Introducing Zia Strategy Influencer for Zoho CRM

Introducing Zia Strategy Influencer for Zoho CRM

(Last Modified on 22/08/2023): The Strategy Influencer feature is now available to all customers.

Hello everyone,

We are glad to launch Zia Strategy Influencer, an AI-derived strategy prediction analytics in Zoho CRM, for administrators, which provides prescriptive and descriptive insights on your organization's business trends and patterns. Using Zia's AI capabilities, it helps you understand the different factors affecting your business positively and negatively to take necessary corrective actions. It provides these insights in the form of 5 exclusive components to plan strategies, find anomalies affecting the target, and identify top contributing fields towards your goals.
 

Why Zia Strategy Influencer? 

Designing and implementing effective goals are key for your business to flourish. To set your goals, it is important to have a clear understanding of your organization and the respective metrics that impact its goals. Zia Strategy Influencer leverages the power of AI and provides a holistic picture of where your business stands with respect to your goals, as well as what you can do to achieve and exceed them.
 
The below gif provides you with a basic idea of how Zia Strategy Influencer can help you :


 Let us now explore the feature in a detailed manner.

Zia Strategy Influencer

Let us consider that you want to set a target for the total revenue from your deals in your organization. You would need relevant insights about your organization to set and achieve the most suitable target. You can create a Zia Strategy Influencer analytics as shown on the screen below :  
 


  • Strategy Influencer Name -  Define the name of the Zia Strategy Influencer
  • Select metric -  Select the module for which the Zia Strategy Influencer is to be created. Then select the criteria for which the prediction is to be done, in this case, the ''Sum of Amount''.
  • Associated date field -  Define the date field based on which the prediction is to be done for the intended time period, for example, this week. In this case, it is "Closing date'', and hence all the records having closing dates this week will be taken into consideration as part of the contributing factors.
  • Objective -  Select whether the increase in value should be considered as a positive or negative trend. For example, in this case, where the measure we have chosen is "Sum of Amount", you can select the increase in value to be positive, since an increase in value in this case would mean more revenue. Else, if we had another case, where the measure would have been "Sum of Lead Conversion Time", then an increase in value would mean the lead conversion consumed more time. In such a case, you can select the increase in value to be negative. 
Once you create it, Zia will scan through your existing records in the Deals module and provide you with insights by predicting an overall target and the various contributing factors that impact it. Let us now dive into how your Zia Strategy Influencer insights are displayed.
 

Components of Zia Strategy Influencer

The insights in the Zia Strategy Influencer are provided across 3 major components namely :
  • Target Contributors
  • Anomaly Finder
  • Gap Analyzer
  • Predictor
  • Prescriptor

Target Contributors 

The target contributors component breaks down and lists the individual contributing factors that impact the overall target to be achieved. It provides you with details of the expected target that each individual contributing factor needs to achieve, in combination with the rest of the contributing factors, for you to hit your overall target.
 
It also displays how much has actually been achieved against the expected target value for each contributing factor. This helps you analyze your performance and incorporate necessary actions required to achieve your target.



Apart from these, it also displays trend icons that represent the impact of those contributing factors on your overall target, either positive or negative. And in case you feel the predicted target or any of the contributing factors do not align with your actual business scenarios, you can manually adjust them in the target contributors component based on your requirements. Strategy influencer accordingly adjusts the main or contributing targets based on where you adjusted the value. 
 








You can edit your overall target, any of the individual contributing factors, the expected values for each factor, and also select which contributing factors should be part of your target contributors component.
 
Note : You can select only up to 15 contributing factors in the target contributors component.

Anomaly Finder

There might be cases when you wouldn't have achieved your desired target and it might have a significant negative impact on your business. On the other hand, there might also be instances where you would have well exceeded your expected performances. In such cases, it becomes important that you know the factors that were mainly responsible for these positive or negative deviations.
 
 
The anomaly finder component lists down the contributing factors from the target contributors component, that had caused a significant positive or negative trend relative to the predicted overall target. The anomaly finder provides details including the reasons for the anomaly, the expected and the achieved targets, and also the impact amount on the target, for the selected time period.
 
These insights help you in determining the reasons for the anomaly, analyzing the impacted aspects of your business, and implement suitable strategies to achieve your business targets.
 
Note : If all of your actual values met with the expected values of your target contributors component and your overall target is met for the duration, then the anomaly finder will report no anomalies for that duration.

Gap Analyzer 

The Gap Analyzer component identifies disparities between the projected and the real target values for a specific date, week, or month. It elaborately displays the reasons for gaps during a particular period of time based on the value of the gap. 


Predictor

The predictor provides you with the top picklist and lookup fields that contributed the most towards formulating the contributing factors that impact your overall target. This enables you to get a clear idea of the categories that impacted your target the most.
 


The predictor component displays the predicted and achieved targets for individual field values of the top-contributing picklist and lookup fields identified by Zia and its impact during different time duration. Similar to the target contributors component, you can edit individual contributing factors as per your needs. In this case, the "Customer Type" field is displayed.
 
It is also possible to include another top picklist or lookup field identified by Zia, by cloning the predictor component. In this case, we can additionally include the "Industry" picklist as well.
 
 



Notes :
  • The predictor component identifies up to 4 top picklist/lookup fields out of which you can use a maximum of 2 picklist/lookup fields for your predictions.
  • There can be a maximum of 15 values for each picklist/lookup field.
  • If there are no picklist/lookup fields that contribute to the target, the predictor component will not be generated.

Prescriptor 

The prescriptor component combines predictive and descriptive analytics for a target. It covers three main areas: 

  • what should be done each day to achieve a predicted target for a week/month/year

  • what went wrong in the previous data

  • what can be done to improvise in upcoming days if a daily target is missed.







Updating the Zia Strategy Influencer 

The overall target, the contributing factors, and the values do not auto-update themselves based on everyday business performance. You will have to retrain Zia to update the Zia Strategy Influencer with the latest insights.
 

 
The Retrain Zia option recomputes your data and updates your analytics with the latest insights. The option to retrain will be available once in every 15 days.

How is Zia Strategy Influencer different from Forecasts?

Both forecasts and business projections are used for futuristic predictions and goals. For both forecasts and strategy influencer, Zia suggests targets. But in the case of forecasts, it lets you set your own or Zia suggested targets and the corresponding prediction criteria to track organization performance.
 
While in the case of strategy influencer, it rather provides you a predicted target and insights on the factors affecting the target for the metric in an organization selected by you. It also allows you to play around these influencing factors in combination with other factors and their effect on the target. The strategy influencer is more like a referential information for you to know how to achieve your targets.
 
You can, in fact, make use of the insights from the Zia Strategy Influencer analytics to design suitable forecasts for your organization's needs. To make this easier, we will also be enhancing forecasts by tightly integrating strategy influencer with it.
 

How is Zia Strategy Influencer different from Prediction Builder and Recommendation?

Zia's prediction builder lets you build custom predictions for your business. It provides predictions based on the field in any module specified by you. In the case of Zia's recommendation, it uses AI to study and analyze customer behaviors and trends to provide relevant product recommendations.
 
The difference lies in the fact that both the prediction builder and recommendation provide record-level insights, i.e. based on the module and field selected, the predictions and recommendations are provided with respect to each individual record that is part of the selected module. These predictions are used when you need record-specific predictions, for example, when you want to refer to predictions for a specific customer based on their unique behaviors and patterns.
 
While in case of Zia Strategy Influencer, it provides organization-level analytical insights to achieve the target based on the module and field selected. You can use Zia Strategy Influencer when you need predictions, and prescriptive and descriptive insights for your organization as a whole.
 

Feature Requirements

  • You need a minimum of 5000 records spread across at least one year in your organization for Zia to assess your goals.
  • This feature is available only for customer accounts in Enterprise and Ultimate edition accounts with more than 20 users.
  • Only users with an Administrator profile can access this feature.
  • This feature is available only for English language users. The super admin and other admin users need to be English users.
 
We look forward to your feedback on your Zia Strategy Influencer experience. To explore the feature in detail, please refer to this help documentation.

    • Recent Topics

    • How to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records

      Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, Jonathan

    • Analytics for notes created

      Is there a way I can see how many notes were created per day? Via reporting or analytics?

    • Add Custom Reports To Dashboard or Home Tab

      Hi there, I think it would be great to be able to add our custom reports to the Home Tab or Dashboards. Thanks! Chad

    • Cannot update Recurring_Activity on Tasks – RRULE not accepted

      Hello, I am trying to update Tasks in Zoho CRM to make them recurring yearly, but I cannot find the correct recurrence pattern or way to update the Recurring_Activity field via API or Deluge. I have tried: Sending a string like "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1"

    • Add image to report...

      Greetings, I send a weekly color coded report via Creator email. I would like to add the legend somewhere in the report. Header, footer where ever. I have the legend saved on Google Drive and can access it via shared link. Sure someone has wanted to add

    • More controls for User Fields in CRM

      Dear All, We are here with a minor but crucial enhancement to the user fields—now set accessibility permissions to the records for user field. User field allows you to extend co-ownership of records to your peers. You can collaborate with them for certain

    • Calls to accounts rather than leads or contacts?

      So..... We have a dilemma and I'm hoping someone has encountered this before and figured out a fix. We have just migrated to Zoho. It's great.....expect for how "Calls" are handled.... We are B2B. We do not use the leads module. A "Lead/Prospect" for

    • Image Upload Field | Zoho Canvas

      I'm working on making a custom view for one of our team's modules. It's an image upload field (Placement Photo) that would allow our sales reps to upload a picture of the house their working on. However, I don't see that field as a opinion when building

    • Power of Automation :: Automated 'Delayed & Closed' Status Update Based on Due Date

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Lead Blueprint transition in custom list view

      Hi, Is It possible to insert the Blueprint transition label in a custom Canvas list view? I am using Lead module. I see the status, but it would be great if our users could execute the Blueprint right from the list view without having to enter the detailed

    • Range names in Zoho Sheet are BROKEN!

      Hi - you've pushed an update that has broken range names. A previously working spreadsheet now returns errors because the range names are not updating the values correctly. I've shared a video with the support desk to illustrate the problem. This spreadsheet

    • Has anyone integrated SMS well for Zoho Desk?

      Our company does property management and needs to be able to handle inbound sms messages which create a ticket for Zoho Desk. We then need to be able to reply back from Zoho desk which sends the user an sms message. This seems like a fairly common thing

    • populate email address and name in zoho desk?

      Is it possible to populate the email address and name in the zoho desk widget? We only use it in the context of an authenticated user, so we already know the user's name and email. Thanks,

    • Are there default/pre-built dashboards in Zoho Desk?

      Hi, I am looking for some pre-built dashboard templates in Zoho Desk, similar to what we can find in CRM/Projects, etc Thank you

    • Enable Locations for Expense

      Hi, please enable Locations (ex Branches) for Zoho Expense so that there is consistency between this app and Zoho Books. Thanks in advance.

    • Adding branded signature to tickets reply

      Hi, i am unable to figure out how to add signatures with logo to tickets reply. please advice .

    • Zoho Marketing Automation 2.0 - Landing Page function not working

      Dear Zoho Team, I am working on implementing Zoho Marketing Automation 2.0, and am now looking into the section "Lead Generation". If I open the "Landing Pages" section, I immediately get an Error code: Error: internal error occurred. Can you help me

    • Zoho Mail Android app update: Manage folders

      Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9) of the Zoho Mail Android app update, we have brought in support for an option to manage folders. You can now create, edit, and delete folders from within the mobile app. You can also manage folders for the POP

    • How to share ticket numbers across different ticket types

      I'm running an event and have three different ticket types. Add on Event + Main Event - Early bird Main Event only - Early bird Add on Event only - Early bird And Standard class - shown but not available until early bird finishes Add on Event + Main Event

    • How to keep track of bags, cans, drums of inventory?

      We buy and sell products that are packaged in bags 🛍️, cans🥫, drums🛢️, etc. with batch numbers. When we get a shipment of one of the products, how do we track we received (say) 10 cans each of 5L of a product and maybe we received 10 cans of another

    • Adding Social Media Buttons to Basic Campaigns

      Hi, I'm quote new to using Zoho Campaigns and I can't work out how to add Social Media Buttons into my basic campaign? In MailChimp there's a button that brings the icons into your campaign for you. I've tried adding the social media icons as 'buttons' in Zoho but it's not looking great. Can anyone help? Thanks!

    • Hide Inactive Social Sign-In Providers from Login Screen

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, Zoho One allows admins to configure security policies and enable or disable Social Sign-In options for third-party providers such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook,

    • [Free Webinar] AI Agents in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

      Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar that runs for around 45 minutes. It comprises technical sessions in which we delve deep into

    • Download All Attached Files

      It would be extremely useful to have "download-all" functionality for downloading files attached to a task, subtask, comment, forum post or hosted in the "Documents" section etc. We've instructed our users to zip multiple files prior to uploading, but of course they forget all the time. Having to download lots of files one-at-a-time off a comment or task wastes a lot of time.

    • Ship via Carrier Not Working Since Commerce Update

      Since the recent update to the Commerce platform, I can no longer use the ship via carrier function. It will take me to the address screen and let me verify them but when I go to save and move tot he next screen it will not do anything. This is happening

    • automations: Can I execute a step on a specific date?

      I have created a form in Zoho forms, and created a contacts list. I have also begun setting up an automation with the intention of sending the form to the contact list on a specific date every month (via email) for the entire year (essentially sending

    • Zoho Expense - The ability to add detail to a Trip during booking

      As an admin, I would like the ability to add more detail to the approved Trips. At present a requestor can add flights, accommodation details and suggest their preferences. It would be great if the exact details of the trip could be added either by the

    • Adding Folders in Android App

      Is it possible to create a new email folder within the Zoho Mail Android app?  Or can this only be done from the desktop version of Zoho Mail? Cheers!

    • Schedule Exports for Regular Project Updates

      Tracking project data often means exporting data at regular intervals. Instead of manually exporting data every time, users can schedule exports for Phases, Tasks, and Tasks in Zoho Projects. These exports can be set to run once, daily, weekly, or monthly

    • Question about custom fields using Pivot Tables.

      I have created a pivot table showing annual revenue of a client and how much payment that client is paying my company. Is there a way using pivot table to add an additional field that subtracts those to fields / shows me a percentage of that difference?

    • Request for Light/Dark Mode

      Would love the ability to switch between Light and Dark mode similar to Zoho CRM. https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/introducing-dark-mode-light-mode-a-new-look-for-your-crm

    • Signature field is showing black

      Hello, When customer signed the service form, it is showing as below picture Phone model: iPhone 16 Pro We tried delete and install application, but it not solved. This has on phone of a few person. There is any advice to solve this?

    • Journey Email - Ignored Contacts

      I have a journey setup which simply sends a string of emails over time. For some reason I am getting large amounts of the contacts who enter the first email being ignored and I can't find anywhere in reports or audit logs why these contacts are not

    • Involved account types are not applicable when create journals

      { "journal_date": "2016-01-31", "reference_number": "20160131", "notes": "SimplePay Payroll", "line_items": [{ "account_id": "538624000000035003", "description": "Net Pay", "amount": 26690.09, "debit_or_credit": "credit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000403", "description": "Gross", "amount": 32000, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000427", "description": "CPP", "amount": 1295.64, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000376", "description":

    • Zoho Books - Include Payment Terms as a Custom View filter

      It would be great if you could created a custom view based on Payment Terms. This would be really handy for seeing a list of customers who have credit terms. A workaround is not required. I could do something with a creditor checkbox, but it would be

    • How to update changed purchase account of item in invoice

      I have selected the wrong purchase account for various articles and created invoices. I had to adjust the purchase account in the article afterwards, but the old purchase account is still posted in the transaction-journal of the invoice. To adjust the

    • Help - Zoho CRM notification on mobile (IOS/Android)

      Hello Community! Can I get the IOS/Andoid CRM app to notify me of events, calls, etc. due as I can with MANY other apps?   I am running the free Zoho I would like this to be native to the Zoho CRM app. I do not want to write a sep. mobile app

    • Zoho Books Idea - Include another field in Bank Details for Address

      Hi Books team, Currently use the Description field in the Bank Details to store the bank's address. This works fine but it would be great if you could add another field for Bank Address, so that other notes about the bank account could be stored in the

    • a question about the COQL API v8

      When I specify eight or more values in a WHERE IN clause and execute it, an error occurs. Is there a limit to the number of values that can be specified in a WHERE IN clause? ↓Error select * FROM Vendors WHERE (id in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)) ↓Success

    • Zoho Books Idea - Bank Details Button on Banking

      Hi Books team, Sometimes I'm asked to share bank details with a customer or a colleague. So I go to the Banking Module, find the correct bank account, click Setting > Edit, then copy and paste the bank details. Wouldn't it be great if there was a button

    • Next Page