RESOURCES · BPO & KPO GLOSSARY
The outsourcing glossary.
Plain-English definitions for 200+ of the BPO, KPO and outsourcing terms that show up in RFPs, SOWs and SLAs — engagement models, pricing, delivery, compliance, CX, automation, metrics and workforce.
200+
Terms defined
10
Topic categories
Showing 212 of 212 terms
A12 terms
Abandonment Rate
METRICS
The percentage of contacts that disconnect before reaching an agent.
Absenteeism
WORKFORCE
The rate of unplanned agent absence that reduces available capacity.
Accounts Payable (AP)
OPERATIONS
The process of receiving, validating and paying supplier invoices.
Accounts Receivable (AR)
OPERATIONS
The process of invoicing customers and collecting the payments they owe.
After-Call Work (ACW)
METRICS
The wrap-up time an agent spends completing tasks immediately after an interaction.
Agentic AI
TECH & AI
AI systems that plan and take multi-step actions toward a goal, typically with a human kept in the loop.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
COMPLIANCE
Controls and monitoring designed to detect and prevent illicit financial activity.
Appointment Setting
CX
Booking qualified sales meetings on behalf of a client’s sales team.
Attrition
WORKFORCE
The rate at which employees leave an operation over a given period.
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
CX
Telephony that queues and routes inbound calls to the most appropriate available agent.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
METRICS
The mean duration of a customer interaction, including talk, hold and after-call work.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
METRICS
The average time a customer waits in queue before reaching an agent.
B11 terms
Back Office
OPERATIONS
Internal, non-customer-facing functions such as data processing, finance and administration.
Backlog
OPERATIONS
The accumulated volume of unprocessed work waiting to be completed.
Backsourcing
MODELS
Bringing a previously outsourced function back in-house, often after a contract underperforms.
Benchmarking
METRICS
Comparing performance and pricing against market or peer reference points.
Blended Agent
CX
An agent who handles both inbound and outbound contacts depending on demand.
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
MODELS
A model where a provider builds and runs an offshore operation, then transfers ownership to the client after a set period.
Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
COMPLIANCE
A HIPAA-required contract between a covered entity and a vendor handling protected health information.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
COMPLIANCE
A documented plan to keep critical operations running through a disruption.
Business Process Management (BPM)
OPERATIONS
The discipline of modeling, automating, measuring and continuously improving end-to-end business processes.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
MODELS
Contracting an external provider to run a complete business process — such as customer support, finance or HR — on your behalf.
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
OPERATIONS
The radical redesign of a process to achieve step-change improvements in cost, quality or speed.
C26 terms
Calibration
METRICS
Aligning evaluators so quality scoring is consistent across reviewers and sites.
Callback
CX
Offering to return a customer’s call rather than holding them in queue.
Capacity Planning
WORKFORCE
Projecting the headcount, seats and infrastructure required to meet future demand.
Captive / Global Capability Center (GCC)
MODELS
An offshore delivery center owned and operated by the client company itself rather than a third-party provider.
Case Management
OPERATIONS
The handling of complex, multi-step customer issues that span interactions and systems.
CCPA
COMPLIANCE
California’s consumer-privacy law granting residents rights over their personal data.
Change Order
SOURCING
A formal amendment adjusting scope, timeline or price within an existing agreement.
Chatbot
TECH & AI
An automated conversational interface that handles routine customer queries via text.
Churn
METRICS
The rate at which customers stop using a product or service over a period.
Claims Processing
OPERATIONS
Reviewing, adjudicating and settling insurance or healthcare claims.
Cloud Contact Center (CCaaS)
TECH & AI
Contact-center software delivered as a cloud service rather than on-premise hardware.
Co-sourcing
MODELS
A blended model where in-house staff and an external provider jointly deliver a process.
Cobrowsing
CX
A support technique where the agent views or navigates the customer’s screen in real time.
Collections
OPERATIONS
The function of recovering overdue payments from customers.
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
CX
Technology linking phone systems with computers so agents see caller data and control calls on screen.
Consumption / Pay-Per-Use
PRICING
Charging based on actual usage of a service, scaling up or down with demand.
Content Moderation
OPERATIONS
Reviewing user-generated content against policy to remove harmful or non-compliant material.
Continuous Improvement
OPERATIONS
The ongoing effort to enhance processes, quality and efficiency over the life of an engagement.
Conversational AI
TECH & AI
AI that engages users in natural dialogue across voice and chat, powering bots and virtual agents.
COPC
COMPLIANCE
A performance-management standard and certification specific to customer-operations environments.
Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA)
OPERATIONS
A formal process to fix a problem and stop it recurring, common in regulated operations.
Cost-Plus
PRICING
Pricing set at the provider’s cost plus an agreed margin, with transparency into both.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
METRICS
A measure of how easy it was for a customer to get their issue resolved.
Customer Experience (CX)
CX
The total perception a customer forms across every interaction with a brand.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
TECH & AI
A system of record for customer interactions, history and data used across sales and service.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
METRICS
A score measuring how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction or service.
D11 terms
Dashboard
METRICS
A visual display of live KPIs and metrics used to monitor and manage performance.
Data Annotation
TECH & AI
Labeling images, text or audio to create training data for machine-learning models.
Data Entry
OPERATIONS
Accurately capturing information into systems from documents or other sources.
Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
COMPLIANCE
A contract governing how a provider processes personal data on the client’s behalf, required under GDPR and similar laws.
Data Residency
COMPLIANCE
The requirement that data be stored and processed within a specific geographic jurisdiction.
Data Sovereignty
COMPLIANCE
The principle that data is subject to the laws of the country in which it is located.
Deflection
CX
Steering contacts away from live agents into self-service or automated channels to cut cost.
Delivery Center
DELIVERY
A physical or virtual site from which a provider delivers services for one or more clients.
Digital Transformation
TECH & AI
Reshaping operations and customer experience through digital technology and new ways of working.
Disaster Recovery (DR)
COMPLIANCE
The processes and infrastructure for restoring systems and data after a major outage.
Due Diligence
SOURCING
The investigation of a provider’s capability, security, financials and references before contracting.
E3 terms
Earnback
SOURCING
A clause letting a provider recover SLA penalties through subsequent strong performance.
Erlang C
METRICS
A formula used to calculate staffing needed to hit a service level given call volume and handle time.
Escalation
OPERATIONS
The defined path for raising issues to higher authority when they exceed normal resolution thresholds.
F8 terms
Finance & Accounting (F&A)
OPERATIONS
Outsourced finance operations spanning payables, receivables, reconciliation and reporting.
First Call Resolution (FCR)
METRICS
The share of issues resolved on the first contact, without follow-up.
Fixed Price
PRICING
A single agreed price for a defined scope, placing delivery risk on the provider.
Follow-the-Sun
DELIVERY
Distributing work across global sites in different time zones to provide continuous 24/7 coverage.
Fourth-Party Risk
COMPLIANCE
Risk arising from your provider’s own subcontractors and suppliers.
Fraud Detection
OPERATIONS
Identifying and stopping fraudulent transactions or accounts, often with analytics and human review.
Front Office
OPERATIONS
Customer-facing functions such as sales, support and service that directly touch the end customer.
FTE Pricing
PRICING
Charging per full-time-equivalent staff member dedicated to the engagement.
G5 terms
Gainsharing
PRICING
A model where client and provider share the financial benefits of improvements they jointly achieve.
GDPR
COMPLIANCE
The EU regulation governing personal-data protection and privacy for individuals.
Global Business Services (GBS)
MODELS
A consolidated, multi-function shared-services model delivering finance, HR, IT and procurement support across regions.
Go-Live
OPERATIONS
The point at which the provider begins delivering the service in production.
Governance
OPERATIONS
The structure of roles, reviews and decision rights that keeps an outsourcing relationship on track.
H4 terms
Help Desk
CX
A support function that handles user issues and requests, typically for IT or a product.
HIPAA
COMPLIANCE
The U.S. law governing the privacy and security of protected health information.
HITRUST CSF
COMPLIANCE
A certifiable framework that harmonizes healthcare security and privacy requirements.
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)
TECH & AI
A design where people review, correct or approve AI outputs to safeguard quality and accountability.
I9 terms
Inbound
CX
Contacts initiated by the customer, such as support calls or chats.
Insourcing
MODELS
Building or keeping a capability in-house instead of contracting it out.
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)
TECH & AI
AI that extracts, classifies and validates data from unstructured documents like invoices and forms.
Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)
TECH & AI
The combination of RPA, AI and machine learning to automate more complex, judgment-based work.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
CX
An automated phone menu that routes or resolves calls through voice or keypad input.
ISO 27001
COMPLIANCE
The leading international standard for information-security management systems (ISMS).
ISO 27701
COMPLIANCE
A privacy-information-management extension to ISO 27001 covering personal data handling.
ISO 9001
COMPLIANCE
An international standard for quality management systems and consistent process control.
IT Outsourcing (ITO)
MODELS
Delegating IT functions — infrastructure, development, support or maintenance — to a third-party provider.
K7 terms
Kaizen
OPERATIONS
A philosophy of continuous, incremental improvement driven by the people who do the work.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
METRICS
A quantifiable measure used to track performance against a business or operational objective.
Know Your Customer (KYC)
COMPLIANCE
The process of verifying customer identity to meet regulatory and anti-fraud requirements.
Knowledge Base
OPERATIONS
A curated repository of articles and answers used by agents and customers to resolve issues.
Knowledge Process
MODELS
Analytical or expertise-driven work — research, modeling, design — that goes beyond transactional tasks.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)
MODELS
Outsourcing of higher-value, judgment-intensive work such as research, analytics, legal or actuarial tasks that require domain expertise.
Knowledge Transfer (KT)
OPERATIONS
The structured handover of process knowledge, documentation and tribal know-how to the delivery team.
L5 terms
Large Language Model (LLM)
TECH & AI
An AI model trained on vast text data to understand and generate human-like language.
Lead Generation
CX
Identifying and qualifying potential customers to feed a sales pipeline.
Lean
OPERATIONS
A methodology focused on eliminating waste and maximizing value flow through a process.
Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)
MODELS
Outsourcing of legal work such as document review, contract management and litigation support to specialist providers.
Liquidated Damages
SOURCING
Pre-agreed compensation a provider owes for defined contract breaches or missed commitments.
M8 terms
Managed Services
MODELS
Ongoing, outcome-oriented delivery of a function under a provider who owns the people, process and tooling.
Master Services Agreement (MSA)
SOURCING
The overarching contract setting common legal and commercial terms under which individual SOWs are executed.
Medical Billing
OPERATIONS
Preparing and submitting claims to payers and following up to secure provider payment.
Medical Coding
OPERATIONS
Translating clinical diagnoses and procedures into standardized codes for billing and records.
Middle Office
OPERATIONS
Functions bridging front and back office — risk, compliance and transaction management — common in financial services.
Multichannel
CX
Offering several separate contact channels that are not necessarily integrated with one another.
Multilingual Support
DELIVERY
Delivering service in multiple languages to serve a global customer base.
Multisourcing
MODELS
Using several specialist providers rather than a single vendor to deliver different parts of an operation.
N7 terms
NAIC Model Law
COMPLIANCE
A U.S. insurance data-security framework adopted state by state for carriers and their vendors.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
TECH & AI
The branch of AI that lets computers interpret, analyze and generate human language.
Nearshoring
DELIVERY
Sourcing from a nearby country with overlapping time zones and cultural affinity (e.g. Colombia or Mexico for U.S. buyers).
Nesting
WORKFORCE
A transitional phase where newly trained agents take live contacts under close supervision.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
METRICS
A loyalty metric based on how likely customers are to recommend a brand.
NIST
COMPLIANCE
U.S. standards and frameworks widely used as a baseline for cybersecurity controls.
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
SOURCING
A legal contract protecting confidential information shared between parties during evaluation or delivery.
O12 terms
Occupancy
METRICS
The proportion of logged-in time agents spend actively handling contacts.
Offshoring
DELIVERY
Delivering work from a distant, lower-cost country in a different time zone (e.g. the Philippines or India for U.S. buyers).
Omnichannel
CX
A unified service approach where voice, chat, email and social share context for a seamless experience.
On-the-Job Training (OJT)
WORKFORCE
Skill development that happens through real work under guidance rather than in a classroom.
Onboarding
WORKFORCE
The process of recruiting, training and integrating new staff into an operation.
Onshoring
DELIVERY
Delivering work domestically, within the buyer’s own country, often for sensitive or regulated processes.
Operational Debt
OPERATIONS
The accumulated cost of deferred process, quality or compliance fixes that compounds over time.
Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
METRICS
An internal agreement defining how teams support each other to meet a customer-facing SLA.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
TECH & AI
Technology that converts scanned images of text into machine-readable, searchable data.
Order to Cash (O2C)
OPERATIONS
The end-to-end cycle from customer order through fulfillment, invoicing and cash collection.
Outbound
CX
Contacts initiated by the agent or system, such as sales, collections or follow-up calls.
Outcome-Based Pricing
PRICING
Charging tied to business results delivered rather than time, headcount or transactions.
P12 terms
Pass-Through Costs
PRICING
Third-party expenses billed to the client at cost without provider markup.
PCI DSS
COMPLIANCE
The security standard governing how payment-card data is processed, stored and transmitted.
Penetration Testing
COMPLIANCE
Authorized simulated attacks used to find and fix security weaknesses before adversaries do.
Per-Seat Pricing
PRICING
Charging based on the number of staffed workstations rather than individual headcount.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
COMPLIANCE
Any data that can identify a specific individual, requiring protection under privacy laws.
Pilot
OPERATIONS
A limited initial run used to validate process, performance and fit before full rollout.
Prior Authorization
OPERATIONS
Securing payer approval before a healthcare service is delivered to confirm coverage.
Process Mining
TECH & AI
Analyzing event-log data from systems to discover, monitor and improve how processes actually run.
Procure to Pay (P2P)
OPERATIONS
The cycle from sourcing and purchasing goods through to paying suppliers.
Productivity
METRICS
The amount of output produced per unit of input, such as transactions per agent hour.
Proof of Concept (POC)
OPERATIONS
A small-scale test demonstrating that a proposed solution or provider can meet defined requirements.
Protected Health Information (PHI)
COMPLIANCE
Individually identifiable health data safeguarded under HIPAA.
Q4 terms
Quality Assurance (QA)
METRICS
The structured monitoring and scoring of work to ensure it meets defined quality standards.
Quality Score
METRICS
A graded measure of how well an interaction or transaction met quality criteria.
Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
OPERATIONS
A periodic governance meeting reviewing performance, risks, roadmap and commercial health of an engagement.
Queue
CX
The line of waiting contacts held until an appropriate agent becomes available.
R19 terms
Ramp-Down
WORKFORCE
The controlled reduction of staffing as volumes fall or a program winds down.
Ramp-Up
WORKFORCE
The planned increase of staff and capacity as a program scales toward target volume.
Real-Time Analytics
TECH & AI
Processing and surfacing operational data as it happens to enable immediate action.
Reconciliation
OPERATIONS
Matching two sets of records to confirm figures agree and resolving any differences.
Record to Report (R2R)
OPERATIONS
The finance cycle of capturing transactions and producing financial statements and reports.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
COMPLIANCE
The maximum acceptable amount of data loss, measured as time since the last backup.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
COMPLIANCE
The maximum acceptable time to restore a process or system after disruption.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
MODELS
Transferring all or part of an organization’s recruiting and hiring activities to an external partner.
Request for Information (RFI)
SOURCING
An early-stage document used to gather high-level capability and qualification data from potential providers.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
SOURCING
A formal solicitation inviting providers to propose solutions, pricing and terms for a defined scope of work.
Request for Quotation (RFQ)
SOURCING
A request focused specifically on pricing for clearly defined goods or services.
Reshoring
DELIVERY
Returning previously offshored work back to the home country.
Retention
CX
Activities and outcomes focused on keeping existing customers and reducing churn.
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)
OPERATIONS
The end-to-end management of healthcare claims, billing and payment from registration to collection.
Rightshoring
DELIVERY
Choosing the optimal mix of onshore, nearshore and offshore locations for each part of a process.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
TECH & AI
Software “bots” that mimic human keystrokes to automate repetitive, rules-based digital tasks.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
COMPLIANCE
Restricting system access based on a user’s role and least-privilege principles.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
OPERATIONS
A structured method for identifying the underlying cause of a problem rather than its symptoms.
Runbook
OPERATIONS
A documented set of procedures for performing and recovering routine and exception operations.
S25 terms
Scope Creep
SOURCING
The uncontrolled expansion of work beyond the agreed scope without matching adjustments.
Script
CX
A prepared set of talking points or steps guiding an agent through an interaction.
Seat Utilization
DELIVERY
How fully workstations are used across shifts, a key driver of delivery-center efficiency.
Self-Service
CX
Tools like portals, FAQs and bots that let customers resolve issues without an agent.
Sentiment Analysis
TECH & AI
Using AI to gauge customer emotion and tone from text or speech.
Service Credit
SOURCING
A defined rebate the provider grants the client for failing to meet a service commitment.
Service Desk
CX
A broader IT support function managing incidents, requests and communication per ITIL practice.
Service Level (80/20)
METRICS
A contact-center target such as answering 80% of contacts within 20 seconds.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
METRICS
A contractual commitment to specific performance targets, with remedies if the provider misses them.
Service Level Objective (SLO)
METRICS
A target value or range for a service metric that an SLA is built to protect.
Shared Services Center (SSC)
MODELS
A centralized internal unit that delivers common support functions to multiple business units to gain scale and consistency.
Shrinkage
WORKFORCE
The portion of paid time agents are unavailable for contacts due to breaks, training, leave or meetings.
Six Sigma
OPERATIONS
A data-driven methodology for reducing defects and variation to improve quality and consistency.
SLA Credit / Penalty
SOURCING
A financial deduction the provider absorbs when service levels fall below target.
SOC 1
COMPLIANCE
An audit report on controls relevant to a client’s financial reporting.
SOC 2 Type II
COMPLIANCE
An independent audit of how effectively a provider’s security controls operate over time.
SOX
COMPLIANCE
The U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandating internal controls over financial reporting.
Span of Control
WORKFORCE
The number of staff a team leader or manager directly supervises.
Speech Analytics
TECH & AI
Automated analysis of recorded calls to surface trends, compliance risks and coaching needs.
Staff Augmentation
MODELS
Adding external personnel to your team on a temporary basis while you retain day-to-day management and direction.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
OPERATIONS
A step-by-step written instruction defining how a specific task should be performed consistently.
Statement of Work (SOW)
SOURCING
A document defining deliverables, scope, timelines and acceptance criteria for a specific engagement.
Steady State
OPERATIONS
The stabilized phase after transition where the operation runs to its agreed performance baseline.
Subject Matter Expert (SME)
WORKFORCE
A specialist with deep knowledge of a process, product or domain who supports the team.
Supplier
SOURCING
A provider of services or capacity; PITON-Global uses “supplier” to stress its vendor-agnostic stance.
T12 terms
Telemarketing
CX
Selling or promoting products and services to prospects by phone.
Throughput
METRICS
The volume of work completed by a process or team within a given time.
Ticket
OPERATIONS
A logged record of a customer issue or request tracked through to resolution.
Tier 1 / 2 / 3 Support
CX
Escalating levels of technical support, from basic frontline help to deep specialist engineering.
Time & Materials (T&M)
PRICING
Billing for actual hours worked plus materials, used when scope is uncertain.
Time Zone Coverage
DELIVERY
Aligning delivery locations and shifts to a client’s required hours of operation.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
PRICING
The full cost of an engagement including hidden costs like transition, governance and rework.
Transaction-Based Pricing
PRICING
Charging a fixed price per unit of work processed, such as per claim or per ticket.
Transcription
OPERATIONS
Converting audio or video into accurate written text.
Transition
OPERATIONS
The structured phase of moving a process to a provider, including knowledge transfer, setup and stabilization.
Trust & Safety
COMPLIANCE
The discipline of protecting users and platforms from abuse, fraud and harmful content.
Turnaround Time (TAT)
METRICS
The total time taken to complete a process or fulfill a request end to end.
U3 terms
Unified Communications (UCaaS)
TECH & AI
Cloud-delivered voice, video, messaging and collaboration in a single platform.
Upsell / Cross-sell
CX
Encouraging customers to buy a higher tier (upsell) or complementary products (cross-sell).
Utilization
METRICS
The share of paid time an agent spends on productive, value-adding work.
V6 terms
Value Stream Mapping
OPERATIONS
A lean technique that visualizes every step in a process to expose waste and improvement opportunities.
Vendor
SOURCING
A company that supplies goods or services under contract; in outsourcing, the provider delivering the process.
Vendor Risk Management
COMPLIANCE
The practice of assessing and monitoring the risks third-party providers introduce.
Virtual Agent
TECH & AI
An AI-driven assistant that resolves customer issues across channels with minimal human involvement.
Voice of the Customer (VoC)
CX
The structured capture of customer feedback and expectations to drive experience improvements.
Volume Discount
PRICING
A reduced unit rate granted as committed or actual volumes increase.
W3 terms
Whisper Coaching
WORKFORCE
A supervisor speaking only to the agent during a live call, unheard by the customer.
Workforce Management (WFM)
WORKFORCE
Forecasting demand and scheduling staff to meet service targets at the lowest cost.
Workforce Optimization (WFO)
WORKFORCE
An integrated approach combining WFM, quality, analytics and coaching to lift performance.
No terms match that search.
Try a different keyword or clear your filters.
FROM TERMS TO A SHORTLIST
Know the terms. Now scope the work.
Name the model, geographies and compliance frameworks you require, and a vetted best-fit supplier shortlist comes back — free, no obligation.