Are you a business owner struggling with an ongoing need for the IT sector? If so, IT staff augmentation is a potential solution where you can acquire the industry’s best talents without making a hole in your pockets. If you have heard about IT Staff Augmentation Service before but are unsure what it is, we have got you covered. This article is a complete guide to IT staff augmentation and its services. Let’s dive in!
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy where a company or a business hires highly experienced and expert professionals outside their in-house staff to provide end-to-end services. Through IT Staff Augmentation Service, companies can easily hire people for a particular project or a specified period of time, allowing them to hire incredible talents quickly.
If you’re a business looking for short or long-term help with giving any additional benefits or incentives, IT staff augmentation is an excellent solution that also eliminates the upfront hiring cost. If you’re planning to hire IT staffing, you need to constantly evolve and remain updated with the latest technology to find the right people at the right time.
Types of Staff Augmentation
Here are the types of staff augmentation:
1. Commodity IT Staff Augmentation
Most ideal for freelancers, commodity IT staff augmentation generally includes hiring freelancers. All you need to do is type a post searching for freelancers, and more than a hundred eligible freelancers with matching skill sets and abilities will pop up on your feed. Since it is done for a short project, no interview is required to find the right person.
2. Non-commodity IT Staff Augmentation
Non-commodity IT staff augmentation refers to tasks that are more complicated and require detailed understanding, knowledge, and skills that are hard to find. If you are on the hunt for a specialized skill set, like someone who is good at writing codes, a website designer, a writer, and others, run thorough research before hiring.
3. Skill-based IT Staff Augmentation
Skill-based IT staff augmentation is another popular type of staff augmentation where companies offer IT Staff Augmentation Services through the help of skilled professionals that are hard to find. For this, companies generally conduct an interview process and take tests of selected individuals to analyze their skills.
4. Highly Skilled IT Staff Augmentation
Highly skilled IT staff augmentation includes both short and long-term categories where short-term professionals are hired for a few weeks or months to handle a particular task. Whereas in the case of long-term, it includes hiring professionals for a prolonged period; however, you cannot delegate 100% of tasks to them.
Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation Services
Here are the top benefits of IT staff augmentation services:
1. Highly Scalable
Most Software development companies have an ever-changing market environment and working conditions. Staff augmentation is a potential solution as you can hire professionals for a specified period of time or on a project basis. Thus, minimizes your investment while you can make the most of all available resources.
2. Cost-effective
Hiring full-time experts with long-term commitments involves a lot of cost and can be expensive. IT staff augmentation is an extremely cost-effective alternative where you can hire professional experts with no long-term commitments and no cost involved. Some of the major expenses reduced include Salary, Staff benefits, Tax expenses, Social security, Parking benefits, Health insurance, Retirement benefits, and Commuting benefits.
3. Access To Specialized Skills
Through IT staff augmentation services, you can dive into a pool of experienced and expert professionals and get access to their specialized skills, especially for niche-specific projects. The best part is there are several platforms where you can hunt these talents and integrate them into your projects.
4. Increased Efficiency
With the IT staff augmentation workforce, you can enjoy increased efficiency and faster project delivery. These professionals also improve your productivity and promise to deliver projects timely.
5. Mitigate Project Risks
Since IT staff augmentation company provide you with complete access to experienced professionals, they mitigate all existing risk factors and reduce any chances of project failure, ensuring that the projects get completed timely and within the set budget.
When Should You Consider Staff Augmentation Services?
Here are some reasons why you should consider staff augmentation services:
- There are no skilled professionals that could fill the position.
- A particular employee is not working at the moment due to some medical, family, or other personal emergency.
- You need someone to handle the workload for a specified period of time.
- A business has a short-term and niche-specific need.
- There is a rise in the demand for a particular work.
Which is Best? Short-term Staff Augmentation VS. Long-term Staff Augmentation
| Aspect | Short-Term Staff Augmentation | Long-Term Staff Augmentation |
| Duration | Short-term staff augmentation generally ranges from 1-2 weeks to 3-4 months only. | Long-term staff augmentation lasts for a prolonged period, that is, 1-2 years or indefinite periods. |
| Purpose | This generally addresses seasonal or immediate workload spikes. They also handle temporary skill gaps or special projects. | These professionals work on ongoing operations. They provide continuous support and are a part of web development and strategic initiatives. |
| Hiring Process | In most cases, it is swift recruitment and is often filled on on short notice to meet immediate needs. | It includes a comprehensive vetting and recruitment process to find the most potential fit for extended engagements. |
| Training and Onboarding | Short-term staff augmentation believes in quick and faster adoption. | These professionals are given the required time to understand the company’s functioning. They go through training and understand the company’s culture and processes. |
| Cost | Generally, the cost is relatively higher per-hour or per-project costs as the engagement period is extremely short. | In most cases, the pay is Lower and is based on per-hour or project due to longer commitments. |
Best Practices for Successful IT Staff Augmentation
Here are the best practices for successful IT staff augmentation:
- Clearly define expectations and job role
- Maintain transparent and open communication with all members.
- Use communication and project management tools and technologies
- Transfer knowledge and document all project processes
- Involving throughout the project execution
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Some things to consider while choosing the right IT staff augmentation provider
Here is the list of things to consider while choosing the right IT Staff Augmentation Service:
- Staffing requirements
- Overall flexibility
- Communication protocols
- Access to great talents
- Technical expertise
- Security and data privacy policy
- Delivery schedules and contract types
- Are there risks associated with IT staff augmentation?
Some common risk factors include:
- Cultural and communication integration challenges
- Quality of the service provided
- Confidentiality and data security concerns
- How does the IT staff augmentation process work?
Here is the step by step how the IT staff augmentation process work:
- Identify the specific roles required
- Engage with the IT staff augmentation service provider
- Choosing candidates based on their existing skills
- Hiring the selected professionals and introducing them to the team of experts.
- List the top benefits of IT staff augmentation
Some potential benefits of IT staff augmentation include complete flexibility, access to excellent skills, and cost-effectiveness.
- List different kinds of roles augmented in IT staff augmentation
Different kinds of roles augmented in IT staff augmentation are Software development outsourcing, cybersecurity experts, QA engineers, project managers, system administrators, data analysts, etc.
Wrapping Up!
IT staff augmentation services are the need of the hour. If you are on the hunt for such services, DreamSoft4U can help you, as we have expert professionals who offer excellent services.