IT Staff Augmentation – Best Model for Outsourcing Software Development

In this era, with such advanced technological developments and communication technologies on board, in-house hiring employees are no longer the necessary way for a business to be successful. The rise of globalization and recent developments in technology has made it possible to hire remote international teams (aka Staff Augmentation) without any hurdles or risks. It’s a new normal, especially in IT and software development industry, where more and more IT-driven businesses are making transitions from mainstream in-house development to IT staff augmentation.[lwptoc title="IT Staff Augmentation – Best Model for Outsourcing Software Development" skipHeadingLevel="h1,h4,h5,h6"]In this blog post, we are going to explore in-depth aspects and benefits of staff augmentation.

Staff Augmentation Model – Definition

The Staff Augmentation Model simply means extending an in-house work team by hiring experts on a short or long-term project basis. It means that you can fill up a team’s skill gap by hiring dedicated experts to fulfill specific project requirements and curb the cost, time, and liabilities of recruiting in-house employees.Specialized talent sourcing agencies provide an opportunity for the businesses to explore dedicated experts willing to join their project. The fact that this staff is employed and managed by the agency also means a robust and quick onboarding process without tackling HR-related issues.These firms hold a database of experts’ profiles; you can opt to expand your staff with dedicated developers confidently. Choosing to cooperate with a talent hunting portal frees you from the headache of staff finding, onboarding, and retention. The practice of outsourcing is more beneficial for the businesses that need to run the hiring process more frequently to expand their existing staff with professionals having different levels of skills on a project basis, either short-term or long-term.

Contemporary Trends

Outsourcing and staff augmentation holds a substantial volume in the global economy’s revenue. As in 2017, the outsourcing market amounted to around $89 billion globally. Over time, more and more businesses are starting to outsource to focus on their core business processes, solve capacity issues, and improve service quality.

Advantages of Using IT Staff Augmentation Services

To spare time and cost, businesses are making smart moves towards staff augmentation. This type of outsourcing opens new corridors of opportunities and growth no freelancers or in-house team can offer, such as:

• Lower development costs
• No recruitment hassle
• Lower operational costs
• Less legal liabilities
• Access to the rare and needed specialists
• Increased output and team size
• Flexibility

Let’s discuss in detail what they are;

Development Costs Cutting

The primary advantage of staff augmentation and remote development teams is significant cost-cutting. Your remote team members will most likely require lower salaries if they are based in Eastern Europe or Asia, where the cost of living is much lower than in the US and UK. It will save a huge overall expenditure.Another reason is well known to everyone that recruiting in-house employees in countries like the US is very expensive, especially when it comes to software engineers and developers. The main reason is the fringe benefits that employees demand, such as social security, etc. The bottom line is, inter-continent staff augmentation is a smart way to cut down development costs.

No Recruitment Hassle

As soon as you contact the IT staff augmentation agencies, all the search & recruitment work become their responsibility. They search for qualified candidates that will suit your requirement criteria. The only segment of the hiring process which remains on your part is final interviewing and selection.

Also Read: When to Hire an Agency for your Software Development?

Less Operational Costs

Workstation space, equipment, taxes, bills, etc. – all of these things sum up to generate a notable portion of operational expenses, especially in Western countries. With inter-continental staff outsourcing, the operational costs drop significantly. Therefore, by opting for staff augmentation, you can decrease your operational costs by a notable margin.

Less Legal Liabilities

Recruiting people always involves legal liabilities and lengthy documentation. Taxes, payroll, fringe benefits, all of these things push such liabilities. By using staff augmentation, the outsourcing firm serves as the legal employer of your developers. Therefore, the outsourcing firm bears all the legal liabilities and handles all the paperwork on their own.

Gateway To Opportunity Corridor

The other notable advantages of staff outsourcing include direct access to the desired developer, which you cannot find in your city, region, or country. The reason is you might not be searching for the right expert at the right place. In such a scenario, you can always find the right remote professional at a lower cost. Staff augmentation companies open gateways for direct access to such professionals.

Improved Output

Fewer development costs allow you to hire more developers who can accelerate your project by increasing your output per unit time. Consider an example of the same expenditure: either hire 10 US-based developers or 16 Asian developers with the same expertise and experience.

Flexibility

Last but not least, remote staff outsourcing enables you to become more dynamic with geographical and time flexibility. For instance, there is an urgent wake-up call due to a critical issue that needs to be handled; your remote developers can deal with it while local programmers or developers are still out of reach or sleeping.Some people think that staff augmentation makes their projects or companies more vulnerable, while the reality reveals the polar opposite. They make you more flexible and dynamic while allowing you to cut budget and time allocation to unnecessary and lengthy recruitment procedures, etc.

Important Aspects of IT Staff Augmentation

Along with the apparent advantages, you also need to explore some important features of this expanding cooperation model. Let’s see what they are:

Protection of Intellectual Property

You want to be confident that your intellectual property remains safe. For the sake of this privacy, the agreement you sign with an outsourcing firm must involve NDA (non-disclosure agreement).Keep in mind; your remote developers will possibly be having the same access and control over the system and data as your full-time employees have. So it’s crucial to ensure the safety of confidential data by making sure they don’t misuse it.

Legal Agreement

The outsourcing firm remains the legal player of your team when it comes to hiring remote developers. Although they work for your facility and serve as your team members, the outsourcing company is the one who hired them officially. That’s why it’s important to clearly define each working group’s domain of responsibility in the agreement.

Transparent Charges

In normal practice, the outsourcing firm should charge a flat monthly fee for every developer it provides. The fee should include the actual pay and the company’s service charges. Such terms and conditions related to payment must be transparent.

Conclusion

IT staff augmentation provides businesses with the benefits mentioned above and opportunities when utilized correctly, as we discussed. Less development and operational costs, less legal liabilities and documentation, no burden of recruitment, increased output, and more flexibility are some of the key advantages you can enjoy by choosing the IT staff augmentation services.