Whenever we think of SaaS CRM we think of SalesForce. The SAP killer that’s taken the market by storm. But its still not a cheap option if you run a small business or only have a few people who need it.

Now along comes Zoho with a truly amazing product. So could Zoho CRM do to SalesForce what SalesForce has done to SAP?

Zoho has been working on a portfolio of great little on-line applications for some time now. But with the spotlight fixed on Google Apps, its not received the recognition it deserves. So let’s take a look at Zoho CRM…

So who is Zoho?

Zoho is part of Advent and has been producing SaaS Office-like applications since 2006. Charged with spreading the word and one of Zoho’s chief architects is Raju Vegesna, who joined Advent when he came to the US from India after he graduated in 2000.

Zoho targets smaller businesses with 10 to 100 people. Initially offering spreadsheet and writing applications, Zoho now has a complete range of productivity applications, like email, project management, a database, planning, invoicing, HR, document management and CRM, which we’ll be taking a look at here.

Zoho CRM. A me-too product or a real challenger to SalesForce?

Let’s get one thing straight. SalesForce is wonderful. It offers everything any business could ask for, is easy to customise and I’m amazed that there are still some short-sighted businesses who still use inefficient and expensive bloatware like SAP.

But SalesForce is aimed at the mainstream CRM marketplace and Zoho CRM is aimed at businesses that want to manage how they deal with their customers so they can turn leads into real and profitable relationships. It does this surprisingly well, too.

The product begins where you’d expect with lead generation. You’ll then find all the features you’d expect, with lead conversion, accounts set up, contacts, potential mapping and campaign tabs.

Full reporting facilities are provided with formatting, graphical layouts, along with dashboards, forecasting and other management tools all neatly laid out and optimised for a snappy web experience.

This neat layout is one of Zoho CRM’s best features, encouraging you to explore it’s abilities further.

Keeping in touch

The product is fully email enabled and updates can be sent to any user set up along with full contact administration. By using time lines, you can make sure you never forget about a lead or allow a campaign to slip.

Make it your own

One big plus for SaaS applications is the customisation and branding they often provide. Both Zimbra and ProjectPlace, which I’ve reviewed before and actually use myself, offer brand alignment, letting you change layout colours and add your own logo branding. You’ll be pleased to discover that Zoho CRM does too.

Help and tutorials

Zoho features a comprehensive help section and as it’s on-line, its constantly updated with extra details including comments and posts from other users. This gives you a real sense of involvement in just how other people are using the product. Very neat.

No lock in

Zoho CRM can import contact details from a standard comma separated value (.CSV) file from your email system or spreadsheet application, like Excel, Star or Open Office and you can expert your CRM data in the same format, too.

So, what’s it all cost?

Surprisingly little. If you only need it for a couple of users, Zoho CRM offers up to 3 users (1,500 records) for free, a Professional version (10,000 records) for $12 a month and an Enterprise version (20,000 records) at $25 a month.

So all in all…

I like Zoho CRM. It fills a big gap in the market. If you’ve never used CRM before, its a good idea to run through a few of the on-line (what else?) tutorials and play with dummy data before you start for real.

If you’ve used heavyweight CRM packages, you won’t be disappointed with the feature set of Zoho CRM. Within a couple of hours you’ll be using it naturally.

Zoho and parent Advent are to be congratulated for their vision in bring Zoho Office to market and without a CRM package they would have been onto a sure-fire winner. But with Zoho CRM, they have excelled themselves. Well done guys!