Business-process outsourcing (BPO)

  Business-process outsourcing (BPO) is a type of outsourcing that consists of contracting operations and responsibilities of a specific business process (e.g., human resources) to a third-party service provider. Such outsourcing generally began with manufacturing firms outsourcing their supply chain but has grown into a much wider range of processes, including marketing, finance, sales, and accounting. Competition among firms in the BPO market is strong. Companies based in the United States include HP Enterprise Services, Affiliated Computer Services, and Automated Data Processing (ADP). A number of Indian companies, however, also provide worldwide BPO services, such as Infosys, Wipro, and Genpact.