All You Need to Know About Zoho Creator 6.0

Zoho has introduced the Zoho Creator 6.0 as a unified platform that is capable of solving all the digital needs of creators. It has been made to help businesses accelerate their digital transformation and modernization efforts.Packed with a strong and reliable arsenal of must-have low-code tools that a business might need to build agile solutions, Zoho Creator 6.0 enhances speed and innovation more easily than ever. Not just this, the Zoho updates enable the businesses to empower everyone in their workforce to collaborate and build software to help explore new business avenues, boost employee productivity, and transform the customer experience.

Customization Tools Offered By Zoho Creator 6.0

1. Multi-developer Environment

Zoho Creator offers a multi-developer environment that allows the developers to collaboratively work on projects. There are different environments for development and testing that help in improving the time to market as various teams work in parallel.

2. Serverless Cloud Function

The serverless functions of Zoho Creator allow you to execute logical blocks of code without implementing complicated server infrastructure. Along with the use of Deluge, Zoho Creator also supports Java and Node.js which increases the scope of application development for many people.

3. Artificial Intelligence

You can use artificial intelligence to build intelligent business applications with the use of Zoho Creator. The AI-driven smart import allows you to import data from anywhere, determine data relationships, and create data models on the behalf of users. The AI tasks such as predictive and sentiment analysis and keyword extraction are built-in and ready to be used on the basis of business requirements.

4. Unified Data Service

The unified data service in Zoho Creator helps in automating the API contract evaluation and authentication while also enabling business users to connect with almost any service in the world and making sure that there is a safe data transfer.

5. APIs

The APIs of Zoho Creator help in connecting with other Zoho Creator and third-party applications through the OAuth authentication. This helps in accessing data, simplifying difficult tasks, and extending the application functionality.

6. SDKs

The mobile software development kit in Zoho Creator can be used for customizing the user interface, adding unique capabilities, and improving the back-end logic of your applications. Zoho Creator offers SDK for both iOS and Android.

Low-code Application Development

The Zoho Creator 6.0 combines the robust power of application development, business intelligence and analytics, process automation, and smart integrations into one platform. It enables businesses to deliver end-to-end business solutions in an efficient manner. Moreover, it also provides a simplified development experience by extending low code capabilities to all stages of software development.The features that C6 comes with are mentioned below.

1. Multi-Device App Creator

In the C6 version, Zoho offers an opportunity for businesses to empower everyone in an organization by building modern and data-rich applications whilst changing the manual and traditional processes. Zoho Creator comes with an intuitive visual builder and ready-made code blocks that enhance the speed of development and also help in bringing the application to life easily. The multi-device app creator enables application development in just five steps:

• Quick Start: Zoho supports one-click migration from Excel, Access, Filemaker, Caspio, and more. It comes with advanced capabilities that directly pick relationships and formulae from the source.
• Data Management: You can collect and manage built-in digital forms by seamlessly collecting input from users in an organized way and performing advanced data operations. The free app builder allows over 250 API calls/day and helps you put vital information from other apps too.
• Intuitive Builder: The customized app development of Zoho Creator 6.0 enables drag and drop app building. You can model the application’s architecture and the logical structure of the database, create great applications, and also configure advanced workflows by just dragging and dropping code blocks in the UIs.
• Automation: You can factor in the scenarios and get notified by adding conditional logic, exceptions, and business rule workflows with a simple drag and drop code block. You can also configure real-time alerts on the predefined conditions while getting up to 50 email notifications per day with the free plan.
• Analytics: Zoho Creator 6.0 lets you manage performance and usage. With the prebuilt dashboarding and reporting capabilities, you can create and embed advanced visualizations in the application without integrating it with a third-party reporting application for the analytics needs.

2. Integrations Creator

The Zoho updates in C6 promises the user to gain access to around 600+ applications and services that are ready to connect and bring all the business apps together. You create contextual workflows, get emails, reports, records, and more to move across the applications automatically.The integrations creator lets you do the following:

• Bridge Applications: By using the Zoho Creator 6.0, you can bridge all your business applications in just one click. Integrations just as applications and functions in Zoho Creator follow the concept of reusability. Once you set it up properly, it is at your disposal all through the journey.
• Automation: With the integration creator, you can automate the workflow with no information gaps while connecting in seconds. It allows you to integrate your business with every other application from the gallery, automate workflow and facilitate unhindered information flow.
• Customization: The use of integrations creator enables you to customize without any limits. Right from off-the-shelf templates to the advanced logic using Deluge, you can deal with any business connectivity hurdles with seamlessness.
• Collaboration: You can collaborate with your team, add team members to plan, strategize, and even execute the business workflows and operations.
• Insights: You can collect insights and future proof your business with interactive dashboards and a centralized log. In addition, you can also analyze the business performance in real-time using metrics that help in evaluating and revamping the current processes.

3. Business Process Creator

The drag and drop blueprint builder in Zoho Creator makes it easy for anyone in an organization to map the processes and define different stages. You can take the support of a Zoho Creator consultant to understand how one should decide who is in charge of what, set conditions, and automate actions.Zoho has added the business process creator feature to let the users achieve end-to-end process excellence with visual blueprints. The company understands that the processes form the foundation of some of the most successful businesses.However, it can be difficult to stay on top of all the business processes and ensure that everything is working just as needed. This is where blueprints come in to help the users visualize and design all processes, and run them efficiently with great visibility. The blueprints help in the following ways:

• Visually Mapping of Processes: You can create detailed and robust blueprints with the drag and drop blueprint builder and make the process simple for everyone to follow. At any given time, if someone comes in, you can easily guide them through their role.
• Accountability: Zoho Creator 6.0 allows you to clearly define responsibilities including who should perform an action and when they should perform it to keep the right people accountable.
• Gathering Information: You can prompt the employees to provide important information and access it at any time. They can attach important documents and add notes or any important data during the process.
• Accelerate Approvals: You can configure multi level approvals for almost any process, set the required conditions, add approvers, and customize approval emails to enable your teams to get the important approvals while they are on the go.
• Quick Communication: You can configure relevant notifications and send them as needed for keeping things moving. Let all your employees know what must be done and when it should be done without any delays.
• Automation: After a stage is completed, you can set up actions for being executed immediately. The business process creator allows you to automate things such as sending email notifications, updating important data, pushing and pulling data from other applications you use, and even running custom scripts.

4. BI & Analytics Creator

This is a component of Zoho Creator that empowers the business teams to build a comprehensive business solution with meaningful insights on real-time information along with automating tasks on the go. What’s more, you can use Zia which is Zoho’s conversational AI assistant as it helps in getting an instant answer for all the questions while auto-generating visualizations and quick decision making.With the BI & Analytics Creator, you can harness the power of business intelligence and analytics capabilities in Zoho Creator and transform huge amounts of data into actionable insights. It also helps in empowering the employees to view and understand data with easy visualizations along with making informed business decisions later. The BI & Analytics creator helps in the following ways:

• Data Visualization: You can make the data analysis quick and easy with the intuitive drag and drop interface which helps in creating interactive reports and dashboards quickly. You can also add any number of charts, widgets, and tables for making the data easy to understand and point to any deviations or anomalies. You can use HTML for adding contextual information and images for enriching the dashboards.
• Integration: With the Zoho updates of BI & Analytics creator, you can connect to any data source at a time. If you have a lot of disconnected data stuck in disparate systems, you can combine it under one roof and get comprehensive visibility into the business processes. You can upload the data from spreadsheets or online storage devices and even use APIs to extract data from MySQL servers or other databases.
• Augmentation: You can make faster and better decisions using AI. Zia, the conversational AI assistant of Zoho, helps in getting instant answers for all the questions, auto-generate visualizations, and speeds up decision-making as well. As time goes ahead, Zia also learns data and business needs while helping you build key metrics with charts and reports.
• Collaboration: Collaborative analytics enables you to take absolute control over all the data. You can use fine-grained access controls with specific options such as read-only, report authoring, export, read-write, and much more while sharing the reports and dashboards with your colleagues. You can also find which criteria are to be used for factors such as the role of a person and how they will use the data. The commenting feature can be used to begin conversations with peers on any reports or the dashboards.
• Self-Service Portals: The reporting portals can be set up for customers and vendors. It is possible to create your own reporting portal or microsite, embed the reports, and also offer contextual insights to the vendors, business consultants, and customers. The portals can be personalized with company logos and other elements that match the brand identity and enhance the user experience with authentication.
• Mobile BI: Mobile business intelligence gives a comprehensive view of the data even when you are on the go. You can allow your employees to access reports, share important information, and take action from their mobile phones. For easy access, they also favor the reports often and access them even when they are offline.

5. Robotic Process Automation

The robotic process automation feature in the Zoho updates of C6 allows businesses to automate even the most mundane and repetitive tasks such as moving files from one location to another without any human intervention. All you have to do is define a set of instructions and the bot will be carrying out the task at high speed.

Simple Deployment and Distribution Capabilities

1. Simple Deployment

Zoho Creator 6.0 allows the creators to launch their applications in an environment of their choice. This includes development, staging, and production with just one click deployment based on the readiness of an application. You can add suitable features and make changes without making disturbances in the actual application in the production. What’s more, there is no need to reinvent everything when it comes to mobile because all applications become automatically available on native iOS and Android apps.

2. Self-service Portals

You can create self-service portals for your customers, employees, business partners and help them find all the information in just one place. With the use of portals, the users can get context-specific access to all applications, find support, access resources, raise support requests, and access resources.

3. Easy App Distribution

You can use the built-in mobile distribution management available in Zoho Creator and distribute the apps to all the users including customers and partners. The apps can be distributed on devices that cover various operating systems. This admin-friendly interface makes it simple to configure corporate-owned devices and apps while automatically managing policies and configurations.

4. Multideployment

Irrespective of whether you choose to deploy the application on Zoho Cloud or any public cloud such as AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or on-premise, Zoho Creator 6.0 offers a consistent experience.

5. Centralization

You can allow your application to easily access the information needed while protecting the data with features such as role-based access controls, single sign-on, and password policies.

6. Security

Zoho Creator 6.0 also includes industry-standard security features such as data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and IP restriction for keeping the data safe in the cloud and on-premise as well.

Conclusion

Zoho Creator 6.0 comes with an update that lets you take control of the complete application life cycle from development to production. It allows holistic application development life cycle management along with helping the businesses to focus completely on the application life cycle including requirement planning, development, change and configuration management, maintenance, and governance.You can see your application through different phases including development, staging, and production while also ensuring that you deliver quality software. The developers have the flexibility to communicate in real time, test the features specific to user roles, track suitable changes made to the codebase with version history, get notified about changes made to the app, and make sure that the app is safe before it gets rolled out.If you wish to explore Zoho Creator 6.0 and make the most out of the benefits that it offers then get in touch with our experienced Zoho Creator consultants at Encaptechno. We will make your journey seamless, efficient, and productive.