Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Business process outsourcing industry worldwide - statistics & facts
Outsourcing entails the contracting out of business processes to external parties, either domestically or offshore. In 2019, the global market size of outsourced services was valued at 92.5 billion U.S. dollars, increasing approximately seven billion U.S. dollars from the previous year. A subcategory of outsourcing, business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting out of specific business processes, usually either internal business functions (back office), such as human resources, or customer-related functions (front office) like customer care operations in call centers. Business process outsourcing is also often related to IT functions. The revenue of the global BPO industry amounted to 26 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.
The largest share of global outsourcing revenue was generated in the Americas, at 62 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Outsourcing often involves offshoring in which processes are outsourced to a different country to where the business is located. India was among the leading countries for offshore business services in 2019 in terms of its financial attractiveness, the skills and availability of its people and the appropriateness of its business environment for business process outsourcing.
Global leaders in outsourcing include ISS World, a Danish company specializing in facility services, and Accenture, whose focus lies with IT, help desk, and HR outsourcing, as well as consulting. In a worldwide survey of business leaders, 59 percent cited cost cutting as a driver in outsourcing processes. Other top factors included enabling focus on core business and solving capacity issues.
The largest share of global outsourcing revenue was generated in the Americas, at 62 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Outsourcing often involves offshoring in which processes are outsourced to a different country to where the business is located. India was among the leading countries for offshore business services in 2019 in terms of its financial attractiveness, the skills and availability of its people and the appropriateness of its business environment for business process outsourcing.
Global leaders in outsourcing include ISS World, a Danish company specializing in facility services, and Accenture, whose focus lies with IT, help desk, and HR outsourcing, as well as consulting. In a worldwide survey of business leaders, 59 percent cited cost cutting as a driver in outsourcing processes. Other top factors included enabling focus on core business and solving capacity issues.
