I was crowdsourcing for an alternative to Salesforce for a client relationship management (CRM) platform and I stumbled into these tweets:
We just migrated our CRM system from salesforce.com to zoho CRM. Annual cost for Salesforce was $1600. Cost for zoho is $300.
— Craig Donnelly (@craigdonnelly) May 13, 2010
Zoho CRM adds the ability to manage your email from within the application. Only CRM that I know has this featurehttp://bit.ly/crhDh
— Jeremy Floyd (@jfloyd) July 24, 2009
So, I dived into finding more about Zoho CRM.
About Zoho
Zoho is a suite of web-based apps for small businesses – ranging from Productivity & Collaboration Apps to Business Apps. When talking about Zoho, it is impossible not to draw a comparison to Google Apps. Zoho has similar applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, among others. However, Zoho stands out from Google Apps in that it offers more specialized business apps such as the Zoho CRM Software.
Reports from Customers
As Aravind Natarajan, Market Analyst, Blogger & Media Relations for Zoho, explains in Quora; Zoho products are best suited for SOHO (Small Office Home Office) and is typically meant small businesses. Zoho’s edge over its competitors is the great customer service that it provides. Customers have reported that Zoho is quick to react to presented problems and bugs.
Here is a testimonial from Joe Apfelbaum, CEO of online marketing company Ajax Union. Joe tried many other CRM applications before he discovered Zoho.
Takeaway
The Zoho CRM is a great solution for small businesses that are looking for a cloud-based client relationship management system with both great support and easy mobile access. While price is an often cited reason for switching to Zoho, I would focus more on the integration with Google Apps.
