Business
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How to Choose the Right IT Outsourcing Partner
Jason Giampetruzzi | Sep 18, 2024
The benefits of IT staff augmentation are well-known in the tech industry. Everyone’s using it to leapfrog traditional recruitment barriers and upskill quickly. But is this hiring strategy right for your business?
If you’re serious about growing, it’s absolutely worth a try.
Staff augmentation services address two of the biggest challenges for companies of all shapes and sizes, from startups to SMBs, to corporates: time and resource constraints.
Like many firms, you probably need to sprint from concept to market but lack the in-house talent to expedite development.
Staff augmentation fills this void. It’s a swift and cost-effective way to bridge internal skills gaps and scale your operations so you can launch the highest-quality product possible — and fast.
And if you’re based in North America or Western Europe, nearshore staff augmentation to Latin America is particularly strategic. It’s easier to collaborate with culturally-aligned teams across similar time zones, and you can tap into the region’s rich tech talent pool.
Let’s drill down into the benefits of staff augmentation services so you can decide if it’s the right approach for you!
In this article:
- The staff augmentation definition
- List of the 6 staff augmentation benefits
- How the staffing model fuels startup growth
- FAQs on staff augmentation
What is staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation means temporarily hiring external workers to enhance your in-house team’s technical capabilities. It’s one of the hiring models of IT outsourcing development, but it’s different from dedicated teams, project outsourcing, and consulting.
- Using dedicated teams (a.k.a. managed services) means letting a fully external team of front- and back-end engineers, UI/UX designers, and project managers take care of all technical aspects from start to finish. This team works on your organization to deliver a complete, polished product.
- Project Outsourcing means contracting an external company (usually in another country) to build your digital product on your behalf autonomously
- Consulting mainly focuses on strategic advice. An independent consultant, or firm, offers expertise and guidance to optimize your development strategy without directly handling project execution.
While these approaches essentially send your work out, staff augmentation keeps everything internal.
Augmented staff integrates directly into your in-house team to expand your technical abilities. They use your processes and tools and can even join you on-site if necessary.
If you’re developing a mobile app, for example, you can use software engineering staff augmentation to instantly add Flutter developers, UX/UI designers, and other experts to your team. They will become a part of your company for the duration of the project.
For a deeper dive, read: What Is Staff Augmentation And How It Could Work for Your Business?
6 benefits of staff augmentation for businesses of all sizes
More than just filling seats, staff augmentation is a strategic way to build a high-performing team with precision and speed. Here are some of the great benefits this approach provides:
1. Flexibility and scalability
Need to ramp up for a big project or a looming deadline? Staff augmentation onboards extra hands exactly when you need them. When the project wraps up, you can scale back down to your core team to keep things lean and cost-effective or keep them to continue maintaining the product.
This approach can be a lifeline when you’re facing large projects or sudden workload spikes. You can engage skilled and vetted professionals immediately — often in just a few days to a few weeks, depending on several variables.
Whether you need UI experts for a short-term task or cross-platform developers for longer-term support, staff augmentation flexes to fit your requirements.
2. Cost-effectiveness
The average cost of hiring a new employee is estimated to be between three and four times the position’s salary.
So, if you’re hiring for a software developer job that pays $127,000, you might spend $508,000 or more to fill that role, including training and soft costs.
Plus, with IT salaries rising, it’s harder than ever for companies to find world-class developers without crushing their budgets.
Staff augmentation offers a great solution. It’s a prudent way to improve skills, especially for short-term needs. It also removes the expenses of recruiting, training, and maintaining full-time staff — not to mention office setup costs.
And with the money you save, you can invest in other growth-driving activities like marketing.
3. Access a wider talent pool
Looking for hard-to-find proficiencies that aren’t available or are too expensive locally? With staff augmentation, the whole world becomes your talent pool.
You can cast your net wider to regions such as Latin America, where tech expertise is abundant and more affordable.
With continued investment into national IoT, cybersecurity, digital governance, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructure, Brazil is one of the top destinations for IT in this regard.
Plus, with growing English proficiency, the country is a goldmine for businesses seeking top-tier tech specialists without language or cultural barriers.
4. Improve time-to-market
Quickly assembling an experienced outsourcing team of experts can mean the difference between leading (or continuing to lead) the market and playing catch-up.
The higher the quality of your app and the faster it launches, the less likely it will face competition early on. This lets you capture (or maintain control of) more market and revenue share before competitors can release something similar.
But notoriously slow and traditional recruitment methods can set you back months (or even years). It takes an average of 44 days to find and hire someone — potentially longer if you need unique qualifications.
Staff augmentation cuts through this, offering immediate access to pre-vetted experts, who are ready to jump in. It’s simple — when your projects move faster, you can launch your products quicker.
5. Close skill gaps
There are a lot of great ideas, but not enough people to make them all a reality. The worsening tech talent shortage can lead to a global shortfall of 85 million tech workers by 2030, which could result in $8.5 trillion in lost revenue every year.
The objective of Deloitte’s research was to assess the level of challenges participants were facing in their current companies concerning talent-related issues.
Whether you’re a startup or an established player, missing out on specialized skills can hold you back from launching your next product.
The augmented staffing model fills the gaps by infusing the expertise you need right when you need it. This is crucial for staying ahead in high-competition sectors like AI or tackling projects requiring niche knowledge like blockchain or IoT.
6. Enjoy nearshore advantages
With nearshore software development for staffing, you can remotely hire tech experts from a neighboring country like Brazil — arguably the best staff augmentation country in Latin America. There are many advantages to working with this emerging IT powerhouse, including:
- Seamless collaboration – Your in-house and augmented teams can work together in real time, thanks to similar time zones. When it’s noon in São Paulo, it’s 11 a.m. in New York and Toronto and 4 p.m. in London. All communication can be done within office hours. No more waiting for an email until after midnight.
- Reduced miscommunication – Brazil shares essential work values with Western countries, including professionalism and respect. This minimizes misunderstandings and boosts teamwork.
- Market insight – Your remote Brazilian team understands your target audience. They can offer strategies that are closely aligned with your customer’s expectations.
How the staffing model fuels startup growth
The key to startup success is to move fast and use resources wisely. Staff augmentation supports this agility.
In addition to the great benefits we’ve already mentioned, augmented staffing services are a great option for startups that need to:
Work on MVP mobile or web app development
Are you planning to build an MVP to test your idea before committing to full-scale development? Then, you need a lean team with lots of experience delivering stable apps with just enough functionality to be valuable to users. Staff augmentation injects your project with pre-vetted experts who fit the bill.
And because you only pay for their expertise for the project’s duration, you’re not left with a huge financial burden if you decide to abort further development.
Scale up post-funding
Securing Series A+ funding is just the start — now you need to meet investor expectations and deliver on those big promises. Staff augmentation can help you scale your team in sync with your startup’s growth trajectory. With more experts on board, you can take on more projects, enter new markets, or improve your offerings without delay.
Take an existing app to the next level
Looking to update your app with the latest trends, like AR/VR? Do you need to fix security vulnerabilities to prevent a breach? Staff augmentation gives you the flexibility to hire niche experts for tricky updates.
It’s a savvy way to put your app ahead of the curve without the overhead of permanent team members.
FAQs on staff augmentation
Here are some answers to your top staff augmentation questions and more details about how we approach staff augmentation here with clients.
1. How is staff augmentation different from traditional tech hiring?
Traditional tech hiring involves recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding full-time employees. This process can take weeks or even months, and there’s no guarantee the candidate will be the perfect fit.
In contrast, staff augmentation instantly adds pre-vetted and highly experienced professionals to your team. This allows you to:
- Directly target specific skill gaps for temporary or project-specific work as needed
- Shorten your time to market by bypassing traditional hiring steps and speeding up development
- Lessen financial risks by sidestepping the costs and commitments tied to full-time hires
- Adjust your workforce based on evolving project requirements
2. What are some cost benefits of staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation trims down expenses across the board because it:
- Eliminates traditional recruitment costs
- Reduces overhead by removing benefits, taxes, and office space outlays for full-time employees
- Employs a pay-as-you-go approach, so you pay for expertise only as long as your project needs it
- Enhances project efficiency and improves your ROI
3. How does nearshore staff augmentation work?
Nearshore staff augmentation connects you with talent in geographically closer regions. This strategy:
- Aligns time zones for better communication and collaboration
- Offers cost advantages with competitive rates outside major tech hubs
- Improves communication and reduces misunderstandings, thanks to cultural similarities
- Minimizes travel expenses if you need face-to-face meetings
4. How can you avoid risks related to staff augmentation?
To make the most out of staff augmentation, keep these pointers in mind:
- Establish seamless communication and team integration protocols to keep everyone on the same page.
- Stick to solid project management practices to keep your projects on track.
- Work with reputable staff augmentation partners that can provide skilled, pre-vetted, and experienced professionals.
- Spell out project details in contracts that clarify scope, deliverables, and roles to avoid confusion.
Learn more about managing augmented staff on our blog.
5. How fast can you fill the necessary roles?
Cheesecake Labs can fill a role within just as few days, depending on the role and expertise required, as well as the availability of those team members. While we strive to always fill roles as quickly as possible, in some instances, it may take a few weeks to find the right candidate.
6. Can I interview your candidates? How does that process work?
Absolutely – at Cheesecake Labs, we understand how important it is to find the right candidate with the right personality and skillset that align with your company’s values and goals. However, we have a solid hiring process, and many of our clients grow to trust our recommendations, with no interview required.
7. What is the minimum amount of time I can have your candidates work on our project?
Here at Cheesecake Labs, staff augmentation projects last for a minimum of three months, with most lasting six months or more.
8. How do you determine candidates’ expertise and knowledge?
All our employees are pre-vetted and undergo a rigorous hiring process, including an onboarding period after starting at the company. They are vetted based on previous experiences, referrals, and a technical interview with our engineering managers and/or VP of engineering.
Internally, they are all mentored by an engineering manager (a technical and highly experienced professional) to align their career and hard skills.
9. How do I know that your talent will work well with my existing team?
We don’t just throw CVs at your email for selection. Instead, we have conversations with our team of solutions architects to understand your needs in terms of skills and capabilities. Based on that, we will make suitable recommendations.
It’s important to highlight that a member of your team will need to participate in the matching process, but we’ve got you covered if you need help planning the best workflow.
We’ve done this many times, and we have a robust process that you can leverage to make things run smoothly. This includes agile ceremonies to facilitate alignment and communication, kanban JIRA board for visibility, metrics, and management, Slack environments for fast and easy communication, Git-flow for development best practices, and peer-code review, etc.
10. What hours can I expect them to be available to work with us?
Our employees operate by default on GMT-3 (BRT, Brazilian standard timezone). This makes working easy across all US time zones, from New York just two hours ahead of us to San Francisco just four hours behind us.
11. What happens if the candidate we hire doesn’t work out? What is the process to replace them, and how long does it take?
Our internal Customer Success team and Engineer Manager support all engagements. They will be in direct contact with you and included in the same environments as the developers to help us identify potential gaps or opportunities to improve.
If we need to replace someone, they will be there to support you the best we can to make the transition as smooth and fast as it can be. Any replacement will generally take two to four weeks to complete.
Cheesecake Labs — Your IT staff augmentation partner
Staff augmentation offers unmatched flexibility, cost savings, and scalability. But you need to work with the right IT staff augmentation company to fully tap into these advantages.
Cheesecake Labs offers technology staff augmentation services to startups, SMBs, and businesses of all sizes in all industries. Schedule a call with our experts to discuss your requirements!
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