Zoho CRM Automation & Integration

Job Overview:
We are a software company selling multiple variations of our flagship software. Our technology stack includes:

Zoho One (CRM & Books) for sales, account management, and financial invoicing.

Thales Sentinel LDK (EMS) hosted on a private cloud server for license management (Dongles & SL Keys).

Zammad Instance 1 (Customer Support): Dedicated to technical support ticketing.

Zammad Instance 2 (Billing): Dedicated to financial operations, reading 3 specific mailboxes: Invoice (new sales), Renewal (yearly Maintenance Agreements), and Reseller (channel management).

Currently, our Zoho setup lacks structure, functioning more like a "scratch pad" with inconsistent data entry from our sales team. We are seeking a long-term Zoho Solutions Architect/Consultant on a monthly retainer to clean up our environment, enforce strict data governance, and integrate Zoho with Thales via RESTful API, alongside our dual Zammad instances, using a predictable, monthly batch-billing workflow.
Scope of Work:

Phase 1: Zoho Data Governance & Cleanup (Immediate Priority)

Eliminate Junk Data: Design and implement layout rules, validation rules, mandatory fields, and strict picklists so our team cannot enter unorganized or incomplete data.

Identify client records that may having missing fields that may break the automation.

Asset & Product Mapping: Restructure Zoho CRM so customer data, Intella software variations, and license assets (Dongle/SL IDs) are perfectly organized.

Automated Date Logic: Program Zoho to automatically calculate anniversary dates to the last day of the calendar month upon a new sale (e.g., a sale on Jan 10, 2026, automatically sets the yearly Maintenance Agreement end date to Jan 31, 2027).

Phase 2: Thales API & Monthly Batch Invoicing (with Co-Termination Alerting)

The Monthly Renewal Batch: On the 1st of every month, Zoho must look ahead and batch-generate Maintenance Agreement (MA) renewal invoices for all accounts expiring 3 months out (90 days), with automated batch follow-ups sent at 60 and 30 days for unpaid invoices.

Smart Co-Termination (Invoice Consolidation): If a customer owns multiple dongles with split expiration months (e.g., 8 expiring in January, 2 expiring in March), Zoho must flag this account during the 90-day check. It should trigger an internal notification or a specialized email offer to "co-terminate" and align all keys to a single renewal month to consolidate their invoicing.

Thales API Validation: Before issuing any batch of renewal invoices, Zoho must securely query our private cloud Thales RESTful API via the Dongle/SL ID to verify that the licenses are still active and valid.

Channel Routing: The system must differentiate between standard customers and Resellers, adjusting pricing and routing communication accordingly.

Phase 3: Dual-Instance Zammad Integration

Billing Zammad Integration: Ensure all batch invoices generated by Zoho Books seamlessly integrate with our Billing Zammad instance via our three dedicated mailboxes (Invoicing, Renewals, Resellers), creating clean ticket threads for customer replies.

Phase 4: Ongoing Retainer & Growth

Provide ongoing consultancy to optimize Zoho for sales tracking, lead generation, marketing automation, and executive revenue reporting.

Technical & Professional Requirements:

Expert Zoho Consultant: Advanced mastery of Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, and Deluge scripting.

API Integration Specialist: Proven track record of connecting Zoho to external tools via secure REST APIs/Webhooks (specifically private servers and ticketing systems like Zammad).

Process-Driven: Ability to consult, guide, and dictate CRM best practices to business leadership rather than just taking basic coding orders.