Outsourcing, business process outsourcing, or BPO, and the practice of looking beyond American shores to find ample arrangements, have led to the proliferation of the establishment of offshore contact centers in the past ten years. While it has become almost commonplace to speak with someone on foreign soil when calling the company just down the street, this practice may be slowing. Considering the backlash from customers and the general public, many companies still found significant benefits to offshoring their contact center operations. A survey completed by research firm compares BPO figures from three years ago with current figures. Upon this examination, survey give the conclusion that midsize businesses – or companies with 100 to 999 employees – have shown static use of BPO.

Over a three-year period, these businesses held at roughly 60 percent. US midsize businesses have over the years reported revenue growth of 7% to 8%, which is slightly higher than actual GDP growth of nation. In addition, the need for cost control and decreasing operating costs is of high concern among U.S. midsize businesses." Survey firm (AMI Partners) noted that in its research three years ago, it found that 97,000 U.S. midsize businesses did some level of BPO.

That percentage remained roughly the same at 60 percent of the 99,000 similar-sized businesses surveyed recently. 3 percent of these companies were using BPO front-office outsourcing such as customer support and call centers, as per result of research from AMI Partners. Back-office functions such as payroll and accounting seem to be the most common business processes that are outsourced.

AMI Partners also pointed out that most of the outsourced services are carried out onshore, with just an estimated 5 percent using offshore outsourcing operations. Perception would certainly have the consumer believing that this 5 percent is a little low. However, it is possible that the major push for offshoring has come from larger companies in smaller numbers.