The term outsourcing gained common acceptance in the 1980s and is still used today to describe a contractual relationship with a specialized outside service provider for work traditionally done in-house. Although most now recognize that outsourcing relationships are more akin to strategic partnerships than to sub-contracts, the term reflects the fact that the work was seen as moving 'outside' the company', or 'outsourced'.

At the same time, the scope of the work that companies outsource often follows traditional organizational boundaries. Companies outsource some or all of their IT department, of their logistics department (such as transportation or warehousing), or one or more functions within the human resources department, such as payroll or training.

The term business process outsourcing, or BPO, was coined in the mid-1990s to suggest something different. BPO implies a more comprehensive - or business process oriented - approach to outsourcing. Instead of outsourcing along traditional functional lines, the scope of the services outsourced cuts across the organization in a more horizontal way. Generally, BPO contracts are seen as being more inclusive, covering a great deal of process redesign work, redeployment and retraining of the people doing the work. Portway’s goal is to provide an even greater opportunity for generating innovation, speed to market and shareholder value through this more comprehensive, integrated approach.