When you have an IT project coming up and you are confronted with a skills gap in your team, you may be considering staff augmentation or outsourcing. There are distinct differences between the two options, and depending on your needs, staff augmentation may be the better fit.
First, a quick description of each type of assistance:
- Outsourcing is the turning over of a project or a specific area of IT to a third party.
- Staff augmentation is the addition of a professional with a certain area of expertise to fill in a gap in your in-house team.
If you don’t have a team of programmers on staff, for instance, to develop a custom software solution for your business, outsourcing it to a third party may be a good fit. Not only do they have the expertise, but because they specialize in that specific type of project, they won’t have the delays that often occur when an in-house team unfamiliar with software development tries to ramp up to start.
In many cases, staff augmentation is the right solution. Here are five reasons why:
You Retain Control
Outsourcing, by nature, is a solution that offers a lower level of visibility than staff augmentation. With staff augmentation, you are adding expertise to your existing team. You determine their role and have the opportunity to refine and give feedback as the project moves along.
You Save a Lot of Time
When you need a specific set of skills or certifications, it can take hours to write the job description, review applicants and conduct interviews. When you choose staff augmentation, the third party has already vetted the talent you’re bringing in to help.
Cost Savings
In addition to the soft costs associated with saved time, you also save because you pay for exactly the services you need. When the project demands only 20 hours per week, you can access that amount through a staff augmentation option.
Flexibility
As you move through a project, you may find that you have finished your shift to network virtualization but now you need someone that can handle workload placement analysis for your newly hybrid environment. Staff augmentation is perfect for organizations that have changing needs or are working on a multi-stage digital transformation project.
Scalability
You might need help meeting a deadline on a specific project or navigating help desk shortages during vacation season. With staff augmentation, you can always increase or decrease the amount of service you are receiving.
Staff augmentation is ideal for a lot of situations requiring additional IT expertise. If it sounds like it could potentially solve some of your challenges with managing an IT skills gap, contact us at Proper Connections.