Dedicated Team vs. Staff Augmentation vs. Extended Team Model
Quick Overview: Extended team, staff augmentation, and dedicated team have always proven to be the best solutions, as these outsourcing models help to rescue, and each comes with a list of benefits. From optimizing the time and cost of the project and enhancing operational frequency to allowing you to focus on core business, they’ve got you covered. You name it, and these models have got it! For the same reason, several companies pass their IT responsibilities to a third party or hire a dedicated development team for their projects, to put it simply, choose one of these models for enhanced productivity.
In the modern era, one of the most crucial things for organizations to do is integrate digital technologies. Plus, getting online is an uphill battle. Furthermore, as the demand for software engineers exceeds, IT companies have difficulty hiring an in-house development team.
Simply put, finding the most appropriate candidate with the required skills and deep expertise requires a lot of time and money. In such times, models like dedicated teams, staff augmentation, and extended teams can be handy. All three options have their advantages, disadvantages, and insights that can help you decide which is the best fit for your business needs.
Here in this blog, we will walk you through all three options so that you can decide between hiring a dedicated team, restoring to staff augmentation, or relying on an extended team. So, let’s begin to help you make a clear decision.
What is a Dedicated Team and How Does It Work?
It takes a commercial approach to web and app development. The customer, the outsourcing firm, and the employee – along with the developers and dedicated testing team – make up a dedicated team model.
The professionals for the dedicated team are chosen, keeping in sight the clients’ needs for their experience and skill sets. The client may opt to lead the team themselves or delegate project management responsibilities to the service provider.
A dedicated developer’s team is best suited when the project scope is not strictly defined, and the requirements of the projects can be changed during the development process. The ultimate goal of this model is to hire a team that will compensate for the lack of necessary expertise and seamlessly work as your own.
Benefits of a Dedicated Team
For startups that are expanding quickly, the dedicated team approach – which emphasizes long-term collaboration – works well. An actual team approach and help businesses in the banking, healthcare, communication, and other financial and commercial sectors, including IT.
To be it simple, any business can make the most out of a managed team model, credit to the advantages it offers:
One of the foremost benefits of a dedicated team is cost efficiency. For a lower cost than you would have spent if you had hired an internal developer, you would have access to full-time workers.
2. Get Straight forward Management
Lack of transparency can act as one of the most significant flaws, especially when it comes down to standard outsourcing models. With the help of a dedicated team, you’ll have access to constant feedback, allowing you to make quick changes to the projects without significant delays.
3. Long-term Partnership
The chance of continuous integration is another advantage of a dedicated team. It is a life-savior element for long-term projects that constantly evolve and need another feature or modification. All you have to do is propose a change, which is only a matter of supervision.
4. Loyalty and Exceptional Focus
With freelancers, you cannot get the surety of undivided attention, right? But when it comes to dedicated teams, you can pick an individual with ultimate commitment. The team member’s inability to work on any other project but yours may also be specified in a written agreement. The procedure will guarantee a deeper working relationship and increase the team’s productivity.
When to Use the Dedicated Team Model?
A dedicated team model works best when there are continuous, scalable projects and firms lack the time and resources to hire specialists in-house. Now that you have a better picture of what the dedicated team model is and what benefits it offers let us walk you through when to opt for it:
- For long-term continuous projects that evolve and may go on indefinitely;
- When you cannot afford or simply have no time to hire developers locally;
- When you lack software project management and leadership experience.
What is Staff Augmentation and How Does It Work?
When businesses need outside help to complete important IT projects, they look forward to the staff augmentation model. In a nutshell, it is an outsourcing strategy where temporary workers are used to fill transient employment openings within your business.
Many people are unsure of the differences between staff augmentation and outsourcing. You should be aware that these two are distinct from one another. When one or more projects are outsourced, the remaining tasks are handled by the proving company.
When it comes to staff augmentation, however, you ask professionals to join your current team to fill in the skill gaps. This model is highly suitable when you have an in-house team of experts, but the new project demands different skills that your team lacks. You can therefore leverage hand-selected personnel from the provider organizations to join your team instead of going through the time-consuming hiring process
Benefits of Staff Augmentation
The last thing that you’d want to do when a big project is approaching is to stress over finding or hiring the correct people to finish the job, isn’t it? Therefore, with staff augmentation, you will receive assistance on a scalable, per-project basis, making it simple to concentrate on the big picture and your company’s objective. Let us now go over the advantages of the staff augmentation model.
1. Cuts Down Cost Without Sacrificing the Quality
If you know that you need someone for a few weeks or months, then hiring a permanent candidate for the same won’t be a cost-effective solution for you. You can hire a professional when needed with the help of augmented staffing – without making a pricey, lengthy commitment.
2. Choose the Skills You Need the Most
Whether you need help with a specific business project or the entire business, targeting the skills you need will help you quickly fetch the best talent and workers in place. You will not have to hire someone and hope they do the job for you. Simply put, you will be able to pick and choose the best candidate with the precise set of skills that you require.
3. Work with Expertise
By augmenting your staff, you can confidently delegate tasks and projects. Experienced professionals have expertise in their fields and do not require training or assistance. All you’ll have to do is give the necessary projects and tasks, and they will deliver the results you need promptly, thus allowing you to focus on the bigger picture.
4. Get an Objective Opinion
By adding a temporary employee to your team, you can get a more objective assessment of how things are going.
When to Use Staff Augmentation Model?
Now that you have a clear picture of what the staff augmentation model means and what the benefits that come with it are, let us walk you through when it is considered the most appropriate to use the staff augmentation model. Well, this model works best when:
- You need people with higher skill levels;
- You are looking forward to better communication with the team;
- You need to expand the team fast with expertise in IoT, Dart, software development, etc.
What is Extended Team and How Does It Work?
What comes to your mind when you read the word extended team model? Probably something extra? Right? So, to put it simply, an extended team model is essentially an extra set of hands for your in-house staff.
It is a form of outsourcing that entails communication, cooperation, and closer proximity between the in-house and outsourced teams. The approach helps you enhance your development capacity quickly and cost-effectively while maintaining control over the development process.
The extended team model can be used in several projects, from small-scale projects to large-scale enterprise software development. It benefits companies that need to ramp up their development capacity quickly but don’t have the resources or expertise to do the same in-house.
By working with an extended team, you can easily leverage the skills and expertise of remote developers to achieve your development goals while keeping the cost under your budget.
Benefits of an Extended Team
The extended team model has several business benefits to offer those looking forward to quickly enhancing their talent pool. Let’s walk you through the list of benefits that come with the extended development team.
1. It Complements Your Team
The team extension model approach allows internal teams to benefit from an outsourced team to the fullest extent possible by keeping them informed of new market trends and teaching them about new skills. Later, they can be deployed internally and share what they have learned with others.
2. Helps to Focus on Priority
With the help of the extended team model, you’ll have the surety that the focus is entirely on your business, as your priority will be their number one priority.
3. Access to Wide Talent Pool
With the help of an extended team, your team will have ultimate access to the international talent that helps your business in unimaginable ways, which otherwise would not have been possible, or even challenging to reach.
4. It is Time Saving
When it comes down to hiring great IT talent, then you need to remember that it is quite a daunting task. But the extended team model is not the same. You will always have access to a plug-and-play, on-demand IT development team.
5. It Offers Scalable Development Capacity
In case your project needs changes, so does your extended team. It accomplishes the same thing by scaling up or down based on the needs of your project. By scaling your development team, you will sign up for growth, enhanced features, and product expansion and craft a supportive environment.
When to Use Extended Team Model?
An extended team model is quite similar to what we call traditional outsourcing. Yet again, a few differences make it a better option for some businesses. The extended team model works best when:
- You are looking forward to expanding your project in the future, and the original team is there to support and release the updates;
- The project is new for your company, and you don’t wish to change the focus of your in-house team;
- You need experts that are absent from your local market;
- The market isn’t offering a reasonable price for the skills that you need.
Your company can make the most out of this model if you already have a development team that you’d like to enrich with a talent for long-term projects. You can also use IT team augmentation if you do not have an on-site team yet. But ensure you completely control the software development process and communicate directly with the engineers.
Get Access to the Global Talent, and Cost-Effective Solutions with Our Dedicated Developers
Hire Our Dedicated Developers Now!
How to Choose the Right Outsourcing Model for Your Business?
Outsourcing can help your business in several ways, from multiplying to saving money; it has got you covered for everything. Changing to an outsourced model can occasionally lead to issues as you and your outsourced partner adjust to one another’s business and expectations.
As companies look forward to growing, scaling, and expanding through outsourcing, choosing the right outsourcing will help you to produce the best possible results. Now let us walk you through a few practices you can follow to select the suitable outsourcing model for your business.
1. Project Scope
You must have a clear understanding of the working document’s scope before even contacting possible outsourcing partners. Ensure that you have a clear picture of your business goals, what your business needs, and the best solution to achieve your desired outcome.
By answering these simple questions, you can identify the problem you are trying to solve. Moreover, a dedicated team model is considered suitable for bulk projects that need more extended collaboration between team members. On the other hand, staff augmentation is considered beneficial if you have short projects that require specific talents.
2. Communicate About the Budget
Cost is often the most overlooked factor that can ruin not just your relationship with an outsourcing vendor but also your project in total. If you are looking for a cost-effective solution, staff augmentation and extended teaming can be a great idea, as with the dedicated team, higher costs are involved due to reliable resources and infrastructure. Therefore, you can select that model if you have the means to assemble and train specialized teams
3. Internal Management
A dedicated team is all you need for better control of the project. You simply define the guidelines and responsibilities and oversee the development process. On the other hand, with extended team and staff augmentation, it is a daunting task.
Essential Tips on How to Make the Outsourcing Models Work for You
By now, you must know that outsourcing is a great way to eliminate expenses while helping your business grow exponentially. Yet again, no matter how fancy or great outsourcing might sound, certain risks come with it. So, to keep away from those risks, there are a few tips that you can follow to make your outsourcing model work for you.
1. Outline Your Outsourcing Goals in Detail
You must realize that a business is already one step ahead of the competition if it initially outlines its outsourcing goals explicitly. Simply put, make sure you properly and step-by-step outline the outsourcing purpose. It can assist you in selecting the best outsourcing model for your company.
2. Budget for Expected and Unexpected
Organizations must consider their present outsourcing needs when mapping out a monthly, quarterly, or annual budget. They need to analyze how outsourcing can help reduce their overall personal budget when adequately implemented.
Businesses must also plan for unforeseen events like unanticipated employee turnover or a new contract requiring more specialized labor. Companies frequently point to the “hidden costs” as one of the main causes why outsourcing initiatives sometimes fail to get the desired outcome.
3. Choose the Suitable Outsourcing Engagement Model
When looking forward to building a compressive outsourcing strategy, HR executives must pay attention and prioritize the specialized skills they are searching for and why.
Choosing an outsourcing engagement model becomes easy when the technical and creative terms are clearly defined. By now, you have clarity that there are various outsourcing models, i.e., extended team mode, staff augmentation, and dedicated teams.
With expectations and a clear goal, it becomes easier for businesses to choose the most appropriate model.
4. Mitigate Outsourcing Risks
On the one hand, where outsourcing comes with several benefits, some risks need to be addressed. Businesses can reduce their financial exposure and boost the effectiveness of their chosen outsourcing strategy by being aware of these dangers. Here’s a list of threats to pay particular attention to:
- Hidden costs – As mentioned before, hidden fees can immediately lead to client dissatisfaction when it comes to outsourcing. Therefore, when you look forward to signing up for any outsourcing model, ensure a clear payment outline, a list of possible supplementary charges, and what services can have additional costs. Ensure that you investigate all the possibilities where the extra charges can or might be added.
- Trust and control – Businesses can foster trust by finding out as much as they can about the outsourcing personnel that they eagerly anticipate working with. Consider doing the same by speaking to their previous clients and ensuring they are comfortable with their vendor outsourcing methodology. With the help of these few simple steps, you’ll be able to establish clear communication, create a great sense of cooperation, and trust between the vendor and your company.
- Quality issues – Other than hidden costs, trust, and control, there can also be quality issues with outsourcing models. Working with vendors devoted to quality control with previous clients and projects can effectively eliminate the risk. Ensure that you sign up with someone with a comprehensive process to help you with quality issues.
5. Track the Outsourcing Progress
Make sure you have specified key performance indicators (KPIs) in place before you analyze the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing. With the help of these indicators, you will be able to analyze whether the outsourcing model you have chosen for your business is appropriate.
These performance indicators can vary widely. The criteria may consider things like employee performance, comparing outsourcing costs to interpretation, and creating specialized internal procedures with the intention of monitoring and reporting KPIs in the first place.
By simply analyzing the progress, or the lack of progress, of the outsourcing engagement model, a business can select and analyze if the outsourcing model can meet the business expectations.
Bring in Domain Knowledge and Gain Access to World Class Talent with Software Consulting
Give It a Shot!
Conclusion
Now that you have clarity and a better understanding of the extended team model, IT staff augmentation, and dedicated team, it’ll be easy to analyze your needs and determine which outsourcing model will work best for you.
A lengthy and difficult project calls for a dedicated team. Then a staff augmentation model is the best when it comes down to filling the gaps in professionals’ expertise in your teams, and an extended team model will help you with all of it.
, a leading software development outsourcing company, can help you with all three models. With our extended team’s help, you can access a pool of skilled developers who will work on your project. Our specialists are industry experts who first comprehend the requirements of your company. They can help you scale your team quickly, reduce costs, and easily enhance business efficiency. Take the first step towards realizing your ideal project by getting in touch with us if you need professional support in this area.