FAQs: Team Module

FAQs: Team Module

CRM for Everyone is in the Restricted Early Access mode and is available only to a select set of users upon request. Request access to gain hands-on experience with this new version.

Why is there a need of CRM for Everyone?

Providing a smooth customer experience is crucial for business success in today's competitive market. The sales process involves multiple stakeholders and teams working together to secure a customer deal and ensure customer satisfaction.

CRM for Everyone aims to provide a more inclusive, user-friendly, and efficient approach to CRM that encourages team integration, improves communication, and cultivates a culture of collaboration and innovation. It seeks to offer a solution that is easily accessible and attractive to all members of an organization in order to optimize the advantages of CRM systems in enhancing customer relationships, increasing adoption rates, and empowering businesses to adapt more effectively to their operational requirements and customer demands.

The reasons why you need CRM for Everyone:
  1. Encouraging Cross-Team Collaboration: CRM systems often serve specific segments of a business e.g; sales, leading to at times isolated data and a fragmented understanding of customer interactions. The existence of communication barriers within an organization can significantly hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service. By ensuring all teams are on the same CRM platform, CRM for Everyone facilitates open communication and the free exchange of information, thereby enhancing collaboration and enabling a more cohesive strategy for customer engagement and retention.
  2. Decentralizing CRM Administration: Centralized administration of CRM systems at times can create bottlenecks and delay the implementation of necessary changes or updates. By decentralizing CRM administration, CRM for Everyone allows for more agile management practices, where adjustments can be made swiftly and efficiently without compromising privacy or data security. This flexibility is vital for escalating the business needs and collaborations among the teams.
  3. Improving Adoption Rates: A common challenge with CRM systems is the difficulty in achieving high adoption rates among users, often due to complex interfaces or lack of relevance to certain teams. CRM for Everyone seeks to overcome this by providing an intuitive user interface and visual delights that make the system more engaging and easier to use. This user-friendly approach encourages widespread adoption across the organization, ensuring that everyone benefits from the system's capabilities.
  4. Enhanced Workspace Management: The system provides efficient workspace management capabilities, meeting the requirement for organized handling of customer information and interactions. This functionality enables various teams to be part of Zoho CRM within the Team space, where they can develop custom modules, business workflows, and processes to maintain a systematic approach to customer relationship management. This ensures that data is easily accessible, structured, and actionable.
  5. Refreshing and Intuitive User Experience: The emphasis on a refreshing and intuitive user interface, combined with visual delights, is designed to make the CRM system more approachable and easy to use for users. This focus on user experience is essential for encouraging sustained engagement with the system and ensuring that all features and tools are fully utilized.

How many types of modules are available in Zoho CRM? 

There are two types of modules in Zoho CRM:
  1. Organization Module (Available Organization-wide)
  2. Team Module (Specific to a Teamspace)
Modules serve as compartments or shelves where different types of information are stored in one place. For instance, the contacts module in CRM contains customer details, the account module holds company information of customers, and the Deals module stores all deals related to customers in the CRM system.
  1. Organization modules are those that can be accessed by all users in the organization. These Organization Modules can be divided into two categories:
    1. Standard Module: All the system-defined modules which pre-exists in your CRM system and can be used org vide e.g; Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Deals, etc; are called standard modules. These are typically available organization-wide unless under specific exceptions. 
    2. Custom module: These modules are created by the organization's administrator to meet specific organizational needs, accessible to all profiles based on the permissions granted by the admin. Ex: Trips, Courses, Insurance policies etc. These are also typically available organization-wide unless under specific exceptions. 

  2. Team Module: Unlike organization-wide modules, team modules are designed for specific Teamspaces and are not universally accessible. You cannot make them available for all. These are essentially custom modules but are tailored for individual teams or departments within the CRM. Team modules enable teams to manage their specific workflows and foster collaboration within their Teamspace. Users can create and customize their Team modules with the appropriate permissions, making them unique to their teamspace. There is currently no default organization setup for team modules. Any team module you create is a custom module only.
Essentially, while organization modules (both standard and custom) are available to the entire organization, Team modules are designed for the unique needs of specific teams, enabling them to manage and streamline their workflows within their designated Teamspace.

 

Points to keep in mind:  
  1. Org admins have the ability to regulate access to and oversee essential CRM data stored in organization modules. These modules are crucial for the entire organization and can be found in various teamspaces, with team module admins unable to make changes to them.
  2. Non-admin users can create and oversee team modules that are beneficial either to themselves or their team. These modules can be utilized for monitoring various aspects, such as an individual's tasks or the team's expected deliverables. They are exclusive to one teamspace and cannot be accessed in other teamspaces.

What distinguishes an Organization Module from a Team Module in Zoho CRM?

Scope:

Modules in Zoho CRM are distinct components designed to store various types of customer data and support the execution of specific business processes. The CRM system is segmented into these modules for streamlined management and accessibility. For instance, one module, often called the Prospects or Leads module, may hold all information regarding potential clients. Another, known as the Deals module, might contain details about business opportunities. The Leads module facilitates processes like lead qualification, nurturing, and conversion, while the Deals module assists in managing deal closures and contract negotiations. Essentially, modules serve as the foundational elements that structure the entire CRM system.

In addition to the standard system-defined modules, Zoho CRM allows the creation of custom modules tailored to unique business needs. When an organization uses Zoho CRM to manage its operations, it often goes beyond the standard, system-defined modules by creating numerous custom modules tailored to specific needs. As various users join the CRM, they create and utilize different modules, each with unique requirements and functions. For instance, while the Deals module may need to be accessible to all users organization-wide, a 'Contracts' module might be relevant only to a select group, such as the Legal team.

Considering these variations, Zoho CRM categorizes its modules into two main types: Organization Modules and Team Modules. This distinction is primarily based on the accessibility of the modules—Organization modules are available to everyone in the organization, whereas Team modules are accessible only to specific groups or teams.

Organization Module: The Organization Module in Zoho CRM is designed to be accessible organization-wide, available to all users within the company.

Team Module: The Team Module, on the other hand, is accessible by default only to members of a particular team and is tailored to support the unique workflows and process needs of that team. This module facilitates focused collaboration and data management that is pertinent solely to the designated team.


 

Difference between Organization module and Team module: 

Feature
Organization Module

Team Module

Scope
Available organization-wide, accessible to all users.
Specific to a Teamspace, accessible only to designated teams.
Accessibility
Can be accessed by any user depending on permissions.

Note: A Teamspace can contain both Organization and Team modules.
Only accessible to users who are added either as an admin, manager, member, requester, or participants to a team module.

Use Case
Contacts module is used by the sales team to manage customer details across the organization
A team space called Promotion is used by the marketing team to manage campaign tracking and content calendars specifically for their team.
Administration
Managed by org admins who oversee data consistency and security across all modules.
Managed by team admins or the user having privilege to create specific team modules within their Teamspace.
Customization
Both standard and custom modules are part of the Organization module, generally not customizable by users unless they have Administrative privileges.

Note: If a user is granted Module Customization permissions in their profile, they can access all the organization modules within their organization, as this permission applies universally to all organization modules.
Tailored specifically for teams and customizable to meet distinct team workflows and requirements, the ability to customize a team module depends on the profile type assigned within that module, such as members, participants, admins, managers, or requesters. For instance, in the R&D team module, Michael holds the role of a requester, granting him no customization options. Conversely, in the Marketing team module, Michael serves as an admin, affording him complete control over the module's settings and customization.

Learn more about Team profiles here.
Data Sharing
Data in these modules is intended for broad organizational access and use.
Data is confined to specific teams, enhancing focused collaboration without cross-team clutter.

 

Organization module Use Case: A multinational company uses the Accounts module in Zoho CRM to maintain and manage details about customer companies globally.

Application: The Accounts module is configured to store essential data like company name, size, industry, and key contacts. Sales representatives from any regional office can access and update this information to ensure all interactions are based on the latest data. This organization-wide accessibility helps maintain consistency and enhances collaboration across various departments, such as sales, customer service, and marketing, ensuring everyone operates with the same set of data.

Team Module Use Case: The research and development (R&D) team at a pharmaceutical company uses a custom Team Module in Zoho CRM to manage their drug development projects.

Application: This Team Module is specifically designed for the R&D team and includes fields for project status, trial phases, regulatory milestones, and collaboration notes. Only members of the R&D team have access to this module, allowing them to manage sensitive and detailed information pertinent to their projects without exposing it to the entire organization. This specialized module aids in streamlining their internal processes and enhances the efficiency of their project management, keeping all relevant data confined to the team directly involved.

 

Note: 

All customizations and configurations are available across organization modules.

The following configurations are available in team modules:

Assignment rules to assign work to your team based on predefined rules
  1. Workflow rules to automate actions based on trigger
  2. Blueprint to streamline processes and ensure compliance
  3. Approval process to get work approved as per your team's preference
  4. Canvas pages to modify the look and feel of the list view and record detail pages
  5. Wizards to simplify data entry
  6. Layout rules and Validation rules to improve data quality
  7. Webforms to bring in data from outside the CRM
  8. Links to bring external content into your CRM
  9. Buttons to take actions quickly
  10. Templates to improve productivity
  11. Widgets to add capabilities
  12. Custom functions to meet niche requirements
  13. Sandbox to test your team module before deploying it
  14. Reports and Dashboards to track data related to your team module

 Bulk record operations possible with Team modules:

  1. Individual emails
  2. Mass email
  3. Creating list views
  4. Adding tasks
  5. Adding tags
  6. Performing bulk operations: Mass update, Mail Merge, Change Owner, Delete.
  7. Autoresponders
  8. Record Approval
  9. Export list view
  10. Zoho Sheet View


What is a Team module and why is there a need for it?

Team Module is a user-controlled Module in CRM. Team Module helps your team manage their work and also collaborate with each other within the team. Each team can have their own process & run them within their Team Module. With a single permission enabled in their profiles, users can create and use their own team modules within the CRM. These team modules can be shared among team members (for tracking a team's deliverables, for example) or kept private for individual work within the organization. They can be linked to other team modules and to the organization modules controlled by CRM admins. All this can be done independently by teams without needing the CRM admins to be involved.

How Can I create a Team module in my CRM account?

An individual with administrator privileges or a user granted permission to Create Team Module in their profile can create team modules.

 To create a team module in your account:   
  1. Click the modules tab in the primary sidebar.
  2. Click the + button.
  3. In case you also have permission to create org modules, a Create Module popup will appear. Select Team Modules and click Next.
  4. In the Select Template popup, either:
    1. Hover over a pre-built template and click Use this template or
    2. Hover over the Build from scratch option and click Create.
  5. In the Create Module popup, you can:
    1. Enter the module name (singular and plural).
    2. Change the template if you wish.
    3. Click Add New Field to add fields.
    4. Hover over a field and click the settings icon to set the field's properties, access permissions, or to delete it.
    5. Select the folder within the teamspace where this team module should be placed.
  6. Click Create.
Teamspace refers to the dedicated area for each team, where modules specific to that team are organized.
For instance, in a CRM system to successfully close a sale, multiple teams work together. The sales team plays a key role in negotiating the deal with the customer. But there are also other teams involved: the presales team, which inputs the customer's requirements into the CRM; the legal team, which handles contracts and legal aspects; and the marketing team, which manages the product's presentation to the customer. To make collaboration easier among these internal teams, specific areas called team spaces can be set up. For example, there can be a dedicated space for the marketing team where all its members can collaborate. Likewise, another space can be created for the legal advisors to come together.

The Team Module is designed to accommodate different processes tailored to the unique needs of each team. For example, the presales team might use an "Customer Onboarding" module to organize customer requirements efficiently, while the legal team could have a "Contracts" module specifically for managing legal documents. These modules can be linked to others, such as the Deals module, through a lookup field, establishing the relationship between modules across your CRM system.

A team module can only be linked to one team space at a time, preventing the creation of duplicate modules with the same name ie; If a team module named 'Case study' already exists under the Marketing team space, another team module with the same name cannot be created again. Also one team module can not be linked to more than one team space. Only organization modules can be shared across different team spaces.

Are team modules specific to a particular team space? 

As of now a team module is specific to Teamspace. Organization modules can be added to multiple Teamspaces, whereas team modules are specific to the Teamspaces in which they are created.

Can a team module be added to multiple teamspaces?

No, the team module is designed for a specific Teamspace, which is the folder where team modules are created to meet the needs of that team. 
You can not link a team module associated to one teamspace to another teamspace.

How many team modules can be added to a teamspace?

The number of modules (custom modules and team modules) that can be created are:
  1. Zoho CRM Enterprise edition:
    25 modules (default) + (2 modules x number of user licenses)
    A maximum of 200 modules (custom and team modules combined) can be created.

  2. Zoho CRM Ultimate edition:
    50 modules (default) + (5 modules x number of user licenses)
    A maximum of 500 modules (custom and team modules combined) can be created.

Who can create the team modules in Zoho CRM?

Any user with the permission to Create Team Module can create a Team module in Zoho CRM.

How can I establish a relationship between two team modules?

Lookup field can be used to establish the relationship between team modules or any team modules and organisation module.

For instance, let's say there's a teamspace dedicated to User Education and another one for Marketing. Inside the Marketing teamspace, there's a module called "Product Launch." If the Marketing team needs to access information from the "Documentation" module located in the User Education teamspace, they can utilize a lookup field. By adding a lookup field named "documentation" to the "Product Launch" module, with "Documentation" selected as the Lookup Module, the Marketing team can easily see which documents are available. This visibility helps them identify any new documentation they might need to request from the User Education team, ensuring they have all the necessary materials for their product launch. This method streamlines the process of sharing and requesting information across teams, thus enhancing collaboration and efficiency.

Note: Team modules can have lookup fields linking them to organization modules and other team modules, but organization modules cannot have lookup fields linking them to team modules.

How many profile types are there for a team module?

Access to the organization modules is controlled by the CRM admin through profile permissions, while access to team modules is overseen by the team module admin who assigns CRM users to different pre-defined roles.
  1. Admins have full control over the team module, including fields, permissions, configurations, and records.
  2. Managers have complete visibility and control over its records.
  3. Members and Participants have different levels of access to records, with members able to view all records and participants only able to view their own. Both will be able to create, edit, and delete their own records.
  4. Requesters can create and track records using the My Requests Tab without direct access to the team module.

Team module admins can customize permissions for fields and actions on a per-profile basis.

What Automations and Configurations are possible in the teams module? 

In the first cut, you, the team module admin, can perform the following configurations:
  1. Assignment rules to assign work to your team based on predefined rules
  2. Workflow rules to automate actions based on triggers
  3. Blueprint to streamline processes and ensure compliance
  4. Approval process to get work approved as per your team's preference
  5. Canvas pages to modify the look and feel of the list view and record detail pages
  6. Wizards to simplify data entry
  7. Layout rules and Validation rules to improve data quality
  8. Webforms to bring in data from outside the CRM
  9. Links to bring external content into your CRM
  10. Buttons to take actions quickly
  11. Templates to improve productivity
  12. Widgets to add capabilities
  13. Custom functions to meet niche requirements
  14. Sandbox to test your team module before deploying it
  15. Reports and Dashboards to track data related to your team module

 Limitations:

Operations not possible with Team modules:

  1. Review process
  2. Escalation rules
  3. Review Process

Who is eligible to be assigned as an admin, a member, or a requester within a team module?  

Any user, regardless of their current profile or role, can be assigned as an admin or a member in a team module. This implies that any user has the potential to fill any of the five profile (admins, requesters, managers, members, participants) types available within a team module.

How many team module admins can be added to a Team Module?

You can add maximum of 5 admins to a team module regardless of the profile type they have.

Can a user in a teamspace automatically have access to all modules in the teamspace? 

No, simply being added to a teamspace does not grant a user visibility or access to its team modules. The user must be specifically assigned a role within the team module—such as a requester, manager, admin, participant, or member—before they can see or interact with it.

What is this Folder option when setting up a team module? 

Folders serve the purpose of organizing modules when additional structure is needed. For instance, in a Marketing team's space, various folders can be created to group related team or custom modules based on specific needs. You could have a folder for "Customer Testimonials," another for "Campaigns," and yet another for "Product Launches." Each folder acts like a dedicated section, housing all the modules relevant to that particular aspect of the team's work, much like how a physical office might have different file cabinets for separate projects or functions.
Note: When setting up a team module, if no specific folder has been created within your teamspace, the default folder assigned will be labeled "Root."

Can I import data into my team module? 

Yes, you have the ability to import data into your team module. It's possible to upload as many as 5000 records at once using files in formats like .xls, .xlsx, .vcf, or .csv. If you need to import more than 5000 records simultaneously, you should use a .csv file. Additionally, data can be imported from other CRM systems.

Is it possible to personalize a list pages in a team module using Canvas?

Yes you can use canvas to personalize the team module list views.

To customize the list view using Canvas:
  1. Click the Modules tab in the primary sidebar.
  2. Hover over the team module in the secondary sidebar and click the more icon.
  3. Click on Canvas.
  4. Module will be auto selected in the Create your own Customized List page, Select the Type from Custom List, Tile or Table.
  5. Click Create.

See Also >> Customizing Module View Using the all-new Canvas design suite   

How can I add subforms in my team module?

To add subforms in a team module:
  1. Click the modules tab in the primary sidebar.
  2. Hover over the team module in the secondary sidebar and click the more icon.
  3. Select + Fields.
  4. Drag and drop subforms on the Create [team module] layout page.
  5. You can customize the subforms by adding fields and adjusting the permissions for the subform.
  6. Click Save.

How many layouts can a team module have? 

A team module can only have a single layout, but you can customize this layout to meet your specific needs.

Where can a Requester raise their request? 

Requesters can raise their request via the My Requests tab from their CRM homepage.


Can team module admin see the team's records?

A team module admin has the ability to view the team's records, given they are the primary authority responsible for granting access to the team module. They have the power to designate other users as requesters, participants, members, managers, or even admins within that specific module.

If I create a team module in a sandbox, can I deploy it or will the admin have to deploy it?  

Users who have administrative privileges or those granted the Manage Sandbox permission are authorized to deploy team modules developed within a sandbox environment.

What are the fields that are not available in team modules?  

Rollup summary fields, multiselect look up fields and multi user fields are not available in team modules.

What are the maximum number of fields that can be added to a team module? 

The maximum number of fields you can add varies based on your Zoho CRM edition. For details on field limits and the availability of other CRM features by edition, click here.

Does the addition of a Team Module Administrator roles affect the authority of the Central Administrator in Zoho CRM?

The addition of the Teamspace and Team Module Administrator roles does not interfere with the authority of the Central Administrator for Zoho CRM. As we have detailed in this document, tasks and actions related to administration across the organization such as adding or deleting users, changing company settings, creating roles and profiles, and automation etc, will continue to be managed by the Central Administrator.

The Team Module Administrators are specifically responsible for managing their assigned team modules and do not have the authority to alter the organization-wide setup. Their duties include adding fields to their team modules and performing routine administrative tasks. These tasks encompass assigning roles such as managers, requesters, participants, and members within the team module, as well as removing users from the team modules.

The primary purpose of appointing Team Module Administrators is to enhance team productivity and collaboration by delegating routine administrative tasks. This delegation means that the Central Administrator does not need to handle every day-to-day task within each team module. Instead, they can entrust these responsibilities to a capable user within the team. Despite this delegation, they have the right to override any decisions made by the Team Module Administrators if deemed necessary.

Please note that the Organization Admin can also serve as the Team Module Admin; it is not mandatory to have a separate Team Module Admin. If the Central Admin wants to delegate the administration of the Team Module, they can assign the Team Module Admin role to a team leader, allowing them to customize and automate the Team Module. Additionally, the Central Administrator retains all organization-wide administrative rights and has the power to appoint or remove any Team Module Administrators. This setup ensures that while Team Module Administrators handle specific tasks within their modules, they are not the sole authorities and cannot bypass the Central Administrator's decisions.

For additional information on team modules and their features, please consult these help documents:
Configuring Team modules

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