ZOHO’s Role-based Security

Zoho CRM offers Role Based Security, an enterprise grade solution to set up and manage access rights and security for users of CRM data. Zoho CRM Role Based Security uses Profiles, Roles, Data Sharing Rules, Field-level security, and Groups to help determine the level of access for each user.

Key Features

• Profiles: Allows the administrator to assign access rights to CRM modules, data administration tools, CRM records, and fields within each module.
• Roles & Data Sharing Rules: Allows the administrator to set up multi-level access rights, based on a user’s role in the organization, or required level of access.
• Groups: Allows the administrator to assign access rights to teams working on projects or workers with similar access requirements.

• Profiles: Profiles allow for assigning rights to large groups, such as Sales, Marketing, Inventory, Support, or any division within an organization. Grouping units together allows for sectioning of access at a high level. As an example, Marketing may need access to CRM modules, but Inventory does not. Using Profiles, each group can have those permissions granted or denied without having to change each individual’s permissions.
• Roles: Using job roles allows administrators to further specify permissions. A manager in marketing would need greater access than an intern. A market researcher would need more access than an intern, but less than a manager. Using Roles, administrators can create more layers of permissions that define access for each position in the organization.
• Groups: Teams often include workers from several departments, and with differing job titles. Using Group level allows administrators to grant permissions to access necessary data without interfering with Role or Profile permissions. Assigning members to a team, and granting Group permissions allows for flexibility and improved communication and data-flow for the teams.

Zoho CRM Role Based Security gives organizations a powerful tool for data security and management. Using this powerful tool, an organization can revolutionize their data use while increasing their data security. From establishing access limits across departments to sharing data to enable high-performance teams, Zoho CRM Role Based Security brings a powerful set of tools to your organization and at a price any organization can afford.

Not only does ZOHO have security features but you are also able to Integrate Email with ZOHO!

Using ZOHO’s Sales Force Automation for Small Business CRM

For a business seeking the right CRM software, Zoho‘s online offering provides extraordinary ease of use and functionality. One of the software’s features, Zoho CRM’s powerful Sales Force Automation tool, focuses on seven key steps or modules. These individual modules integrate flawlessly to provide a streamlined process of lead generation, information acquisition, sale conversion, customer retention, and loyalty programs.

Lead Management, the first of the modules, gives any size business the ability to generate quality, targeted leads faster and more efficiently. Managing sales lead raw data is a critical process of successful enterprises. Zoho CRM’s Sales Force Automation accomplishes this by utilizing:

• Unqualified lead information generated through various means, both “in-house” business portals and outside sources.
• Data captured from multiple web-based lead generation methods including form filling, web forms, quick create, and developer API entered directly into Zoho’s Sales Force Management module.
• Prospect data from other sources such as marketing initiatives, trade shows, networking, referrals, branding, or cold calls, all easily and seamlessly entered into the Zoho online CRM tool.
• Lead allocation and distribution methods that drastically improve on time-consuming manual means. Zoho’s SFA Lead Management tool incorporates specific criteria selection such as geographic location or activity, facilitating lead distribution to the right sales specialist.
• Built-in data qualification that separates contact-ready leads from general inquiries, resulting in engaged and interested prospects primed for the next stage in the process.
• Data conversion that completes the process and transforms the lead into a contact, actual sales opportunity or customer account.

Using Zoho CRM’s online SFA Automated Lead Management software transforms what is often a disorganized and human-error-prone system, into a smoothly functional process that works in both B2B and B2C applications.

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Businesses researching Customer Relationship Management software options should look closely at Zoho CRM’s many outstanding features. The online CRM’s Sales Force Automation tool provides seven integrated modules that let any business, whatever its size, easily implement advanced strategies for monitoring, analyzing and improving every aspect of the sales life cycle.

The second of the seven SFA modules, Sales Opportunity Management, breaks down the complete sales cycle into stages, effectively tracking and applying probability analysis to each stage; Zoho CRM’s Sales Opportunity Management tool puts a business firmly in control of their sales and marketing with the ability to:

• Utilize dashboard and reporting assessment features targeted specifically to the sales funnel.
• Sort and weed out likely failures and recognize genuine sales opportunities.
• Track potential sales through their complete life cycle.
• Identify and target prospects with the greatest completion potential and revenue expectations, increasing closings and income.
• Import data from within Zoho CRM, or from other external sources with Zoho CRM API and the Import Wizard.
• Interconnect potential sales with associated data in other modules, effectively giving full circle visibility from various viewpoints.
• Monitor the competition for each potential sale, a key feature during tough market conditions.
• Monitor and analyze where each sale is in the process, and what the potential is for closing the deal, using the Zoho SFA’s customization drag and drop wizard.
• Analyze the entire process to address issues, eliminate flaws and improve the scenarios for future deals.
• Keep involved parties updated and on track on deals reaching fruition through Zoho’s “Big Deal Alert”.
• Streamline the sales automation process using workflow rules.
• Easily export data to spreadsheet programs for analysis and streamlining of the sales pipeline.
• Easily generate quotes, orders and invoices in print-ready format.

Zoho CRM’s powerful Sales Force Automation software provides insight and control of the entire process with the click of a mouse. Using the Sales Opportunity Management module in combination with other Zoho features lets a business focus on increasing sales, and not get bogged down in record keeping and analysis.

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Zoho Customer Relationship Management suite of applications gives a business an affordable, award-winning, solution. One of the indispensable tools included is Zoho’s online Sales Force Automation software. The seven component modules of this customizable SFA software provide integrated and targeted methods to enhance the entire sales process, from raw data to loyalty program implementation.

Customer Account Management is one of Zoho’s SFA modules. Keeping track of individual customer accounts is essential to provide the best service and realize the current and future potential of each account. This is easily accomplished in the B2C scenario. Zoho CRM’s Customer Account Management software is especially beneficial with a B2B sales focus; it helps eliminate confusion and wasted effort by:

• Organizing every account contact and their various details in-depth with one central database.
• Utilizing the “history” feature that can incorporate account specific details such as activities, products, and pertinent notations.
• Managing the hierarchy of contact relationships within the account, especially important when accounts represent large organizations with multiple contacts.
• Facilitating the exportation of account details for analysis in spreadsheet format to identify customer-buying patterns.
• Tracking customer history to realize potential up-selling or cross-selling opportunities.
• Identifying and tracking hidden potential for increased sales and revenue.

Using the Customer Account Management module of Zoho’s Sales Force Automation feature empowers every size of business. Zoho provides the tools needed to easily and effectively stay on top of where the business is at any given point, while examining its history, and looking forward to its future potential.

Next up for ZOHO is a segment on Role Based Security for your small business

Reducing IT Stress & Overhead with ZOHO

Integrating an effective system for Customer Relationship Management in a start-up or small business may seem like an impossible task. A veritable minefield of possibilities exist, and finding the right one is essential. For small businesses and start-ups seeking to implement the right CRM system, ZOHO offers the most cost-effective small business CRM software solution available. It provides a task management package that any business can use to increase productivity, while reducing overhead and IT stress.

ZOHO is a better choice than other CRM options because it features a complete application suite that covers sales information, customer data, and invoicing. It combines the functions of a calendar, a document manager, a bookkeeping program, an inventory management system, a “wiki”, and an email application. ZOHO’s functionality, combined with its outstanding array of features, means fewer hassles and considerable time savings.

Zoho is a fully web-based application suite that can be accessed from anywhere; at home, on the road, or on vacation. Business owners and their employees love the time-saving accessibility. Increased productivity and reduction in downtime translates to reduced business overhead, and increased net revenue.

Without the need of a brick and mortar location, small businesses become true telecommuting operations. Staff can complete their assignments online from the comfort of their own homes. They can work directly with clients through any form of high-speed internet connection, while maintaining a professional image.

The functionality and ease of use that Zoho provides allows any start-up or small business to have valuable CRM task and time management tools right at their fingertips, whenever and wherever they are needed. Some of the key features and benefits of the ZOHO CRM suite of applications include:

Sales and Marketing: ZOHO’s CRM sales and marketing integration lets small businesses and start-ups function as though they have an entire department dedicated to the tasks. Zoho’s sophisticated sales tools allow for easy tracking of the entire customer life cycle, from lead generation through to retention and loyalty. Businesses using Zoho’s Sales Force Automation software will discover unrealized sales opportunities, and see more sales through to completion.

Microsoft Outlook and Office Plug In: Integrating Microsoft Office through the ZOHO plug-in allows for increased productivity with easily created mail merge documents. Templates can be created in MS Word and imported to ZOHO. Current customer information is readily available for bulk mail merge document creation. The ZOHO Microsoft Outlook plug-in synchronizes all customer contacts, emails, calendars and related tasks, effectively empowering a business’s email application.

CRM with Email: ZOHO’s mail add-on lets a business track every customer email through one central application. It facilitates correlating each email with customer CRM data, and sharing emails with other relevant account users. All email activity can take place within ZOHO, with a thread view of each conversation. Emails from any POP supported service are easily integrated with ZOHO, so that all business correspondence takes place within the CRM.

CRM API for Third-party Integration: With Zoho CRM’s Application Programming Interface, CRM modules are easily interfaced with any chosen third-party applications including e-Commerce, accounting, self-service portals, ERP, and more. The API allows for data extraction for integration with various business applications, or new application development in any programming language.

Role-based Security: ZOHO CRM lets the person in charge decide what data is accessible to each employee. The Enterprise-grade Role-based security uses profiles to create fine tunable access rights to CRM modules and their individual fields, CRM records, and data administration tools.

Inventory Management: ZOHO CRM takes sales and marketing to its logical conclusion with its integrated inventory management feature. Businesses can seamlessly combine pre and post sale activities using ZOHO’s inventory management software; correlating inventory management data with matching sales modules is easily achieved in this one application.

Extensive Product Customization: ZOHO CRM lets a business customize the software in numerous ways to fit their individual needs. Easy to use, drag-and-drop UI tools customize Zoho so that the resulting CRM system matches the specifics of a company. ZOHO has the necessary capacity for flexibility and customization that enables users to build a CRM that will impact their business in the most effective manner possible.

Reports & Dashboards: With ZOHO’s fully customizable reports from each module, the relevant data a business needs to make informed decisions is readily accessible. The flexibility of ZOHO CRM allows for easy analysis of sales and marketing data through its customized options, or the 25 standard reports already built-in. The key metrics accessible through the CRM dashboard let a business view past and future trends and patterns in sales, marketing, support and inventory.

Implementing an effective CRM solution is not impossible. ZOHO CRM lets a small business or start-up take this important step without any associated IT headaches. The online usability lets a business reduce overhead and increase productivity. Availability of data at the press of a button gives a business control over the various aspects of their daily activities. Choosing the right CRM system lets a small business or start-up compete with larger companies, while saving both time and money. ZOHO CRM’s suite of applications offers the best in flexibility and features for any business looking for an effective CRM solution.

Author Comment:

I am very excited to be offering this series to all of you! This is the first part of an multi-part series on Zoho and the features under their CRM solution for small business. This will be in addition to the regular weekly posts!

The next installment: “Small Business CRM: Zoho’s Sales Force Automation”