Information Technology is one of the most demanding fields. It requires company recruiters, sources, and teams to continually implement new and innovative solutions to frequently arising business problems. Therefore, a team of the right people is the heart of any successful IT organization. As professionals are responsible for delivering quality projects on time, an IT company often falls into the trap of staff augmentation vs IT outsourcing vs a hybrid approach to deliver quality and timely solutions.
As technologies and customers are always evolving, an IT firm needs to have a team that can easily collaborate and work with external teams to develop robust software solutions. Moreover, finding businesses with static needs is a challenge because customer data is continuously growing.
Therefore, today IT organizations need to decide on one or two of the delivery models as listed below:
· Software/IT outsourcing services
· Hybrid approach
Comparing Staff Augmentation vs IT Outsourcing vs A Hybrid Approach
Let us now assess the below-mentioned delivery models to understand which one is perfect for your business requirements
IT Staff Augmentation Services
When an organization hires external staff to augment its capacity temporarily, it is known as workforce augmentation. Such an organization reaches out to other companies offering IT staff augmentation services that help them to add or reduce staff according to the skills required.
The IT staff augmentation model is an ideal approach when
· There’s an increase in the demand for personnel
· You need professionals with specialized skills
· You need to change an existing strategy for a faster time to market
· You need a bridge to hire capacity while you hire a team permanently for long-term needs.
Advantages of IT Staff Augmentation Services
· Staff augmentation eliminates the need to hire new employees
· Staff augmentation services provide you with competent staff that can quickly adopt the organization’s work culture.
· An effective way to perform a trial-run for skilled future professionals
Disadvantages of IT Staff Augmentation Services
· Not an ideal option if you have ongoing skill requirements and long-term projects
· May obstruct sustainability strategies because staff augmentation involves dependence on external companies
· Not recommended for projects that demand institutional or contextual knowledge.
Project or IT Outsourcing Services
An IT outsourcing company provides services to hire dedicated developers for complete project execution. However, it not only allows you to hire for an entire project but also hire talents for specific project tasks that you’re going to outsource, mostly offshore.
It is a more specialized method of cost-effective staffing because it allows you to hire a specialized set of professionals to get the job done.
Therefore, with software outsourcing services, you can focus more on your core business operations while hiring specialized skills and talents through outsourcing.
You should consider opting for IT outsourcing services when:
· You want your in-house team to focus more on business-critical activities
· You need to boost business processes that are tedious and time-consuming
· You want to transfer the responsibility and related tasks to a third-party company for risk-sharing purposes.
· You are looking for specialized skills that are not available as the requirement locally.
Advantages of IT Outsourcing Services
· Saves you time spent in advertising, interviewing, hiring, and training in-house employees
· Outsourcing projects to a third-party vendor with a lower production cost helps you reduce overall cost and earn better ROI.
· Provides access to a global, extensive pool of highly skilled and talented professionals
· Empowers organizations to onboard new domains and business clients
Disadvantages of IT Outsourcing Services
· An offshore software outsourcing company may have considerable time differences that may delay or hinder progress and communication.
· There may be language problems if you hire an offshore outsourcing company.
· External teams may take a long time to tackle cultural differences and different work habits.
Hybrid Approach
As said earlier, organizations rarely have static businesses in today’s technological era. Many IT firms have changing needs and therefore, they need to go with the hybrid approach - a combination of both IT staff augmentation services and IT outsourcing services.
In such a case, both types of delivery models are combined in a way to fulfill the specific project requirements.
In other words, a hybrid approach combines the benefits of staff augmentation and project/IT outsourcing.
You need to consider a hybrid approach when:
· You’re about to finish a project but there are certain stages where you need IT staff augmentation to introduce some specific knowledge and skills.
· You may have another software development stage where you may need to hire an outsourced software development team to work on your project. This may be very helpful for the in-house departments and the project will be delivered on time.
Advantages of the Hybrid Approach
· Provides complete predictability as the team cost is recurring every month
· Gives access to a vast pool of global talent that is highly specialized, skilled, and rare. You can choose this model based on projects.
· No need to expand your office workspace to accommodate more people in your team if you’re partnering with an offshore outsourcing company.
· Reduces the burden on the internal team and accelerates work
Disadvantages of the Hybrid Approach
· Demands an additional Project Manager or Offshore Manager who will handle different teams within the system
· Unstable costing can lead to higher expenses in the long run
Conclusion
Among the three delivery models, the hybrid approach is a common trend these days. As the global pandemic has compelled companies to work from home, remote working and the hybrid work model have become more relevant. Big companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Salesforce have successfully benefitted from the hybrid model of hiring and staffing.
However, there’s no straightforward answer to the questions as to which model is perfect for your business needs - IT staff augmentation vs IT Outsourcing vs a Hybrid Approach. Each of them comes with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. So, before making a decision, make sure you analyze your requirements related to project development, workforce, skills, and other resources.
