What Is Staff Augmentation Meaning in the Current IT Industry?

More than anyone, hiring managers clearly discern how arduous it is and will be to hire specialized professionals in terms of spending costs and efforts. Especially in the software development industry, where full-time employees with a particular set of specialized skills and level of competencies are in high demand yet hard to acquire, business owners and employers are in need of an optimal solution to source efficient talent in an easier and more flexible manner. Of that, you can supplement your in-house staff on a project-by-project basis and shrink the existing resources to align with your demands most cost-effectively. And we are endorsing the concept of “IT staff augmentation.”

What Is the Staff Augmentation Model?

Generally speaking, the staff augmentation definition refers to the outsourcing process of hiring employees through a third-party staffing agency. In other words, this method enables you to leverage external personnel on a temporary or long-term basis in order to augment the internal capacity of a company’s employees.

Also referred to as team augmentation or resource augmentation, this hiring model can be implemented in almost any industry. And as we stated earlier, the tech industry is where staff augmentation services shine the most. On your behalf, the staff augmentation companies will run through the recruitment process to hire and deliver experienced professionals who are already skilled and well-versed as per project requirements. You are able to fill positions without having to create job postings, interview candidates, carry out extensive background checks, and go through other nitty-gritty activities.

There can be various drivers leading to the shift toward this model. In essence, it all boils down to cost-effectiveness and scalability, making IT staff augmentation an attractive decision for many business owners. More details about the benefits of this outsourcing model will be uncovered later in this article, so keep reading. Before that, let’s run through the different types of IT staff augmentation services you can find.

Types of Resource Augmentation Solutions

To make it easier for you to perceive the scope of IT staff augmentation services, we categorize them by different metrics regarding project management and resource allocation.

Time-based

The first metric revolves around the duration of engagement periods. In this arrangement, you can employ personnel on either a long-term or temporary basis, depending on the project’s nature and complexity.

Temporary Staffing

The service model is usually used for project-based work requiring quick deployment or when there is ad-hoc demand for additional IT workforce within a short timeframe. This option is ideal for incorporating extra hands into your existing staff and promptly bridging the manpower gaps on demand. Temps are preferred due to their flexibility as you do not have to commit to long-term responsibilities upon them, as when hiring full-time employees. The temporary employees can instantly join your team and start working straight away, and they off when the job is done.

From an employer’s perspective, this is the best-of-both-world option since you can augment staff to handle heavy workloads and cut down anytime when needed. Thereof enables you to control costs and ensure the entire project runs on schedule.

Long-term Staffing

Alternatively, long-term engagement entails augmented staff to work on specific projects, ordinarily large, complex, and long-span ones, for an extended duration. These types of projects often demand deep knowledge and particular skills; therefore, the augmented team must be able to dedicate themselves to the project.

In this model, the added personnel will be integrated into your internal operations and will function like in-house employees with almost no difference except for the limited engagement period. Oftentimes, their “last days” will be predetermined and documented initially in the contract.

Location-based

The second dimension to categorize IT staff augmentation services is based on the delivery location. Employers and project managers can choose to staff their forces with onshore, nearshore, or offshore professionals at their disposal.

Onsite Augmentation

Simple as it sounds, the augmented staff will be recruited and onboarded onsite. They can be physically present and work in the same office as your internal personnel, rubbing shoulders with them to get hands-on experience daily. The tangible advantage at this point is the direct communication and collaboration within the team. The onsite outsourced staff can get up to speed with a full-time employee faster and respond to project fluctuations promptly.

However, you need to prepare to face the overhead spending. The salaries, benefits, and other costs associated with onsite manpower will be extra higher than those working remotely, as you must surround them with adequate benefits and perks in order to attract, acquire, and retain top talent. Also, the legal implications may come into play as you shall bear responsibility for the augmented staff in some cases, such as labor regulations, health insurance, etc.

Remote Augmentation

Offsite augmentation designates that the added staff will not be working within your premises but remotely instead. This model is perfect for those who prefer using a globally dispersed workforce and spreading the project among multiple locations.

The most significant benefit of this type of IT staff augmentation service is that you can hire remote personnel from anywhere in the world at lower costs without having to bear extra overhead expenses apart from providing them with the necessary tools and equipment. Furthermore, you can leverage dedicated developers with diverse backgrounds as well as expertise in different niches to enrich your in-house resources.

In the end, it is up to you to decide which type of IT staff augmentation suits your business needs best. However, bear in mind that any model offers tremendous benefits if implemented correctly. The advantages stemming from each will be discussed shortly.

Skill-based

This hiring strategy, as its name implies, focuses on the expertise, skill, and experience facets of personnel. In which the augmented individuals or teams will be vetted and selected to join the in-house staff primarily based on the skill gaps. Simply said, you add professionals to your team whose competencies are missing from your own.

What Benefits Do Staff Augmentation Services Offer Your In-house Development Team?

No need to argue because we all consent to the fact that hiring developers is a daunting task, even for a young company or a large-scale corporation. It entails multiple factors, both subjective and objective, to pull the IT recruitment processes off. This is where the power of IT staff augmentation steps in and eases the game.

Time-and Cost-savings

First and foremost, you can save time and money for sure. Compared to committing to permanent in-house employees, staff augmentation services help you to trim your budgets to the fullest by cutting expenses except for the fees paid for providers (which includes the salaries for personnel).

Regarding time, resource augmentation is the fastest way to get additional hands on deck by skipping all the time-consuming tasks and processes, cutting through the chase to a complete team. This, in turn, will accelerate the development cycle and optimize the speed of delivery.

As for costs, you can save money on multiple fronts. You can lower the budget for salaries, benefits, and perks as you do not bear the burden of long-term commitments. Additionally, you can benefit from the different rates across different geographies, some with lower wages. With every small portion of expense you save, you can reduce the overall development costs without diverging from your goals.

Complete Control Over Personnel & Quality

When augmenting staff, you have more control over who is working for you rather than other outsourcing models. You don’t have to be present at every stage of the hiring process but still can join anytime and have a direct influence on recruitment. Thus, this helps you to keep an eye out for your team’s professional qualifications, culture fit, and other qualities.

Additionally, you can maintain control better on the progress and outcomes of the augmented staff as they work closely with your team somehow like official members, not freelancers or an outbound group. To this extent, managers or leaders can secure quality control themselves and effectively manage the project.

Hassle-free In-house Team Expansion

Indeed, you have more difficulties with full-time employees when it comes to adjusting the team size based on your preferences. There are often cases in which you cannot downsize the team if needed or add extra hands to meet the sudden spikes of workload without having to invest in new hires every single time. Such situations consume more resources, leading to incurred costs and project delays that should not occur in the first place.

Fortunately, this is a hurdle that staff augmentation can help to eliminate. New hires can be integrated or dismissed as you please, which makes building up and downsizing the team on demand much easier. This buys you the flexibility and freedom to distribute your resources more efficiently and in a cost-effective manner.

“Passport” to the Global Talent Pool

Augmentation services help you break local boundaries and gain access to a broader range of tech talent. In such a competitive labor market driven by the shortage of qualified developers, this is the fastest way to hunt IT specialists, especially ones with rare or hard-to-fill skill sets, such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc. And if you are in luck, you can get what you need at a fraction of the cost.

Typically, a lot of tech companies or even industry leaders are taking their chances with the talent source of Vietnam, where the IT workforce is vast in quantity and high in quality while offering outputs at a reasonable rate.

How Does Staff Augmentation Differ from Managed Services (Outsourcing)?

Staff augmentation and managed services (known as outsourcing) are both strategies to expand the capabilities of an in-house development team. However, there are some key differences that set them apart from each other.

Managed services, or outsourcing, involves delegating entire business processes or functions to a managed service provider on a contractual basis. Such services are diverse in scope and scale, from IT project-based consulting, dedicated teams to full-scale software development.

Sometimes, staff augmentation is treated as a type of outsourcing service to some extent. However, unlike other outsourcing models attached to a broader range of services and purposes, staff or team augmentation focuses mainly on the recruitment aspect. It is personnel-driven and prioritized, especially in filling skill gaps within the in-house team. Furthermore, the augmented members are an official extension of your team and not merely outsourced third-party personnel.

Staff Augmentation Vs. Project-based Consulting

Project-based consulting or full-scale software development are the most common types of outsourcing services. They involve delegating entire projects to third-party providers, who will take care of all the tasks from design and development to product launch and maintenance.

Instead of permanent staff hiring, you can leverage dedicated resources, ranging from professionals, consultants, or any kind of experienced individuals, from managed service providers to execute your projects from A to Z.

Project-based services are a great solution if you need to build something from scratch or change your current system drastically with an end-to-end solution. They are also highly customizable according to the niche requirements of each and every client; thus, they are often only suitable and viable for complex or long-term projects.

On the contrary, staff augmentation is a short-term recruitment solution that helps managers quickly expand their teams without over-investing in permanent employees and allowing for flexibility. It is the perfect solution for those who need to get the job done quickly with less overhead costs. Staff augmentation meaning is to fill in the blank of resource deficit and nothing more than that.

Staff Augmentation Vs. Dedicated Team

Dedicated software teams are the type of managed services that provide a complete team of developers, designers, and other professionals to work full-time on your side. Similar to staff augmentation, you can customize and select the members for this kind of service based on their skill sets. However, they are solely responsible for building and maintaining your product in the long run while managing its entire lifecycle. This is an ideal solution when you have multiple software development projects coming down the pipeline or require considerable assistance from time to time.

While both staff augmentation and dedicated teams center around IT resource provisioning, there is one key difference between them: With dedicated teams, the relationship between employers and employees is much closer as they bond over a longer period of time. Hence, they could get better at understanding the culture and values of your organization as well as adapting to it quickly.

Orient Software - Your Elite IT Staff Augmentation Provider

The conclusion of the right staff augmentation model can be decided on multiple factors, but choosing a reliable outsourcing vendor is the very first step toward the final success, no doubt. For decades, Orient Software has been the leading name in IT staff augmentation services, providing its clients with comprehensive solutions that can cover all your needs.

We are well-equipped to deliver multiple types of personnel, ranging from software engineers to project managers and business analysts, requirements. Our team of experts is always available for consultation and assists you in creating a roadmap tailored to your project objectives.

We also understand the importance of corporate culture, and our rigorous selection process allows us to handpick developers who are most suitable for your team. Our experts work with you closely to ensure that all the personnel taken on board are in line with the mission and vision of your company as well as its values so that the long-term success of the project is secured.

Choose Orient Software for a hassle-free staff augmentation journey, and get ready to take your business to the next level. Contact us today and let our team of experts find you the perfect personnel that meets your requirements.