Every growing business will eventually reach a point where their internal IT team feels the strain of increasing responsibilities and demands. Outsourcing select roles and projects provides a flexible middle ground between straining existing resources and lengthy expansion. Also, IT staff augmentation provides numerous benefits.
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Faster and cheaper than in-house developers
Outsourcing IT projects to a staff augmentation provider can help companies complete work more quickly and economically than using solely internal resources.
When your team is stretched thin, or you have a time-sensitive project, an augmentation partner can provide extra coding capacity immediately. They will assign experienced developers familiar with your technology stack and programming languages who can ramp up efficiently.
Staff augmentation eliminates the long lead times required for hiring and onboarding full-time employees. You don’t need to spend months recruiting, interviewing, and getting new hires up to speed on your systems and processes. An external firm can have people working on your project within days or weeks. This accelerated timeline is crucial when you’re racing to launch a new product or upgrade legacy systems.
Relying on temporary contractors is also more affordable than expanding your permanent headcount. You only pay for the work as it’s being done rather than ongoing salary and benefits. There’s no need to equip someone with hardware or software licenses, and training costs stay low. And you gain flexibility—if project scope or priorities change, the level of support can scale up or down quickly through the provider.
Safer than freelancers
When hiring additional IT support, there are risks and benefits to consider with both freelancers and staff augmentation providers.
Freelancers can provide flexible individual talent but require less oversight of their work practices and security compliance. Augmentation through an established firm offers project management and quality control and may ensure professionals follow appropriate security protocols.
However, relying too heavily on external support could limit internal skills and oversight in the long term. The best approach may be a balanced mix of in-house and contracted support, depending on project needs and risk tolerance.
When To Hire IT Staff Augmentation Provider
There are a few key situations when considering external help makes the most sense:
Lack Of Specialized Skills In-house
New technologies are emerging rapidly, and it’s impossible for any IT department to master them all. Skills like cybersecurity, cloud engineering, data analytics, or software development may not be the core strengths of your existing team. An augmentation partner can fill those skill gaps as needed without the long-term commitment of hiring full-time employees.
Temporary Capacity Issues
Every IT department experiences periods when workloads spike beyond normal capacity. This could be due to a major new project, system migration, or seasonal business demands. Having an augmentation provider on standby means you can scale your team size temporarily to meet those peaks. You avoid over-hiring for a short-term need.
Project-based Work
Some tasks, like system implementations, upgrades, or custom software development projects, have a definite start and end date. For work with a limited timeline, it’s more cost-effective to leverage external consultants rather than hiring permanent staff. An augmentation partner can seamlessly provide the people and skills you require as part of your project team.
Lack Of Budget For Permanent Hires
Hiring IT professionals full-time involves ongoing costs like salaries, benefits, paid time off, equipment, etc. Augmentation offers an affordable alternative for cash-strapped companies or those uncertain about long-term needs. You only pay for the time and skills utilized, with no long-term salary commitments.
Addressing Staff Turnover
Resignations and retirements within your IT team can leave gaps that disrupt productivity. Bringing someone up to speed takes time, and interim support is needed. An augmentation provider ensures that critical roles are not left unfulfilled for prolonged periods as you recruit permanent hires.
Evaluating New Technologies
It’s prudent to try out new systems and tools before committing budgets to their full implementation. An augmentation partner allows you to tap relevant skills temporarily as you pilot solutions. If pilots are successful, you can decide whether to permanently build those capabilities in-house.
In all these situations, an external augmentation provider offers access to a large pool of skilled resources without the hassles of direct recruitment and employment. You get support exactly as per your requirements, with no long-term overhead. Their expertise also helps strengthen internal teams through knowledge transfer.
How To Choose The Right Staffing Firm Step-by-step
Assess Your Staffing Needs
The first step is analyzing the current team’s capabilities and identifying the skill gap. This way, you will determine precisely the necessary expertise and filter companies that can’t provide it.
Vet The Provider
Check the provider’s reputation, experience, and expertise to ensure reliability. The most efficient way to verify the quality of offered services is by looking through the reviews from previous customers.
Usually, company websites publish business cases with customer feedback, but video reviews are most trustworthy, where you can hear a real person and notice significant editing.
In cases when a company does not provide reviews on its own, there are a lot of ranking websites you can use. The most reputable is Clutch, which offers comprehensive information about its services, specialty, and company in general. The best part is direct access to client reviews with detailed descriptions of key points.
Another solid but time-consuming way to decide whether to trust a company is to ask for customer references with similar project requirements and scope. This way, you can ask all necessary questions and receive accurate responses with real examples.
Bear in mind that if a company refuses to provide their customer reference, it does not always mean that SAP is unreliable, but it probably works under NDA.
Compare Costs And Value
Staff augmentation gives access to the broad talent pool, where there will always be someone who will do the job cheaper. Nevertheless, “cheaper” does not always mean “better.” Too-good-to-be-true rates may indicate a lack of skills or experience, poor quality, or issues with work ethic, for instance.
Look beyond the hourly rates and consider the value the provider brings to the table: the ability to deliver quality results, a high level of customer service, and their commitment to meeting deadlines and project goals. A provider who offers value for money will ultimately save you time, costs, and frustration in the long run.
Check Contract Terms
Before finalizing your decision, thoroughly review the contract terms, consult a lawyer, and conduct a double-check on both sides’ obligations. Pay close attention to paragraphs related to intellectual property rights, confidentiality, termination, and any additional fees or charges.
The agreement must align with your company’s policies, protect your interests, and identify expectations from the partnership.
Conclusion
Outsourcing IT work through a reputable staffing firm provides an affordable way to supplement internal resources as required. With clear communication and proper due diligence, companies can access specialized expertise without long-term costs or commitments.
While direct hiring has merits, augmentation offers a lower-risk option to address temporary gaps. By following a step-by-step selection process, organizations can choose the right partner and experience efficient, high-quality results from their extended technical teams. With the right provider, staffing becomes a strategic lever rather than a last resort.
