Managed Services vs. Staff Augmentation: Which One Do You Opt for Your Business

Delivering an Outcome vs Delivering Staff – Understand what works for you, and how you can channel the right strategy for your project’s success

Increasing inclination to outsource by Enterprises and Startups = Moshpit of talent providers and agencies looking to offer substandard services

Growing industry requirements, increase in number of competitors, and customers’ growing demands. These factors are keeping software firms on their toes – and active, in hiring and scaling. With this constant nudge of performance requirement, firms cannot skimp on collaborating with the top talent beyond their geographical location to stay ahead in their production cycles.

Case in point: Startups, and FAANG organizations already tinker with various engagement models with numerous staff augmentation and outsourcing firms for their project needs.

While some businesses choose in-house talent pools for more efficient processes and delivery methods, companies are increasingly favoring outsourcing to hash out their code maintenance, bug management, and product iteration. 

This shift in building teams and setting distributed centers offers options replete with potential and possibilities. This further leaves many organizations thinking –

• Where can I find the digital expertise for my ongoing projects that don’t require permanent IT staff?
• And What model suits my requirements?

The first is rather simple to understand. Finding and hiring an in-house IT team is challenging, time-consuming, and costly. 

However the 2nd question is an entirely different ballpark – and depends on a bevy of factors and requirements.

Currently, the two leading IT outsourcing models are – managed IT services (outsourcing) and IT staff augmentation (outsourcing). 

They are two reliable alternatives that must be thoroughly evaluated and understood before choosing one that works well with your software project to achieve the goals.

What are Managed IT Services?

Managed IT services are fundamentally different from staff augmentation. They offer organizations a wide range of services. It is intended as a long-term solution in which the service provider takes full responsibility for managing part or all of the IT requirements.

Managed IT Services Features

Business owners often want to outsource all of their IT operations to focus more on growing their business. Managed services are the perfect solution for these requirements.

Third-party experts manage the entire IT base. They are responsible for the maintenance, administration, modernization, and all the tasks that the client needs.

In addition to that, managed services can be considered to be focused on outcome and not just the process of hiring and staffing (read: not a sweatshop maneuvre)

What are Staff Augmentation Services?

In its most basic form, staff augmentation refers to the practice of bringing in an external team to augment your development team’s capacity. It is primarily a temporary solution, as the newly added resources are used for a limited period.

Also Read, How Building Your Remote Team Helps Staff Augmentation Needs

Staff Augmentation Features

The primary role of staff augmentation services is to scale your resources quickly. If the workload temporarily increases, this service can deliver extra resources to allocate the task immediately.

IE, add more members to your team – on-demand. Of the skill and calibre you need.

It is a valuable strategy when it comes to incorporating talents with unique abilities. Rather than starting the hiring process for a full-time employee from scratch, companies can rely on recruiting services to fill in the gaps on an ad hoc basis.

IT Staff Augmentation vs. Managed Services: Which One to Choose?

Every business, as we all know, is distinguished from one another. As a result, it’s vital to figure out which IT outsourcing model is ideal for specific company needs.

Both methods of IT outsourcing save your time and energy by hiring the specialists you need to fill the requirements you need, develop your products and achieve your business goals. However, many companies appreciate the flexibility and retained control of IT staff augmentation over managed IT services. The best IT outsourcing method for your organization depends on the need. Since they are both radically different, it is easy to see at a glance which way is best.

Organizations that need a short-term solution need the talent to be injected immediately and fill gaps in a relatively short period must opt for staff growth. The kind of flexibility and profitability you seek will only come through this method.

Whereas managed IT services are better suited to organizations wishing to outsource complete projects. It gives them peace of mind because they will have a dedicated team to take care of their project. It also makes IT outsourcing costs predictable and saves money in the long run.

Regardless of the IT outsourcing method you choose, make sure you choose your outsourcing company wisely. Remember to avoid budget IT outsourcing companies, and sweatshops either way, and read agreements carefully before signing.

Wrapping up

Managed services vs Staff augmentation = Project outcome vs Resource addition. Complete outsourcing vs Control retention.

This is perhaps the easiest way to understand the difference between the 2 models.