Within a decade, we could have up to 85 million vacancies in the IT sector worldwide. In Poland, the shortage is estimated to be more than 100,000 positions in the next 10 years. The IT market is therefore witnessing a surge in popularity of solutions for outsourcing programming services to external providers: project outsourcing and staff augmentation. As you will see in this article, we compare both models in order to help you decide which is right for your business.
What is outsourcing in the IT industry?
Outsourcing IT projects is the business practice of handing over all or part of a project’s IT services to a specialized external company. The service usually entails elements such as:
- developing a system or its specific function,
- creating a comprehensive digital product,
- testing the software.
Handing over your IT project management to a proven business partner means you eliminate the need to create an expensive IT structure from scratch within your company. It frees you up to focus on developing profitable areas in your business – the resources you save can be used to accelerate your organization’s growth, which will translate directly into the success of your business.
The outsourcing company’s job is to both manage the project and develop the software in accordance with the contract. Ultimately, it’s the supplier’s responsibility to deliver the project if it is outsourced, along with the final outcome.
In the IT outsourcing model, the task of the external company is to select the right team, which can work in your company or remotely from the partner’s premises. In addition to engineers, the team usually includes a scrum master or project manager.
In what ways will outsourcing IT reduce your business’s costs?
One of the main goals of outsourcing IT is to keep costs down. You do not need to create in-house structures that are not economically justified. Outsourcing will save you money by eliminating:
- the need to bear the costs of creating jobs for engineers and other team members – project managers, scrum masters, or testers,
- the need to equip specialists in various IT fields with the necessary tools and software,
- the tax burden,
- social security contributions,
- risks related to employee sickness,
- costs related to external consultancy for project development,
- the need for training expenses.
From a purely business perspective, outsourcing IT services comes with many advantages. It will allow you to reduce the costs of running a project while improving its quality and functionality.
What is Staff Augmentation all about?
If you have an in-house team of specialists, during the course of a project you may find that they might need help in some narrow area of expertise. In order to create successful IT software that can keep up with the rapidly-changing requirements of systems and users, you don’t just need a team of specialists.
The solution may lie in staff augmentation – a model that is a specific type of outsourcing. It is about expanding an existing, in-house team working on a project with engineers or experts in a specific field who join in a specific role (e.g. architect), with clear tasks or for a fixed period of time.
By opting for such a solution, it is up to you to manage the specialists’ time and hold them accountable for the results. Such a model allows you to complement the team’s competencies, while not handing over responsibility for the quality of the final product to the supplier.
The right technology partner provides you with experienced professionals who can quickly get up to speed with how your team operates. They can work both remotely and from your office. Your partner should also ensure that they are provided with the right tools and split tasks accordingly.
Read more about project outsourcing and staff augmentation in our blog post: Staff augmentation vs project outsourcing – which cooperation model is better for you?
Choose the right partner to outsource IT services!
IT outsourcing and staff augmentation are services that are primarily intended to provide comprehensive support for your company by an external partner. Here, it is important to emphasize the word ‘partner’, which also requires a word of explanation. Not every external company will be the right partner for you. Choose an outsourcing company with experience and business acumen that understands your needs and is proactive too.
Outsourcing IT will solve your organization’s staffing shortages. Before selecting a partner and the manner in which you will work with them, take a look at their customer success stories.
One of ours took advantage of staff augmentation and expanded its team to include experts with experience in automotive and cyber-security testing. This led to the project development and testing of secure embedded software:
Another of our clients benefited from the support of two complete agile development teams. After just two weeks, they were already fully productive, delivering a PaaS application development project for Fintech:
If you are currently facing the dilemma of which collaboration model to choose, get in touch with our experts who will be happy to help you find the best solution for your business. Arrange a free consultation.
