Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain its position in the marketplace. BPO is often divided into two categories: back office outsourcing, which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and front office outsourcing, which includes customer-related services such as marketing or tech support.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's own country is sometimes called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring country is sometimes called nearshore outsourcing, and BPO that is contracted within the company's own country is sometimes called onshore outsourcing.

The most common examples of BPO are call centers, human resources, accounting, payroll outsourcing and Data Conversion.

Data conversion is the conversion of one form of computer data to another--the changing of bits from being in one format to a different one, usually for the purpose of application interoperability or of capability of using new features. At the simplest level, data conversion can be exemplified by conversion of a text file from one character encoding to another. More complex conversions are those of office file formats, and conversions of image and audio file formats are an endeavor that is beyond the ken of ordinary computer users.