Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as taxes, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for completing required company tasks that do not influence its position in the marketplace.

Outsourcing entered the business world in the 1980s and often refers to the delegation of non-core operations from internal production to an external entity specializing in the management of that operation. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering firm costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of worldwide labor, capital, technology and resources.

Through outsourcing, companies today have the ability to develop competitive strategies that will leverage their financial positions in the ever competitive global marketplace. Outsourcing is also successful in increasing product quality and/or substantially lowering firm and consumer costs (e.g., increases the quality to cost ratio). Because outsourcing allows for lower costs, even if quality reduces slightly, which is sometimes the case, productivity increases, which benefits the economy in aggregate.