Zoho just scored a notable enterprise win—this time in the building materials industry.

Zoho Corporation announced the successful deployment of Zoho CRM at Acme Brick Company, one of the largest brick manufacturers in the United States and a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The rollout replaced Acme Brick’s previous CRM provider in a tightly executed migration completed within five months.

For a 130-plus-year-old manufacturer operating across 13 states and more than 40 sales locations, that’s not a minor upgrade. It’s a structural shift in how sales operations are managed.

From Frustration to Full Migration

Acme Brick signed with Zoho in March 2025, activated Zoho CRM in August, and completed a full migration from its previous provider by October.

The timeline is significant in enterprise CRM terms. Large, distributed sales organizations often face extended deployment cycles—especially when legacy integrations and entrenched workflows are involved.

According to Stan McCarthy, Senior Vice President of Sales at Acme Brick, the previous CRM experience was marked by limited support and third-party implementation gaps.

“With our previous CRM provider, it felt like they didn’t have any skin in the game regarding our success,” McCarthy said. “They recommended a third-party implementation partner that disappeared after our contract ended, leaving us unsupported.”

In contrast, Zoho’s Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS) team handled the implementation directly and remained engaged post-deployment.

“We weren’t handed off to an implementation team, because Zoho was our implementation team,” McCarthy added.

That continuity of support appears to have been a deciding factor.

Customization Without Rewriting the Business

After a failed CRM deployment, Acme Brick evaluated 10 vendors—including major players like Salesforce and HubSpot. The common sticking point: most platforms would have required the company to significantly alter its existing sales processes to extract value.

For an organization with decades-long employee tenure and deeply embedded workflows, that was a nonstarter.

“We needed an intuitive, integratable CRM that our salespeople, some of whom have been with the company for 30 or 40 years, would actually use,” said Julie Lloyd, Sales Enablement Manager at Acme Brick.

Zoho CRM ultimately won out due to its customization capabilities, low- and no-code development features, and integration flexibility—allowing Acme Brick to modernize systems without restructuring a business model that has been successful for more than a century.

That philosophy aligns with what Zoho calls “progressive modernization”—updating infrastructure without forcing disruptive process overhauls.

Deep Integration Across 13 States

The deployment wasn’t limited to basic CRM functionality.

Acme Brick has already:

• Built custom functions within Zoho CRM

• Integrated the platform with legacy systems and workflows

• Activated adoption across 40+ sales locations

• Standardized operations across 13 states

The result, according to Zoho, has been improved engagement from prospective clients and stronger solution adoption internally.

In industries like manufacturing and building materials—where digital transformation often trails SaaS and retail sectors—ease of use and integration depth are critical. Adoption failures are common when platforms feel imposed rather than embedded.

Why This Matters for Zoho

Zoho has long positioned itself as a value-driven alternative to heavyweight CRM vendors. But enterprise-scale wins—particularly with established, diversified businesses—signal growing traction beyond SMB markets.

Ajay Kummar Bajaj, Global Head of EBS at Zoho, framed the partnership as a long-term alignment.

“Acme is a diversified, unique building materials business requiring a powerful yet adaptable sales platform that is simple to implement, simple to use, simple to develop, and simple to maintain,” Bajaj said.

The emphasis on simplicity stands out. In the CRM market, feature density often increases complexity. Zoho’s pitch here centers on adaptability without forcing operational reinvention.

CRM Market Context

The CRM space remains fiercely competitive, with Salesforce continuing to dominate enterprise accounts and HubSpot expanding upmarket. At the same time, AI-driven CRM enhancements—from predictive forecasting to automated engagement—are reshaping buyer expectations.

For legacy-heavy industries like manufacturing, however, foundational needs often outweigh bleeding-edge AI features:

• Reliable integration with ERP and legacy systems

• Scalable support across distributed sales teams

• Configurability without heavy developer overhead

• Vendor involvement beyond contract signature

Zoho’s direct implementation model through its EBS team may resonate with organizations burned by partner-led deployments that fade post-launch.

A Century-Old Company, Modernized

Acme Brick services residential and commercial projects across direct and distributor markets, operating from 45 sales locations in its primary 13-state footprint.

Modernizing CRM across such a distributed footprint—without alienating long-tenured sales teams—is often the hardest part of digital transformation.

If the early adoption signals hold, Zoho’s deployment could become a reference case for progressive modernization in traditional manufacturing sectors.

For Zoho, it reinforces a broader narrative: enterprise CRM doesn’t have to mean enterprise complexity.

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