Key Takeaways
- IT companies are running an endless race to come first in a digital world that is constantly evolving!
- They need augmentation or upgrades to keep in this race and win it, i.e., IT staff augmentation or IT resource outsourcing!
- IT Staff Augmentation’s ABC: Augmentation of companies’ IT Backbone in a Contractual manner!
The businesses of the 21st century face an unsurmountable challenge that can only be solved via IT staff augmentation services or IT resource outsourcing services!
The challenge they face arises from the ever evolving nature of the Digital world which is supplemented by new innovations in the information technology domain.
Imagine being on the constant run and trying to upgrade or take down time!
Not possible, right? Well, this is the leading cause that is hampering the competitive abilities of various IT and Digital solutions companies across the globe.
If you are a business owner, HR manager, chief technical officer, or CTO, this blog will get you accustomed to the ABC’s of IT staff augmentation.
A few facts
- USD 541.1 billion (USD 197.3 billion from the USA) is the expected revenue from IT Outsourcing marketing in 2024.
- Its revenue is expected to grow to USD 812.7 billion by 2029, with a CAGR of 8.48%.
- In 2024, USD 152 will be the average spending per employee on IT outsourcing!
- BFSI, or the business, finance, and insurance sectors, does the most outsourcing, i.e., 30.29%
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation, or IT resource outsourcing, is the latest addition to the hiring trends of IT companies.
It allows businesses to be flexible by adding skilled experts as and when needed by them!
Since the nature of IT development projects is short term, hiring contractual experts via IT staff augmentation services is the best way forward!
Traditional hiring takes a lot of time and leaves you with full time employees that are not always needed in the 21st century!
The rise of IT staff augmentation services
IT staff augmentation demand has been rising steadily!
Companies require more and more skilled technical talent across the business world.
But they need a hiring model that allows,
- Cost savings,
- Global talent access
- Flexibility and Scalability and more while maintaining their competitive edge.
Plus, the need for Work-Life balance and Remote working has bolstered IT staff augmentation services as resources prefer working from home and, if needed, contractually as well!
Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation or IT Resource Outsourcing
IT staff augmentation services offer a wide array of benefits!
These benefits make them much more attractive to the various departments in an organization.
- Cost Savings
If you compare a traditional hire with a contractual hire via IT staff augmentation, you will find a big difference in their expense tally (done by the organization).
A traditional hire,
- 1-2 months to hire, i.e., hiring costs
- Training costs (1-4 weeks)
- Overhead costs (infrastructure, medical insurance, travel allowance, overtime allowance, and more)
A contractual hire,
- Hire within 48 hours with Wildnet.
- Training costs (minimum as the resource is already up to speed with market requirements)
- No overhead costs
As you can see, the expenses incurred on a full-time hire are much higher than those on a contractual remote hire!
- Flexibility and Scalability
Being flexible with the market, your clients, and your employees is like balancing on three spears!
But every organization must have flexibility, as it helps them take on the volatile nature of the IT world.
Over time, as a business grows, it becomes rigid with its SOPs, or the standard operating procedures, and escalation matrices, which strips them of their flexibility.
Plus, businesses need to be ready to act upon any opportunity to scale up or down to make the maximum profit.
- Global Talent Pool
When you hire traditionally, you are just targeting a particular area to find yourself a good candidate.
But when you spread your net wider and target globally, then you get to access the global talent pool!
By allowing the resources to work remotely, you can leverage global talent and augment your in-house team perfectly!
- On Time Deliveries
With IT staff augmentation, you can rest assured of on-time deliveries!
Because a good IT staff augmentation partner will always have resources on standby, you will never work below the required worker and skill strength.
- Happy Clients and Happier Management
Your clients will be delighted to receive top notch work done within their budget and delivered on time with the infusion of the latest technology and trends!
This will turn them into your loyal advocates, bringing you word-of-mouth leads!
Happy clients and increased leads will definitely make your management happier.
These are just the direct benefits, and you will experience the indirect benefits as you go along with IT staff augmentation!
IT Staff Augmentation Models
You get various business models to choose from in IT staff augmentation services. They vary depending on your business needs and goals.
- Short Term vs. Long Term IT Staff Augmentation
Businesses choose short- or long-term models depending on their requirements!
If the requirement is short term or project based, they choose short term.
With the requirements that either involve various projects or an ongoing project, a long-term model is chosen.
- Project based augmentation
You can choose to hire all resources for a particular project, thereby excelling and exceeding your client’s expectations.
Now that you are hiring resources for the whole project lifecycle, you can choose one of the following,
- Monthly Resource Model
In this way, you get 160 hours per month from any resource, i.e., 6+ hours of working for 24 days!
- Time and Purchase Model
You get to buy a time block of the resource in question, for example, a 40-hour block or an 80-hour block per month!
This gives you options to make plans accordingly and choose resources appropriately.
Selecting the Right IT Staff Augmentation or IT Resource Outsourcing Partner
Since your IT staff augmentation partner will be walking by your side while you traverse your business journey further, their selection is an important process!
A right partner can even better your deliveries, while a poor partner can mess up things, which can be detrimental to your success.
Steps to select the right IT staff augmentation partner,
- Identify your requirements.
- Identify the budget and the time duration.
- Find out the best possible options for catering IT staff augmentation services.
- Check their track records, client testimonials, and expertise.
- Check their business tools and communication tools that will be used while working with you.
- Check how flexible and scalable they are.
- Also, go through the legal & contractual considerations that might arise in the future.
It is best to test the partner with some small requirements and then scale, if approved internally!
Integration: Augmented Staff and Existing Teams
This is the next critical step in your IT staff augmentation services journey, and it dictates how professionalism will unfold between the two!
The integration process must be planned and executed with the utmost care to achieve the desired seamless integration and work culture.
Cultural Fit & Communication
Understand the work culture that is followed by your IT staff augmentation partner, as well as the communication skills and tools they have.
Open & clear communication with a ready-to-do anything work culture is the best!
Strategies for Successful Integration
Use strategies like team-building activities, regular check-ins, training sessions, and more to strengthen the team bond.
You can also assign a mentor or a buddy to each augmented staff member, as this will ease their initial journey and help them focus solely on work!
With this knowledge, you are ready to unlock IT staff augmentation services for your business!
IT Staff Augmentation vs. IT Outsourcing
Although they might feel the same, these two offerings are quite different!
In IT staff augmentation, you get to choose the experts that will complete your in-house teams. Since the overall management of the team is still internal, you retain control!
While in IT outsourcing, either you outsource the whole project or the team to your vendor. Here, you relinquish all control to the third party!
Which to choose, and when?
IT Staff Augmentation : When you just need to upgrade your inhouse team.
IT Outsourcing : When you wish to focus on core business competencies.
Make the choice accordingly!
Managing Remote & International IT Vendors
Most of the time, the right IT vendor will be from a foreign country, and its resources will be working remotely for you!
So how do you ensure efficient work and top-notch quality?
There are some best practices for remote work management that should be followed, and they are,
- The first thing is communication in real time and as transparently as possible via properly defined communication channels and escalation matrices.
- The second thing is that you set up clear instructions with targets, deadlines, and working hours to ensure that there are no chances to miss out!
- You can use remote work collaboration tools like Asana, Slack, Trello, Jira, and more.
With these best practices, you will eliminate, to a large extent, any decrease in productivity due to improper work collaborations.
Measuring Success: IT Staff Augmentation or IT Resource Outsourcing
If you are not able to measure the current performance level of your IT staff augmentation efforts, then you will not be able to plan for the future.
Because with current analysis, you get to know where you are doing great and where you can do great!
KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators
Common KPIs of IT staff augmentation services are bug counts, code quality metrics, project completion rates, or more.
Continued Improvements & Feedback
Feedback is quite important to bring in the personalization needed to better the connection of the digital solution with its users.
Thus, take regular feedback and inculcate it in your continued improvements!
You are definitely on the path to success!
Conclusion: Future of IT Staff Augmentation Service
IT staff augmentation has proven its value in various industries of all sizes and demographics!
It is helping IT businesses scale up quickly, fill up their skill gaps, and retain & sharpen their competitive edge.
With the introduction of remote work, AI, and more, IT solutions will become more and more accustomed to IT staff augmentation services as it provides flexibility to both the employer and the employee!
Wildnet Technologies has been a leader in catering IT staff augmentation services to our 2100+ clients over our 17+ year journey!
If you would like to learn more,
> 5 Essential skills of an IT Staff Augmentation Partner
> Case Study | How our Clients garnered Positive Outcomes via our IT Staff Augmentation Solutions
> Wildnet’s Digital Yum (our thought leadership’s POV on the on the latest tech and trends)
Connect with us now at info@wildnettechnologies.com and take the next IT staff augmentation rocket to your goals and beyond!
FAQs
FAQ 1. When should you choose staff augmentation?
Ans: If you are in the IT solutions industry, choose IT staff augmentation now!
Don’t worry, you will find empty spaces in your current team to put in the augmented staff.
FAQ 2. What is the IT staff augmentation process?
Ans: The process of adding experts to a team to help it meet its technical expertise, exposure, and educational requirements with the help of an IT staff augmentation services provider is known as the IT staff augmentation process.
FAQ 3. What is the purpose of staff augmentation?
Ans: To ensure that your in-house IT team doesn’t have any chinks in their armor, the IT staff augmentation is purposeful.
FAQ 4. What is the difference between staff augmentation and IT outsourcing?
Ans: When you just augment your in-house team with a few experts, then it is known as IT staff augmentation.
When you outsource the whole team or a project, it is known as IT outsourcing.
