Zoho has landed a high-profile enterprise win.

The company 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, completed in just a few months, replaced a failed CRM implementation and now supports sales operations across more than 40 locations in 13 states.

For Zoho, the deal reinforces its push into large, complex enterprises that want customization without the overhead often associated with traditional CRM giants.

For Acme Brick, it’s a reset after a rocky experience with its previous provider.

A Fast Migration After a Failed CRM

Acme Brick signed with Zoho in March 2025, activated Zoho CRM in August, and completed a full migration from its prior CRM system by October. That timeline is notable for a company operating across 45 sales locations and serving both residential and commercial markets, along with distributor networks in non-direct sales regions.

The implementation was led by Zoho’s Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS) team, which worked directly with Acme Brick to customize the platform and integrate it with legacy systems and workflows. The company has already built custom functions and deep integrations tailored to its century-old business processes.

Adoption, often the Achilles’ heel of CRM projects, has reportedly improved significantly across sales teams—some of whom have been with the company for 30 to 40 years.

“We needed an intuitive, integratable CRM that our salespeople would actually use,” said Julie Lloyd, Sales Enablement Manager at Acme Brick.

That usability factor appears to have been decisive.

Why Zoho Won Over Salesforce and HubSpot

After its previous CRM deployment faltered, Acme Brick evaluated 10 vendors, including Salesforce and HubSpot. According to the company, each alternative would have required changes to its established business and sales processes to extract baseline value.

Zoho CRM stood out for its customization capabilities, low- and no-code development tools, integration flexibility, UI/UX simplicity, and what the company described as “platinum support.”

In other words, the platform adapted to the business—not the other way around.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important for legacy enterprises that want digital modernization without operational disruption. Rather than forcing process redesign to fit rigid SaaS workflows, Acme Brick opted for what Zoho calls “progressive modernization”—incremental transformation layered onto existing strengths.

Support as a Differentiator

One of the more pointed aspects of the announcement centers on implementation and post-deployment support.

“With our previous CRM provider, it felt like they didn’t have any skin in the game regarding our success,” said Stan McCarthy, Senior Vice President of Sales at Acme Brick. He cited reliance on a third-party implementation partner that disengaged after the contract period, leaving the company dependent on self-service support channels.

By contrast, Zoho’s EBS team remained embedded throughout the development and post-launch phases. Acme Brick was not handed off to a separate implementation partner—Zoho served as both vendor and implementation team.

In the competitive CRM landscape, where ecosystem partners often handle deployment, this hands-on model may resonate with enterprises seeking tighter accountability.

Enterprise CRM Is Evolving

Zoho’s success at Acme Brick reflects broader shifts in the CRM market.

Salesforce continues to dominate large enterprise deployments, while HubSpot has expanded upmarket with improved enterprise capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics remains a strong contender in organizations already aligned with its ecosystem.

However, CRM buyers are increasingly prioritizing:

• Customization without heavy coding

• Deep integration with legacy systems

• Faster time-to-value

• Predictable pricing

• Direct vendor accountability

Zoho, traditionally associated with SMB and mid-market customers, has been steadily pushing into the enterprise tier by emphasizing integrated application suites, cost efficiency, and in-house implementation expertise.

Landing a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary adds weight to that strategy.

What It Means for Industrial and Manufacturing CRM

Manufacturing and building materials companies present unique CRM challenges. Sales cycles can be long. Customer relationships are often multi-decade. Distributor networks add complexity. And field sales teams may resist tools perceived as cumbersome.

In this context, adoption is just as critical as feature depth.

If Zoho CRM can maintain strong engagement across Acme Brick’s geographically distributed salesforce, it could serve as a case study for other industrial enterprises considering alternatives to legacy CRM incumbents.

Ajay Kummar Bajaj, Global Head of EBS at Zoho, emphasized the adaptability factor, describing Acme Brick as a diversified building materials business requiring a platform that is simple to implement, use, develop, and maintain.

The emphasis on simplicity is strategic. As AI-driven CRM features proliferate across the industry, enterprises still grapple with foundational needs: clean data, reliable workflows, and user adoption.

A Quiet but Strategic Enterprise Win

While this deployment may not carry the splash of an AI product launch, it underscores something arguably more significant: CRM consolidation at the enterprise level remains fluid.

Zoho’s ability to execute a full migration within months—and retain deep involvement post-launch—positions it as a credible alternative for companies dissatisfied with complex implementations or vendor handoffs.

For Acme Brick, the payoff is already visible in stronger engagement from prospective clients and improved sales adoption across its network.

For Zoho, the message is clear: enterprise CRM buyers are looking beyond brand name dominance and weighing flexibility, integration, and support just as heavily.

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