IT outsourcing is a great alternative for companies that require more resources or want to focus on their core tasks. It is, in fact, a great way to optimize time and costs, as well as to optimize efficiency. These are the main reasons that encourage enterprises across the globe opt for outsourcing. It is important to mention, however, that outsourcing has a variety of models. Today, we will explore the difference between Staff Augmentation and Dedicated Team.
What is Staff Augmentation?
It is a type of outsourcing service in which a software company provides their professional resources (such as engineers, developers) under a contract in the form of external hire. Simply put, the working force is constituted by third-party specialists working on the premises of the buyer for an established time.
Among its advantages, staff augmentation reduces costs related to recruitment, payroll services, etc. It also offers a scalable option where the working time can quickly decrease or increase as needed.
What is Dedicated Team?
In this type of model, you partner with a remote software house and hand over the project to their team of specialists. As you can already tell, here the partnership is much broader than team augmentation. Dedicated Team can cover different services such as UX/UI design, support, quality assurance, project management, maintenance, among others. Here, the vendor is in charge of the project.
To understand the differences better, we will focus on some elements:
Organizational culture
In the case of a dedicated team, developers are in the same office, which helps create an environment of cooperation. Here, the software house is in charge of the developers’ comfort, mentoring and even career development. Meanwhile, in staff augmentation, the workforce does not necessarily identify with one of the parties as they are aware they will be working in other projects soon.
Responsibilities and costs
In both models, the recruitment and employment of engineers are responsibilities the service provider assumes. Nonetheless, in the case of a dedicated team, the vendor also covers management costs such as office spaces, software licenses, employee’s training, among others.
Project management
In the case of staff augmentation, project management is usually done internally by the outsourcer, despite the project being carried out by external specialists.
Meanwhile, under a dedicated team model, there is a project manager that minimizes project management responsibilities on the buyer’s side. This means that the project, along with all the management liability of it is taken over by the vendor.
Usually, the project manager is the single point of contact between the vendor and the outsourcer, which implies the advantage of good handling because software companies already know the most efficient ways to manage a project’s process.
Now that you have a clearer understanding of these two models, you can recognize which one will work best for you and your needs.
In Gmedia, we provide top quality services. Whether you prefer Staff augmentation or Dedicated team, we have expertise that will help you finish your IT projects in the best possible way. Contact us today.
