Sage BPM

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director and CEO of a fashion and accessories brand called F.L.Y - First Love Yourself Fashions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sage BPM?

We needed help with SEO and marketing efforts for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sage BPM has been doing several projects for us throughout our six-year-long partnership. Our most recent project focuses on SEO, marketing, and publicity campaigns for our business.

What is the team composition?

We work with two members of their team, including Sunil (Founder):

How did you come to work with Sage BPM?

An associate of mine introduced me to Sunil. Once we sat together, we had a conversation and found out that our business ethics lined up. We keep working with them because it takes them no more than six months to deliver results to us.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $12,000 with them so far on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen results with their work faster than with other companies. They also helped us set a Google Analytics form where we see the performance of our site, and I can see how well we’re doing and how we're in the top 3% of the rankings. Overall, our sales have gone up, we have more traffic on our social media, and I’m thoroughly happy with the work they’ve done because I can see its results.

How did Sage BPM perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is fabulous; they’re responsive to our calls and messages and engaged every time we speak. Their team knows what to do and what I need to be doing, so we’re always two steps ahead of everything. Also, they walk me through SEO so I can understand what I’m supposed to be doing and what they need from me. I have no complaints about their work, even with the time difference. In terms of tools, we use Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Upwork, and phone calls — it depends on what we need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The transparent communication with them is outstanding. It’s hard to get other companies to explain what we’re paying for and are never clear with what they do and its benefits. With Sage BPM, we don’t have those issues because they map out everything for me to ensure that I get from point A to point Z without wasting a lot of time and money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if they had their own copywriter because they could become self-contained and have everything they need.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have your ideas written down and be ready to learn new things and different ways; Sage BPM has been doing this for so long and for various businesses, so they have new and efficient methods. Be flexible, or you’ll make the job difficult for everyone.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner and co-owner of a continuing healthcare education provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sage BPM?

We have some business processes that are needed multiple times a week. They’re time-consuming and detail-oriented, but can be done remotely. I’d prefer to have my employees interfacing with customers, so we wanted to bring in an external company to cover these processes.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the main processes we needed covered was publishing contracted events to our website. This requires looking at the details of the event in our CRM system, logging into the backend of our website, creating HTML articles, adding the event to the site’s public-facing event component, and publishing and categorizing the event correctly so our customers can sign up. This was one of the first processes they took over from us, and they’re still doing it to this day.

Another process they handle is downloading the event registrations from our website, manipulating data, and uploading it to our CRM system for internal use. This helps us track new and existing customers and facilities.

What is the team composition?

I’m not sure exactly, but I believe there are three or four people from their team working directly with us.

How did you come to work with Sage BPM?

They were recommended to me by a business partner that I’ve worked with in a different capacity not related to this company. They spoke highly of their business process outsourcing (BPO) capabilities, so we reached out to them.

I had previously worked with other BPO companies operating in different regions and had never been happy with any of them. We had experienced high levels of turnover on their end that made working with them not worth the benefits of outsourcing. Based on these experiences, we were looking for someone who would train multiple people to work on our account and make sure any new members of their team working with us were up to speed on our processes.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $500 per week since the start of the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since October 2017.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We haven’t tracked specific metrics for this engagement, but my business has definitely grown over the past few years in part because of their work. With them handling some of our more time-consuming background processes, my internal employees are able to focus on more customer-facing work. By offloading this work, I also have an easier time retaining my employees. If someone brings me a rules-based process that they don’t like doing, I encourage them to put together process guidelines and train Sage BPM’s team on how to do it. We’re paying them about as much as we’d pay one full-time employee, so it’s been a great value as well.

How did Sage BPM perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done well. We use Salesforce to manage this engagement. It’s not a project management tool per se, but we’ve been able to leverage it well in providing them with tasks to complete. From a communication standpoint, they’re easy to reach when we need them. I’ve never had issues scheduling a Zoom call with them when I need to expand the scope of our work. For our day-to-day communication, the team communicates with them via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We never experience disruptions in the service they provide us. If a member of their team leaves, they take responsibility for backfilling and training someone new. They make fewer mistakes and learn faster than other similar teams I’ve worked with. At this point, they’ve been with us long enough to understand our processes beyond what’s outlined in our training documents.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are times where they make computational errors. For the most part, though, none of these are critical mistakes. We’ve also had minor time zone issues with them operating in India, but we’ve been able to overcome them pretty easily.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I collaborated with Sage BPM at a data purchasing application company.  At that time, we were building global connectivity ecosystems. I’m no longer working for the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Sage BPM?

There were different solutions that we wanted to focus on. One of them was to create a consumer solution app that allowed customers to buy data plans from local operators when traveling internationally. This was a consumer-centric app that needed customer support; that’s when I contacted Sage BPM.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sage BPM set up our back-office operations. They implemented a chat interface in the app to report issues and reach out to the help desk. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a team of 5–6 people, and we had tech leads that defined the processes. 

How did you come to work with Sage BPM?

One of our team members knew Sage BPM, and I was introduced to them. I was acquainted with other companies in Mumbai, but we went with Sage BPM because they had more flexibility in the setup of their operations, and they also could support and scale their work to our needs. That aligned well for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from September 2016–September 2017.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We did launch the app and took it to some markets, but gradually we moved into another project. While we did see results in scale and volume, other factors made us focus on other programs, so it wouldn’t be prudent to quantify the impact of this engagement. 

How did Sage BPM perform from a project management standpoint?

I had previous negative experiences getting other companies to change their processes, and this becomes especially troublesome when you’re introducing a new product, and your customers are having issues. 

Sage BPM’s proactive team exhibited good communication and planning skills. They always kept us informed and never found any issues like customer complaints or negative ratings on the App Store. They were open to learning and also gave us feedback that we could incorporate into the program. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Some of their strongest points are their quickness, adaptability, and openness to change. From the first meeting, they understood the solutions we needed and what we were trying to do. Sage BPM’s team resolved problems within timeframes, always working towards customer satisfaction. In the future, if I get a chance to work with them, I will. 

We initially made a workflow manual for the agents to read and help them guide customers on different scenarios. Certain situations required the agents to mirror the customer experience and follow through with the issue on their phones. For this matter, we didn’t have any problem with our app on the iOS ecosystem. With Android, however, the mirroring couldn’t be done properly as it changed between different cell phone brands. Sage went beyond their responsibilities and came up with the solution of testing different phone brands to update the workflow and enhance the customer support experience. 

I liked that they were willing to go slightly beyond what was defined for them. They were team players rather than just a company to which the activity was outsourced. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was a very cordial and positive experience. There are always areas for improvement within certain details, but there isn’t anything that comes to mind at the moment. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Consider this company as an extension of your team. Sit with them and clearly spell out your needs and walk them through the processes you want to set up. Their team will pretty much take it from there. 

I’ve seen other clients over or under-explaining their projects. You must work to get a balance between what is acceptable to your customers and what you need to address with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Halo Travel and Concierge Services is a hospitality organization based in Indianapolis with a couple of different components to it. One of our clients is an advisory group, which is a staffing and sourcing business for whom we’ve provided various recruiting functions, hospitality, lodging, and transportation services for 5–6 years now. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Sage BPM?

We turned our in-person hospitality service into a more virtual capacity, so we’ve needed to help the advisory group with their Zoom sessions. We’ve had to pivot our business and conduct online versions of conferences and events. We also needed to do quick research on a particular client we were meeting with, so we decided to work with Sage BPM.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Because the business started to pivot to a more online version, the team was elevated to take on some other opportunities, much like my firm was. We were all uncovering new areas where we could help problem-solve for our customers. They started to arrange the Zoom sessions and breakout rooms for the advisory group.

Within a short window of time, Sage BPM was also able to research the five key players in our industry. We’ve found out what their minimum hours were, the different types of assets they had in their inventory, and if they had any negative press, and where we should be, price-point-wise. Based on that intel, we could eliminate four of those five key players and prepare to have a sound business conversation with the organization we wanted to be with. 

As our business evolves, we’re also setting up frameworks in place so that we could be ready to tap into the depth of their research services because we’ve seen what they’re capable of.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Sunil (Founder( and his team.

How did you come to work with Sage BPM?

Our client has been using Sage BPM for various projects  — like implementing email blasts and text reminders, and back-office functions — so we’ve been exposed to Sage BPM over the last two years. At the time when we were looking to partner with a local firm, the Sage team also happened to be looking for somebody with our expertise and assets. That’s when we decided to go with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested under $200 for the quick research project, but that amount will increase as the workload increases.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started partnering with them in January 2021. We’re still working with them on a per-project basis.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve done an outstanding job. I would go so far as to say that had it not been for them, the advisory group would not exist today. Our client can’t have physical staff and insourcing meetings and when we helped them do everything virtually, Sage BPM did the heavy lifting.

Also, had it not been for their research, we would have wasted time and money. They gave me the ability to be a quicker, more strategic thinker and we’re now able to close deals much faster.

Whenever we would meet with a potential client, I would bring in Sage BPM to conduct background research and find out about the competitive landscape so that we know what we’re up against. I’ve seen them do this for our original client before with a very quick turnaround time so I’ve incorporated their process into my business.

I’m proud to say that the relationship is turning into a strategic partnership and that I've learned a lot from them as an individual. Things happened much quicker because of their involvement.

How did Sage BPM perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate mostly through email as that was the most direct channel for us, and they were very responsive. We didn’t have to wait 2–3 days; their replies were immediate. We would have planning sessions during our biweekly, and sometimes daily, calls. Over that time, we’ve started to develop a good relationship with Sunil.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What makes Sage BPM unique is that they make me feel like I’m a person being represented by another person and not like a company being represented by another company. 

They’ve taken their services a step further by extending personal greetings during the holidays and being attentive to special dates and personal occasions. The team takes the time to let us know that they’re thinking about us. In the hospitality industry, we’re all about creating a "wow" experience for our clients so we like to work with firms that treat us the same way.

Because of that experience and because of the character of Sunil and his team — their dependability and the unique friendship that I acquired with them — I wouldn’t second guess their firm. I know that the Sage team will pull it off whether I give them several days or weeks of lead time or if I give them less than 24 hours’ notice.

Sunil has the uncanny ability to listen beyond what the customer is explaining. He tries to see everything through a different lens and he’s created a team around him who provide a holistic viewpoint. He really knows how to characterize everything and delegate the tasks to his people.

We’re planning to continue and expand the work because I love the fact that we can get the work done while we, and our teammates on the other side of the globe, are sleeping.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None — they shouldn’t change what they’re doing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to work in reverse chronological order as the leader of your organization. Ask yourself where you want to be with your client, experience, or product, and try to work backward from there, informing Sage BPM of your goals. Take ownership in the relationship and act as an extension of the Sage team as much as they are an extension of yours.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a hospitality company, and I am in charge of the sales and guest communications team. We own and manage a large portfolio of short-term rentals in the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sage BPM?

We needed help with a lot of manual data entry and essential staffing. We were a much smaller company when we started working with Sage BPM, and we needed a team to fill in the gaps and assist us with various tasks. 

It was tough to fill the position here in Boston at a cost we could work with, being a small business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sage BPM helps with a variety of tasks, from reporting on payroll to helping my team input property features into our website. The two main areas they help in are finance and marketing. 

On the finance side, everyone that works at our company has an hours log, and Sage BPM audits them. They make sure that everyone is reporting the correct number of hours and that they are accurately inputted into the payroll software so people can get paid the right amounts. That's a big task, and it requires a lot of manual data review.

On the marketing side, we are essentially creating and managing different properties, and we rent them out on sites like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. Our marketing department is relatively small, and when we have a new property that goes into our portfolio, it is a big project to put them online. Sage BPM creates those listings for us — they fill out the property features and get these on different sites. 

What is the team composition?

There are 6–10 people who we’re working with directly, and we’re in direct contact with three team leads.

How did you come to work with Sage BPM?

We found Sage BPM through a search online, and it's been a great relationship ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000–$100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2015 and it’s ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of their work is good. Sage BPM is effective as long as we’ve explained their tasks well. They have helped us streamline our processes a lot. The work that they do involves a lot of manual computer tasks and data entry. They allow us — especially our C-level team — to focus more on higher-level work. We're not bogged down by mundane tasks.

How did Sage BPM perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana as a project management tool, and they've been trained on it as well. It’s a good way for us to keep track of the things that we need to get done and for their team to input where they are in the process. About a year ago, we realized that Asana worked well for us, so we adopted it into our relationship with Sage BPM. We’ve also used basic tools like Excel.

We touch base every couple of weeks. Sage BPM is very trainable. They have a good system in place where their team leaders sit with us, learn tasks and understand what needs to get done, and then take that to their teams and teach them. Once we help them learn a task, we can trust it will get done. For us, they offer a cost-effective way to augment our staff.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admire their ability to work in their time zone. We're here in Boston, using Eastern Standard Time; meanwhile, they are in India, in a completely different time zone. They accommodate our schedule, and it's very helpful. When we need things done, it’s during our business hours here, and they work with us even though it’s nighttime there. That may be the norm for them, but I’ve really appreciated it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m sure there are things they could improve, but right now, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is very important to make sure that you are clearly explaining the tasks. Naturally, there are language barriers — their leadership team is very proficient in English, but it's also important to make sure that we’re clearly communicating the work that we want done. When we communicate well, we get better results; when we communicate poorly, the results are not as great.

We quickly learned that we needed to be very detailed and specific. For example, I sometimes screen share and show them how a task needs to be done. We’ve found ways to make sure that we are communicating well for them because that's how we're going to get better results.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CFO, Wiser - Change the way people think about work.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sage BPM?

To help us with Data Mining and Research

What were your goals for this project?

To help us to grow our business.

How did you select Sage BPM?

We went through a huge list of outsourcing providers and decided to go ahead with Sage due its incredible reputation to build high quality work.

Describe the project in detail.

To mine the right data to help us to scale our business.

What was the team composition?

Sunil and his team.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Strong results.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very strong.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very responsive, getting things done ASAP and accurately. Trusted provider.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No