When you assemble your IT team, you do so based on knowledge about current and likely future company needs. However, those parameters can change at any time. For example, say your company gets a large new client, resulting in much more work than your present team can handle. Or, say an existing client suddenly needs much more output. In these cases, hiring enough new IT staffers in time to meet your deadlines can be challenging – if not impossible.
In these cases, you might want to consider IT staff augmentation from an IT staffing company like BairesDev. IT staffing companies have on-demand IT specialists who are highly trained with the technical and soft skills required to make all your projects successful. Rather than performing an extensive search for just the right people, you can submit your request and quickly have the expertise you need.
But you may ask, how will these professionals fit in with my current team? How much money will I end up spending? Will I still have control over my projects? How can I be sure this approach is right for my situation? Here we explain a bit more about what IT staff augmentation actually is, how to know when you might need it, and how it can benefit your company and your projects.
What Is IT Staff Augmentation?
Your Company Might Need IT Staff Augmentation If…
Not sure if IT staff augmentation is right for your team? If any of these sound like your situation, it’s worth considering.
#1: You Need Affordable IT Services
You might think that adding external IT support to your team would cost more than hiring professionals directly. But that’s not always true. Think about the time and money you save by not going through the usual hiring process. And once the new team members are working, you don’t have to pay for full-time salaries, benefits, or training. Plus, you only pay for these services when you need them. Also, IT staff augmentation often comes at a fixed cost, so you can manage your budget better than when you have lots of employees coming and going.
#2: You Need to Grow Your Team Quickly
If your company wants to grow fast, you might not have time to find new staff for your existing IT team when a big new client comes along. Searching for new people takes time, with creating job ads, interviewing candidates, and training new employees all being time-consuming. IT staff augmentation solves this problem by letting you quickly expand your team and get expert help that will make your new projects successful. You might even decide to keep some of the new team members permanently. Many IT staff augmentation services let you hire their team members after they’ve been working with you for a while.
This approach is also helpful if you have one or more IT team members out of the office for a while. You can hire temporary team members to fill in just for that time, without the hassle of traditional hiring and firing.
#3: You Need to Reduce Your Team Quickly
On the other hand, if your workload decreases suddenly, having the flexibility to downsize your team quickly is important for dealing with the uncertainties of the business world. The company providing augmentation services can handle the process of letting people go, and there won’t be hard feelings because everyone knows their position could change at any time.
#4: You Need Clear Project Updates
The IT staff who work for augmentation services are trained not only in technical skills but also in project management and communication. This means they can keep you informed about every aspect of the project they’re working on. They know the latest communication tools and methods and understand how important it is to use them.
#5: You Need Specific Skills
Your company might take on a project that needs skills your current IT team doesn’t have. Finding the right person might be really hard, and you might not have time for a long search. But an IT staff augmentation service might have exactly the skills you need, even if they’re rare in your area. In fact, lots of companies use outsourcing agencies from other countries for this reason.
You Want to Stay in Control of Your Projects
If you hire an external IT team to take over a project, you might lose control over some parts of it. You might even have to move the whole project to a different country, where dealing with legal problems could be hard if something goes wrong. When you augment your existing team, you keep the project in-house and, in your control, which is important for getting the best results, especially when you’re working on a new product or service.
You Want to Reduce Risk
If your company gets a big new client on a trial basis and suddenly needs a lot more work from your IT team, hiring new people to handle it comes with risks. What if the client doesn’t stick around? Then you’d have to let all those new workers go. With IT staff augmentation, you can reduce these risks because if things change unexpectedly, you can just let the extra staff go.
