Outsourcing engagement models have been gaining popularity since the past decade, particularly in the IT industry. To meet project deadlines, reduce timelines, meet sudden demands, etc., IT firms often resort to outsourcing projects. It is very advantageous as outsourcing models are useful, budget-friendly, and help to meet the goals quickly.
Outsourcing means hiring external talent to perform some task, and there are several methods to achieve this. Each outsourcing model has its own pros and cons. In this article, we will take a look at two popular outsourcing models that companies usually employ--staff augmentation and project outsourcing. We will see what these are and what are their merits and demerits.
Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation is an approach in which you add extra members to your existing in-house team, depending on your project needs. It is usually employed when there is a need for an expert skill in a project team, mostly on a short term basis. Some organizations use it during the beginning of a project, and some use it at the end for expert advice.
It can be done anytime during a project. When you hire an expert and make them a part of your in house team for a project development cycle, it boosts the project with specialized skills and improves the quality of the output.
Merits
It takes away the headache of recruiting, hiring, and training full-time employees for special needs for every project. Organizations can employ experts in the field who have the right expertise, which takes away the burden of training. And recruiting and hiring processes will be taken care of by the staff augmentation services.It gives excellent flexibility in scaling up and down resources as per project need. In IT industries, the need for resources and skills on a short term basis is common. Hiring permanent employees for these needs are a waste in the long term. Further, it has many issues associated with it, like complicated employee relieving processes. Staff augmentation solves this problem.The augmented resources work directly with your in house team. So even though they are outside resources, you have full control over their work and can monitor them at all times. You decide what they will work on, with whom, and how their work schedule will be.Your talent hunt won’t be limited by geographical boundaries. With staff augmentation, you can hire experts from any part of the world and make them a part of your team. Asian countries have excellent talent at a low cost, so you can hire best IT staff augmentation services in India.Demerits
Since the augmented staff will be integrated with your in-house team, you will need to provide physical resources like computers, office space, etc. Their management will also be your job.It might take the new staff some time to mingle with your in-house team as they will need to learn about company operations and all. This might slow down their working in the beginning stage.Outsourcing
In outsourcing, you hire a complete team to execute a project or a part of it for you. The outsourcing team and organization gets into an agreement for delivering a specific outcome for a certain payment. Unlike staff augmentation, here, a complete project is handled out to an outsider company.
The outsourcing company will recruit desired talents for the project and work from their own office space. They won’t be directly involved with your organization’s in-house teams.
Merits
It reduces the operational cost of a project since there is no need to create a new team, train them, and manage them. The new project is handled to the outsourcing team, who will take care of all the details and deliver the result to your organization.In countries like India, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, development is much cheaper as compared to the USA and Australia. Outsourcing projects to these countries with low-cost development will help save the cost of development.It frees up many headaches associated with the managerial task for organizations as they don’t have to be involved in the development process. It will all be taken care of by the outsourced team.Demerits
Since an organization has no direct control over the development team, it might result in quality issues or coding issues. For example, the code might not stick to your development standard, the quality may not be up to the mark.Communication might become difficult due to language, culture, and time zone differences. You may not always be able to convey your idea properly to the outsourcing team, which will have drastic effects on the outcome.You can’t review the project from time to time or have a hand over the management. The uncertainty associated with having to wait till the end of the contract period to review the project is challenging.Choosing the right outsourcing model for your companies depends on your needs and goals. Both staff augmentation and outsourcing are effective models used by organizations worldwide. There is no best among the two – it all depends on what you are looking for. You can hire top IT consulting services to help you find the desired resources
About the Author
Natalia Jane is a freelance app developer in India. She loves to read a lot. She is really passionate about her coding skills.
