Introduction

We are here with the next version of our CRM, V9! 
Vtiger CRM’s next version is not just another improved CRM version - it is entirely user-centric!
With a brand new user interface (UI), V9 focuses on bringing the next-level experience to users while adding intelligent capabilities. We have used the ‘five factors of usability’ to design V9 screens. This has helped us develop a product with intuitive navigation, enhanced browsing experience, inclusive layouts, an effective grouping of modules, and customizable features.  
Vtiger’s ‘delight the users’ principle has resulted in a product that focuses on:

• Enhanced user experience
• Comprehensive One View
• Dashboards that deliver 
• Benefits of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI & ML) 
• Business on the go with our mobile app, Vtiger Lite 
• Improved discovery of Main menu items
• Customization - Screen colors, Favorites, Email templates, and more

Let us go into the details of improvements in V9. 

Improved User Experience

For many Sales, Marketing, and Customer service professionals, Vtiger is the only tool they use to get their work done during the day. From creating meetings to following up with clients to viewing forecasts, Vtiger is the single platform from which their work gets done. 
We heard from customers, partners, and employees about the areas that can be improved. We researched design theories and made multiple prototypes before deploying this UI.
The result is V9, with well-planned layouts and easy-to-navigate screens. 

We are happy with the results and believe, so will you be!

Look & Feel

A pleasant-looking product that is easy on the eye is what we have been aiming for, and we have achieved it with V9. So what’s new with the Look & Feel?

• Less is more! V9 looks uncluttered, with well-spaced and placed features on its screens.
• The predominantly blue pages have changed to white. 
• Custom illustrations have been added to liven things up.
• Icons based on Line Art, have replaced the older solid icons to provide a lighter feel.
• Dark mode theme support - added especially for you all night owls.

Navigation & Discovery

When you have a product that caters to different CRM funnels, you obviously have a large number of modules, applications, and features. Navigating the screens to look for a module or feature you want to use can become confusing or exhausting. 
Hence, we have devoted time to creating a layout that allows you to navigate and find features, screens, and tabs easily.

1. Main Menu: Modules and apps are grouped and listed to make them easy for users to discover. We also have a map in the Main Menu.  
2. Search and section shortcuts: Records often have many fields, and searching for a particular field can become frustrating. Hence, we have added search and section shortcuts in the expanded view and edit view at a record-level. 
3. As mentioned above in Customization, Favorites and Grouping features have been added to enhance discoverability. 
4. You can also pin your favorite modules to the top bar and unpin if not required.

UI Personalization

Wouldn’t it be delightful to be able to change colors and layouts for your CRM screens? We think so too! 

• Personalizing the Main menu
• You can now personalize the Main Menu. Yes, you read that right. Go ahead and group menu items in the exact order that you want. You can move apps, categories, and items within a category to be visible and easily accessible.
• Favorites
• Wouldn’t you like to display frequently used modules or apps separately instead of going through the entire menu to reach them? Now you can, with our Favorites feature. 
• Add frequently used modules or apps to Favorites. They are ‘starred’ and displayed separately in the Main Menu for easy accessibility. We feel this is one of the most useful features we have added to V9. 
• Dark Mode
• Another of our customizable features in the Dark mode option. The day you feel bored with your current white screen, simply use a toggle to change the display. It is as simple as that.
• By the way, with some users, dark screens are known to reduce eye strain. 

Browsing Experience 

We finetuned and cleaned up the layouts and navigation. So when we extended this treatment to record-level screens, we found browsing and working on the CRM became a pleasant experience.  Listed below are resultant changes:  

• Record and Quick Create - The action items in these two features have been redesigned to display items in a single column rather than multiple columns. You can easily find actionable items without having to scan the screen in multiple directions. 
• Record view changes.
  • Edit option - The Edit icon is now in the List View enabling you to edit a record directly from List View. 
  • Friendly sidebar in the record view - When you hover over a related tab icon in the record view, the sidebar expands to display all the icons.
  • Header and key fields are combined to show all important fields in a single section.
  • Search option - You can now look for information in related records by expanding the search to a full view.
  • Roll up option in History displays information from child records right next to the Activity section. 
  • Single Timeline view in record history - See all activities on a deal, contact, etc., on a single timeline. Use filters to find specific activities.  
  • Personalize the Kanbans to suit your needs by using View by & Sort by features.
  • Hide empty columns for better clarity.
• Forms - Labels are right-aligned and shown next to the value. 
• Enhanced Kanban View for Deals & Tasks - You can now,
  • Personalize the Kanbans to suit your needs by using View by & Sort by features.
  • Hide empty columns for better clarity.

Speed

How wonderful it would be if we could display information within a second or two. While we do not claim to perform magic, we definitely have speeded up the responsiveness of your CRM, 

• Full previews for your records in a separate window will help you work through a list of records faster than before. Clicking on a row in the List View opens the record view in a pop-up. Just close the popup to get back to the list instantly. 
• Separate Search and History pages to help you search faster.  
• Reduced number of clicks.
  • View every field directly in the Summary View. The Deep Dive view in V8 (detailed view) is now woven into the Summary View. It is now easy to find and edit any field in a record without navigating to another page. 
  • History of a record. You can segregate records in History based on the type of activity. It takes just a click to select the ‘Only’ option in the History filter to display records based on a specific type of activity (for example, only phone calls or only emails). 
  • Report generation requires fewer clicks than before.

Calculus - V9’s AI & ML Feature 

AI is the future of business. 
And when AI is integrated with a CRM, you have a tool that will help you drive your business objectives to a new high. V9 comes with an enhanced version of Vtiger’s AI engine, Calculus. Built to assist with CRM processes, Calculus uses historical data to predict actions,  forecast trends, and suggest next-steps in your processes.
Let us see how Calculus is useful for your marketing, sales, and customer support teams.

Calculus for Marketing 

• Identify the right leads and improve prospecting.
• Suggest appropriate and relevant content for emails.

Calculus for Sales

• Get in touch with your contacts with timely alerts and notifications
• Improve deal conversion by recommending tasks to be performed at each stage of a deal 
• Identify potential risks on a deal to take proactive actions
• Forecast deal closure status
• Rate sales team conversations

Calculus for Customer Support 

• Offer 24X7 support via the Live Chat. 
• Offload common questions to Live Chat and prioritize tasks. This frees the support team from responding to common queries. It ensures they have time to respond to complex issues.
• Send the right response to customer queries by using recommendations and thereby reducing response time.
• Highlight important information in cases to be reviewed.
• Improve efficiency by maximizing the utility of agents in support. 

Isn't that exciting, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. To know more about Vtiger Calculus, click here.
To view Vtiger CRM documentation, visit our Knowledge Base.