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Business Process Outsourcing

In: Computers and Technology

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Business Process Outsourcing

Introduction

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called near shore outsourcing.

Often the business processes are information technology-based, and are referred to as ITES-BPO, where ITES stands for Information Technology Enabled Service. Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing industry.

In 2010, the Philippines surpassed India as the largest business process outsourcing industry in the world.
After growing 20 per cent in 2012, the BPO industry of the Philippines is estimated to gross revenue of upwards to $25 billion by 2016. By these estimates, the Philippines' BPO industry will account for approximately 10 per cent of the nation's GDP.

History

Outsourcing is one such abstracted term that has, over time, amassed considerable positive momentum as well as negative baggage. Outsourcing has been around since the time of the hunters and gatherers. Those who were strong hunters hunted and those who were strong gatherers gathered. Simply put, the primitive society perhaps subconsciously recognized the importance of specialization and

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