Imagine all your payment processing gets done in a week instead of three weeks. Or all your inbound customer queries get answered immediately and you have a customer support team up 24 x 7, which would have been otherwise impossible for you to do.
That's what business process outsourcing does for you.
TL;DR: Best software for BPO companies
- Scribe
- Zoho CRM
- Dialpad AI Contact Center
- Kissflow
- ProcessMaker
- Nintex
- CloudTalk
- Bitrix24
- Five9
- Appian
- Newgen
- RingCentral
What is business process outsourcing?
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is also known as subcontracting or externalization, where a third party is appointed to conduct a company's business functions.
Although BPO started in the manufacturing industry once, it's now used in various business processes. BPOs conduct both front-office and back-office operations. Some common functions that are operated by BPOs include customer service, payroll management, sales, marketing, etc.
What are BPO tools?
While there are a lot of advantages to business process outsourcing ( mostly like saving revenues, time, and better customer service), a lot goes behind the scenes in developing successful BPO operations. A smooth operation requires a dedicated team of experts and cutting-edge tools and technology.
For example, instead of doing manual data entry, you can use a CRM tool that can automate the process. Similarly, an autodialer speeds up the process as you don't need to dial up the prospects individually.
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Types of BPO tools
There is no doubt that to run a successful BPO operation, you need to leverage tools and technologies. But with so many tools around, how do you know which is the right one for your business? And even before we jump into shortlisting our tools, we need to know the different types of BPO tools available to us.
BPO tools can be divided into three sections:
- On-premises tool: On-premise software is a kind of tool that is installed at your premises. For example, an autodialer is an example of a tool that is set up at your premises. On-premises tools include setting up hardware and infrastructure at your premises. While on-premise tools ensure all data are present in your premises and you do not need to share it with any third party, however, on-premise tools have huge upfront installation costs and maintenance costs. Plus, you need dedicated resources to manage the proper functioning of the tool.
- Cloud-based tool: Cloud-based tools are hosted online by a service provider, and users use it with an app installed on their phone or device. You need the internet to access the tool. For example, if your data are stored on a cloud-based CRM, you can access the data from anywhere using the internet. It has lower upfront costs, and all data are maintained online by a third party.
- Browser-based tool: Browser-based tools are similar to cloud-based tools — the only difference is users can access the tool from their browser as well. An example of this category of tool is phone systems that let you dial from your browser. Browser-based tools are easy to implement and cost-effective solutions, although they provide the same benefits as cloud-based tools. However, remember you need to have a strong internet connection if you want to implement this category of tools. Browser-based tools also don't store data locally.
🎓 Related Resource: 5 Service Level Agreement Examples
Why you need BPO tools
BPO tools help you to operate the BPO services seamlessly. While the BPO software helps to streamline customer interactions, BPO tools also help agents manage their tasks and raise their concerns easily.
Top BPO software in 2024
1. Scribe
G2 rating: 4.5/5
Capterra Rating: 4.9/5
Scribe Pricing
Scribe offers a free Basic plan and Pro pricing is at $23/seat/month (personal), with team pricing at $12/month (team).
Scribe Overview
Scribe is the new way to share how-tos. The extension and desktop app create documents by capturing your screen and combining the screenshots with auto-generated step-by-step guides.
It’s a great tool for creating training manuals and process documents for teams. All you need to do is click record and continue doing your process. Scribe creates the process documents in seconds with automated texts and screenshots.
Scribe is SOC II Type II compliant. Scribe helps teams across organizations to save time and make business operations smooth.
“I love that I'm able to create training materials so quickly and easily. All I have to do is turn on the extension, and then I can just click through a few steps and create an amazing training resource for my time.” — G2 customer review.
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2. Zoho CRM
Capterra Rating: 4.3/5
Zoho CRM Pricing:
Starts from $0/month.
Zoho CRM Overview
The Zoho CRM empowers BPO companies with a 360-degree customer relationship lifecycle management solution. The tool lets you manage workflow automation, task management, marketing campaigns, sales forecasting, AI-powered conversational assistant, pipeline management, sales funnels, and contact center management. It also helps in seamlessly integrating with 500+ popular business apps in a single business system. If you’re looking for a powerful CRM for your BPO business, you should consider Zoho CRM in your tech stack.
3. Dialpad AI Contact Center
G2 rating: 4/5
Capterra Rating: 4.3/5
Dialpad AI Pricing:
Starts from $0/month.
Dialpad AI Overview
The tool allows you to access all customer interactions from a single app, regardless of the channel. The built-in AI feature offers accurate voice transcription, agent coaching, and chatbot self-service functionality, and it integrates easily with other CRM tools.
It’s easy to use, and you can quickly manage phone numbers or remove agents. The tool works best for making outgoing calls, sentiment analysis, CRM integrations, workforce engagement management, call routing, and more.
4. Kissflow
G2 rating: 4.3 / 5
Capterra rating: 3.9 / 5
Kissflow Pricing:
Starting from $12 / month. It has a per-user pricing model.
Kissflow Overview
Kissflow is a great workflow process automation tool exclusive to Google Apps. The tool helps existing business processes for digital optimization. It’s a no-code tool that allows business users to automate their process flows and implement business rules without coding. It has an intuitive business team that facilitates easy collaboration between teams. The tool has an easy-to-use dashboard, report templates, advanced workflow, and design forms.
5. ProcessMaker
G2 rating: 4.3 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.5 / 5
ProcessMaker Pricing:
Starts at $1495/ month
ProcessMaker Overview
ProcessMaker is a popular BPM and workflow management solution. The tool lets you automate and implement various business processes. Its no-code nature allows businesses to design and deploy solutions in hours quickly.
With ProcessMaker, you can easily automate, connect and extend to a third-party system, eliminate bottlenecks, and bring digital agility to your BPO business. Some of the tasks that you can achieve with ProcessMaker include workflow configuration, forms management, reporting/analytics, compliance tracking and business process automation. Since the tool is accessible over the Internet, you can work from anywhere.
6. Nintex
G2 rating: 4.2 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.1 / 5
Nintex pricing
Starts at $25,000 USD per year
Nintex Overview
Nintex is an automation tool that aims for easy digital transformation. Initially, it was an on-premise tool, but now a cloud version is available too. It’s a powerful tool allowing companies to automate, optimize, and drive business growth. It comes with intelligent platforms and advanced workflows, eSignature, robotic process automation, digital document generation and a powerful process management solution.
It’s easy to use, and any skill-level developer can learn to use it to automate their process.
7. CloudTalk
G2 rating: 4.3 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.4 / 5CloudTalk Pricing:
$25/ user/month
CloudTalk Overview
CloudTalk is a unique software for BPO companies that offers a set of various features. For example, you can use the custom queue feature to distribute the income calls. The personalized voicemail is another cool feature of the tool, where customers can leave a voice message that agents can respond to later if they’re unavailable at that moment.
That way, you don't need to put your customers on hold for long. They can just drop their message and get back to work. The tool also has skills-based call routing, CRM integrations, and real-time analytics. Etc.
8. Bitrix24
Capterra rating: 4.8 / 5
Bitrix 24 Pricing
Free for 5 GB, the basic plan starts at $49 / month for 5 users and 24 GB
Bitrix24 Overview
Bitrix24 is a great tool for BPO companies that facilitates internal collaboration, interactive voice response, HD video calls and conferences, call routing, and task automation. The tool offers customer service channels, rentable telephone lines, email queues, and live chat. It’s an on-premise tool and is ideal for companies who prefer to host their data on their premise instead of the cloud.
9. Five9
G2 rating: 3.9 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.2 / 5
Five9 Pricing
Flexible pricing bundle, depending on your team size and requirements.
Five9 Overview
It’s a comprehensive cloud-based tool for complete customer service and sales call centers.
If you’re looking for a complete solution for your enterprise team, Five9 can help you manage cloud-based calling, call recording, CRM integration, real-time analytics, predictive dialing, and CTI screen pops for call agents so that they don't miss a chance to upsell.
The AI-automated interactions assist your agents, thus minimizing costs while amplifying customer experience by offering a conversational service experience. Think of it as having a strong internal team that speaks hundreds of languages and can streamline your business operations — even the critical ones.
9. TalkDesk
G2 rating: 4.4 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.5 / 5
TalkDesk Pricing:
Starts at $ 75 / user/month
TalkDesk Overview
TalkDesk is a call center solution for enterprises. The tool extends support for workforce engagement management, omnichannel support, skills-based call routing, internal collaboration, and advanced reporting and analytics.
The tool also comes with a lot of industry-specific security features and workforce management features.
10. Appian
G2 rating: 4.5 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.2 / 5
Appian Pricing
You can try the tool for free and opt from any of the three packages depending on your requirements.
Appian Overview
Appian is one of the early players in the industry and is known for its low-code cloud-based application generation platform. The tool helps both developers and citizen developers throughout their BPM processes.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution that offers to analyze workflow automation, workflow design, construction deployment, and process mining, try it.
It’s easy to use and has integrated hyper-automation tools, including RPA, iBPMS, and AI components.
11. Newgen
G2 rating: 4 / 5
Capterra rating: Not available
Newgen Pricing
Connect with the Newgen team directly for pricing information.
Newgen Overview
Newgen offers process modeling, performance management, content management, and process automation. Its drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to create visual process mapping and can be used to generate workflow automation and process mapping.
The BPMS capability of the tool gives it the power to manage business rules centrally. You can use the tools to control document and case management, workflow modeling, and business redesign.
12. RingCentral
G2 rating: 3.9 / 5
Capterra rating: 4.4 / 5
RingCentral Pricing
Starts at $19.99 / user/month
RingCentral Overview
RingCentral is a cloud-based phone system for mobile and desktop users.
It offers a one-touch calling facility from any phone or computer with the Internet. It also has a call delegation system and call rules so that you can route the call to the right person. The tool is best suited for HD video calls, cloud-based calling, escalation management, omnichannel support, integrations, and API.
Choosing software for BPO companies
Setting up a BPO company and driving operations smoothly needs a lot of hard work, skilled agents, and a strong technology stack. If you’re building your technology stack for 2024 and looking for inspiration, this article's suggestions will help you get started.
And if you want to document your research and journey, or a process workflow, Scribe is here to help.
Capture your screen and convert them to automated texts and screenshots in seconds!