Business Process Outsourcing is the long-term contracting out of non-core business processes to an outside provider to help achieve increased shareholder value. Many IT professionals are familiar with the term business process outsourcing (BPO), but knowing how to distinguish it from other types of outsourcing requires some scrutiny. Though some forms of BPO may include both IT management and business operations, the approach is primarily about turning over functions such as payroll, accounting, billing or even real estate management to a third party. Though these business processes may depend on IT, they are separate functions from core IT operations, such as data center activities or network management.