Why IT Staff Augmentation is the Best Business Strategy

If you already have an in-house development team and require extra hands, IT outstaffing is the best solution for you. It's like renting a specialist of certain expertise from another company for a specific period of time.

Imagine, some company operating in real estate has already launched the development of a special app. It should ease real estate property inspections and make addressing tenants’ requests more efficiently. At some point, they realize the necessity for extra developers. The company starts searching for cost-efficient ways to get the bug fixing procedures and certain design and feature improvements. So they turn to an IT outstaffing company that provides them with an iOS developer. 

Over time they decide to implement the app redesign so another specialist augments the initial development team. This time it is a designer who adds a new color theme and makes a complete app redesign. Keen to know the results of their cooperation?

This is a real case, and you can check the case study of how the ordering party has boosted business results after cooperation with an outstaffing agency. 

What is IT Outstaffing and How Does It Work?

IT outstaffing or staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy that helps businesses to hire the best talents worldwide for a specified period of time. This business model gives an opportunity to cut or extend the existing in-house team with dedicated developers. You can choose personnel with the most suitable stack of professional skills, level of expertise, communication, etc.

A staff augmentation company covers such aspects of cooperation as legal arrangements, workspace setup, staff IT support, recruitment, and HR processes. The chosen developer is concentrated solely on your project.

The "outstaffing" term may be rephrased in different countries as "contracting", "hiring a contract worker", "offshoring", "subcontracting", "talent outsourcing", etc. Most important is that when some tech startup or enterprise decides to augment the development team with talented specialists, they may partner with some IT outstaffing agency.

They provide a detailed job description and the agency starts to search for the matching professional. Once the fitting candidates are found, the ordering party may interview and approve the best developer. After that, the companies sign a contract while an outstaffing agency technically employs the chosen developer. 

Who Benefits From IT Staff Augmentation the Most?

Sometimes it is hard to decide which business model to choose for your business objectives.

Here is an overview of the situations when IT outstaffing is the best choice.

1. There is an existing development team in your company. You need extra hands to create an app or some part of the product. Especially when it comes to expertise in some programming language that won't be used in your company in the future. 
   
2. You have a team of developers working on your tech project but need to add some engineers. The local market doesn't offer developers with fitting expertise. Or you are short on time and can not wait for the whole recruitment process, instead, you need quality and fast hiring.
   
3. You wish to digitize certain processes in your company at lower costs. The existing IT department can monitor the work of the offshore augmented team.
   
4. You work with an outsourcing company but wish to have more control of the project and remote developers. By using the outstaffing model you can not only speak with developers directly but make sure they feel like part of your in-house development team. 

IT outstaffing is different from IT outsourcing in a way that within the first model the ordering party is responsible for staff management both of an in-house and augmented team and the final product delivery and quality by themselves. 

While the outsourcing vendor manages the development team within the project, may add or extract certain developers from the current product development to some other client's needs. Takes the responsibility for planning and progress tracking as well as other product development activities agreed by the contact. 

The Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation Model

Every business model has benefits and challenges to overcome therefore every business owner chooses the best one for reaching their own goals.

The challenges while using outstaffing services include:

• Requires tech expertise from the client. To manage the team of offshore developers the ordering party needs to understand each aspect of the software development process.
• Full responsibility for product development results lies on the client's shoulders, not the vendor's. The workload of the augmented team is fully controlled by the ordering party.
• Choose the fitting staff attentively. As the responsibility for results and team management lies on the client, it is crucial to allocate the best contractors.

Every model is viable due to the benefits it brings to businesses. Let's see what IT outstaffing services provide for tech startups and enterprises:

• No recruitment is required. The outstaffing agency fully covers the hiring process and the legal maintenance of staff employment.
• Cost-efficiency. The software development costs are lower compared to the in-house hiring due to lower rates or an outsourcing model due to the absence of risk management costs. 
• Full concentration on development. No need to manage the administrative side that includes salary payment, HR processes, etc.
• High productivity and dedication. The augmented team is fully focused on one project compared to outsourcing where it is possible to participate in several projects at once.
• High-security level. All the source code, IP rights, and development tools belong to the client so the project security is directly managed by the ordering party.
• Flexibility in staff rotation. The client may replace contractors for the one with the necessary expertise at any moment without additional costs for change.
• Ride out the recession. Enterprise's journey may face ups and downs and outstaffing helps to lay low and do not fire full-time workers by simply reducing the staff number till the economic situation gets better.
• No need to train staff. You already get a professional of expected experience that moves your project development fast so no qualification uplift is required, the rest is handled by the outstaffing agency.

How IT Outstaffing Model Helps to Optimize Development Costs

The outstaffing model makes it possible to hire the best developers for a reasonable price without opening a new office and maintaining the staff supportive operations. This way you don't need to additionally hire accountants, lawyers, recruiters, office managers, etc. The outstaffing agency will take care of all operational proceedings.

Also, there is no need to pay for the organization and the actual setup of team workplaces and other crucial facilities.

Instead, you just pay the agreed sum per the contract that includes the vendor's fee and the developer's net salary. While the vendor takes care of the rest.

How to Choose an IT Outstaffing Agency?

When choosing the right partner in outstaffing services, you should take into account certain major points, such as:

• Years on the market. The more time the company operates on the market, the better employer brand it has and the bigger pool of talented developers it has to offer.
• Awards and recognition. If the company is recognized by the trusted world organizations and their staff has professional certificates, it speaks eloquently about the overall competence and high delivery standards within the company.
• Communication. The way a company answers the questions defines the smoothness of further collaboration which is crucial in business partnerships.
• Facility equipment. One of the vendor's tasks is to organize a workplace for developers so choose the one who can provide your augmented team with a separate room with all the required facilities.
• Responsible manager. The outstaffing company should provide a manager in charge to negotiate possible misunderstandings with developers if necessary.

Conclusions

The right provider of team augmentation services for a tech startup or an SMB company, that has stepped up on the road to digital transformation and needs extra hands, will take care of the client's needs - from one developer to a whole development team including QA engineers and project managers. 

No distractions for other projects, a development team will be just like a part of your in-house team fully concentrating on your core product and business goals. A responsible manager will take care of all collaboration matters.

A professional outstaffing agency will ask you to pay only for the hired staff and give you the option to expand or reduce the allocated development team upon necessity.

Curious to know how outstaffing works in practice? Contact us anytime!