BPO also known as Business Process Outsourcing, is a business practice of sub-contracting non-core business operations and activities to a third-party service provider. In today’s connected world, people usually equate this type of business to a call centre. While the two are relative in a sense, BPO companies and call centres are definitely not the same. In fact, a call centre is just one of the few services BPO companies provide their clients.

In this article, we’re going to talk about Business Process Outsourcing, how does it work, and how can it help businesses achieve growth and success. 

Generally, businesses engage in choosing the best from the wide range of BPO companies both locally and internationally, to do specific business processes and functions for them. For example, startup companies often need to outsource back-office and front-office functions because they do not have a resource to build the staff as well as supporting functions to perform them in-house.

In addition, back-office operations include accounting, payment processing, IT services, human resources, regulatory compliance, as well as quality assurance to outside professionals who ensure the business runs efficiently and smoothly. On the other hand, front-office services include customer-related services such as tech and customer support, sales, as well as marketing.

The breadth of a business' BPO options depends on whether it contracts its operations within or outside the borders of its home country. BPO is deemed "offshore outsourcing" if the contract is sent to another country where there is political stability, lower labour costs, and/or tax savings. A U.S. company using an offshore BPO vendor in Singapore is one such example of offshore outsourcing.

In addition, BPO is often referred to as information technology-enabled services (ITES) because it relies on technology/infrastructure that enables external companies to efficiently perform their roles.

As your business moves a function to a new outsourced provider, you must identify the scope of the work shifting from in-house staff to your chosen Business Process Outsourcing partner. Thus, executives should identify the workflow and processes impacted by this shift and adjust if necessary. 

It’s also recommended to identify the key objectives for outsourcing a function. These can vary from cost-savings, increased quality, efficient turnaround, and other objectives. These will be used as criteria to determine which provider from your list of BPO companies would be best suited to handle the work. 

In addition, these criteria should also serve as the basis for contractual obligations that can be used to help assess the performance of your chosen provider as well as the success of the function once it is outsourced.

In terms of answering the question: What is BPO? And how it can help a business grow and succeed. All of this can be answered by doing some research, asking the same question with other businesses who experienced different services from different outsourcing service providers and ask them for some feedback.

This can help you get an idea about the pros and cons of hiring a provider, as well as to help you prepare the things to consider before actually outsourcing your business projects.