Zoho CRM vs SAP CRM

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Our analysts compared Zoho CRM vs SAP CRM based on data from our 400+ point analysis of CRM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

SAP CRM Software Tool

Product Basics

Zoho CRM enables an organization’s sales force to work more effectively and close more deals. It incorporates lead management, marketing automation, contact management, multichannel forecasting, territory management, and a host of other capabilities.

Built with conversational AI, it supports users by predicting lead and deal success, offering a voice assistant, and suggesting activities to automate based on behavior analysis. Users can leverage workflow automation to streamline manual tasks and stay on top of performance with real-time reporting and analytics.
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SAP provides a cloud-based customer experience suite built on the SAP C/4HANA framework, delivering marketing, sales, e-commerce, customer data and service capabilities. Features include sales automation, ABM, augmented intelligence, real-time data, multichannel campaigns and inventory management. Organizations can choose specific products for more focused functionality or implement all five to gain a comprehensive ecosystem.

Analyst’s Note: 

In addition to SAP’s cloud products, it also offers SAP CRM, a well-established solution for clients looking to deploy on-premise. While SAP currently supports the on-premise version for thousands of customers, has continued to release product enhancements and hasn’t yet indicated any plans to sunset the product, it’s possible that may change.

As of November 2019, SAP’s Director of Product Management stated that SAP may choose to forego extension of mainstream maintenance beyond the current guarantee of 2025. Assuming that remains the case, he recommended new customers avoid looking into SAP CRM and instead consider S/4HANA (for those in need of ERP functionality as well) or C/4HANA (for those interested specifically in customer experience capabilities).

In light of this, our analysis focuses solely on C/4HANA’s cloud products.
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$14/User, Monthly
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$58 Monthly
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Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Videos
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Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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Product Insights

  • Real-Time Data Analysis: Track KPIs across the sales cycle with advanced analytics tools providing visibility for everyone from the C-suite to sales reps. We set up dashboard widgets and customized the metrics displayed, so we could surface the most important data. The system includes standard and custom reports, which you can filter to locate specific information and blend to create multidimensional reports.
  • AI-Powered Performance Optimization: Use Zia is the system’s conversational AI assistant and helps users get more done and work smarter. We searched through our database by sending a request via text. You can use Zia to improve data accuracy, optimize timing for emails and calls, and understand the sentiment behind the emails your leads and customers send.
  • Automated Lead Creation: Use the email parser tool to automate lead creation by sending email enquiries to the parser email that extracts the information. You can then reduplicate and approve the leads to ensure they’re good. We could add and color code tags, create custom views for leads and view leads in Zoho sheets.
  • Support Mobility: Mobile CRM apps for both Android and iOS devices provide users with immediate access to important information, no matter where they are. Sales reps can view daily activities and optimize in-person meetings with geo-location. They can also manage records even while offline — all changes automatically sync once their device reconnects. The card scanner app, supported on iOS and Android devices as well, enables users to digitally capture business cards at events and meetings.
  • Personalized Solutions: Use the developer platform for full control over your software ecosystem. Unify data across business systems, develop apps and boost the capabilities of the CRM interface with a combination of tools including widgets, a REST API and SDKs for web and mobile. We found that it incorporates both code and WYSIWYG elements so users of all technical levels can leverage it successfully.
  • Easy To Set Up: Speed up the onboarding process via Zwitch, with the help of Zoho support staff or use the built-in tools to transfer from other CRM platforms. We liked how easy it was to navigate the header-style menu. Add new products, contacts and accounts with the same form style. Set up was also a breeze with helpful pop-ups and links to knowledge base articles if we got stuck.
  • Tailor-Made Customizations: Create your own workflow rules. We tested out adding a “Big Fish” tag when leads recorded an annual revenue of above $100,000 and a follow-up automation. You can also use the Kiosk Studio to build page layouts and automations, its a bit more technical but offers helpful pop-ups and tips. We were also able to create a rule that assigned all leads that started with a 222 area code to a specific user.
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  • Single Customer View: Create personalized experiences by leveraging data from multiple channels and continuous updates for new interactions. A dashboard displays information from sources such as CRM, ERP, social media and more. Conduct granular analysis for sentiment engagement, customer journey insights and more via filtering. 
  • Budget Planning: View graphical budget totals for different regions, analyze historical data and drill into specific budgets to make adjustments. Summarized campaign views allow detailed planning for marketing spend. Integration with procurement and finance tools provides a status overview in real time. 
  • Audience Identification: See which contacts are best to target with campaign targets and which are ready to buy immediately. Assess the locations and interests of various customer segments with a global map and tag cloud. Easily create segments using a drag-and-drop interface. 
  • Multichannel Campaigns: Leverage trigger-based campaigns across social media, paid search and more with a range of messages to more accurately target audience interests and stages. Real-time metrics give insight into campaign performance, enabling in-campaign adjustments that improve ROI. 
  • Centralized Inventory View: Receive a comprehensive view of inventory and track all new orders and their accompanying details, such as delivery mode, pickup location and status. Give customers the ability to buy online and pick up or return in-store. 
  • Unified Customer Experience: Drive 24/7 support across all channels with AI-based chatbots that have advanced language processing to facilitate natural conversations. Customer service agents have access to the chat thread for full context in case of a query transfer, as well as a single UI to simplify activities. Integrate with SAP Commerce Cloud to provide chat, email, video chat and phone tools for online shops. 
  • Real-Time Insights: Cut costs and focus efforts on the most profitable campaigns via campaign performance analysis. Out-of-the-box reports show KPIs for key channels including email and Facebook, with a rich set of metrics available. 
  • Extensive Integrations: Extend functionality using the SAP Cloud Platform, which comes with over 150 pre-built connectors and an extension factory. Build and deploy apps or use the 1,000+ apps developed by SAP partners. 
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  • Sales Force Automation: Automate tedious sales tasks such as lead generation and routing, data entry, email notifications, field updates and more. Optimize lead management, deal management, account management, contact management, and manage workflow and assignment rules.
  • Process Management: Enable your sales team to follow a standardized sales strategy. Use the blueprint feature to log offline processes such as order management or deal closure, ensuring consistent execution. Create automated approvals for common activities such as vacation time requests, capital expense reports and pricing discount requests. Additionally, you can set rules for assigning leads, escalating cases and validating CRM data.
  • Opportunity Management: Keep everyone’s antennas tuned to the same channel with Zoho’s activity tracking for all customer interactions like emails, calls, tasks and notes. Create deals and associate them with campaigns with drop-down fields and generate multiple pipelines using the standard template or your own personalized fields You can create a custom Kanban view using dropdown options and fields.
  • Multichannel Support: Connect with your email platform to send emails directly from the CRM. Connect your brand’s social media channel to respond in real-time, follow relevant conversations and automate lead generation. Use the Phonebridge integration to enable sales reps to easily log and track information from calls. You can also embed live chat and lead capture forms on your website to facilitate sales, marketing and customer service efforts.
  • Sales Enablement: Aid sales reps in their daily jobs using features like quotes and purchase orders (via integration with Zoho’s Finance Suite), a documents library, integration with Zoho’s presentation and document creation applications, and external-facing portals for partners and vendors. It also offers a calendar, a feature called SalesInbox for prioritizing the most lucrative emails, a web meeting platform through the Zoho Meeting integration, real-time notifications, collaboration feeds and more.
  • Performance Management: Gauge how a product, team or region is performing with forecasting tools. Group customers based on shared attributes (region, product, etc.) with territory management and gamify elements to encourage friendly competition that boosts performance among sales reps. Zia can also help improve performance by helping you target leads that are most likely to generate revenue. Your sales reps can engage with website visitors via chatbots for web and mobile, so every query receives attention even if they’re away from their desks.
  • Marketing Automation: Streamline marketing efforts by segmenting customers using a range of criteria, automating lead nurturing follow-ups, creating code-free web forms to gather customer information, scanning and uploading business cards, and analyzing campaign spending. Use capabilities like end-to-end event management, email campaign capabilities, surveys, and marketing details like budgets and performance metrics. A hierarchy feature lets you hook sub-campaigns to related main campaigns.
  • Team Collaboration: Use Feeds as a central location for collaborating, sharing announcements and offering advice. You can integrate chat functionality to facilitate everyday tasks and automatically send real-time sales updates. Users can leave notes on records or activities and tag other team members. Other features include groups for collaborating around specific events or for specific purposes, as well as project management tools via integration with Zoho Projects.
  • Third-Party Integrations: Connect with more than 50 third-party apps for collaboration, document management, live chat, telephony, messaging, events and meetings, quote management, document signing, lead management, marketing automation, social media, storage and more. Integrations include G Suite, Office 365, Slack, Shopify, Mailchimp, Facebook Ads, QuickBooks, GoToWebinar, DocuSign, Dropbox and Zapier.
  • Security: Store critical business data in secure vaults, choose where you want your data stored (U.S. and EU data centers) and encrypt data fields. Use audit logs to track activity, enable two-factor authentication and designate which IP addresses users can use to log in. Real-time backups on multiple servers ensure you won’t lose data due to a system-based or natural disaster.
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  • Lead and Account-Based Marketing: Offered in SAP Marketing Cloud and caters specifically to B2B environments. 
    • Includes visual tools such as a shared calendar for campaigns and a dashboard that displays budgets and costs in real time.
    • Provides intelligent scoring, profiling and geospatial data, showing which accounts to focus on.
    • Syncs account interactions with SAP Sales Cloud.
    • Uses machine learning to analyze contact behavior, classify and rank contacts, as well as spot segments with similar behavior.
  • Experience Management: This WYSIWYG tool supports web page creation and editing, as well as enables the creation of one design suitable for use on mobile devices, tablets and desktops. Includes the option to embed banners and promotions, along with personalizing different elements. 
  • Product Content Management: Offers a central interface for managing products and catalogs that can serve as a master product database. Equipped with bulk editing, support for multiple product attributes and multilingual functionality. 
  • Sales Automation: Provides a central platform for account and opportunity management that stores data in a single place for easy availability and increased visibility. Capabilities include quarterly revenue forecasting and lead scoring. 
  • Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ): Handles complex quotes via an intuitive interface. 
    • Allows sales reps to generate quotes quickly and supports a variety of price books for offering the most effective discounts.
    • Assists with onboarding via embedded intelligence and can guide reps toward products that customers are more likely to buy.
    • Includes margin protection guardrails and automatic approval triggers.
  • Sales Performance Management: Includes: 
    • Simple setup with a drag-and-drop interface.
    • Built-in rules library to compare, test and launch promotions and plans from one interface.
    • Calculations for a range of criteria, territories, teams or verticals.
    • Automatic calculation of bonuses and commissions.
    • A mobile app for reps, with a range of functionalities such as accelerators and a what-if calculator.
    • Augmented intelligence tool that prescribes recommendations for compensation plans.
  • Augmented Intelligence: Can be deployed without requiring the help of data scientists. Leverages AI and machine learning to automatically detect outliers, make selling suggestions that boost revenue and more. 
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Product Ranking

#9

among all
CRM Software

#52

among all
CRM Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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SAP CRM
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Account And Contact Management Communication Channels Dashboards And Reports Document Management Lead Management Mobile Capabilities Opportunity Management Partner Relationship Management Platform Capabilities Product Management Quotes, Orders, And Contracts Management Sales Performance Management Team Collaboration 100 92 93 97 100 84 100 60 95 100 84 91 93 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 11200 reviews
Good User Sentiment 516 reviews
85%
of users recommend this product

Zoho CRM has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 11200 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

76%
of users recommend this product

SAP CRM has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 76% when considering 516 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (20)
4.9 (14)
4.1 (2656)
3.5 (204)
4.3 (6776)
4.1 (167)
4.5 (797)
4.4 (21)
4.2 (951)
3.6 (110)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Zoho CRM and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Account and Contact Management, Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Platform Capabilities and Platform Security.

Account and Contact Management Award
Lead Management Award
Opportunity Management Award
Platform Capabilities Award
Platform Security Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Work Offline: Users who mention this feature say the platform functions well even when used in offline mode.
Business Management: The system monitors business performance, populates the website with suitable visitors and keeps a tab on productivity and output, eliminating unmatched customers and removing hassle according to users who mention this aspect.
Affordable: Users said the software is budget-friendly as compared to other CRM systems and has considerably more adaptive features for the price.
Integrations: Reviewers appreciated Zoho’s integration with in-house tools that support unified workflows, flexibility and email functionality.
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Reporting: It’s possible to create high-quality micro and macro reports for all customers and for internal control, according to 63% of users mentioning reporting.
Integrations: The ability to leverage operational reporting and seamless, intelligent integration with ERP and a business warehouse aids productivity, as observed by 66% of users referring to integrations.
Tracking: All user reviews of this feature indicated the software offers flawless tracking for high volumes of sales transactions.
Configuration and Customization: It’s possible to customize and configure according to business needs, as noted by 75% of reviews referencing these features.
Automation: It’s easy to automate and integrate customer contact activities, sales, marketing, and customer service, according to 83% of users who wrote about automation.
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Learning Curve: Users mentioned some features and customization requires additional time and learning to implement.
Customer Support: Zoho’s customer support and inquiry resolution isn’t very responsive, according to users who refer to support. However, the chat support is comparatively better.
Lags and Delays: Reviewers noted there is sometimes a lag in notifications for email tracking and updates.
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Not Budget-Friendly: The platform’s implementation is costly compared to competitor products, and 63% of users who mention cost suggested maintenance is also expensive.
Not User-Friendly: The software isn’t very flexible and is difficult to learn, as observed by 58% of reviews mentioning this aspect.
Inefficient Workflow: The workflow is not very clean and efficient, and it takes considerable effort, time and money to implement actions, according to 63% of users who reference this feature.
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Zoho CRM is a cloud-based CRM solution that serves businesses of all sizes and across various industries. It provides users with real-time data analysis, AI-powered sales performance optimization and extensive automation and customization. You can streamline workflows and improve sales efficiency with lead nurturing, deal management, and third-party integrations.During our test run of their free trial, we loved working with standout features like the customizable dashboard, automated lead creation via the email parser and drop-down linking for account, product, lead and quote creation.However, users report a learning curve associated with full feature utilization and customization. Additionally, some advanced features and functionalities require upgrades to higher tiers making it expensive for smaller teams. Overall, Zoho CRM offers an interoperable solution for businesses looking for a customizable, affordable CRM platform.

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SAP’s CRM products provide a rich set of features to aid the customer lifecycle. Users highly approve of its seamless integration, tracking and reporting features. Additionally, automation makes work easier and enhances productivity. However, using workflows can be time-consuming, and the software isn’t very intuitive. It’s also very pricey to implement. It’s best suited for companies, particularly enterprises, with heavy sales, marketing and delivery usage, as well as advanced, complex needs.

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