10 Best free BPM software tools to automate your workflow
List of BPM software tools
Whether it’s free business process management (BPM) software or a subscribed plan, looking for the right software can be a confusing and time-consuming process.
It takes time to differentiate between cheap versus expensive.
How many features does the product have, and how many do you need? Do you need additional expertise even to use the product? And so on.
There are several free BPM software options available that are more than adequate for even enterprise solutions.
Some are even open-source, while others come in the form of free trial periods. Along with it is the intent to eventually sell you a complete or more feature-full product.
What is a business process management (BPM) software?
BPM.com defines business process management as:
“A discipline involving any combination of modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement and optimization of business activity flows, in support of enterprise goals, spanning systems, employees, customers, and partners within and beyond the enterprise boundaries.”
In simpler terms, BPM software is anything that lets you create, edit, and automate business processes.
This can be on a smaller scale (individual use), or it can be a scaled-up enterprise solution. These business process management tools can be used for several things, such as:
- Managing hundreds of business workflows
- Process automation
- Task management and automation
- Workflow management
- Process management
These generally optimize workflows in a company. With this in mind, it’s a business software application your company should have to boost growth and efficiency.
Utilizing (free) business process management software in the outsourcing industry
Utilizing (free) business process management software in the outsourcing industry
Business process management software is an important part of the business process outsourcing industry.
If you’re outsourcing any kind of work, you’re most likely dealing with remote teams.
Remote teams depend on highly organized and well-documented business processes to succeed. If you don’t take the proper steps to manage your remote teams, they will fail.
Integrating BPM software in customer service
Let’s look at an example: utilizing free BPM tools or a subscribed plan in an outsourced customer service department.
Outsourcing customer service representatives is extremely common, and any company serious about providing high-quality, reliable customer service will have some standard operating procedures in place.
This helps educate their representatives about the proper policy and procedure for dealing with customer queries.
You need to understand how you can use a business process management platform to streamline complex processes. This way, you can be sure you’re offering the best quality customer service possible.
You’ll also save time and money by automating your workflow processes. More so, it reduces the failure rate by simplifying complex workflows into a series of straightforward tasks.
Some of the problems faced by outsourcing customer service representatives include:
- Communication can be even more difficult if English is not the first language of the representative.
- Complexity is where your product/service is complex and requires some kind of specialized knowledge or a steep learning curve to grasp how things truly work.
- Compliance and knowing how to deal with certain queries. Enforcing and policing your policies and procedures can be a time-consuming task in its own right.
All of these problems can be addressed through a free BPM software or a paid BPM software plan:
- Communication is simplified because key information is presented in the process document.
- Complexity is removed because the process breaks down the problem into a series of simple steps that anyone can follow, regardless of their expertise level.
- Compliance is made easy as well. You can use approvals and task assignments to make sure things are done as they should be, with automated messages and notifications to bring in team collaboration as and when.
In principle, this allows you to assign complex procedures to virtual assistants, who will be able to work through and complete tasks way above their pay grade. That’s the power of process management.
The 10 best free BPM software
There’s a lot of BPM software available out there. Here’s a breakdown of the best BPM software that offer free features available on the market right now:
1. Bizagi Modeler
Bizagi Modeler is a free business process management platform for single users. It is used to build, optimize, and publish process diagrams.
It is one of the more diagram-focused choices on the list, leaning heavily into BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation).
It has a useful cloud-collaboration environment, so you can execute business processes and have them stored and worked on from a central location.
This will help you improve compliance and generally be a user-friendly business process management tool that boosts your routine business workflows.
Bizagi Modeler is a great, affordable open-source BPM solution for smaller teams interested in business process modeling.
2. Process Street
Process Street is an easy-to-use BPM software that aims to automate processes, making them fast and fun for teams everywhere.
You can manage your team’s business processes and SOPs from a responsive and intuitive interface. Create rich, dynamic checklists to streamline your workflows, and share and collaborate with your team.
Process Street has a great free BPM software option. It also has a few business pricing plans if you want more users and functionality (but you can already do a lot with the free trial).
Conditional logic and dynamic due dates make it easy to build complex, responsive processes for just about any application.
Rich form fields also mean you can pack as much (or as little!) information into your processes as you need.
Another perk of Process Street is the huge library of premade templates available. There are checklists for pretty much everything you could think of, from client onboarding and hotel management to ISO auditing, marketing, and improving processes
3. Integrify
Integrify is a BPM software solution for large enterprises looking to use business process automation to streamline processes that typically would have a high degree of human intervention.
There’s also a focus on integration with an Open REST API.
Integrify uses process flow diagrams for business process mapping, so there’s a bit of a learning curve involved. However, it shouldn’t be a problem for anyone with a basic grasp of BPMN.
Pricing plans start at $40/month per user, but there is a limited free BPM software trial available.
For larger enterprises with a bigger budget wanting a scalable process mapping solution, this might be what you’re looking for.
4. FlowForma
FlowForma is the go-to no-code BPM software for Office 365 integration.
That is to say, FlowForma is an award-winning Office 365 app. It is a great business process management solution for companies with established, less flexible systems that need to be able to integrate with Office 365.
FlowForma offers a range of different process service products under the umbrella of “process automation.”
This includes:
- FlowForma Engage (a business vetting process)
- FlowForma Connect (a workflow integration tool)
- FlowForma Simplify (reusable forms you can build out yourself)
- FlowForma Collaborate (a team collaboration workflow management tool)
- FlowForma Decision (decision-making software)
- And about a half dozen more
Needless to say, FlowForma is a formidable suite of BPM tools. However, with so much on offer, split between so many products, the learning curve can be quite steep.
But if you have the time and money to invest in it, FlowForma is one of the best BPM platforms out there, especially for large enterprises looking to boost corporate performance.
A 30-day free BPM software trial is available, after which the plan is $950 per month.
5. Pega
PegaSystems offers a case lifecycle management tool for building business applications.
This BPM tool allows you to build out a process flow using their outcome-driven case framework. Each case is defined by its stages, which are intended to match the way people naturally talk about their work.
For each stage, there is a separate list of tasks. It’s kind of like processes-within-processes, and it can be quite powerful for use cases with complex, interlinked processes.
PegaSystems also has a robotic process automation (RPA) solution for process automation, particularly for simple tasks.
Pricing is tailored to the needs of each client, and they also offer a free BPM software trial. Its full BPM software functionality starts from $200 per month.
6. Signavio
Signavio offers a complete business transformation suite. It allows you to build process models with tracking and process editing on one single platform.
With multiple BPM-related products, there’s a lot of potential if you’re able to pocket the $2000 per year per user price tag. These include:
- Signavio Process Manager
- Signavio Workflow Accelerator
- Signavio Process Intelligence
- Signavio Collaboration Hub
Of course, there is a 30-day free trial available. This is an ideal business process management software to consider for large organizations and enterprise use cases.
7. Nintex
Nintex is a workflow automation tool that shines for its advanced Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) solutions. Their approach is people-driven design, with an emphasis on collaboration and process improvement.
Nintex can streamline complex business processes by offering dynamic and responsive processes by using logic parameters. This BPM tool also has other integration options available.
Nintex offers a 30-day free BPM software trial, after which it’s $950 per month.
8. Agiloft
Agiloft, as the name may imply, is an agile enterprise software suite. It includes a BPM solution with customizable rules, task templates, and collaborative features, allowing you to implement processes quickly.
The definition of “agile” takes from its original meaning, “quick, adaptable, and resourceful,” rather than referring to a particular software development methodology.
Agiloft offers a free solution for businesses that don’t require much functionality. Its paid subscription pricing starts at $45 per month per user.
9. Interstage
Fujitsu Software Interstage is an agile BPM software that offers advanced BPMN functionality for complex enterprise-grade applications.
What makes Interstage stand out is its proprietary Automated Process Discovery technology. It aims to help users discover inefficiencies in their processes and identify which business processes to target for improvement.
There are also a bunch of process analytics solutions they provide alongside this, like Business Activity Monitoring for keeping track of KPIs.
Pricing plans are not available on the website. However, there is a free BPM software trial available (upon request).
10. BPMApp
BPMApp is 500apps’ business process management software that helps automate repetitive tasks in order to speed up and save time in business processes.
BPMApp helps you to assign personnel to the right tasks while reducing real-time mistakes, allowing you to streamline customized workflow management for your organization.
In real time, monitor the performance of your main business operations and make relevant changes to improve your company’s efficiency.
With a 14-day free trial, you can get access to all 37+ apps for $14.99 per user and get started right away.
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