Staff Augmentation vs Managed Services: Pros, Cons, & Which One to Choose

Are you at the crossroads for making decisions that resonate with your organization’s growth and values? It is indeed challenging and changing customer demands, behavior, and expectations make it scrambling. To beat this competition and stay ahead nothing less than the best is helpful. In such cases, technological adaptation works the best.

To meet these demands, nowadays, some companies look staff augmentation, while many prefer managed IT services. Though both approaches are good, their suitability depends on the scope of the projects.

Staff augmentation can bring positive results when you want to focus on different responsibilities together. On the other hand, managed services work when you want to focus on the root problem and want a solution that works according to your idea. But which one is good?

Staff augmentation vs managed services has been debatable. This is a detailed guide as both options have similarities, pros, and cons at different levels.

Let’s start by understanding and deciding if staff augmentation or managed services is right for you- or perhaps both.

What is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation involves filling the talent gap in the company by hiring highly skilled individuals to fulfill a goal. Usually, it is not a permanent position as it is required for a particular task with a niche talent. It allows the company to control its projects & its internal process while having access to additional talent.

For instance, if a telecommunication company is launching a new service that requires creating a dedicated app. Staff augmentation will let them hire a dedicated application developer for that project.

This is just an example, the same applies to multiple job roles, companies, and project requirements. Such scenarios are perfect when businesses want to maintain control over their short-term projects. Staff augmentation is one business model in which enterprises outsource IT support to software development companies. With it, businesses were able to process

Advantages of Staff Augmentation

Better control

Staff augmentation provides the project managers with a holistic view for better control over the development process. It allows tracking project timelines, updates, and assigned individuals for crucial and regular tasks.

Cost Effective

When it comes to having role experts, hiring them full-time can prove expensive for businesses. Staff augmentation avoids that situation by hiring developers depending on project requirements or for a shorter period.

Quickly Adaptable

The beauty of staff augmentation is its adaptability. It allows companies to take action with the market changes and project demands just in time. The major demand shift in the industry was post-COVID by 132.5 billion companies from 92.2 billion.

Control over Attrition

Efforts of companies go in vain when after spending time, resources & money the individual joins a different organization. The cycle goes on, losing significant time for the project. On the contrary, staff augmentation avoids the chaos of staffing needs by hiring people temporarily.

Disadvantages of Staff Augmentation

1. As the recruited staff is temporary, orienting new professionals with operating procedures, processes, workflow, and company culture can take a lot of time.
2. If the professionals are joining in the middle of the project, additional time & staff are required for training & educating them on it.
3. There can be instances of discomfort between the augmented staff & in-house team if work ethics and communication processes are not airtight.

What are Managed Services?

Unlike an in-house team, managed services providers, or MSPs, are third-party resources. You hire a team of experts and delegate tasks to fulfill the IT needs. Managed service providers can be hired for tasks like maintaining servers or fixing PC issues to develop solutions for complex projects.

Having managed service providers can save up to 24% of IT costs while it may go higher depending upon the delegation. In a managed service model, services are outsourced to an MSP followed by a contract which includes KPIs with service level agreements and how they will measure performance metrics. Also, when companies outsource IT needs, tracking expenses is much easier. Thus it is an optimal option for a longer run.

This cost-effective model allows propelling business by focusing on other important competencies.

Pros of Managed Services

Access to top talent

Instead of putting an in-house team, the company can access an existing team of experts to work on their project & start immediately with the choice of tools and technologies.

Dedicated project management

You get a dedicated project manager who acts as an overseer to manage the project and adapt changes according to the client’s expectations.  Their holistic view is very helpful in identifying bottlenecks and ensuring smooth task completion while saving time.

Cost-effective

Managed services are the most cost-effective solution out of all. You can hire an entire team of experts with the required technology and resources to complete your project at a minimal cost.

No training required

When it comes to deliverables to stay on track with utmost quality, you have a fully experienced team to work for you. In the cost of hiring a dedicated employee & providing timely training to them, the managed services are a wholesome package operating independently yet delivering out-of-the-box results.

Cons of Managed Services

1. When hiring a managed service provider, you need to provide briefs over and over with thorough project specifications. There are chances that failure in brief can lead to rework and constant modifications.
2. As the entire project is outsourced, communication with the MSP team can lack having your active role in the project. Though, regular meetings are scheduled, addressing issues and errors may not happen promptly.
3. Relying on an external provider means your organization becomes dependent on their services. If the agency goes out of service or their operations are affected it may affect your project.

How to Choose the right model

Choosing either of the above models depends on your requirements. Let’s say, that you are looking for software development. Map your plan on the following options.

1. Duration: Staff augmentation is a great fit if it is a short project and your project can be over in less than 6 months. You get highly skilled talent that can quickly boost your company. However, if your project is likely to take more time then a dedicated team is ideally provided by full outsourcing. It will provide continuous support and management.
2. Cost Considerations: Saving costs is not the only matter you should look into. You also need to consider how well your team is trained and how they can work effectively to meet the project requirements. Let’s say you need a mobile app that might take 6 months to develop. Now if you have a small team but need extra developers to meet deadlines, staff augmentation could be perfect here. You bring in skilled developers for the specific tasks without the long-term commitment. However, if your app involves handling sensitive user data, you’ll need to ensure strict confidentiality agreements are in place.

But if your team lacks all the required skills, you can get it outsourced to implement all required features in it and then hire an expert individual to maintain its quality.

To sum it up, whether you go with staff augmentation or another model depends on your project’s timeline, data privacy needs, and overall cost considerations. It’s about finding the right balance between flexibility, security, and budget for your specific situation. We at Samyak Infotech offer you both services to help you find zen while creating digital wonders for your products and services.