Deloitte’s 2023 Global Outsourcing Report emphasizes that cost efficiency and access to specialized skills are the primary reasons companies engage in IT staff augmentation.
Does your IT team lack specific skills which are important to reach new heights?
Do you feel that you’re falling behind when it comes to new technology implementations?
Can we assume that your IT staff lacks specific skills, if your team struggles to deliver services which are up to standard? If not, then IT staff augmentation is the perfect solution for your business.
IT staff augmentation presents the opportunity to attract a strong team of developers, designers, marketers & other similar resources who often fall under the same budget as a full-time resource would.
It’s no secret how the global digital transformation market, a key driver for IT staff augmentation, is projected to reach over $1 trillion alone by the end of year 2025.
With such transformative changes taking place within the digital stratosphere, here’s all about staff augmentation, strategic team alliances, and why acquiring the best talent matters.
The Significance of IT Staff Augmentation
Imagine you’re running short on Python developers at your bespoke software development company and the current ones are all focused on building winning software for your company.
Suddenly, your need for data analysis increases, and you want to acquire a specialty talent. With strategic team building, you can put together the perfect team.
However, the resources are currently all hands on deck and the deadlines are looming over your head. You need to deliver solutions, and you need to deliver them fast.
So what can you do in such a situation?
Finding the right talent in itself is a challenge, but what if you get a one-size-fits-all solution?
What if you find you can have access to temporary workers who can fill the gap on your team? That’s what IT staff augmentation is all about. It offers you a temporary solution for all kinds of projects.
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation is the process of onboarding the workforce through an intermediary such as a third-party organization. They are responsible for recruiting, managing, and payroll processing of such individuals on behalf of your organization. The third-party organization takes care of recruitment and organizing the workforce for your project. They also take care of managing the finances & payroll. Once the project is complete, they perform the necessary closure and dispatch the final payments.
It’s like having all your HR and recruitment processes outsourced to a company who have access to a large network of professionals, especially the ones who are highly talented & well-informed.
What Are the Different Types of Staff Augmentation Models?
There are different types of staff augmentation models depending on your specific requirements. If you want to build the perfect team, here are a few good models for you to choose from:
- Onshore Staff Augmentation: When you’re looking to hire the best talent within the same country as your business, or you’re looking for cultural alignment and establishing easy communication.
- Offshore Staff Augmentation: The offshore staff augmentation model is successful when you want to leverage the best talent for overseas locations and often choose for better cost savings.
- Nearshore Staff Augmentation:Â Nearshore staff augmentation offers finding and recruiting the best talent from neighboring countries, and combines cost efficiency with geographical proximity.
How Staff Augmentation is Different From Consulting?
Staff augmentation is all about temporary team members working on a project under your supervision. They work as a standalone entity and on a project basis. Consultation, on the other hand, is more advisory. A consultant offers their insights based on past experiences and suggests a fresh viewpoint. In staff augmentation, you have teams who actually work on your project, whereas, in consultation, you get someone who advises your teams on how to do the work rather than actually taking care of it.
How Staff Augmentation is Different From Managed Services?
Managed services offer continuous support. Companies outsource their entire responsibilities such as technology management, cybersecurity management, and other related tasks which minimize downtime. Staff augmentation, as mentioned above, is having a temporary team working with flexibility & agility to address temporary staffing requirements. It retains your control over your project which otherwise goes away when you’re outsourcing departments to managed service providers.
How Staff Augmentation is a Win-Win Business Model?
Staff augmentation brings specialized IT skills to your organization enabling you to work with high-end experts who unlike in-house resources, don’t offer any long-term commitments.
It saves you significant costs! And you have the liberty to size up and size down teams as per requirement. Flexibility further ensures that you have the right skills & you eliminate skill gaps easily.
Some other benefits of having an augmented IT staff working on your projects are:
- You can find specialists with the exact skill set you’re looking for.
- You get the projects done within the prescribed time & within budget.
- Your organization can focus more on improving the time-to-market.
- It closes the skill gap and saves up costs on scale-up post funding.
- You can enjoy the nearshore advantages of working with a remote team.
How Staff Augmentation Has Earned Significance Within the IT Industry?
Do you know the total number of employees laid off from work due to high inflation & rising interest rates is around 262,000 employees in over 1,180 companies globally in just December of 2023?
And that’s only a month. The numbers are astounding for quarterly or bi-annual reports!
More than two-thirds of these layoffs happened in the United States alone. Many major organizations and startups described how they faced a roadblock in maintaining the required profit margins.
By leveraging staff augmentation, organizations can regain access to a specialized talent pool, scale their workforce, and meet project demands so they can adapt quickly to changing market norms.
In this ever-evolving technology landscape, a staff augmentation company in USA helps with challenges and uncertainties the IT industry is facing during these turbulent times maintaining effective operations.
When Should You Opt-in for Staff Augmentation?
There are different scenarios where you can use IT staff augmentation; it’s a low-cost investment, one where you can benefit and receive the best treatment at just an affordable price.
- If you’re struggling with meeting short-term deadlines
- If you’re having difficulty filling the skill gap for a specialized project
- If you’re struggling with scaling operations without long-term commitments
- If you’re trying to test new technologies or following methodologies for implementation
Concluding Thoughts
In the year 2024, IT staff augmentation appears as a strategic asset for companies looking to overcome the complexities of the digital world. When you leverage the staff augmentation model, it helps you with a number of tasks such as meeting specialized skills, and critical deadlines & maintaining the perfect agility within the workplace, without getting into any form of long-term commitment of full-time hires. Whether you’re looking to fill in a temporary skill gap or planning to scale up a specific project, staff augmentation offers a flexible and cost-effective solution, one that empowers your organization to stay competitive
