What is IT Staff Augmentation and why it is worth trying

Staff augmentation is a buzzword in the IT job industry, rocketing in popularity and inspiring more global businesses to hire remote specialists. Staff augmentation means the use of extra specialists for the desired time to power up an in-house team for higher results. There are many staff augmentation companies that now help augment the capacity of every company by recruiting and hiring required and industry-experienced specialists.

IT staff augmentation services are specially designed for companies that feel a lack of specialized skills on a specific project. By adding a new member to the team that is more aware of the details of the sphere, companies can boost the team’s capacity with specialized skills on a temporary basis to deliver top-notch projects.

According to the Research and Markets report, the Global Revenue of Outsourced Customer Experience Market was $ 78.8 billion in 2019, while in 2020, it gained $ 82.6 billion due to COVID-19 impact. In addition, the Statista report showed that spending in the outsourcing industry’s recruitment process globally depicts $ 15 billion two years ago, and later achieved revenue of $ 18 billion by the end of 2020. And this year, Statista suggests that IT outsourcing’s market size will hit $ 413.7 billion.

Startups, medium businesses, and large enterprises find IT augmentation reliable, effective, and worth trying. However, some companies still don’t understand for what reason they need to hire unknown engineers and what benefits they can bring to their business processes. This is why we carefully crafted this guide and aim to explain all the why’s and how’s of IT staff team augmentation in 2021. Keep reading to find what it means, why it became a leader in the IT job market, why everyone is talking about it, and how to get the most out of augmenting your team.

How does IT team augmentation work?

To better understand the IT staff augmentation process, imagine that you run a specific project with app development. Then you decide to change the platform for the application, and no one in your in-house team has the required skill about development language. And this is where IT staff augmentation services come into the picture with their high-skilled specialists with needed skills and experience. You hire one or two developers for this project and boost the development of your application easily and hassle-free. The vendor from the team will also care about the team augmentation, which means he helps select competent engineers who have worked on similar projects and sends their CVs to you. Then you interview the chosen engineers and sign a contract if hiring them.

Before going deeper into this topic, we first want to define staff augmentation types to solve your business problems in the most proper way. 

What are types of IT staff augmentation?

There are two main types of IT team augmentation in its hiring model, known as short-term and long-term collaboration.

Short-term services

The resources of staff augmentation best work for short-term projects that require less than two years to finish. For instance, you need to urgently change a front-end developer who is on long leave. IT augmentation can help you quickly find specialists at a specific time and fill in the talent gap in your company.

Long-term services 

When talking about long-term projects, companies hire talents to fill the gap in the in-house team for more than one project. The lack of experienced specialists in the specific sphere is the main reason why brands use such services. It can also be due to the small number of developers open now in different sources, as most of them work in augmentation teams.  

It staff augmentation can further be divided into the following three categories:

• Commodity – in case you do not have reliable team members to perform a specific task, but they do not have specific skills.
• Skill-based – when you are looking for a skillset, but the level of them is not essential.
• Highly-skilled – Similar to the previous one, but here skill level is the main priority and requirement.

Outsourced IT services & Staff augmentation 

Staff augmentation 

It temporarily boosts the software engineering team with skilled staff throughout a project or during specific stages. This delivery approach works via an IT staffing agency that can provide businesses with a competitive market advantage. When you use staff augmentation, you are purchasing developing resources while also maintaining direct control over your team with all potential adverse outcomes. 

Project outsourcing 

It also comes with its pros and cons, with the main difference from staff augmentation is control. When outsourcing, you are purchasing a specific, prearranged outcome and sharing the risk with the outsourcing vendor but giving up complete control over aspects of your business operations.

Pros and Cons: what to choose based on your needs

Pros of Staff Augmentation	Cons of Staff Augmentation	Pros of IT Project Outsourcing	Cons of IT Project Outsourcing
Improves control over the project as well as makes integration with internal systems easier.	Expanded project needs often mean increased management costs.	All project management is done by the outsourcing company.	Outsourcing IT projects dont give you control over the project
Allows more internal control over the project.	May detract focus from core business needs.	Does not distract focus from core business needs.	It can be more difficult to integrate outsourced projects with inner systems.
If your project deadlines need to be accelerated without notice, it is better than with an outsourced team.		It is often more cost-efficient to outsource the project than train new skills.	Outsourcing companies are sometimes less inclined to take on smaller projects or may charge extra money for them.
It becomes much simpler to integrate the new IT project with internal processes.

What are IT staff augmentation benefits?

Scalability

Outdated staffing methods are rigid and inflexible. When changes happen in the market or inside the company, most of the companies find it challenging to react in a proper way, which always leads to reactions like letting go of much of their workforce.

IT staff augmentation companies represent a go-to solution that is flexible and perfect for those businesses that regularly face shifts in demand and in the industry. An engineer or the whole team working on a specific project may fix certain issues to scale up and meet the highest standards.

Highly-skilled short-term

Regardless of the high-skilled devs you have in your team; sometimes you might need a very specific skill set for a project that your team doesn’t have. This is where you can hire a needed talent and expand your capacity to achieve a successful project.

Be ahead of the market

In certain cases, companies that expand their team with overstuffed devs or designers can t stay ahead of the market even during its hardest times. For instance, you run a startup or small company that is crafting a new product but in a tricky and flourishing industry, like food delivery. So here, you need to plan why your product will differ from all the rest and what skills you can find to overcome even market giants.  

Cuts in operating cost

Staff Aug can provide brands with top-notch services on a short-term basis, meaning there won’t be long-term commitments. This Is why it is much better for small companies who don’t want to waste money on new in-house members, as it reduces insurance and taxes.

Better management

Staff augmentation is a go-to option for better team management, as it provides greater control over workers. This is primarily because they are responsible for the special tasks of the augmented staff and smooth integration within the team. Therefore, the business is under control from start to finish.  

Save on time

When hiring short-term team members, you won’t need to spend time on many vital things like with full-time workers, including onboarding, documentation assignments, and others. Expanding capacity allows you to fill the gap in the in-house team that can be done much quicker. In addition, outsuffed workers are already specialists in the required sphere and are only onboarded for their needed skill set.

Consider Our Company Your Trusted Partner

Interexy is always happy to jump into any project and bring it to success in the market regardless of the sphere and complexity of the current situation. We were a trusted choice for Labster – a Series B startup that has raised $103.5M in funding over 5 rounds. The latest funding was on Feb 10, 2021, from a Series C round.

Final thoughts

Now we can clearly see that IT staff augmentation services are gaining popularity for numerous reasons. It can boost your business needs, support the technological part of the app in the most efficient way and help you gain more revenue with top-notch results. The best course of action is to choose an experienced vendor that will let you meet your present staffing challenges while also maintaining a well-thought-out onboarding for you and a team member. Take Interexy as a well-recognized partner and overcome competitors even during market changes.

FAQs

What Is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation means the use of outside specialists on a temporary basis to augment the capacity of an organization and fulfill gaps in the in-house team for many business purposes.

When Staff Augmentation Is for You?

IT Staff augmentation will be great for you when you need a special set of skills that isn’t present in your team. It could be engineers, designers, or even copywriters that will fulfill the gap and help you resolve issues that come into the picture during any stage of the development process. It can also be a go-to option for brands that want someone to develop an MVP or join a certain project in a short time without a long onboarding process and paying like for full-time workers.

What are the benefits of team Augmentation?

There are many benefits of IT staff augmentation services, but most meaningful are reduced costs compared to recruiting new staff or managing an outsourced operation, the flexibility of resources, control over the project, improved quality of output, clear visibility of progress, and closer alignment to business objectives.

What is the difference between staff augmentation & outsourcing?

Staff augmentation and outsourcing have long gone hand in hand, but now the first one has become a leader in the job industry as it is more flexible and personalized. Not talking about benefits that staff augmentation can bring, the main difference between these two meanings is that with staff augmentation, you are hiring specialist resources while also keeping the whole control over your team and taking associated risks of a possible outcome. In contrast, when outsourcing, you are paying for a purported outcome and sharing all possible risks with the outsourcing vendor while also giving up direct control over your business operations.