Integration boost for Zoho CRM

Stephen Withers
Friday, 16 December 2011 01:05

An update of Zoho CRM delivers a new user interface and improved integration capabilities.

Software as a service Zoho CRM has been updated with a new user interface giving a fresher, less cluttered appearance and smoother workflows.

Also new is the Pulse module, which presents activity related to selected accounts, contacts or deals. "Pulse allows you to follow what's really important for you," said Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna. "For example, a CEO might be interested in a deal that could have an impact on his quarterly results. By following that deal, he will now be updated on all activity related to that deal."

The integration between Zoho CRM and other Zoho SaaS applications as well as third-party services has been improved. Contacts' profiles can be linked to their LinkedIn profiles, Zoho Creator can be used to build custom apps that appear within Zoho CRM, bidirectional synchronisation is supported with Google Calendar, and the WebHooks feature allows for automatic communication with other web applications.

WebHooks are triggered by specific events, and send an HTTP GET or POST request to another service. For example, closing a deal in Zoho CRM could update an accounting system, Mr Vegesna suggested.

Pulse and Google Calendar Sync are only available to paying users, and Zoho Creator integration and WebHooks are only available to paying users of the Enterprise edition. The new UI and LinkedIn integration are available to all users.