With the growing success of startups, companies have been hiring new people to fulfill their extra workforce needs. But the question rises what is better, team augmentation or outsourcing?
There is no correct or wrong answer, it all depends on the company’s plan and budget. This short article will look at the difference between Staff Augmentation and Outsourcing and weigh the Pros and Cons of each choice.
Staff Augmentation vs. Outsourcing: What do they mean?
In Staff Augmentation, the company hires staff to the team based on the additional skills required for the project. Augmented staff may join the team at various stages of the development, and they aim to use their skill set to fill the gaps within the organization and move the project forward.
With specialist outsourcing, the company can execute the entire project with another company's resources. In project outsourcing, the outsourcing company will manage the project and be accountable for the performance and results.
Which is better: Staff Augmentation or Outsourcing?
Determining which strategy to go for depends on your current company’s status and the internal projects your company will execute.
If your in-house team can't fulfill the project's requirements and you need some extra skills that your virtual team doesn't have, then staff augmentation will be the preferred option.
On the other hand, outsourcing will work better if you do not have enough hands in the team and need help building and managing the team.
To help you better compare Staff Augmentation and Outsourcing, we put together this table to assist you in determining which way can better grow the company.
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Team augmentation
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Outsourcing
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Cost
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- Higher management costs.
- Greater training costs.
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- Decreased management costs.
- Your outsourcing provider manages the talent.
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Purpose
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- To complete skills your team doesn’t have or build a specialized tech team.
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- To carry out specific projects or to build and manage a specialized tech team.
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Work Structure and Management
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- More control over the project.
- Great flexibility when it comes to scaling up or scaling down the team.
- Can quickly fill in-house skill gaps with outside talent.
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- The project management is handled by the outsourcing company.
- Does not distract focus from core business needs.
- Scales more easily.
- Less control over the project.
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Onboarding
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- Require more training.
- Better integration with internal processes.
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- Require less training. The outsourcing provider will take care of management.
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Depending on your software development needs, company goals, project lifetime, and budget, you might end up selecting staff augmentation, outsourcing, or maybe a hybrid route to implement both models. The best course of action is to choose an experienced vendor to help you meet your present staffing challenges and make your company run as efficiently as possible. If you want assistance and consulting to see which of these models is better for you, we’re here to help. At Axented we help tech companies build, scale, and manage their remote teams.