Information Technology (IT) outsourcing had been occurring for decades but gained attention during the 1990s when companies began signing high--dollar agreements for total or selective outsourcing, primarily to cut costs and growing emphasis on improving business performance.

Over the years, organizations were also realizing the need to focus on their core competency and outsourcing the non--core activities. This increased focus on core business activities and developing competitive advantage has left companies wondering whether to spend their limited resources for non--core and less strategic processes in functional areas like human resources, accounting and finance.

On the other hand, the growing role and importance of information and communication technologies in organizational activities has reengineered business processes. These technology--intensive reengineered business processes can be delivered to any organization from any location thus giving organizations an opportunity to seek such services without losing their focus on core competency. This has led to the emergence of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) which is delegating an IT--enabled business process to a third party that owns, administers and runs the IT and other activities related to the process according to a defined set of metrics. This responsibility is executed through control, management and ownership of the process, people and technology associated with the process. The collaboration between client and BPO vendors is managed through Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and contract management and lately through relationship management. The recipe for success for BPO is applying technology to a business process and managing it by providing best services.

BPO,Infrastructure Model,Information Technology,IT,outsourcing, companies,costs,business performance,e-technologies,Information Technology (IT), outsourcing, decades, but gained, attention, during the 1990s, when companies, signing high--dollar, agreements, total or selective, outsourcing, primarily, costs, growing emphasis, on improving business performance.