Zoho CRM User Experience & Interaction Design Blog

Right now, Zoho CRM offers 3 users free to jumpstart. And upto 3 users, Zoho CRM offers only the standard feature set. Upon adding more users through paid-subscriptions, the users can avail either the Professional edition’s feature set or the Enterprise Edition’s feature set.

Here is an image which will help people to understand how a paid subscription will upgrade the features of free users (the first 3 users).

Case 1 : Jump starting with 3 free users.
This is the starter edition which is default when a new Zoho CRM account is created. By default the CRM account gets 3 free users. These 3 free users will have access to all standard features (sans the professional and enterprise edition’s feature sets)

Case 2 : Subscribing to Professional Edition
When a Zoho CRM account purchases a Professional-Edition subscription for one or more paid users, the 3 free users and the additional users will get access to professional edition’s feature-set. So for example, when someone buys a subscription for 2 additional users, they get a total of 5 users (3 free + 2 paid) all having access to professional edition’s feature set.

Case 3: Subscribing to Enterprise Edition
When a Zoho CRM account purchases a Enterprise-Edition subscription for one or more paid users, the 3 free users and the additional users will get access to Enterprise Edition’s feature-set which includes Role-based security.

Q:I subscribed to Professional Edition/ Enterprise Edition. Now if I downgrade or choose not to renew, can my 3 free users still have access to Professional/Enterprise edition feature set?
A:The free users can access only the standard feature set. If you like to access Pro/Ent features, just purchase one or more paid-subscriptions.

Q:Now, what happens if someone cancels/downgrades their paid-subscription?
A:In such cases if the number of users becomes 3, the Zoho CRM account will become 3 Users Free account, which has access only to the standard feature set. For example if a professional edition subscription expires and is not renewed, then the Zoho CRM account holder can only use 3 users in the free users mode. In this mode, the Zoho CRM account can access only the standard feature set.

Q:What happens to my data after my account is downgraded or expired?
A: The data is safe and available for access anytime. You can order a data backup anytime by following these steps. When downgrading from Enterprise edition, only the data sharing rules will be deleted after 15 days from the date of downgrade or expiry.

Q:Can I purchase paid-subscription for only one user and make all my 4 users to access advanced feature sets?
A:Yes by purchasing a paid subscription for 4th user, all 4 users will gain access to respective edition’s feature set.
- Rajesh Sundaram

1. LG India On-Call Service

My Air conditioner’s remote has gone dead. Instead of calling my third-party AMC service guys, i decided to call LG service. I filled their online form at http://in.lge.com and requested to send a service personnel on 5 may 2008 at 5.00pm evening. Around 4.30 I received a call from a Service guy asking me direction for my home. I was pleasantly surprised by the promptness. And when I reached home around 4.55 the guy was waiting outside my home.

He then checked the remote and gave me a replacement. Since the warranty has elapsed, I have to pay for the new remote. And the surprise is.. the remote controller was sold for Rs. 320/- I was expecting some hefty price tag, as it is from direct LG. But that did not happen. The spares seems to be moderately priced. When enquired about the official LG annual maintenance contract, the guy said they charge Rs.2274/- for one year. The AMC offers 3 free checkup services and covers the entire motor, compressor, blowers and all mechanical, electrical parts except the Remote and Blower’s plastic panels. Under AMC, all replaced spare parts are free-of-charge, including the compressor Gas.  That’s a good deal!

Concluding I was pleasantly surprised by the promptness and services attentiveness.

2. Lodges in  Madurai

I am searching and trying to book some 10 rooms in madurai for my wedding. But that particular day (June 23)  almost all economy hotels are booked. Most of the calls received at the reception were answered rude. Many guys dont even bothered to say “Sorry.. no rooms”. They just jumped over saying “illa saar. all full. booked”. Customer service is something that you cannot find in Madurai. But the call to Germanus proved to be good. Looks like better customer care is available only in the star hotels in every city. Hotel Germanus’s Vijay spoke to me giving me all the details and tariff structure. The rooms were readily available and they offer complimentary breakfast for the guests. But still the budget was out of my reach. So I didnt book at Germanus. But for individual stay, it sounded to be good.

Concluding, I would say economy-wallet-friendly lodges in madurai are not customer friendly. Dont expect a great service in such hotels.

- Rajesh Sundaram

One of my esteemed online design resource site is Before and After Magazine. I have been many of their design publications and each PDF is worth preserving. A simple and easy-to-understand approach helps one to understand the topic and pickup the same. Once I tried to subscribe to their site, but due to some network error, it didnt go through. But now, I am thinking of trying again.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Today is the official announcement day for Zoho CRM - Enterprise Edition.With this, Zoho CRM now offers 3 flavors to cater your requirements. The Free/Personal Edition, The Professional Edition and The Enterprise Edition.

The major difference between the professional Edition and Enterprise edition is the enhanced security and roles management. Zoho CRM Enteprise Edition also features Auto-Responders. For complete comparison click here.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Here is a comic-style inspired wallpaper for Mobile phones that uses 240×320 pixel resolution screens.

To download directly to your GPRS enabled mobile phone :
http://tinyurl.com/3lkzx2
- Rajesh Sundaram

When sipping the Fresh and Honest coffee, I received a call from guys called seventymm.com. It is a DVD Movie rental service which offers free pickup and free delivery to all their members. When asked about the membership fee they said that they are launching just now.. and for time being, they dont collect joining charges. seventymm.com’s marketing guy told that they are offering a 6 month subscription at 5 months price, which means I get a one month subscription free. Sounded well and good.. and from what we discussed, I found the following details

1. seventymm.com Offers 6 months membership @ Rs.995 (a 5 months price). Normally it would cost Rs.200 per month.
2. 4 Movies per month free (Rs.50/movie) which is actually 24 movies for 6 months
3. seventymm.com carries a large collection of Original DVDs in all major languages including World Cinemas

Actually this sounds outrageously expensive. Rs.50 for one movie?? My neighborhood library lends DVDs for Rs.20 per day which includes free delivery and pickup. And they lend very good quality movies.. all languages and select world cinemas. I would normally choose my neighborhood library over seventymm.com. When I told the same to seventymm.com’s senior marketing guy, he immediately increased the offer by giving me 6 movies per month instead of 4 movies. Provided, I refer some of my friends to them… something like a referral scheme. I told them that I will evaluate and get back to them if I find it really worth.

Anyhow, there are certain things that new startups should understand. In today’s competitive world, one cannot sustain or gain market share unless otherwise they offer something more or offer something better than the present competition. Why would someone pay Rs.50 for renting a DVD movie when there are libraries that lends DVDs for Rs.20? seventymm.com should change their focus or business method to survive. Otherwise they will vapor soon.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Zoho CRM has received a major update in the last 24 hours. The official announcement will be out in the next couple of hours. With regard to UI, we have re-written some part of the UI code to improve performance and speed. We have removed the old tables based layout and introduced DIV based layout in the header. Balmy is the new skin, which replaces the color of the old Balmy. Following this, we are going to update other skins as well.

We preferred to adopt the staged-transition process for the UI updates. This means, there wont be any over-night changes in the UI. All UI updates will be gradual and seamless.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Some time ago, I met my old college friend. He is now a lead techie in a software company specializing in Hospital management and Automation. During our discussion, the subject of UX and Usability crawled in. My friend was interested to know how much ‘usability’ contributes to the success of a software. As their software still run on the basis of an existing and old system, he was unable to implement new features or improve the existing user experience. He wanted to know the best practice - Implement a whole new UI in a single shot (accompanied by training) or implement the new system in a staged transition model? Cconsidering his software’s users are using an existing system for a long time, I told him staged transition is the best choice as it will require less effort and minimum support.

After some usability discussion, his next question was about how to put some usability into the software without having a UX or usability engineer. He said that he cannot hire a full-time UX guy and he has to manage with existing developers for some time. I referred him a couple of Usability and UX links to jumpstart with usability. But still, he wanted to know how to approach or how to solve a usability / UI issue? My answer was nothing but “Start dealing the problem with some common sense, you will get the idea about how to fix that issue”. I believe common sense is one fundamental ingredient of usability. Whenever you come across a usability or UI issue, try to put some common sense when understanding the issue. You will know how to reach the solution.

- Rajesh Sundaram

seeded by the idea, when listening to a fusion album last night.. i did this UI fusion. Nothing new, but just a case of what happens, if toondoo gets a web 2.0 makeover? This is not a complete study, but just a quick make up.

Starting with the lowest used theme - the balmy, we will be updating all color themes from this week onwards. Balmy gets an almost-new makeover this time. Especially, the color has changed opted for a muted-green and a couple of textures.

- Rajesh Sundaram