Zoho CRM is a online tool for managing your customer relationships.  However, previously you could not manage and track one of the most important communications in relationship management, our email conversations.  Until today, Zoho offered the Outlook Connector, which allows you to manually add emails received under a particular contact.  Now this has all changed with the release of their latest plug-in, Zoho Mail Integration.  

With the Zoho Mail Integration, once you have installed and configured the plug-in, everything runs automatically!  I've been using the plug-in for a few months now, and have to say it does works quite well. Now when reviewing sales opportunities we are working on, I can easily track the previous communication that any of our sales reps have had with the associated contact, and offer assistance where needed.  A step towards true CRM Collaboration.  The mail option does allows you full control & hierarchy as to who can view & read users emails (associated to contacts in Zoho CRM).  

Threaded Email Discussion

One of the really nice features of Zoho Mail is the ability to display a threaded discussion.  This allows you to easily track and review the conversation from the point of origin.  This can come in handy, especially within a CRM, providing a quick update on the latest communication with your client.

Supports Googles Apps, Gmail, & More

So here's how it works: currently Zoho Mail supports POP access (IMAP coming soon), so you simply enable the POP access from your Google Apps/Gmail settings, then set-up Zoho Mail with the following details:

Not to worry, if your company is not using Google Apps, you can still configure the Zoho Mail plugin, providing you have access to POP email settings.  

From here, you can configure the Zoho Mail add-on for Zoho CRM.  

To get started with Zoho CRM, call us today

Overall, this new integration of Zoho Mail looks very good.  I look forward to seeing more of their applications to be integrated with their CRM application.  If your considering deploying Zoho CRM for your company, give us a call at Batipi, we can help you set-up, train users, customize the application, & migrate data from your existing CRM.

Update on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 3:37PM by David Corcoran

Promo video from Zoho on their mail integration for CRM: