Catalyst Connect, A Premium Zoho Developer, Implements Zoho CRM Sandbox Best Practices

TUCSON, Ariz., March 13, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As of March 1, Catalyst Connect has fully updated their development protocols to make full use of the Sandbox feature that Zoho released as part of the Enterprise, Ultimate, and Zoho One editions of the CRM. The importance of building and testing any new features or system updates in a test environment such as the Sandbox has become an increasing necessity in existing client systems where these is live data. The speed at which Zoho is releasing new features and updates in the CRM combined with the high level of customization that client's processes sometimes require can make the most minimal change create the biggest repercussions. Something as simple as changing the spelling of a value can affect everything from Email Notifications, Field Update Triggers, Custom Functions, to Reports and even API integrations.

Catalyst Connect urges Zoho clients to "start adopting the use of Zoho Sandbox as part of their system improvement protocols." If you do not have any sort of system improvement protocols in place, Catalyst Connect suggests the following basic guidelines.

Collect Feedback and Suggestions - Have a system in place to collect internal tickets on system issues or needs for improvement. The Cases module can be a good place to enter this information if it is a module that you do not currently use.

Feature/Update Screening, Prioritization, and Approval - Regularly review these submissions with your department heads to identify the most urgent and recurring issues or improvement needs. Select the features that you would like to implement next and set a priority and a timeline to get these completed (usually by the next scheduled meeting). Before completely approving a new feature for buildout, keep in mind that you should include a review of any other automations, reports, or even internal processes that could be affected by this change. If other items are being affected, further scoping and planning around these changes is recommended.

Sandbox Feature/Update Buildout - Send a detailed scope of the desired new features or updates to your system administrator for buildout. This can be either someone within your company who makes the changes on their own or possibly a Zoho Partner who you work with to implement system changes. Either way, being as detailed as possible with your request in order to allow for an easy and quick buildout. It is recommended to follow a template for sending requests if one is available for you.

Sandbox Feature/Update Testing - Once the buildout is completed make sure that the feature is thoroughly tested. Minimum it is recommended that you have a technical test and a use case test. The technical test is usually an end to end test done by the developer (or preferably by a colleague) who worked on the functionality. Then the use case test should be done by someone who actually uses the system on a regular basis. The goal in either test is to try and break the new functionality and find all the potential issues that could occur when the feature is set live.

Push Live Approval - If the testing phase goes well and there are no issues that need to be addressed, the new feature should still go through final approval before it is set live. It is recommended that all new features that have gone testing and are ready to be set live go through one last demo with the team that originally approved the feature request for final Push Live Approval. Once everyone approves, then you are ready to set the changes live.

The following are some things to keep in mind when pushing changes live from the CRM Sandbox:

Deleting Fields and Rules in Sandbox does not delete the items on the live system as it creates a conflict. You will need to delete on the live side first and then push the changes once you receive approval.

Along the same lines, there are some changes that can only be made live. Be sure to ask your system admin if the request can be done in the Sandbox or if it will need to be done live to properly plan around that.

Only push the changes that are ready to be set live. Sandbox gives you the option to select certain changes to be pushed live at a time. If you run into a conflict that prevents your set of features to be pushed, try doing a few at a time to identify which is causing the issue.

Changes made on the live side do not sync to Sandbox automatically. This means that you will need to Refresh the Sandbox in order to have the test environment to be exactly the same as the live environment. However, you can only refresh once every 30 days so try to make all changes within the Sandbox only once you have set one in place.

The guidelines described above are similar to the ones that Catalyst Connect follows for their own internal system improvements as well as any ongoing support requests from their existing clients. If you have any questions on this or other Zoho best practices or would like to learn more about Catalyst Connect, please visit their site https://catalystconnect.com. For more information on the Sandbox feature, please visit Zoho's Help page here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/kb/articles/using-sandbox

About Catalyst Connect:
Catalyst Connect is a Premium Zoho Implementation Partner and web development firm based in Tucson AZ. Their team specializes in strategic software consulting, business development and workflow design. By implementing effective, easy-to-use systems their clients are able to grow and scale their businesses efficiently.

SOURCE Catalyst Group Development

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