In recent years, staff augmentation has emerged as the go-to solution to meet escalating business requirements while using minimal resources. IT staffing firms have increased their service scalability in response to market demands. Staff augmentation encompasses software development outsourcing, including devoted development teams and staff augmentation.
Remote employees are providing optimal solutions in the IT industry as a whole, offering simplified programming knowledge and skillsets as well as a track record of delivering high-quality work. Both traditional outsourcing and staff augmentation have had a significant influence on the global economy.
- According to reports, in 2019, the global outsourcing market was valued at $92.5 Billion.
- Statista reports that global revenue is estimated at USD 653 billion in 2022.
- Statista states the global staffing market is forecasted to grow by 3% in 2022 over 2021.
When Can You Get The Most Out Of Staff Augmentation?
If you entail IT staff augmentation, consider the following:
Quicker Hiring – The hiring process is much faster because you only have to interview candidates who have already been chosen and pre-screened by your partner based on your requirements.
Instant Expertise – The chosen experts have the necessary qualifications to join your team as soon as the recruitment process is completed.
Scaling Adaptability – One of the primary advantages and key differences between staff augmentation and outsourcing is rapid on-demand team scaling (both up or down).
Cost Reduction – External experts can help you reduce development costs by supplementing a team. It gives you access to lower-priced talent pools, resulting in cost savings.
However, this outsourcing strategy could be better and can only be used for some projects. In fact, IT staff augmentation (also known as Extended team) is one of three major types of outsourced team extension, along with dedicated team and custom solution development. Each has benefits and shortcomings and is better suited to particular requirements.
As a result, the question remains: when is it best to use staff augmentation? The answer is multifold.
1. When Specific Expertise Is Required
If your project needs professionals with a specific technical set of skills that is either inaccessible or difficult to discover locally, thus looking for companies to outsource professionals is the optimal solution. IT staff augmentation service providers equip you with access to huge talent pools with a broad range of competence.
2. When You Have To Meet Project Timelines
Meeting deadlines is a common issue on software development projects, especially large ones. Staff augmentation IT firms offer additional experts to help your in-house team widen its development capacity and finish all project milestones on time.
3. When You Necessitate Development Oversight
The primary distinction between staff augmentation and outsourcing is that the new experts become fully integrated members of your in-house team. In comparison to other outsourcing models, this gives you complete oversight over the development process because you handle their tasks and duties on a daily basis.
How To Choose The Best Service Provider?
Investigating multiple key aspects of an IT staff augmentation service provider will assist you in selecting the right vendor.
1. Choose A Company With An Appropriate Size
If rapid team formation and scaling are important to you, look for companies with at least 1000 employees or more. Medium and large IT firms clearly have an advantage over smaller ones because they can rapidly locate the right experts to fit your requirements. Furthermore, when an increase in workload necessitates a temporary increase in development capacity, larger businesses can quickly allocate specialists from their pool to fill this need.
2. Examine The Firm’s Services And Expertise
You must evaluate the expertise and services that your potential partner delivers to ensure that they will be capable of meeting your requirements. Furthermore, selecting a partner who offers a broad range of services can benefit you in the long run. For example, if you are in the process of moving your infrastructure to the cloud, you may limit your search to cloud service providers. However, your project will adapt and may require significant expertise in the future, such as AI and ML. Having a partner who is already an expert in this field will significantly shorten the time it takes to locate the necessary specialists.
3. Seek Clarification About The Available Pricing Models
One of the most appropriate pricing models must be chosen – fixed price, time & material, or devoted development team- to achieve the optimal cost optimization that comes with software outsourcing. Furthermore, the capability to switch between models to adapt to changing needs can assist you in allocating your expenses most efficiently.
As a result, when selecting an IT staff augmentation service provider, ensure that they offer collaboration based on all three major outsourcing pricing models. Additionally, ensure that they are adaptable when switching between models.
Key Criteria For Choosing IT Staff Augmentation Companies
Here is a Full checklist for choosing an IT staff augmentation company
1. Staffing Partner’s Expertise And Experience
An IT staff augmentation company’s accreditation and clients may provide a wealth of information for your decision. A quick search of the websites of IT recruitment agencies and third-party reviews can give you an overview of the options available for your IT staffing partner. You should be aware of a few points when choosing an IT staff augmentation firm based on previous experiences and expertise.
2. Examine Staffing Agency’s Credentials & Portfolio
You can check the staffing agency’s qualifications by speaking with previous clients and gauging their satisfaction with the assistance offered. You can also request colleagues, consulted business partners, and IT industry experts how past clients interpret your potential staffing specialist.
3. Examine Your Company’s Local and Global Presence
As previously stated, a shortage of in-house/local talent influences many technology firms to recognize staff augmentation. You’ll like to collaborate with a staffing firm with the connections, experience, and infrastructure to acquire, hire, manage, and train remote workers from anywhere. The ideal way is to use an IT outsourcing company that enables you to access top technical & innovative personnel across the globe while residing within your IT budget.
4. Dedicated Security And Data Protection
The IT staff augmentation organization you chose should be committed to security, intellectual property, and data protection in IT development. Every company’s advancement and thoughts should be a valuable safety net. A reputable recruitment firm should entail onsite or remote staff to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and thoroughly screen the job histories of temporary hires.
5. Additional Benefits that Service Provider Offers
If you are actively recruiting a large number of people from your staff augmentation service provider, inquire about any extra advantages or discounts they may provide. Providers who offer tailored schemes to their clients have their customers’ best interests at the core and will go above and beyond to make outsourcing a pleasant experience for them.
6. Consider Your Requirements
Before opting for staff augmentation; you should have a good understanding of your outsourcing needs and what you expect from your service provider. Do you need a particular technical skill? Do you want to expand your team in order to complete a time-sensitive business project? Do you want to grow your company? You should know whether you require temporary or long-term employees. Before reaching your service provider, answer these questions.
Where Can You Find Staff Augmentation Companies?
Finding the ideal IT staff augmentation service provider is strongly influenced by the location where you look. When it regards software outsourcing, there are three main locations to consider.
1. Asia – Biggest Market For IT Staffing Firms
As the region with the most people, it is perplexing that Asia has the world’s largest pool of IT specialists. The number of professional developers in India alone has surpassed 4 million, with approximately 800,000 ICT graduates joining the pool each year.
The region is valued for its sheer number of experts, its diverse technical skillset, and the lower cost rate (on average) compared to its counterparts in other countries.
However, finding the right partner can take time and effort in such a vast market. There are many viable candidates to evaluate once you find the right one, and a majority of them will only be able to fulfill your necessities.
2. Eastern Europe – Popular Spot For IT Staff Augmentation
Eastern Europe is the habitat of some of the world’s largest skilled engineers. Countries from this region consistently rank first on top developer lists compiled by various ranking platforms such as TopCoder. Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, which have the region’s largest talent pools, are currently ranked fifth, sixth, and eighth in the world.
Ukraine is a notably great attraction for outsourcing. It frequently appears on top outsourcing destination lists, such as the Global Sourcer Association’s Top 30 outsourcing and offshoring destinations.
3. Latin America: An Emerging Industry For IT Professionals
Latin America is a popular destination for seeking additional experts to augment your team. While this market is relatively new, especially in comparison to Asia and Eastern Europe, it is one of the world’s fastest-growing. Indeed, Brazil already has a lagoon of over 500K professional developers, with roughly 46K ICT graduates joining their ranks each year.
Furthermore, the Latin American IT industry is actively supported by local governments, which see it as a means to combat the economic instability that many countries in the region face.
Nevertheless, operating in a new market has its own set of challenges. When selecting appropriate staff augmentation IT companies, you must exercise extreme caution in order to find a dependable and responsible partner. As reported on numerous occasions by Western businesses that have partnered with some of the local suppliers, some companies may need to improve in these departments.
To Sum Up!
There are numerous aspects to consider when finding a reliable IT staff augmentation company, as the demand for talented & skilled people is growing exponentially worldwide. Thus a dedicated company offers you the right talent at the right time without getting into a lengthy and tiring recruitment process. It equips you with a talent pool to bring on board the right professionals with transparency and flexibility. Therefore you must consider staff augmentation and save yourself by removing recruitment headaches and enhancing your app’s efficiency.
