Zoho CRM Queries Now Support Databases and Cloud Data Sources

Hello everyone!

We're thrilled to announce a major enhancement to the Queries feature in Zoho CRM!

Queries now support a broader range of external data sources, allowing you to fetch live data and combine it with CRM records, all using a unified query interface.

What’s new?

Until now, Zoho CRM Queries supported fetching data from external services primarily through REST APIs.
With this update, you can get direct access to structured data stored in databases or cloud platforms right from Zoho CRM.

Databases

Now connect directly to the following hosted databases

1. MySQL
   
2. Microsoft SQL Server
   
3. PostgreSQL
   

Use standard SQL-like syntax in CRM Queries to fetch and filter information from your operational or legacy databases and even blend it with CRM data.

Cloud Database Platforms

Seamlessly connect to cloud-managed databases across popular providers to query real-time data directly from your cloud ecosystem.

1. Amazon RDS
   
2. Google Cloud Platform
   
3. Microsoft Azure
   

This enhancement empowers CRM users, admins, and developers to

1. Fetch external data on demand without syncing or importing it into CRM modules.
   
2. Join or blend CRM records with external data using Queries.
   
3. Power dynamic UI components, workflows, and functions using live, federated queries.
   
4. Optimize performance and reduce API overhead by pushing logic to the source.
   

Whether you're a sales team querying live product availability from an ERP database, or a support agent pulling customer SLAs from a billing system, the new data sources give you powerful new ways to interact with your data.

A few use cases

1. Pull SLA agreements from a PostgreSQL billing database based on the Account_Name field in the CRM's Cases module.
   
2. Retrieve current pricing and discount eligibility from a Microsoft SQL Server database based on the product and account tier in a CRM Deal.
   
3. Fetch product stock levels from an Amazon RDS inventory database using the Product_Code stored in CRM's Products module.
   
4. Check customer credit limits from a PostgreSQL finance system, using the CRM Account record’s Customer_ID field.
   

How does it work?

1. Configure the source

Choose from supported APIs, databases, or cloud platforms.

You must

1. Add the host to Trusted Domains if the host is not in the IP address format
   
2. Whitelist Zoho CRM IPs in the relay server.
   

Here is a sample for MicrosoftSQL database as the source.

Give the host name, port number, user name and password of your database, database name, and the schema name.

Under Advanced configuration, you can choose the time zone, set connection timeout, allow to use SSL, and make the source read-only. Click Validate and Save to connect to your database.

2. Write a query

Write a query to fetch data. Choose the database you added as the source of your query and fetch the required data.

3. Bind the data

Display it in Canvas, Kiosk, Custom Related List, use it in automation, or pass it to CRM functions.Here is how the data from the external database looks like after the query is associated to a related list.

Ready to try it?

Head over to Setup > Developer Hub > Queries in your Zoho CRM instance and start connecting your external systems today.

As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback. Let us know how you're using Queries, and what sources you'd like to see next!

Cheers!

Did you know that you can now enhance query-based custom related lists in Zoho CRM by adding clickable lookup fields and links by using serializer and schema for better navigation and usability? Check out our Kaizen post on this topic! 

 

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