Exult was created in 1998 and originally operated under the name of BPO US, Inc. Its business model was based on the premise that big corporations could be persuaded to outsource the most mundane human-resources tasks to outside contractors.
Founded by Jim Madden, who also served as chairman and chief executive officer of Exult, the company experienced rapid growth.
The company ran some of these services on intranet technology, called myHR, in which clients' employees could access general data on human resources.
Client service centers for Exult were located in South Shields, England; Uberlândia, Brazil; Memphis, Tennessee; Houston, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Glasgow, Scotland; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Mumbai, India.
In June 2003 Exult purchased the international business process outsourcing (BPO) operations of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for US$17 million, cash.