An organization succeeds when its different departments work together towards the common goal of meeting the customer needs. But more often than not, this is not the case. The various departments work in silos. Each department tends to use a different system for its use and there is rarely a proper information flow between these systems. The result is a chaotic ecosystem where there is rampant duplication of data, miscommunication between departments and haphazard execution of customer requirements. With the current organizations spanning geographies and time zones, the debilitating effect of this siloed approach grows manifold. It is in this context that importance of integrated applications grows in significance.

Zoho Developer helps you counter this problem by helping you create Vertical CRMs that has other Zoho Apps integrated into it as Extensions. By providing an easy way to include other Zoho Apps into your vertical CRM, you can widen the utility and user-friendliness of your Vertical CRMs. Irrespective of the industry the CRM is being built for, these extensions would prove a vital addition to any Vertical CRM. You can activate as well as configure these extensions to suit the needs of your application.

Currently, Zoho Projects, Zoho Survey, Zoho Financial Suite (Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Subscriptions) and Zoho Forms can be bundled into your Vertical CRM as Extensions.

Some of the benefits of these extensions are:

• Single log in for your Vertical CRM and other Zoho apps.
• Consolidated data management allows a seamless flow of data between your Vertical CRM and other Zoho apps.
• Subscriptions and pricing are handled for all apps at once. This results in greater overall ROI and easier management of software subscription and purchases.
• Better customer experience due to integrated customer support and client updates on projects and deliverables.
• Single central customer database for the company.
• Better communication between departments.
• No need to learn multiple systems.

Zoho Projects Extension

Integration with a project management tool like Zoho Projects has the following advantages:

• Provides a clear picture of everything happening in all departments and a 360 degree overview of the customer which helps you make well-informed business decisions.
• The entire customer life cycle can be managed in one system which gives you a holistic view of the customer life cycle.
• Collaboration between disparate teams can be facilitated with unified task management, project targets, reporting, and reminders.

Zoho Surveys Extension

Integration with a survey tool like Zoho Surveys has the following advantages:

• A Vertical CRM application which has customer survey data fed into it is a powerful tool to glean useful insights into customer behavior and satisfaction.
• Vertical CRM-Survey integration allows you to access all the information about your customers from the same system.
• Single out the touch points at which the customers engage with your business and automate feedback surveys at appropriate junctures.
• The success or failure of each customer interaction can be easily assessed.

Zoho Finance Suite Extension

Integration with a financial suite like Zoho Finance Suite has the following advantages:

• Create more targeted and well-timed campaigns by analyzing customers' purchasing patterns. This also helps you identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.
• Precisely determine your marketing ROI.
• Integrating inventory management with your Vertical CRM application helps your marketing and sales executives make better and more informed sales quotes and pitches.
• Streamline the process of handling customer payments.

Zoho Forms Extension

Integration with a form building tool like Zoho Forms has the following advantages:

• Easily and quickly create forms suited to your business and needs.
• Simplifies data collection and enables integration of the data with your app.
• Apart from creating forms, Zoho Forms can also be leveraged to build apps that will help you expand your feature set considerably.
• Offers a convenient way of collecting leads and tracking visitors to client website.

Pricing

How does pricing work for extensions?

When any of these extensions are activated (refer to an example), they will become available to be added to your pricing plan. If any of these extensions are selected during pricing, the price of the extension is added to the total price of the Vertical CRM (refer screenshot below). The extension must be included in the pricing to be available to the end user. The end user cannot deactivate or remove extensions from their Vertical CRM, they must contact their partner to request deactivation. Click here to learn how to create pricing plans.

Publish your Application

After including the extension in the pricing plan, the Vertical CRM needs to be published.

Subscription Period

The subscription period for the Vertical CRM and the extension are the same.

Users

The end users who sign up for the Vertical CRM will have access to all the extensions which are integrated into the Vertical CRM. Access privileges for the features in the extension are based on the profiles assigned to each user.