When the service industry in India started, everyone spoke of "Call Centers" (apart from software development of course). That is because, by and large, it really was nothing more than voice calls (inbound and outgoing). Then, companies started adding "non-voice processes" which gave birth to a new term - "ITES or IT Enabled Services". Time went by, and these
things were called "BPO - Business Process Outsourcing". And then came KPO which broadly means the outsourcing of various kinds of "knowledge work".
Knowledge Process Outsourcing has definite connotation and can not be used for all kinds of the outsourcing activities. Broadly speaking, KPO involves the following activities:
LPO stands for legal process outsourcing. LPO a breadth of legal processes, such as patent application drafting, legal research, advising clients, writing software licensing agreements and drafting distribution agreements.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw coined this term. RPO means Research Process Outsourcing. Clients outsource their R&D work and RPO is most popular in the biotech industry.
HRO stands for Human Resource Outsourcing. HRO comprises activities such as, payroll management, training, staffing, retirement and benefits planning, risk management, compensation consulting, etc. These activities are outsourced by which the client can concentrate on their core competency.
MBPO stands for Medical Business Process Outsourcing. Medical transcription, billing, claim processing, etc. are the chief activities of MBPO.
As time goes by, processes mature, and new players try to carve out new niche areas and lay claim to it, new terms are coined. But at the end of the day, it's all the same idea, just a different domain.....