So what exactly is staff augmentation? What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourced staff augmentation? What are some recommendations if you’re looking for extended offshore teams? Keep reading to find out.
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What is Offshore Staff Augmentation?
The global staff augmentation market is currently valued at 131.7 billion USD and is projected to reach further heights by 2026. Offshore staff augmentation provides remote team expansion, remote staffing solutions, and extended offshore teams, all without the hassle of tedious hiring processes.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s talk about some advantages and disadvantages of this highly exalted strategy used by IT companies.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Offshore Staff Augmentation
When making crucial decisions for your company, it’s of utmost significance to understand the implications of said decisions. International staff augmentation is a decision that many startups struggle with. There are important factors to consider when thinking about offshore staffing services and offshore team scaling.
Many companies grapple with this decision when thinking about the consequences of staff augmentation like cost, time management, and quality of project completion. Whether or not this is the right decision for you will depend on a multitude of factors.
You have to consider your team dynamics, the length and nature of your project, and your offshore staffing partners. No decision is bulletproof, so let’s discuss the pros and cons of global staff extension and offshore IT augmentation.
Advantages of Offshore Staff Augmentation
Exceptionally Cost-Effective
Benefits of staff augmentation is huge. Onboarding talent is a difficult and time-consuming process. When you factor in salaries, equipment, benefits and other expenses that onboarding requires, including training programs, it adds up to quite a lot. In contrast to traditional hiring practices, augmented offshore staffing lessons load quite a bit for companies.
Expansion is an expensive undertaking. Hence, offshore augmentation is a better idea, since your level of work is the determinant of how big your offshore augmented team will be. Overseas staff augmentation allows you to non-traditionally expand while having none of the drawbacks of unparalleled expenses.
Very Painless to Scale
The scalability of a company is a crucial stepping stone in its success. Scalability allows for growth and innovation without being held back by structural or bureaucratic inadequacies. Software companies and startups who want to scale often opt for hiring extended offshore teams and remote staffing solutions.
Offshore workforce expansion allows for easy scalability without the disadvantages of hiring, training, and onboarding employees from scratch. Offshore team scaling is a strategy that allows the company to focus on fast, cost-effective ways of focusing on business strategies to expand and scale.
Streamlined Development
Development is streamlined due to greater transparency and higher communication between members of offshore development teams and existing in-house members. Responsibilities can be communicated more effectively. Duties are also more divided and specific to each individual.
There is a division of responsibilities and higher accountability. This means that development is streamlined and the goals of the company are achieved much faster.
Training Period Much Shorter, Often No Training Required
Through staff augmentation, IT companies have quick access to experts in their respective fields. This overseas staff augmentation allows them to not be restricted by geographical boundaries. You can hire talented experts from anywhere in the globe. This is beneficial because training programs can be extremely expensive.
When you hire experts, they are already pre-trained in their respective fields. Hence, there’s no need for extra onboarding programs for them!
Highly Flexible
Companies leverage staff augmentation all the time. This is a popular choice due to its high flexibility. Inflexible strategies or structures within a company can lead to projects failing, or companies not meeting deadlines. Hence, working on a flexible schedule is crucial.
Offshore workforce expansion allows for a highly flexible team and working conditions. The number of extra staff you need is completely dependent on your company, and your goals. Additionally, the work schedule is also personalized to your project.
Less Administrative Issues
One of the best consequences of remote team extension and remote staffing solutions is handing over the legal and administrative work to someone else. You can completely relax while your extended team’s experts handle the legal and administrative issues. You just have to make sure you can completely trust your offshore staffing partners.
Easy Access and Adoption of Advanced Technology
Offshore IT staffing is a perfect solution for getting quick and easy access to advanced technology. When you outsource your team to IT experts, they come with a plethora of knowledge and tools. The faster you can adopt these technologies, the faster you get a competitive advantage over other companies!
Greater Talent Pool and Access to International Experts
Saving the best for last. The most obvious benefit of extended offshore teams is the unlimited potential you have tapped into. There is no cap on how much expertise you can get access to. You’re not bound by geographical barriers when looking for experts. Global staff extension has no boundaries or limits. This access to a greater talent pool is the greatest competitive advantage for startups.
Disadvantages of Offshore Staff Augmentation
Not Suited for Project-based Work
Offshore staff augmentation is typically seen as a long-term solution to existing team problems. Most IT companies want extended offshore teams over a long period of time. This means that offshore staffing services may not be the correct call for short-term projects. If you want your team augmented for a short period of time, this may not be the ideal solution for you.
Differing Time Zones
Offshore workforce enhancement means international staff augmentation. This means that there are time zones to consider. If you are working at a completely opposite timezone to your augmented team, there may be lapses in communication. Of course, this is not a deal-breaker. With clear communication and transparency, this issue can be solved easily.
Language and Cultural Barriers
In the grand scheme of budgets, flexibility, and scalability, this is a small and easily solvable issue. However, it’s still a point to consider. Since there will be language and cultural barriers in your international augmented team, it’s important to always be sensitive and mindful of each other’s cultures. Clear communication is the only solution to problems arising from cultural differences.
Additional Costs May Occur
This is only an issue if your offshore partner hasn’t been completely transparent with you. There are some companies that have hidden charges, and some that pay hourly instead of monthly with charges building up. Hence, you need to do careful research before settling on a company!
Comparatively Less Team Control
Offshore talent augmentation means letting go of some aspects of control. Don’t get us wrong; the project is still yours. The team is still your team, accomplishing your company’s goals. However, you will have less control over the augmented team, compared to your in-house team. Experts believe this is a worthy trade-off to make, considering all the other benefits.
Offshore Staff Augmentation Working Models
In offshore and nearshore staff augmentation there are three main different offshore staff augmentation working models to choose from. These are also called staff augmentation cooperation models, which is a very fitting name. At the end of the day, the project will be completed through cooperation between the companies. Hence, your offshore staffing partners are equally important as you are in completing your goals.
Before opting for offshore IT staffing right away, you’ll need to decide on which working model you want to go with. There are different cases to be made for all of them. This is a great thing; because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to any problem. We’ve broken down all three models below.
Extended Team Model
This method is better for longer-term projects. When looking for global workforce augmentation for a project that may last many years, you would ideally want this model. In the extended team, you have offshore talent augmentation. Through this, you gain an experienced team of experts for your project over a longer period of time. You have relatively more control of your team still, and the experts operate less autonomously.
Managed Team Model
This method is superior for shorter-term projects. International staff augmentation in the managed team model means that experts will operate more autonomously. Through this project, you’ll hire an offshore team of talented experts who’ll handle a specific part of your project. This is the ideal solution for short-term work.
Custom Solution Development
This is the do-it-yourself version of offshore staff augmentation. You get to pick the experts, the skill sets you want, the number of people for the team. You get to hand-pick each detail. You get to call the shots on your extended offshore teams. This is good for your company’s unique specifications.
| Extended Team | Managed Team | Custom Solution Development |
|---|---|---|
| Additional team of experts | Additional team of experts | Additional team of experts |
| Better for long term projects | Better for short term projects | Better for specific or niche projects |
| Retention of team long-term | Offshore team works more autonomously | Completely customizable team |
Which model is best for you? There’s no right or wrong answer here. This completely depends on your priorities. What do you want to accomplish? Is your project a long-term thing or a shorter-term goal? How much autonomy will you give to the augmented offshore team? The decision is completely yours to make.
Why Opt for Offshore Staff Augmentation?
Companies opt for offshore staff augmentation for a variety of reasons. The first problem companies face is that they don’t have enough experts. This is particularly true for startups. When companies are just starting, there is a lack of experts in their in-house team.
This is detrimental for a couple of reasons. The IT industry is expanding exponentially. This logarithmic form of expansion means that IT firms are constantly in competition with each other. To gain a competitive advantage over other companies, there needs to be a team of experts in your company to complete specific tasks.
However, that’s a difficult monster to defeat for tech companies just starting. That’s why extended offshore teams can help offload in-house teams. Remote offshore workforce expansion means you won’t even be bound by geographical constraints. You will have no limit over whose expertise you can get for which project.
When you opt for offshore IT staffing and offshore workforce outsourcing, you are skipping all the tedious HR-related steps, and going straight into your project.
The Potential Risks of Staff Augmentation
The potential risks of staff augmentation are all minimal and easily solvable. However, it would be disingenuous to not mention them regardless. The first thing to consider is that you have to carefully choose your offshore staffing partner. If you are not careful with this choice, your project and your company will suffer.
A lot of unreliable companies have hidden costs, which defeats the point of offshore talent augmentation. Additionally, there are factors like time differences to consider. However, when working with a global augmented staff, it’s easy to find ways around these problems.
With your team dynamics, you can create flexible working schedules that work well for everyone. That way, time zones will become a nonissue for your offshore augmented staff. Additionally, cultural differences are also easily solvable with simple conversations and sensitivity training.
Why Do Companies Leverage Staff Augmentation
Leveraging staff augmentation is an agile solution that helps cut costs and accelerate project completion. There are several benefits to offshore staffing services and offshore workplace enhancement. Starting from offshore team scaling to cutting costs, accelerating projects, and creating a better, more dynamic team, staff augmentation is the modern solution for companies.
As we have already discussed, staff augmentation helps to bring in experts from all over the globe to enhance your team. This is useful because often there is some lack of expertise present in the in-house team. When you bring in international experts, you help erase this issue!
How to Do Offshore Staff Augmentation
We’ve talked a lot about augmented offshore staffing as a lucrative modern solution for IT companies. But here’s the main question: how do you augment your team? What are the steps involved in creating extended offshore teams? How do you get your in-house team to be augmented with international experts? We’ll answer these questions now.
Understand Shortcomings and Define Requirements
The place to start is at the root of the problem. You need to ask yourself why you’re opting for offshore IT augmentation and global staff extension in the first place. Where is the gap in your current system? What is the problem you’re currently facing?
You need to understand where in your field you lack experts. You need to see the cracks in your team and understand what experts you need to bring in. Additionally, you also need to define what your project will look like.
You need to have a clear understanding of the project timeline. What is the deadline? What is the outcome of the project? What are the clear requirements that will have to be communicated to your partner offering the offshore staffing services? These are the questions that need answering before you even look into extended offshore teams.
Look into Experts in Relevant Fields
Once you’ve looked inwards, you need to look outwards. Here is where you understand which specific cooperation model you need. Are you working on a short-term or a long-term project? Do you need an extended team model, a managed team model, or a custom solution? There are many possible iterations of offshore development teams, so you’ll need to know what you’re looking for.
Then, you’ll need to do research on experts in the fields you’re looking for. Look at their previous work, their reviews from clients, etc.
Conduct Initial Interviews
You’ll need to conduct some initial interviews after you’ve done your research. This is a skimming process. You may need to look into several companies before settling on the one that’s the perfect fit for you.
Finalize
Once you’ve decided which company to work with, you’ll need to review your contracts. You need to set expectations and boundaries clearly. There needs to be clear communication between you and your offshore augmented team.
How to Select Offshore Staffing Partners
Look at Their Reviews
This goes without saying. When you’re looking to work with extended offshore teams, you must do prior research. Read reviews, and see what their previous clients have said about them. See how experienced they are.
Identify the Model You’ll Need
We’ve already covered this. You’ll need to know which cooperative model you’ll be working with, and select a company accordingly.
Niche Expertise
Best to hire a team that has expertise in the field you’re looking for.
Rates and Fees
In order to not be caught off guard at your offshore augmented team’s rates, you’ll need to do previous research beforehand!
Why VivaSoft Limited is the Best Choice for Offshore Staff Augmentation
VivaSoft has almost a decade of experience in agile project development, bringing world-class experts of different fields right to your doorstep. Our teams of specialists can scale, design, and build your goals for your company in the most efficient way. With over 180 dedicated engineers, over 70 projects completed, and over 7 years of experience, VivaSoft is a pioneer of agile methodologies.
Team Augmentation is one of our core services, along with offshore office expansion, project development, and MVP services. Our staff augmentation services are completely customizable and we provide affordable plans for your company’s benefit. How can we help? Here’s how:
- We can provide dedicated, talented experts for your demands
- The skilled teams use innovative and trusted technologies to fulfill projects, generating significant results in a cost-effective and efficient way
- Transparency is always maintained, and your data will always be 100% secure
- We can scale your team accordingly, and make the entire project more budget-friendly for you
What are you waiting for? If you’re looking for your roadmap to success, offshore staff augmentation with VivaSoft is the way to go.
Conclusion
Offshore staff augmentation is undoubtedly the modern roadmap to success for companies. IT is a competitive industry that’s also exponentially growing. In order to maintain a competitive edge, agile business strategies must be employed by companies.
Global workforce augmentation allows you to hail experts from all across the globe. At the same time, offshore workforce enhancement frees you from geographical shackles. This allows your projects to be completed faster, more efficiently, and more cost-effectively. This also aids with scalability, giving your company a competitive edge.
If you’re looking for trusted partners for offshore staff augmentation, look no further than Vivasoft. With over 7 years of experience under our belt, we can make your daring vision for your company come true in the most efficient way possible.
