What is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a process in which an organization (often referred to as an “outsourcer”) contracts with other companies to perform some of their front or back office functions. For example, a company might outsource their accounting function in a business process outsourcing (BPO) arrangement. BPO companies are considered experts at whatever business process they support, and other organizations often outsource to them in order to tap into this expertise as well as to offload functions that aren't core to their business model.

The contact center industry has many business process outsourcing (BPO) providers and many different options for where services are delivered. Companies can choose to offshore their call center, which means it's located in a different country. This may give businesses access to well-educated labor markets at a lower cost. With near shoring, the business process outsourcing (BPO) provider is still in a different country, but closer to home, making frequent physical visits to the facility more feasible. Onshoring means the outsourcer is in the same country, which is important to many end users.

Businesses can have any number of arrangements with their call center business process outsourcing (BPO) partner. They might give the outsourcer all their call volume and completely shut down their internal call center. Or they might just send their overflow volume to the business process outsourcing (BPO) contractor, essentially using the outsourcer's agents to supplement their own during volume peaks. Organizations might also send their sales calls to their business process outsourcing (BPO) partner and keep their service calls in house.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) can provide companies with the flexibility to shape their service function to meet their business needs, and it's all ultimately enabled by versatile contact center software.

How NICE can help

NICE is the market leader in providing customers the cloud contact center software they need to deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences. Benefits include: