Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn, owns, administrates and manages the selected processes based on defined and measurable performance metrics. BPO offerings are categorized in two major categories: horizontal offerings (those that can be leveraged across specific industries) and vertical-specific offerings (those that demand specific industry vertical process knowledge).

Today, the world markets have matured to be highly industry, process and segment specific, and there has been a major shift from the initial days of business process services that was relatively simpler. Customers now expect business process services providers to deliver best-in-class operations, as well as the transformation needed in order to be the best in their respective industries. It’s no longer about operational metrics and SLAs alone, it’s about end-to-end process metrics and business outcomes.