More than ever, today’s political climate warrants expert technical services. Considering how uncertain the evolving business landscape is at present, the need for robust digital systems is more critical.
The catch, however, is that there’s an overwhelming lack of talented developers and IT experts.
Fortunately, entrepreneurs no longer have to hire in-house IT talent to keep an organization going. The outsourcing industry is growing, and a huge part of that is because of how agile developers and technical professionals are now.
Let’s take a look at the two most familiar outsourcing models—staff augmentation and project outsourcing—and find out which one best suits your business!
Staff Augmentation
What is staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation is a staffing approach that harnesses the power and expertise of a third-party pool of talents. This set-up is designed to boost your team’s IT efforts for an established duration or a project basis.
In other words, you essentially employ the services of professionals without having to build a department within your own business.
The benefits of staff augmentation
Flexibility
Staff augmentation services provide the easy flexibility entrepreneurs look forward to in scaling up or down. Without the hassle and costs of recruiting, hiring, and training, business leaders can quickly adjust to headcount demands depending on the need of a project or season.
Because these professionals are employed under an IT vendor, you’re also freed from having to worry about a talent’s employee perks, taxes, and insurances. Entrepreneurs simply pay a flat fee for the service bundles they need.
Management
Supplemental talents work directly with your in-house workforce, allowing leaders immediate oversight of the additional team’s performance. What’s more, because employers optimize the services of temporary industry experts, a company’s employees can focus directly on their workload.
Whereas business entities that don’t outsource needed help tend to unfairly distribute more workload to their existing workforce, those who resort to staff augmentation services are more able to foster healthy work environments for their employees.
Efficiency
Staff augmentation services allow businesses to be efficient both with finances and time. Because entrepreneurs can quickly fill in skill gaps and job vacancies with temporary talent employment, this allows businesses to make cost-effective solutions by not having to spend too much money on recruitment and training.
The drawbacks of staff augmentation
Adjustments
It may take a while for in-house employees to adjust to temporary help, especially if these professionals have to work onsite. Nonetheless, this shouldn’t be a problem when business leaders articulate perfectly what duties the supplemental team will work on, and until when they’ll be around.
No escaping training
While your staff augmentation services provider will offer you only the best in their teams, leaders aren’t fully exempt from having to train outsourced help when it comes to company policies, tools, and other onsite materials.
Project Outsourcing
What is project outsourcing?
Staff augmentation differs from project outsourcing in that business leaders often entrust complete talent management to the IT vendor. The primary difference between both outsourcing models is that with project outsourcing, you pay for a particular outcome externally worked on by third-party experts, whereas staff augmentation talents technically work with and for you during the duration of the project or season you employ them for.
Meaning to say, these teams don’t report to you individually, as you only pay for the results of a certain service.
The benefits of project outsourcing
Cost-effective
Similar to staff augmentation services, this route is also incredibly cost-effective as entrepreneurs no longer have to spend for recruitment and training.
When you partner with a vendor, you can expect that they deliver on time whatever is needed.
Access to great talent
Like staff augmentation, too, you’re afforded access to some of the best IT professionals in the industry minus the stress of having to build your own team. This also means that a business’s in-house team members can focus on the core duties of their jobs as opposed to them having to learn new skills to bridge company gaps.
The drawbacks of project outsourcing
Managerial control
Arguably the biggest drawback of this outsourcing model is managerial control. Because a substantial amount of management is taken from you, some leaders may experience frustration and differences in company principles with their vendors.
Additionally, time differences may become a roadblock to a lot of business leaders.
Quality issues
Giving up direct oversight may result in massive quality control problems. While the key to avoiding this happenstance is consistent communication, it isn’t unlikely for clients to be on different pages with the vendors they work with.
Contrary to staff augmentation, business leaders do not necessarily have direct access to the experts that work on their projects. In other words, business leaders are limited only to an account manager, and not always the developers and technicians in charge of the bulk of the work.
What’s best for my business?
We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to businesses. However, staff augmentation services are the clear winner here when it comes to cost-effectiveness, project management, and efficiency.
Does your business call for extra tech help? We’re the agency you want to partner with.
Call us today!
