At the recent Zoholics event in Johannesburg, Zoho introduced a host of new features across their business apps ecosystem, marking the largest Zoholics event ever held in South Africa.
Zoholics event in Johannesburg
As highlighted by Kelly Payton, Zoho Africa’s Partner Account Manager, this year’s
Zoholics in Johannesburg were the largest in the country. Hundreds of business leaders,
professionals and entrepreneurs attended the two-day workshop to gain valuable insights
and resources on how to use Zoho to drive business success.
Key Announcements:
1. Zoho CRM for Everyone
The new Zoho CRM facilitates collaboration among departments like Sales, Marketing,
Legal and Customer Service all within the CRM application, improving coordination and
enhancing the overall customer experience.
In addition to all the good stuff users already have in the old Zoho CRM, Zoho CRM for Everyone comes with:
An intuitive sidebar for easy access to key modules.
TeamSpaces create dedicated “spaces” for each team.
Team Modules to enable you to bring all associated teams onto CRM so you
can streamline your business pipeline.
Requester Profiles to allow you to automate cross-team coordination by
empowering departments to assign tasks and track progress in real-time.
Workflows to trigger WhatsApp notifications, and many more exciting
features
To get access to Zoho CRM for Everyone, submit a request here. You can also start a free
The Zoho CRM trial is here.
2. Zoho Forms and Paystack Integration
Businesses can now collect payments using lead generation forms by integrating Zoho
Forms and Paystack. Paystack processes over 50% of all online transactions in South
Africa, which makes this a big win.
3. The Courier Guy Integration to Zoho Commerce
Development work around integrating The Courier Guy to Zoho is almost complete.
Early access will become available on August 25, 2024. This integration will help businesses automatically sync product stock and stay on top of their inventory management.
4. Zoho Books South Africa Edition
The new Zoho Books for South Africa comes with much-needed new features around VAT
reconciliation and other important improvements, specifically for businesses operating in
the country. This upcoming version is supported on all Zoho Finance apps, such as Zoho
Inventory and Zoho Billing, formerly Zoho Subscriptions.
Infolytics has already held exclusive live preview sessions for their customers. If you need early access to the new Zoho Books South Africa edition, email us at support@infolytics.co.za.
5. Zoho IOT
If you run a business where you need to track animals, vehicles, or any asset that moves,
then Zoho IOT is for you. You can use it to detect anomalies, predict asset downtimes, get real-time alerts, schedule maintenance check-ins, and make data-driven decisions using actionable insights. To learn more about Zoho IOT and how it can benefit your business, email us at sales@infolytics.co.za.
6. Zoho Practice
Zoho Practice is perfectly designed for accounting firms to streamline workflows for
enhanced efficiency, collaboration, and sustainable growth. It offers a comprehensive solution that simplifies the daily operations of a CA firm, providing them with essential insights to deliver exceptional services and enable efficient team management.
7. Zoho Projects 8.0
The latest version of Zoho Projects is developed with the goal of bridging the divide between functionality and user experience, creating a platform that offers an incredible
working experience.
In Zoho Projects 8.0, you get:
Instant access to intuitive industry-based project management templates.
Enhanced Task Gantt charts with a Timeline view.
Integration with Zoho People to allow half-day leaves.
8. AI in Zoho Apps
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in the technology landscape, reshaping industries and revolutionizing the way we live and work. Zoho has
taken full advantage of the rise of AI using Zia (Zoho’s personal AI Assistant) to develop
solutions that are unique and provide value to their clients.
Zoho CRM
Zia’s Field Prediction Builder is a toolkit for CRM administrators to forecast growth by year, costs, taxes, salary expenditures, the likelihood of winning or losing a deal, the likelihood of a user buying a product, and more. Users will now see the predicted value and probability score as separate entities with clear labels. They will also see critical fields that can be filled to improve prediction quality.
This helps users understand and improve field predictions before using them to inform their decisions.
Zia Vision helps you identify duplicate facial images within your CRM records. After identification, you can upload a new image or mark the detection as incorrect.
Zia’s Anomaly Detection notifies CRM users of unusual activities related to prospects or deals. This feature identifies deviations from normal trends and alerts users through notifications.
Customer Engagement: Zia now suggests the most effective communication method for a given contact, along with the best time to contact them. This feature labels each contact’s preferred method of communication, thereby optimizing engagement and improving the chances of successful interactions.
Ask Zia is now supercharged with advanced query suggestion capabilities, making interactions with Zoho CRM faster and more intuitive.
Zoho Creator
Building Custom Apps: By providing prompts and brief use cases, users can now build a full-fledged application in seconds. This functionality also extends to form creation and field suggestions, ensuring that users are on the right track without losing context.
Zoho Projects
Data Search and Analysis: ZIA can now help users search for specific project information, analyze data, and perform many other tasks to improve their productivity.
Zoho Desk
Zia’s Field Prediction: Zia can now detect patterns in existing tickets and use the
information to auto-update field values in incoming tickets. This helps customer support teams maintain data accuracy, ensure data validity, and minimize manual intervention.
For example, Zia can predict the severity of a ticket and assign it to the most suitable agent or team for a faster resolution.
Zoho Social
Customer Engagement: Users can now use Zia to draft responses in the inbox for leads and contacts on LinkedIn, TikTok and other social media channels.
Zoho Analytics
Zia Suggestions: Zia now provides users with insightful chart recommendations during the creation process. Suggestions are tailored according to your data, allowing you to preview and apply them seamlessly with just a click.
Ask Zia Bot in Microsoft Teams: Users who use Microsoft Teams can now get answers to data queries, access key business insights quickly, predict future trends, and build reports directly from within Microsoft Teams.
Are you ready to embark on your own Zoho-powered digital transformation journey?
Contact us today to discover how Zoho’s suite of applications can revolutionize your
business operations and propel you toward success.The post The Future of Business with Zoho’s Cutting-Edge Technology first appeared on IT News Africa | Business Technology, Telecoms and Startup News.