Zoho Intros SMB Mail Add-on for CRM

Zoho has announced the Zoho (News - Alert) Mail Add-on for Zoho CRM. Aimed at small and medium businesses, it's supposed to provide integration of Zoho CRM and Zoho Mail. It's available immediately for three bucks a month.

 

Check out the video tour after you're done searching for Erin Andrew’s videos. Which carry a virus, by the way. Not that it'd affect you, of course -- warn the guy in the next cubicle.

 

Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and AOL (News - Alert) e-mail users can also use the Zoho Mail Add-on by using Zoho Mail as a client to those e-mail services: "In effect, Zoho Mail acts as an intermediary for these users, enabling them to continue using a third-party e-mail service, but still review contact-related e-mails within Zoho CRM.” Currently, the Zoho Mail Add-on supports POP access. Going forward, IMAP will also be supported.

Raju Vegesna, who has "Zoho Evangelist" on his business card, says the Zoho Mail Add-on gives users "the kind of contextual integration of information that we can provide," adding that it "bridges the divide historically separating e-mail and CRM systems."

There's another feature in the Zoho Mail application that lets users add contacts directly to the Zoho CRM application from the Zoho Mail interface. It can determine if a contact already exists in your CRM system, thereby avoiding duplicates.

 

The product is designed to give Zoho CRM users access to contact information found in both Zoho CRM and Zoho Mail. For instance, if you're using Zoho CRM and are searching for contact information within Zoho CRM, you'll also see Zoho Mail e-mail exchanges with that contact. The Zoho Mail information will be presented in Conversation View, Zoho officials say, adding that users "can expand any conversation to view the individual e-mail."

Earlier this year, TMC reported that Zoho officials had announced single sign-on support for Zoho CRM, the company's on-demand customer relationship management application for organizations "not afraid to run their businesses online."

One Zoho account provides users with access to all Zoho applications, officials said at the time, adding that the single sign-on advantage extends to Google (News - Alert) and Yahoo! users, who can now log in to Zoho CRM directly with their respective accounts. Users sign in just once to use all Zoho applications.