Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of the Ownership, Administration, and Operation of a process to a third party. Many people see it as an evolution from Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO). Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry.
Several MNCs are increasingly unbundling or vertical disintegrating their activities i.e. they have begun outsourcing activities which formerly performed in house and concentrating their energies on a few functions. Outsourcing involves withdrawing from certain stages/activities and relying on outside vendors to supply the needed products, support services or functional activities. These outside vendors are called BPOs. The outsourcing industry is growing from strength.
Why do everything yourself, when someone else can do it at low cost? In the current scenario, the theory says exactly the same. The global market today is highly competitive and continuously changing. A company must, thus, focus on improving productivity and at the same time, cut down costs. This is the basic premise of outsourcing. Outsourcing works because what is non-core for one organisation, is core for another.
In brief, business process outsourcing can be seen as a process in which a company delegates some of its in-house operations or processes to a third party. Thus, it is a transaction through which one company acquires services from another, while maintaining ownership and ultimate responsibility for the processes.
The company then informs its provider what it wants, and how it wants the work to be performed. The main motive for business process outsourcing is to allow the company to invest more time, money and human resources into core activities and building strategies, which fuel company growth.
