Written on 02/28/2018

Zoho CRM 2018

Zoho is officially launching Zoho CRM 2018. Per usual, Zoho does not disappoint with their ongoing development of exciting new tools and enhancements. Please reach out to our team for more information or to talk about how you can take advantage of these for your business. Also, keep an eye on our blog for more details on these exciting new features in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out https://www.zoho.com/crm/whats-new/ if you just can’t wait!

Zia

Zia is your AI-powered sales assistant in Zoho CRM. Zia has already been learning about your CRM data and user behaviors, enabling notifications when activity varies from typical trends. With the Zoho CRM 2018 launch, Zia is getting even more powerful with new features like:

Ask Zia via chat or voice to request information from your CRM or have Zia actually add or update records for you.
Lead / Deal Prediction based on analyzing previously converted Leads and closed Deals to determine deciding factors in their likelihood to covert or close.
Email Sentiment analysis to tell you if your customers’ emails indicate they are happy or upset.
Workflow Analysis to ensure your workflows are optimized and functioning as well as they can be.
Best Time to Contact Reminders so you can get in front of your Leads and Contacts at just the right time.
Data Enrichment gives you additional data based on data you’ve already entered on a record. For example, after entering an email Zia might be able to determine the Contact’s website, Skype ID, number of employees, or other pertinent information. Click to bring this data into Zoho CRM.

Portals

With Portals in Zoho CRM, you can make your customers, partners and vendors a part of your sales process. For example, customers can get access to their past purchases, cases and invoices all in one place and directly from your Zoho CRM. Configure module and field permissions so they see just what you want them to, then send an invite to the Portal.

Blueprint

Blueprint ensures that everyone on your team follows your defined process. With the Zoho CRM 2018 launch, Blueprint now includes the ability to specify how long a record can exist in a particular state before it gets escalated within your team. Additionally, you can now specify checklist items that must be done before transitioning a record to a new state.

Canvas

Canvas is a brand-new way to view your data in Zoho CRM. Take what you’ve traditionally configured as a View in Zoho CRM and amplify it with images, colors, buttons and more:

Zoho CRM 2018 - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Screen_Shot_2018-02-28_at_3

Subforms

Essentially a form within a form, Subforms give you the ability to associate multiple items directly inside a single record in Zoho CRM. For example, inside of a Deal record, create a detailed list of Specifications or list multiple Products/Services within the Deal.

Validation Rules

Prevent bad data from being input into Zoho CRM with the new Validation Rules. Let’s say you had an internal rule: Product = Software then the Discount cannot exceed 20% or if Country = United States then State cannot be Quebec. Configure your custom Zoho Validation Rules along with the exact error text you’d like to show.

Translations

Translate field names and picklist values between 24 languages within Zoho CRM.

Field Level Encryption

Custom fields in Zoho CRM can now be encrypted. This enables you to better protect sensitive and confidential data entered into your CRM.

Conditional Layouts

Conditional Layouts now has the ability to conditionally require fields. Say you’re capturing data on an insurance policy and you select Policy Type = Auto, now you can be prompted with a pop-up requiring you to enter the Year, Make and Model.

Business Hours

With Business Hours, create up to 30 different “shifts” to specify the work days and hours for your team.

Reporting Hierarchy

In addition to being able to create your internal hierarchy with Roles in Zoho CRM, you now have the ability to directly indicate who someone else reports to. This results in better control of data visibility and more capabilities in email alerts, Blueprint, approval processes, Forecasts, and record sharing.

Dashboard Analytics

5 new analytical widgets are now available for Zoho CRM Dashboards. Additional chart types, KPIs, and target meters have been added.

Sandbox 2.0

Extending now to the Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition (previously only available on Ultimate), many more Zoho CRM users will now have a safe place for admins and users to test different customizations, identify and fix issues before pushing them live to their account. Additionally, Sandbox 2.0 allows you to choose which changes you want to push live, conduct dependency checks, and track history with deployment logs.

Premium Support

For Zoho CRM accounts with 10+ users, extend your support hours from Zoho to 24 x 7 (from 24 x 5). Response time Monday-Friday is 1 hour and Saturday-Sunday is 4 hours (down from 8 hours each). Live
chat is also extended to 24 x 5 (from 8 x 5). Additionally, you’ll get a dedicated customer relationship manager, onboarding support, 1:1 sessions, developer support, and a quarterly report of feature utilization and recommendations.

At AspenTech CRM we help companies uncover the potential of Zoho CRM and its family of products. We do this by creating a results-driven solution to your specific needs. If you’re interested in learning how to leverage Zoho CRM 2018 for your business, please contact us today at (866) 880-4228 or by email to start a conversation.