Knowledge@Wharton sheds light on an aspect of outsourcing that rarely gets enough visibility - what happens after you signed the outsourcing deal?

"More and more executives are likely to face the challenges of what might be termed "life after BPO." The BPO market is expected to grow from about $405 billion last year to $682.5 billion in 2008, according to research firm IDC.

BPO refers to companies farming out tasks that can range from employee benefits management to insurance claims processing to call center work to complex research projects. Companies have been "doing BPO" for many years when you consider activities such as hiring outside legal counsel or having paychecks cut by a provider such as Automatic Data Processing. But in the past several years, amid continued evolution of the Internet and growing corporate experience with technology outsourcing deals, expanded outsourcing options have emerged. These include shipping back-office work to lower-wage nations such as India, Singapore, the Philippines, and so on."Read it all.