Building the Right Connect - ZOHO CRM

Those who believe in the ideology of ‘Customer is King’ also understand the criticality of having a strong connect with the ‘King’, or the customer. For such smart entrepreneurs, CRM solutions are the best way forward. In an exclusive conversation with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet, Gopal Sripada, Product Marketing Manager, Zoho CRM explained the potential CRM for Indian business specially small businesses. Gopal also informed about the market trends and growth rate.  

According to you, how technology is transforming the businesses in India?

Technology has certainly transformed the business routine. Earlier there were many challenges that entrepreneurs face which came from the non-core activity of the business. Now, with the advent of technology based automated processes, technology has not just enhanced the business processes but has also started impacting on bringing high rate of business growth. For example, capturing new business is always a challenge, but now, automation has the answer of this. CRM has become a great value for sales and marketing process of businesses.

We have seen a great evolution with regards to technology adoption. It’s been ten years since Zoho started its business and now we can say that India is at par with any other developed country in terms of technology adoption.

What are the key trends you are witnessing among Indian businesses with regards to technology adoption?

I certainly witness, trends such as automation from the perspective of productivity is gaining great relevance and acceptance among Indian businesses. Infact, SMEs are sunrise segment of Indian economy. This segment demands great level of productivity boosters. Hence technology has come out as an option for this. Secondly, collaboration is becoming a great buzz word. With collaboration, I mean that inter-departmental communication has become very useful for better business visibility, quick decision making and also this adds intelligence and make business predictable. Another trend I am experiencing these days is the fact that organizations are inclined towards centralized documentation. This gives organizations better control on business which is useful and crucial entity to run any business.

How do you witness mobility driving the next wave of technology adoption?

Mobility is certainly become a common a practice in organizations of almost every size and segment. The need of accessing data from anywhere and anytime has made a lot of pressure on IT managers to deliver. But, with the advent of cloud based solutions, and internet penetration this is getting delivered smoothly.

We understand the potential of mobility for our business hence ZOHO has entered into this space aggressively. We have developed our CRM application which can run on multiple platforms such as Android, Apple and Windows.

We have registered more than one million downloads in app store. For our customers we are offering customization of this application.

What growth does the CRM market is showing in India?

The CRM market in India valued at approximately INR 18 billion in 2014. This market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of more than 20% between till 2019. Organizations from across sectors are increasingly investing in CRM to boost their marketing and sales activities. Customer relationship management helps build strong bonds with people which holds key to better relation resulting in better sales, business and profits. In fact, most organizations have dedicated world-class tools for maintaining CRM systems at their workplace. According to a forecast by Gartner, 49% of businesses globally are planning to increase their budget for CRM, which leads the other technology investments.

What is the biggest value add that a CRM application offers to a Small business owner?

CRM software develops a strong connection between brand and it’s respective customers. This process is very crucial for the business and in conventional way of business this take a lot of time to evolve. A typical CRM software with the basic elements of Human Resource Management, Business Reporting and Customer Service; this will never work in today’s world. We are at the cusp of evolution where we have new-age customers to deal with, who are always on the move and need information in their fingertips, and more importantly in real-time. This is exactly what Zoho CRM helps one do.

Key Features of ZOHO CRM:

Zoho CRM gives 360^O view of complete sales cycles and pipeline. In other words, Zoho CRM helps in the following ways:

• Prioritize activities and sell faster – With Zoho CRM, companies can prioritize their prospects and attend to sales calls with no delay
• Sales force automation – Zoho CRM helps to automate day-to-day business activities thereby allowing people to concentrate on productive business generation
• Sales tracking and Performance management – Zoho CRM provides companies better means of lead conversion through quick assessment of opportunities
• Engage - Connect with customers via different modes of communication well within one’s CRM account
• Extend CRM – Integrate CRM with other business applications like such as, accounting, ERP, e-commerce, self-service portals etc. and develops applications in any programming language
• Go Mobile - Use CRM with your own mobile and get access to customer information in one touch