If your organization or team is searching for the best stakeholder relationship management (SRM) software, two names will likely stand out: Jambo and Borealis. Both are respected platforms widely used across various industries, including infrastructure development, transportation, energy, mining, and utilities. But how do they truly compare, and which one aligns best with your needs?
In this blog, we'll take a close look at the core features of both platforms, highlight their respective strengths, and explain why Jambo is increasingly the preferred choice for organizations and government teams that prioritize quick data entry, ease of use, fast implementation, and high adoption rates.
Jambo Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software
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Jambo is a purpose-built SRM platform trusted by governments and leading organizations across healthcare, mining, infrastructure, and energy sectors on four continents. Users consistently praise Jambo for its:
- Intuitive, bright, and easy-to-use interface that reduces training time and boosts adoption.
- Expert customer support staffed by stakeholder engagement specialists with real-world experience.
- Insightful analytics and reporting tools that help teams monitor engagement and outcomes.
- Secure AI-powered capabilities that enhance efficiency without compromising data privacy.
- Flexible and transparent pricing tailored for organizations of any size.
Designed with simplicity and speed in mind, Jambo enables teams to quickly and consistently log every stakeholder communication, activity, commitment, and issue, streamlining stakeholder engagement management and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Borealis software
Borealis is a well-established stakeholder management and land access software player, with deep roots in the mining, oil and gas, and pipeline sectors. It's known as a feature-rich solution that addresses complex regulatory and land management challenges, often through optional add-ons and paid modules. Borealis tends to cater primarily to:
- Large enterprises with complex compliance or land acquisition challenges
- Organizations operating in highly regulated industries
- Teams with substantial budgets that require extensive customization
While Borealis offers powerful features for these contexts, its complexity and cost may be overkill for smaller teams or government organizations looking for streamlined, user-friendly tools that accelerate adoption.
Core differences overview: Jambo v Borealis
Below is a detailed comparison of some key differences between Jambo and Borealis.
1. Contact and record management
Jambo excels with contact management capabilities that seamlessly handle how you manage relationships with individuals, organizations, and locations. Communication records can be easily added through an intuitive and free Outlook add-in or by emailing a unique Jambo project email address. All records are automatically connected, linking activity records with associated individuals, organizations, issues, commitments, and tasks. Within project-based workspaces, teams can capture, search and report on communications, activities, commitments, issues, and tasks. Comprehensive audit trails within records provide full transparency and a clear history of every update and action taken.
Borealis offers features for managing contacts and records through its stakeholder engagement module. Additional features, such as Smart Communications, are available as paid add-ons. Borealis has an activity trail to track user actions and supports tracking land access and acquisition agreements.
Learn more about contact management capabilities with Jambo's communication records features →
2. AI tools
Jambo offers secure, innovative AI features, including AI Summarize and AI Sentiment, that revolutionize data entry and risk identification. With a single click, Jambo AI analyzes communication notes and instantly generates clear summaries, along with sentiment scores indicating positive, neutral, or negative sentiment, which can be tracked over time. These automated, privacy-focused tools enable teams to quickly flag potential issues, monitor engagement health, and save hours typically spent on report writing.
Importantly, Jambo AI is built with stringent privacy protections in place. Teams can confidently opt in or out, knowing that customer data is never used to train AI models, meeting the highest security standards for sensitive information.
In contrast, Borealis provides limited transparency regarding data privacy and the handling of stakeholder information by AI. It remains unclear whether customer data is utilized for model training or whether users can entirely opt out of AI features without impacting their overall system use, which is an essential consideration for organizations with strict data governance requirements.
Explore our Jambo Secure AI tools and our AI security promise to prioritize customer trust →
3. Usability, implementation, and adoption
Borealis is known for its complexity and depth. Onboarding and implementation typically require 3 to 6 months, often accompanied by significant investments in training and ongoing change management. While powerful, the platform requires a continuous commitment of time and resources to fully leverage its capabilities.
In contrast, Jambo is a modern, intuitive, and user-friendly platform designed to accelerate your team's success. Implementation can be completed in as little as two to six weeks for most organizations, with fast, comprehensive training that gets users up to speed quickly. Adoption rates are consistently high because users appreciate Jambo's clean, accessible interface, which feels modern and intuitive, "just works" seamlessly.
For organizations where time-to-value, ease of use, and flexible adoption are critical, Jambo clearly holds a commanding lead.
Watch our one-minute demo to get a glimpse of Jambo's intuitive design→
4. Customer support and development
While powerful features are vital in stakeholder management software, many organizations and teams quickly recognize that the quality of customer support truly determines the long-term value of any platform.
According to a recent G2 review from a Borealis user, although Borealis' support team is responsive, the solutions offered aren't always helpful. Users often feel unsupported when dealing with complex workflows or customizing the system to fit their unique needs, as responsiveness without deep understanding or tailored guidance can fall short.
Jambo's customer success team comprises IAP2-certified practitioners who possess hands-on experience in stakeholder engagement and management. This expertise means customers receive not just fast and friendly support, but also insightful advice rooted in best practices for engagement, stakeholder data management, and regulatory reporting.
In addition, the Jambo team actively collaborates with customers, gathering feedback and co-developing new features to ensure the platform evolves in line with real-world engagement challenges.
With Jambo, you gain more than software; you get a partner invested in your success.
5. Integrations and ecosystem
Integrations are critical to creating a seamless stakeholder engagement workflow by connecting your SRM platform with communication, mapping, and business tools. While both Jambo and Borealis offer integrations, the key difference lies in how these integrations are packaged and priced, which significantly impacts cost, usability, and adoption.
Jambo includes a robust set of powerful integrations free with the core platform, designed to simplify workflows and accelerate time to value:
- Free Jambo for Outlook add-in: quick, effortless logging of emails directly into Jambo from your Outlook inbox.
- Free Jambo for Zapier Integration: connect with thousands of popular apps, including Gmail, Salesforce, and Google Forms, enabling auto data management without coding.
- Free Jambo for Esri ArcGIS Pro add-in: seamless connection and importing of spatial data directly into Jambo projects and accounts.
- Free Project Email address: a unique feature that provides a dedicated project-specific email for easy Cc'ing, Bcc'ing, or forwarding, automatically logging communications in the correct project.
- Secure Public API: for custom integrations and automations.
In contrast, Borealis offers integrations such as an Outlook add-in, Chrome extension, Google Maps API integration, and AWF integration for ArcGIS; however, these are typically sold as paid add-ons or separate modules rather than included with the base subscription. This add-on pricing model can increase costs, complicate budgeting, and create fragmented user experiences, particularly for smaller or resource-constrained teams.
Jambo's all-inclusive integration approach eliminates hidden fees, streamlines deployment, and enables organizations and teams to maintain consistent and efficient workflows with all essential tools accessible from day one. For teams that prioritize transparent pricing, ease of adoption, and comprehensive connectivity out of the box, Jambo's free built-in integrations offer a clear advantage over Borealis' add-on-heavy ecosystem.
Why customers prefer Jambo SRM Software over Borealis
Both Jambo and Borealis are leading software solutions in the stakeholder relationship management (SRM) space. However, for under-resourced organizations and government teams, an SRM platform must be intuitive, fast to learn, and empower users to add, search, and report information quickly. Overly complex and expensive software often proves overwhelming, resulting in low adoption and underutilization.
Here's why Jambo consistently outperforms Borealis in these critical areas:
1. Rapid onboarding and training
Jambo enables teams to get up and running in weeks, not months. Our customer success team goes beyond technical support; they've firsthand experience with stakeholder engagement, having completed IAP2 training and held engagement roles themselves. This combination of expertise and support accelerates your team's proficiency and confidence.
2. Secure AI-powered tools
Jambo's AI features are thoughtfully integrated, with privacy and security at the forefront. Unlike Borealis, Jambo's AI tools never train on user data, aligning with strict organizational and security protocols. This makes Jambo ideal for government agencies and organizations with rigorous data governance standards.
3. Clean and simple user interface
Jambo's intuitive design adheres to the "3-click rule": tasks such as adding communication records or generating reports should never require more than three clicks. This streamlined user experience enables teams to adopt and navigate the platform with ease, saving time and minimizing frustration.
4. Free integrations
Jambo offers powerful add-ons at no additional cost. Our Outlook and ArcGIS Pro integrations can be downloaded and used for free, enabling seamless workflows without unexpected expenses, unlike many competitors, such as Borealis, which charge extra for these enhancements.
5. Government experience
Jambo is the preferred SRM solution for government agencies across Canada, the US, and the UK. Trusted by all levels of government and energy regulators, Jambo stands out for its robust security features, flexible configuration options, competitive pricing, and user-friendly tools developed specifically for the public sector.
Jambo strikes the perfect balance between powerful features and simplicity. It provides all the essential capabilities for effective stakeholder engagement management without unnecessary complexity. At the same time, it delivers enterprise-grade security, including Single Sign-On (SSO) and comprehensive activity logs, which are essential for safeguarding sensitive data.
For under-resourced teams seeking an easy-to-use, secure, and affordable SRM, Jambo is the clear choice over Borealis.
Visit Jambo's features page to learn more about what the software can offer your team→
Jambo vs Borealis comparison table
| Feature/criteria | Jambo | Borealis |
| Support | The customer success team comprises IAP2-certified stakeholder engagement experts who provide prompt, tailored, and practical guidance. Jambo collaborates with customers to co-develop features and continuously improve the platform. | Responsive support team, but feedback suggests there is limited assistance for complex workflows or customizations, as the support team is not made up of stakeholder engagement experts. Users often require extra effort to resolve issues. |
| User interface | Modern, bright, and intuitive interface designed around the "3-click rule." Easy-to-use interface reduces training time and increases adoption rates. | The interface is complex, and due to the volume of features and add-on options, it often requires additional time to navigate and add data. |
| Ease of use | An easy-to-use, purpose-built platform that prioritizes quick data entry and reporting. Adoption is reported as consistently high, even among non-technical users. | Feature-rich but complex. Best suited for large enterprises with dedicated administrative support to manage the application. |
| Security | Built to meet strict data governance and privacy standards. ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 accredited. Includes features like Single Sign-On (SSO), audit trails, activity logs, and secure AI. User data is never used to train AI models. | Security measures are in place, but transparency around AI data model training and opt-out options is limited. Hosted at an ISO 27001 data centre. Audit and activity trail features. |
| AI capabilities | Includes a growing list of secure AI tools. Currently, AI Summarize and AI Sentiment tools are available. All AI tools are free to use and individually opt-in enabled. User data is never used to train AI models. | Limited visibility into how AI features use customer data. Opt-out flexibility and privacy measures are unclear. Pricing for AI tools is also unclear. |
| Pricing | Easy-to-understand, user-based pricing with value-based discounting. Core integrations (Outlook add-in, Zapier add-in, and Esri ArcGIS Pro add-in) are included at no additional cost. | Considered to be very expensive. An add-on-heavy platform model. Integrations, such as the Outlook add-in, are not free, which increases total costs. |
| Implementation | A straightforward onboarding process and an easy-to-use interface mean that implementation typically takes a maximum of six weeks (but can be completed sooner, depending on customer availability for training and configuration sessions), accompanied by hands-on, expert training. Ideal for teams that need to get started quickly. | Implementation can take 3–6 months, with extensive admin and user training required due to the complex interface. A change management plan is recommended before implementation. |
Why choose Jambo Stakeholder Relationship Management software?
For organizations and government teams overwhelmed by fragmented and inconsistent record-keeping, time-consuming reporting, and the growing demands of consultation and regulatory compliance, Jambo offers a refreshingly approachable, secure, and scalable solution designed to simplify stakeholder engagement, not complicate it.
Ready to transform how your organization or team manages stakeholder relationships and engagement? You can book a demo today and discover how Jambo can streamline your processes, enhance collaboration, and support compliance at every step.
