The Zoho Office Suite is a software package that contains a variety of software for different functions. One such application is Zoho CRM, which is used for customer relationship management purposes. The Zoho applications are all independent from the operating system. It is compatible with different formats, such as Microsoft Office and Open Office.

It is a remotely hosted application, which means that the user data is stored on the Zoho servers. The Zoho CRM has two versions: Zoho CRM and Zoho CRM Pro. Zoho CRM Pro has additional features compared to Zoho CRM, but has a licensing fee associated with it. The basic Zoho CRM edition can be used for free by up to 3 users. Additional users need to pay roughly $12 per month each for the Professional Edition. Zoho has reported, however, that they are working hard towards providing free access to most entry level applications. One registration with Zoho will give access to all of the Zoho products available. Zoho CRM has sales management functions and tools. Some examples include sales analysis, sales forecasting, and sales quota management. These features are geared towards the customer life cycle rather than the sales process itself. Contact Management is one such functionality that concentrates in the customer life cycle process. Information pertaining to contacts, cases, and related activities are tracked for easy reference. Contacts can be imported and exported allowing for an efficient way to manage the contact hierarchy. Another area of functionality is Customer Support. Customer cases and solutions are tracked in a centralized location giving easy access to customer support. Some solutions can be updated through customer feedback by using the system. In addition to the basic CRM functionalities that can be expected, Zoho CRM also has access to features pertaining to inventory and accounting functions. Inventory management is handled by the use of Order Management features. This allows pre-sales and post-sales accounting activities to be handled in one application. An example of this functionality is with regards to product catalogs. Company wide product catalogs can be associated with other modules, resulting in a 360 degree view. Customization options include page layouts, fields arrangement, and list views. For users that are dependent in maintaining security and privacy of data files, Zoho might not be the best option. The data is stored at Zoho servers and there is no option to keep the information in house.