Business Process Outsourcing – A fast growing sector

The term BPO stands for "Business Process Outsourcing" and is better known as simply "outsourcing" It is basically the process by which a company can delegate certain functions of their business to a specialized organization that can get it done more cheaply, quickly and efficiently. BPO services have been the latest mantra in India today.

The BPO boom seems to be increasing everyday with more and more companies deciding to follow the race, making conditions really viable for a positive growth in the BPO industry.

Business Process Outsourcing is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry. It has hit the top on their list today. The basic of BPO services is specific and definite, do what we can do best and leave everything else to business process outsourcers. Companies are moving their non-core business processes to outsource providers. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows them to focus while building upon core competencies. In other words BPO services can be defined as a strategic management tool that can help organizations to improve process level efficiency and effectiveness, as well as reduce costs.

Another great BPO benefit is that it helps companies to focus on core areas. Companies generally outsource processes to reallocate accountability and control costs. Thus the management is in a better position to focus on core areas, and not keep itself engrossed in other areas. Outsourcing also helps companies to avoid capital expenditures, which is in particular important in non-core areas that may need new systems and up gradation. By and large, companies only want to spend money on core areas.

Business Process Outsourcing provides quantifiable benefits through improved efficiencies, lower overhead, reduced payroll and benefit expenses, and fewer capital investments. Other BPO benefits include assurance of best practices, skills and technology. It is important to note that BPO provides access to proprietary workflow systems, process reengineering skills, and innovative staffing and delivery models, coupled with world-class technology delivered by experts. Another benefit of BPO is reduction in costs.

Business Process Outsourcing is the act of giving a third-party the responsibility of running what would otherwise be an internal system or service. For instance, an insurance company might outsource their claims processing program or a bank might outsource their loan processing system. Other common examples of BPO are call centers and payroll outsourcing.