As the global market is evolving, businesses are leaning towards next-gen technologies to create advanced digital solutions. The rising competition makes it extremely difficult to find the right talent for the right job. That’s where IT staff augmentation services come into the picture.
Businesses around the world are finding the concept of remote hiring extremely feasible and result-oriented. Hiring top talents for full-time positions requires businesses to undergo a tedious onboarding process that consumes a lot of time and capital. Whereas hiring expert resources from the global pool of talent temporarily saves money and time.
IT staff augmentation has become the buzzword in the global IT industry as it delivers the right talent and expertise that businesses need to develop their projects with dynamic requirements. In this blog, we will discuss staff augmentation in detail, along with the types and advantages.
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT Staff augmentation can be explained as an outsourcing strategy that involves the hiring of skilled and experienced engineering resources to fill the skill gap in the in-house team. The resources can be hired on a temporary or permanent basis.
Finding resources in the global market is easy but finding the right tech talent is a little bit tricky. Staff augmentation services make it extremely easy to find the right tech talent for your project development. Businesses can choose from a list of experienced and skilled candidates with the right set of expertise to meet their expectations.
A reliable IT staff augmentation company delivers a lot of options to hire tech resources as per the requirement of your project. They help in filling the skill gap in your in-house development team for long-term or short-term projects.
IT staff augmentation is a detailed process that involves analyzing the workflow, project’s scope, budget, etc., to provide you the perfect fit for a specific job or project development. The IT staff augmentation company analyzes the current skill band at your business and determines what other skill sets are needed to get the perfect outcome.
The Market stats of staff augmentation services are skyrocketing since the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Do Businesses Need Staff Augmentation?
Project development is a long process with a number of elements involved. The process can sometimes be complicated depending on the requirements of the project or the nature of the final outcome.
Sometimes businesses miss the signs to augment their in-house team with external resources to maintain workflow or enhance the brand value. Here are some of the reasons or signs that indicate the need for IT staffing services.
1. Skill Gap
While developing a complex project, there is a shortage of needed expertise in the development team. Hiring expert developers and tech experts will significantly enhance the overall team skill graph to get great results.
2. Long-Term Projects
Projects that consume a lot of time and capital require a specific set of skills to get optimum results. Introducing senior IT talents to your team while developing long-term projects will significantly enhance project quality and overall productivity.
3. Small Projects
Project development doesn’t end with the project launch; there are a lot of processes that follow, such as maintenance, re-development, the addition of features, or any functionality. Staff augmentation services are highly feasible and useful in the case of these small projects that consume less time.
4. Reduce the Time to Market
If your business is taking longer than expected to launch the product in the market despite all the efforts, then maybe it’s time to take external help. Hiring IT staffing services will expedite the product development process and improve the quality as well.
5. No Spare Resource
When businesses have all their tech resources allotted on different tasks or projects, and they need to finish other projects in a specific time period, they can hire expert resources through staff augmentation services to fulfill their interim project needs.
6. Dynamic Requirements
Certain projects come with a list of specific requirements that needs another set of expertise. In that case, businesses can hire a development team through IT staffing services and complete their project with ease.
7. Reduce Operational Cost
Sometimes, renting tech resources for a specific period of time can save businesses a lot of money than hiring full-time resources. When you hire a development team from a reputed IT staff augmentation company, they provide top IT talents with vast experience and a wide array of skills at an affordable cost, ultimately bringing down the overall operational cost.
Types of Staff Augmentation Services
Choosing the right staff augmentation model for your business is as important as knowing when to hire the resources. IT staffing and consulting services come in various shapes and sizes; each has a different purpose and specifications. You need to know which model suits your needs the best to get the perfect outcome. Here are some of the most important types of staff augmentation services.
Time & Material Model
Several software development projects demand flexibility from every party involved, and sometimes the process can cross the specified timeline. Staff augmentation's time and material model provides tech resources to businesses for various project development and charges them for the time and material invested for a specified duration.
Turnkey Project Model
Turnkey Project Model is the most preferred model among businesses in the global IT market. The service provider handles all the responsibilities, including any fluctuation in the cost. Businesses have to state their requirements and agree on a budget for the overall development; the IT staff augmentation company will take care of the rest.
Dedicated Developer Model
The dedicated developer model is one of the most preferred staff augmentation models among the business in the software development arena. The staff augmentation company provides certified developers to businesses as per their requested expertise, experience, and skillsets. This model is mostly preferred for long-term projects. However, it can be used in other short-term projects and maintenance tasks. Businesses only have to pay for the number of professionals they hire from this model.
Custom Hiring Model
Every project development process is not the same; they all present a myriad of requirements and complications. Hence, to solve the problem, businesses need a custom hiring solution; that's where the custom hiring model comes into play. Businesses can hire resources through this model for a number of things such as testing, editing, maintenance of the project, whole project development, etc. In short, they can introduce these resources to their project development process at any stage.
Advantages of Staff Augmentation
IT staff augmentation services come with a lot of advantages that contribute to the overall growth of businesses. This Staff Augmentation service produces results without compromising with the quality and decreasing operational costs. IT staffing and consulting firms provide efficient experts on a project-to-project basis to maintain your business’s brand value.
Here are some of the top benefits that come along with IT staff augmentation services.
Unlimited Access to a Giant Pool of Talent
Businesses may find it hard to go through a full-time hiring process as it requires more time and investment. On the other hand, IT resource augmentation services lighten their load and deliver qualified experts with exact skillset and expertise. The resources that are available for hire possess a diverse background and hands-on experience of next-gen technologies that help in enhancing the overall project development quality.
Highly Cost-Effective
Let's understand this point with the help of an example: suppose one has to build a house/office or any sort of infrastructure. Now, there are two options, either they hire each mason and helper individually and start with the building process, or they can simply hire a contractor to fix a price and get on with the work. The second option is more feasible in terms of time, effort, and, most importantly, cost. Staff augmentation services play the role of a contractor that takes away your stress of finding relevant resources at an affordable price range.
More Control Over the Process
While hiring full-time resources, businesses always run the risk of not finding the right talent for a specified job for a long time. With IT staffing and consulting, businesses can just state their requirements, and they get the right prospects for the job within a less period of time. Thus, they save time and stay in full control of the process. After the hiring process is complete from either of the staff augmentation models, businesses remain in full control of their project development. The service provider delivers regular reports, constant communication, etc., for businesses to review.
It's Highly Scalable
Expanding your business need highly skilled tech resources, but you are not sure to hire full-time employees? Staff augmentation is the answer to all your problems. Whether it's a short-term project or a long-term project, you can always hire qualified and experienced resources to fill the skill gap in your in-house team to develop meaningful and efficient projects. Various models associated with the service allows you to scale your business or project development as per your need. The number of resources can be increased and decreased as per the project development requirements.
Introduce Innovation in Your Projects
One may think that experience and knowledge come through time. Well, welcome to the new age! The new generation developers and other IT experts have a lot to offer to enhance your brand value through efficient project development. When you work with a team of fixed employees, after a certain time, ideas often become stagnant. With staff augmentation services, you get a new team of IT experts with diverse experience and new ideas that are ready to spark innovation in your project development process.
Enhances Operational Efficiency
Businesses often enter a period that decreases their return on investment, and maintaining a full-fledged, full-time team of resources becomes difficult. The high operational cost contributes to undermining the quality and scope of the project. When businesses hire temporary resources through resource augmentation services, they don't have to set up any new infrastructure or anything. The highly skilled professionals work from their mother firm and report directly to you. It ultimately optimizes the workflow, enhances the product quality, and brings down the overall operational cost.
How to Use Staff Augmentation to Get Maximum Results?
A business is never self-sufficient; it always requires a helping hand, whether in terms of staffing or technology. Especially when businesses want to expand their curb, they need help to execute the idea efficiently.
There are certain practices that businesses should follow to make the most of their staff augmentation services. Here are some of the most common practices to fetch extraordinary results.
1. Set Clear Goal or Expectation
While augmenting resources from an IT staff augmentation company, not setting clear expectations often leads to significant problems. When goals are not discussed with the service provider, multiple iterations of the same project are bound to happen. It will consume your time, effort, and capital.
Setting clear goals and expectations at the start will save you a lot of time and help in getting a clear picture of the final outcome, which will ultimately bring excellent results. Companies with clear agendas have a better relationship with their hired resources and tend to achieve maximum results in the long run.
2. Set Communication Arrangements
While working with remote resources, communication can be a bit tricky. Poor communication leads to mistakes, and mistakes lead to multiple iterations and doing a task repeatedly to achieve the expected results. A coherent communication will put down the foundation of success for your project development process and with the new team. It is recommended to fix a schedule with your service provider for regular reports, meetings, and reviews.
If you are working with a team in a different time zone, come to the middle ground and fix a time for calling or meetings that is suitable for both parties. It will create constant communication and form new relationships with excellent rewards.
3. Define Roles and Workflows
When you hire a team of developers with the help of staff augmentation, you are in full control since the start. It is recommended to set clear grounds in terms of roles and workflows from the start for a smooth experience. Define the roles of each resource involved in the contract of your project development as per their expertise and experiences.
Your in-house team developers and the external resources should understand the principles of the project clearly to deliver excellent results. Studies show that clearly defined roles create a productive environment and enhance the trust between the team members. After defining the roles, move to define workflows. Each individual in the team should be aware of the next step of the process, along with the meeting timings and report submissions deadline.
4. Implement Management Tools
Studies suggest that businesses that implement any kind of project management tools in their project development process, stay well connected with the team, the process remains on a defined schedule, and quality standards are met.
Businesses availing the staff augmentation services are recommended to implement some project management tools to make the most out of the collaboration. Jira, Basecamp, etc., are some of the examples of project management tools that businesses can use.
5. Embrace Changes
Your in-house team may have a certain way of working and some rules that they follow, but while working with a hired team of professionals from another firm, you have to be ready to accept changes in the daily routine. The working methodology of the remotely hired team may be different, and maybe they want to introduce some changes in the routine for deriving excellent results.
Businesses should always embrace the changes and allow highly skilled resources to implement some changes that don’t interfere with their core values. It is recommended to become more flexible with the augmented teams to make the most out of the process.
Why Augment Your Team with Matellio?
IT staff augmentation services allow businesses to get access to a large pool of highly skilled talents at a nominal cost that ultimately helps in enhancing the quality of end results. But to get access to this pool of the right talent, you need to find a reliable IT staff augmentation company, that’s where Matellio comes into the picture.
As a reliable IT resource augmentation company, we understand your varying requirements and the market scenario to create extreme results. Our team of highly skilled tech resources possesses a diversified portfolio and a wide array of skills. Matellio’s experts are well aware of the current market trends and can develop your unique project exactly as per your expectations.
Our team of experts has vast experience of working with next-gen technologies. We follow the Agile development methodology that sets us apart from the competition. Our high client retention rate says a lot about our quality of service.
We offer a range of hiring models that are flawlessly designed to fit like a glove with your varying business needs. Our staff augmentation model not only fills the skill gap in your in-house team but also brings down your overall operations cost. We are well equipped with next-gen communications channels to stay in touch at all times.
Still, have doubts about hiring qualified resources to start your project development? Book a free 30-min consultation call with our experts today, and let’s get started on a new journey!
