Fields not coming through, not pulling data
Forgive the noviceness of my vocabulary. I am in Zoho flow connecting CRM and Projects. When an opportunity hits a certain stage, it will create the project in Projects, and bring in data from the opportunity. Everything is working, except for two fields
Smartsheet Integration
Has any in the community been able to integrate Zoho Desk with Smartsheets using Zoho Flow? I am trying to get the Smartsheet Row ID based on ticket data and cannot find documentation on the Get Row function for Smartsheet. It is asking for a Query String
CRM Campaign - how to mass remove contacts?
Does anyone have a solution for removing all contacts from a CRM campaign. Seems that one by one is the only option.
Send out follow-up email in the same thread (threaded conversations in individual emails) from Zoho CRM
Hi, I'm new to Zoho. I'm trying to send individual emails to my leads one by one. And I'll send out follow up email if I don't hear back from them later. However, instead of sending a new email, I want to reply in the same email thread so that the recipients
Cadence Support in Zoho Vertical Studio
We would like to know whether it is possible to create and configure Cadences in Zoho Vertical Studio, similar to the Cadence feature available in Zoho CRM. Please confirm if Vertical Studio supports creating cadences for modules and users, and whether
Removing "Products" as mandatory field from Sales Order creation page
Hello, friends According to our workflow, we should: 1) create Sales Order (Stage "New") 2) call and discuss the Products with a customer (Stage "Communication") 3) add the Products to the Sales Order during the call However, "Products" is mandatory to
Zoho Books says "The customer "Hakimuddin P A Ali" already exists. Please specify a different name.""
One of my transaction is not getting posted from Stripe to Zoho books. I already checked in Zoho books that there is no customer already present in Zoho books with the same name (as the error mentions) I already raised this complaint on Zoho flow portal,
Is it possible to automate a file to be directly uploaded to a specific subfolder in Zoho Workdrive?
I am establishing a workflow so that when a new task is marked "complete", the document submitted in the task (under the "Documents" tab) is automatically uploaded to a specific subfolder in the associated WorkDrive for the project. However, the dilemma
Steuerberater der Zoho benutzt in Deutschland
I write in English because the issue is related to German regulations. Wir sind ein Unternehmen, welches aktuell keine Pflicht zur doppelten Buchführung hat. Aktuell bucht unser Steuerberater jeden Beleg, auch unsere Auslagen. Wir würden dies gerne selbst
Why are some folders not showing up as an action trigger in Zoho Flow?
I am currently working on a flow that automates the process of creating a folder in WorkDrive once a Task List is created. When I am selecting a destination for the folder, some projects are not showing up. I intend to create a folder within a specific
Getting Date from PostgreSQL error
I am pulling data from PostgreSQL table into a CRM record via FLOW but the field is coming out empty. Need some suggestions: Field Type in CRM: Date/Time Field value in PostgreSQL: 2024-12-05 21:06:32.479 Field value in FLOW "Fetch Row": created : "2024-12-05T21:06:32.479382000",
Zoho Flow to SendOwl API error
SendOwl is listed in the apps list of Zoho Flow. When trying to connect through the API with valid key and secret, the error given is: SendOwl says "HTTP Basic: Access denied" It seems Zoho doesn't connect via HTTPS. I've already tried using webhooks,
decisions based on content of a ticket
Hi, I need to create a flow that sends automated email based on the content of a ticket in zoho desk. I have certain tickets that are formatted in a particular way, and contain certain keywords. How can I filter (based on decisions) the tickets based
Newline Character "\n" parsing problem in webhooks
Hi there, I am facing an issue in Zoho Flow (maybe a general issue or maybe only in Zoho Flow): I have this function: void sendListWebhook(string url, list array) { for each arrayElement in array { result = invokeurl [ url :url type :POST parameters:arrayElement.toString()
One Company, multi branches, multi warehouses and I need to manage this in one organization
Dears, I'm a new user to zoho solutions, however I found a lot of persons giving a nice feedback about it also a lot of good reviews. I though why we try to move to it in our company. I'm not sure if Zoho could give me all what I need or not that's why I'm going to post in this topic most of the things I know about managing our business to let you ,as zoho experts, tell me if Zoho will meet my business requirements or not. First of all we are a flowers and landscaping company we have like 6 to
Migration Evernote
Bonjour Apres plus d'une dizaine d'année passer avec evernote j'ai décidé de franchir le pas . J'ai débuté par migrer mes notes vers zoho et depuis la migration est bloquée. Impossible d'avoir un retour du support malgré plusieurs mails et tentative d'appel
Pushing GCLID info from Gravity Forms to ZohoCRM
We are switching to Gravity Forms from Zoho Forms and I cannot find any good info on how to make sure my GCLID tracking info is pushed through to the CRM through my new forms. There was an article in the documentation about placing something within the
On Zoho Flow, Record deleted trigger from Zoho Creator
On creating flow in Zoho Flow, when we select app Zoho created, it provides 3 trigger options - Record created, Record updated and Record created or updated We need trigger on "Record Delete" as well, We have a use case to fire our system api if record
Zoho Flow Switch On Not Working
I have created a flow which is when the mailbox address received the email that meet the condition will auto fetch the contact, account and finally create the ticket by using Zoho Desk. When I do a test and debug on my flow it work well as what I expect
MS Teams Flow Integration Question
Where can I find the chat ID for the "Post message to chat" target?
Zoho Flow - Access denied to recover recording from call module - OpenAI
Hi, I am trying to build a Flow to recover recoding when a new call is saved in my CRM. I have integrated my CRM with ringcentral and the recordings are saved in the event. Trigger: When new module entry Step 2: Fetch module entry (Zoho CRM says "permission
Unable to send price in big commerce from zoho flow.
I am creating a flow from zoho flow to create a product in zoho inventory and sending this to big commerce. But the problem is like when ever i send the price its getting error. it require decimal format value if i am sending ${trigger.sales_rate} the
Next Page