“Business process outsourcing,” or BPO, is a service segment of the process outsourcing industry. It is defined by Staffing Industry Analysts’ online Lexicon of workforce solutions ecosystem terms as the use of an outside business services vendor (and its supervised personnel), either on the customer’s premises or off-site at the vendor’s location, to perform a function or run a department that was previously staffed and supervised by the customer directly. BPO relationships differ from project work in that the duration of the contracts are typically much longer than one year and are not necessarily driven by milestones or deliverables but ongoing provision of services. 

As the ecosystem evolves, SIA’s mission is to keep the language current for professionals in the space.