Staff Augmentation Services are one of today’s business trends, simply explained it basically involves having outsourced personnel working on a specific project or temporarily with the purpose of “augmenting” or increasing the capacity of your organization.
In todays’ business climate companies have to be extra careful on how they grow and how they invest their resources. Sometimes, specially when it comes to technology, it can be hard for companies to keep up and compete, and the need of increasing capacity rapidly to respond to demands can put businesses in a rough position; this is precisely when solutions such as staff augmentation services come in handy, allowing the business to respond to the demand while maintaining the costs in check and having time to analyze a decision to hire as opposed to just reacting and ending up with higher overhead.
There are different scenarios in which a company can benefit from staff augmentation services.
For Instance:
- To increase capacity: as we mentioned above, companies need to have the capacity to respond to a specific demand quickly, whether it involves taking on a new project, because the business is seasonal, there are spikes in customer demand, or because a particular expertise is required, being able to get that additional specialized help quickly through staff augmentation services makes sense and it’s cost effective; going though a hiring process is not always an option and involves a long-term commitment.
- Specialized skills: often companies take on projects that require experts in extremely specific fields, personnel that is hard to find and expensive to hire specially when considering that their skill set may be needed only for occasional contracts. Staff augmentation provides access to professional personnel, filling up the gap in a team and at the same time eliminating the hassle of hiring, training, etc.
- Strategy: resorting to staff augmentation can give a company a competitive advantage, it helps companies be more flexible and adaptable, many businesses can also choose staff augmentation to increase speed to market. It is also a great option for companies in a transition period that need to increase their capacity permanently but need time to analyze the best way to approach the growth and their true business needs.
- Savings: staff augmentation does not just translate into financial savings that involve payroll, benefits and all the costs of having someone as a full time, in house employee, but it also eliminates the time spent in administrative functions such as the hiring process and dealing with personnel.
- Focused unbiased addition to the team: the outsourced personnel knows they are hired to do a job and they must meet deadlines set, this means that their focus is the success of the project they are working on and they will provide an objective and unbiased approach that is not tainted by internal company policies.
How to choose the right company for your staff augmentation needs?
If you have made up your mind and have decided to hire a company for your staff augmentation needs, you are probably wondering how you go about choosing the right company.
Obviously price is always an important indicator when choosing service providers of any type, but in this particular case, the company’s expertise, their knowledge of the market, their reputation and even cultural compatibility are aspects you must take into consideration.
If your company is located in the United States or Canada, you might be tempted to search for an offshore technology company that offers staff augmentation services in countries like India where the price point is very attractive, however, you must consider that this brings along strong barriers such as language, culture, time zones and distance.
If you want to save some money but at the same time get quality that compares or is the same as that offered by a US company, and also feel secure and comfortable that the company you are hiring is just a short flight away and in a similar time zone, technology companies located in Costa Rica are certainly the way to go.
Costa Rica is known for its political and economic stability and for the quality of its professionals, many of which are trained in the United States and speak good English.
Companies such as ExcelSoftSources.com are recognized for their experience dealing with international clients and have a great reputation, work ethic and the capacity to scale a team, their development staff is located in San Jose, Costa Rica but the company is headquartered in St. Paul, MN.
It is important that you feel comfortable working with the service provider of your choosing, transparency and good communication is key to build a strong relationship between you and your staff augmentation partner. The staffing company should always be able to provide clear information on pricing and a detailed description of their responsibilities.
Summarizing:
Staff augmentation services can be a great outsourcing business strategy that can help a company bring down costs, while at the same time responding to different business goals. When choosing a staff augmentation services company, offshore companies can be a cost-effective alternative if you find the most suitable outsourcing destination, choose a company that can work during your business hours, and that can offer the level of service and expertise you require to ensure a smooth partnership and integration.
