This article is for companies that may have a CRM in place but are still struggling to generate professional quotes efficiently, and are therefore resorting to using spreadsheets or word documents. This situation is unfortunately quite common as CRM systems just don't offer the enriched and easy to use CPQ functionality in a purpose-built quotation and proposal management tool like Quotewerks.

The good news is that Quotewerks offers integration with many of the top CRMs, including Salesforce.com, Hubspot CRM, Zoho CRM, SugarCRM, SalesLogix and MS CRM. If you don't have a CRM, Quotewerks can integrate with your Google Contacts, or your Outlook Address Book and also offers its very own Contact database. It even integrates with on-premise CRMs like ACT!, Goldmine and Maximizer!

To close the loop, Quotewerks integrates with popular Accounting systems like QuickBooks and Peachtree, so quotes can be converted to Orders and Invoices without duplicate entries.

In this case study, we will share some screenshots and explain the integration between Quotewerks and Zoho CRM.

In the main Quotewerks menu, under Contacts->Set Up Contact Manager, you will find all the possible integrations:

Click on Zoho SetUp and note that Quotewerks will not ask you for your CRM credentials! It will simply request you to log in to your Zoho CRM account directly, at which point Zoho will provide an access token that is used to integrate with Quotewerks.

The Deals Tab in the above screenshot has some important settings which you may wish to configure specifically for your operations. This covers what should happen when Deals are completed to 'Won', whether you'd like the Deals' figures to use the Profit Amount or the Sale Amount and the mapping of items and bundles as shown below:

Once your integration is set up, you can search your Zoho CRM database to pull in Contact information for the Sold To, Ship To, and Bill To (all of which can be different) sections of your quote.

Now that your Contact Database is connected, you can set up your Product Database. This can be the native Quotewerks database, or you can link to multiple external data sources from spreadsheets to MS SQL, MS Access, your ERP, and more recently the Products module in your Zoho CRM.

So far, you've saved duplicating your Contact and Product databases - but what about your ERP? Surely, you don't want the process to have gaps between your Deals and Invoicing! Well, the integration continues to flow so Quotes that are closed successfully not only update the Deal as Won in your CRM, but can also be converted to Orders and/or Invoices in your Peachtree (Sage 50), Quickbooks, Xero and other popular Accounting systems. This can be done for individual orders/invoices or by checking multiple boxes to select multiple documents.

This case study covers only the integration elements so please get in touch if you'd like a demo which would include the full functionality of Quotewerks. A couple of worthwhile points to end with!

If you need item pictures, literature, videos, specification sheets, terms and conditions, company profile to be part of your quote, these can all be catered for, but you generally end up with a very large file which can be a pain to email! Introducing QuoteValet, the hosting add-on to Quotewerks, that enables you to create an online, interactive version of your quote, so all you send is a hyperlink to your branded landing page! What's more you can get notified every time the customer opens the quote, clicks on a link, changes an option, asks a question or digitally signs a PO! Pretty neat!

Another point worth mentioning is that Quotewerks can be installed on-premise and has concurrent licensing so you only need to buy for users that actually need to prepare quotes. And users that have access to the CRM can see the attached quotes anyway (based on security profiles), without needing access to Quotewerks!

There are 45 applications in the Zoho One ecosystem, all of which can be accessed from a single sign-on. These combine to offer a complete business operating system, with a solution for every major department in your organisation. With integration and synchronisation of data, previously disparate information can be brought together, with the obvious advantages of saving data entry time, enabling collaboration between teams and improving efficiencies across customer touchpoints.

Introducing Zoho Backstage, as an event management tool to help you create memorable event experiences. It is everything you need, from website creation, ticketing, and event promotion to attendee registration and engagement. 

• Create a portal and a subdomain to host all your events.
• Design unique, ad-free, SSL-enabled event websites.
• Set up different tiers of tickets, sell them, and collect payments online.
• Promote using scheduled emails, social media posts, and banner ads.
• Provide a mobile app for attendees so they have all the event information in their hands.
• Make announcements and enable guest networking.
• Let speakers gather live responses during their sessions.
• View attendee summary and session-based analytics after the event.

Integrate Zoho CRM with Backstage to create and manage your events from CRM and synchronise attendee details. Events you create in Backstage will be automatically set up as campaigns in CRM. Use these campaigns to track important metrics like the revenue generated per campaign. When someone purchases a ticket to your event, you can also use Zoho SalesSignals in CRM to be notified about the purchase.

You can also integrate with other Apps in the Zoho ecosystem like Zoho SalesIQ which allows you to track and interact with website visitors in real time. Integrating it with your Backstage portal helps you better understand who is visiting your event microsite, and how long they stay there. It also has live chat facilities to make contacting your microsite visitors and potential attendees easier.

Another useful integration is with Zoho Pagesense which is a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) platform that is used to track website metrics. Integrate it with Backstage to gain insight into what holds your audience's interest most on your event microsite and how to optimize it to get more traffic.

You should also be aware of Zoho Flow, an integration platform that helps you connect your apps without any code, and could integrate Backstage with Slack, Spark and more!

Furthermore, there are specific integrations available for payment gateways and analytics.

Finally, you may find it useful to integrate with third-party applications like Zoom and EventBrite, especially if these are already in play!

As with any new Application, the set up and mapping with your business process is critical, so be sure to get in touch for a deep dive and project plan.

We've completed several migration projects, helping customers move from older desktop Accounting systems (Peachtree, Sage 50, QuickBooks) to the online, cloud-based Zoho Books, and one of the project deliverables typically involves integration with Zoho CRM. Once set up correctly, this seamless integration enables powerful collaboration between Sales, Operations & Finance. You can synchronise Customers, Vendors, Products, and build workflows based on pipeline stages and probabilities that can send documents from Zoho CRM to Zoho Books. Likewise, transactions completed in Zoho Books can be viewed under the Finance Tab in Zoho CRM.

The short 15-minute video below will give you a good idea on the integration possibilities, however, if the steps make you hesitate, I recommend getting a Partner involved to help set this up correctly. Also, whilst the technology is all about configuring parameters, a prerequisite is to identify business objectives and agree relevant business processes and workflows. User Profiles and security controls become increasingly important and complex and be sure to uncheck sending unnecessary emails to customers!

Finally, there is a lot packed into this video, so if you want a no-obligation, unravelling of the steps involved, pertinent to your business, just reach out!