Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), in simple terms, can be defined as the act of delegating a specific function or work to a third party with the condition to maintain the required standard and quality, in order to focus on one's core activities. So, BPO simply helps in focusing on core areas and other functions, i.e., non-core activities can be outsourced to an outside agency for whom it becomes a core activity.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the most rapidly growing industries in the world today. Though it is not an industry, it includes various sub activities of many main stream industries, such as manufacturing, trading, marketing, banking, insurance and financial services. Since it works for all these industries, it is treated as an industry. This is due to the enormous growth and development of outsourcing of work in the past few years in many countries. In the past, there were no such specific outside agencies that existed. With the advent of the BPO concept, such companies started concentrating on the non-core-activities of large corporates, which were having a huge volume of work. They started providing these companies with the specialization of work for their non-core function, which is very large in number and gives cost advantage to all the parties involved in the transaction and generates great employment opportunities.

BPO, as a concept and industry, has emerged, but is not a new activity. People, in their day-to-day life and even in small and big business, have been using the outsourcing model. I think that an entrepreneur is the oldest example of outsourcing as he is the person who has an idea or some business model. He starts his business and in the initial stages, he himself is involved in handling functions, such as production, marketing, accounting, finances, etc.; but as the business grows, he hires people to handle various functions and he focuses on the core activity of business development. If the organization grows to a really good level, he may further outsource many non-core activities to outside agencies. So, the outsourcing has existed for years for organizations to gain competitive advantage in cost and quality. Now that people have really understood it as a strong business model, they are using it for creating more opportunities for them.

E-Business Magazine, Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, Structure Analysis, International Quality Standards, Infrastructure Cost, Domestic Outsourcing, International Policy Advantage, Indian Economy, Political and Social Factors, Historical Growth.