Zoho Adds New Features to CRM Application

Zoho is aiming to be a stronger contender in the CRM space—a market in which it competes directly against the likes of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Dynamics CRM. Although Zoho may not rule the cloud-based CRM and productivity spaces it competes in, it continues to improve on its services in the hopes of luring away customers of Salesforce, Microsoft and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

This latest updates of Zoho CRM features three new features:

• The new Documents module was designed as a built-in document library that creates a secure, central repository in Zoho CRM. The goal is to ensure all users have access to the latest versions of sales-related collateral—something any sales team can understand the need for. With Documents, users can create folders and share them with select users and groups based on role-based security. The feature comes with 250MB of free storage per user for all Zoho CRM Professional Edition users. Enterprise users get 500MB of free storage per user.
• For salespeople who could use a reduction in email clutter, Zoho has developed MailMagnet, which scans a user's inbox and displays only emails from prospects and customers that are relevant inside CRM. Within Zoho CRM, users can respond to emails, add follow-up tasks and write important roles from the MailMagnet panel. Users are alerted to new emails by on-screen notifications, but which emails are highlighted are determined by who is listed in the user's Zoho CRM Contacts or Leads modules. MailMagnet was designed to work with Zoho Mail, Gmail, Google Apps, Microsoft Exchange and other email services.
• Within the mobility realm, Zoho has added location awareness capabilities. The new feature has been added to Zoho CRM iPhone, iPad and Android mobile apps to enable field salespeople to view customers and prospects near their current location. They're then displayed on a map. That would be handy for a salesperson out in the field who wants to visit other contacts that are in specific areas.

All of these new features are available now, and they follow on Zoho's continuing updates to its CRM service and its ongoing battle for supremacy against Salesforce.com and Microsoft.