What is The Difference Between Staff Augmentation
and Managed Services?
Growing your business in an increasingly competitive environment with ongoing issues caused by the pandemic is a huge challenge facing many small to medium-sized businesses.
The likes of software development, digital marketing and mobile device management require technical expertise which is either not available to many businesses or simply too expensive to acquire in-house. Two of the popular solutions to this problem are staff augmentation and managed services.
Here we explain the difference between staff augmentation and managed services and explain the pros and cons of both.
The Difference Between Staff Augmentation and Managed Services
Staff augmentation involves the temporary hiring of a staff member or staff members to complete a particular task or tasks. These temporary staff members will be available to hire through a nearshore or offshore outsourcing firm and will work remotely. They will have certain skills and knowledge that the hiring company do not have in-house, and their temporary hiring saves the hiring firm from recruiting and investing in permanent hires.
While an individual or a team employed via staff augmentation is not a permanent employee, they will still be fully integrated into the internal team. Staff augmentation is an ideal way to meet the immediate needs of your company in terms of skill sets, but with a minimum amount of fuss, time and energy spent. The cost savings are also significant, with the hiring firm able to pay only for the work completed on a particular project rather than committing to a permanent hire whose specialized skill set may not always be required.
Managed services involves transferring control over business management systems from one company to a different outsourced company. This includes monitoring and control of resources, with all management responsibilities delegated to the outsourced company.
It is a more complete solution than staff augmentation, but both have their advantages and disadvantages, so below we highlight the pros and cons of both.
Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation
The pros of staff augmentation outweigh the cons considerably. First of all you can massively reduce the time it takes to hire staff to undertake a project. It also affords the hiring firm a lot of flexibility with regards to what skill sets they can call upon at various points in a project. One big advantage that staff augmentation has over managed services is that internal project managers can maintain control over the project and the work being undertaken.
The cons of staff augmentation involve the hiring firm needing to take responsibility for each step of the project, with the final result a direct reflection of their instruction and guidance.
Pros and Cons of Managed Services
The big pro of managed services is the freeing-up of time for internal staff. With full responsibility for a project handed over, internal staff can focus on others aspects of growing the business.
The major cons of managed services involve the higher costs incurred, and the greater reliance on the competence of the outsourced vendor. With no control until the final result, it is crucial to find a reliable vendor.
If you would like to find out more about our professional staff augmentation services, please contact our team on +1 800 974 7219 ext. 202.
Alternatively, complete the online form here and a member of our team will contact you.