Zoho on the go

Recently I posted about a lack of CRM for mobile devices. While there are some out there they are few and far between. Well, I am always on the lookout for how mobile tech will make business more efficient and was taking a look at a service I wanted to let you guys know about.

Many of you will already know about Zoho.com but may not have looked into what they offer. Most of their solutions (such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, email, LOTS more) do have a decent free offering to take advantage of. Their CRM solution will allow you to have 3 different users for free and its not a timed trial. It is VERY slick and runs incredibly fast in Google's new Chrome browser. Only down side is that there is no mobile view, which is what I am looking for.

That is where Zoho Creator comes in. It basically allows you to create a database for online access. Let me just mention that it does allow for 5 free users , so sign up before they get too popular to continue offering that. :)

What I found out is that you can go to m.zoho.com and will be able to see a number of their solutions built specifically for mobile devices (I think they are optimized for iPhone and WinMo). The included apps are their word processor, email client, notes app and...you guessed it Zoho Creator. You don't even need to create any particular form format for mobile devices when you create your database, Zoho's engine will just adjust it to be viewable in mobile form automatically.

One of the things that Zoho has included is a Marketplace for anyone to offer their own database for others to use. You can either make it free or charge a fee for it but users can simply click a button and it is set up in their database list automatically. Shweet!

One of the applications in the database was a CRM application and it is completely free. It is not as slick as the actual Zoho CRM app but it is very capable. One AMAZING feature of Zoho Creator is that you can copy the code for your forms and put it into your own website. Think about this! You can use a form to gather prospect names and contact information and it goes right into your CRM! Nice!

Back to the mobile part; as I mentioned, Zoho will make Creator apps available and readable on a mobile screen. So, that CRM - or any database you create, really - is now available for you to view and edit while on the go. The possibilities for actually endless! I did notice some issues with it properly showing on the screen, but it is a new service, so I am willing to cut them some slack. :)

Anyway, you truly have to sign up and play with it to get a good feel for what it can do. Dig into it and have some fun.

Btw, made this post on my Axim using my Stowaway folding keyboard. It's a nice little combination. :)