Technology has become the primary driver of innovation in all industries. Nearly half of global business leaders focus on improving operational efficiency while investing in innovation and growth. With the local talent pool shrinking, savvy tech leaders are looking for talent abroad.
Hiring a dedicated development team speeds up project implementation, access to the right skill sets, close operational alignment between vendor and client, and more. According to a McKinsey survey, 69% of companies have trouble hiring data engineers, 78% struggle to hire AI scientists, and 75% struggle to hire machine learning engineers.
In this context, the dedicated team model emerges as a solution, enabling businesses to tap into a global talent pool, bypass local market limitations, and, consequently, accelerate talent acquisition cycles. It leads to faster product development, a wider market reach, and greater revenue potential.
Key advantages of a dedicated engineering team
According to the State of Tech Staffing report, the top benefit of hiring a dedicated software development team, cited by the CTOs, is its ability to scale and resize the teams (42%), followed by time savings at 39%. Increased productivity and access to advanced technologies are also at the top.
Overall, the essential advantages of a dedicated engineering team include:
- Cost-efficiency: It's a cost-effective approach compared to maintaining an in-house team, as you only pay for the services and skills you need, avoiding overhead costs. This cost savings can be invested back into your core business activities.
- Flexibility: The size of your team can be scaled quickly based on project requirements, ensuring you have the right resources when needed. Adaptability allows you to respond swiftly to changing market demands.
- Access to specialized skills: Dedicated teams often consist of highly skilled engineers with expertise in various technologies, saving you the effort of recruiting and training such specialists in-house. Access to expert knowledge enhances your project's technical capabilities.
- Scalability: You can begin with a small team and gradually expand it as your project grows without the challenges of recruitment and onboarding. It allows you to scale your team precisely according to your project requirements.
- Focus on core competencies: By delegating development tasks to a dedicated team, your in-house team can concentrate on strategic activities and core competencies. Having a strategic focus enhances the performance of your business as a whole.
- Speed to market: Dedicated teams can accelerate development cycles, helping you bring products and solutions to market faster. As a result, you will have a competitive edge in rapidly evolving industries.
- Reduced risk: With a dedicated team, you share the development risk with the outsourcing partner, and their expertise can help mitigate potential issues. In this way, unexpected challenges are minimized.
- Quality assurance: Many dedicated teams follow best practices and quality standards, ensuring the delivery of high-quality software. Quality commitment helps prevent costly errors and enhances user satisfaction.
- Long-term partnership: Dedicated software engineering teams often foster long-term partnerships, where the team becomes deeply familiar with your business goals and processes, leading to more effective collaboration. It is this long-term commitment that contributes to the success and innovation of your project.
Read more: How to hire the best dedicated developers?
Finding out if your project requires a dedicated engineering team
Whether you're building a custom enterprise application, developing a mobile app, or launching a large-scale web platform, a dedicated team of experienced engineers can help you achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. Let’s look at the projects that most benefit from dedicated teams.
1. Complex software development
Projects that involve building complex software solutions, such as custom enterprise applications, mobile apps, or large-scale web platforms, can significantly benefit from dedicated teams. In the case of a large bank with over 260 branches, a dedicated engineering team provided by N-iX helped automate and streamline its SAP ERP testing processes. By implementing RPA bots powered by Automation Anywhere, the client achieved reduced maintenance costs and enhanced SAP testing automation accessibility for business users.
Read more: SAP automation in banking with RPA and Automation Anywhere
2. Long-term projects:
Dedicated engineering teams excel in long-term projects with evolving requirements. They become an extension of your in-house team, adapting to changes and ensuring project continuity. For example, Fluke Corporation needed better visibility into asset condition, ensuring high performance, customization, and scalability of Fluke solutions and seamless integration with CMMSs such as SAP, Emaint X4/X5, and IBM Maximo. A dedicated team improved the company’s asset maintenance, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced the performance of its products. It has also helped Fluke to achieve its goals of moving to SaaS and making its products cloud-oriented.
Read more: Long-term software development partnership with Fluke Corporation
3. Product development:
If you're developing a software product, a dedicated team can help you launch it faster and more efficiently. It focuses exclusively on your product, ensuring consistent progress. For instance, Schibsted, a media corporation, wanted to integrate its multiple websites, CMSs, and services into one platform and introduce new efficient technologies. A team of engineers redesigned and migrated four different websites into one, including database migration. Several technologies were used to migrate all the supported products to a newly created environment, including AWS, Redis, Kubernetes, Nginx, Jenkins, and GIT. While introducing new features to production, the team upgraded existing functionality (migrating from Angular to React JS).
Read more: Software Product Development for Schibsted - Media Corporation
4. Projects that require unique expertise:
Projects that involve cutting-edge technologies, intricate integrations, or complex technical problems are ideal for dedicated teams. Experienced development teams can handle any challenge, from building custom AI algorithms to developing software for process automation and industrial robotics.
5. Continuous development and maintenance:
When your software product or application requires ongoing development, updates, and maintenance, a dedicated team can provide consistent support and improvements. Continuous support and maintenance services can keep your product up-to-date and integrate new features.
Choosing a dedicated development team provider: what to look for
Evaluating a dedicated development team provider is a critical step in ensuring the success of your project. Here are vital factors to consider when making this evaluation:
Provider's track record and expertise:
- Experience and expertise: Finding a provider with a solid track record of delivering successful projects in your industry or domain is essential. Experience often correlates with expertise and reliability.
- Team composition: The provider's ability to assemble a team tailored to your project is one of the most important factors to consider. Verify that the team members have the necessary technical skills and experience.
- Portfolio and client references: Reviewing the provider's portfolio of completed projects is helpful. This allows you to assess the quality of their work, project diversity, and alignment with your project's scope and complexity. Getting client references or case studies gives you an idea of the provider's past performance.
Effective collaboration and operations:
- Project management: Your partner should have established processes for project planning, execution, monitoring, and reporting. Project progress, costs, and timelines should be transparently communicated.
- Quality assurance: Ask about the provider's quality assurance and testing policies. Quality software development practices help prevent issues and ensure a reliable end product.
- Security measures: Data security is critical. Ensure the provider follows industry-standard security practices to protect your project and sensitive information.
Long-term partnership and adaptability:
- Scalability and flexibility: A flexible approach is crucial for projects with evolving needs. Consider whether the vendor can scale the dedicated team up or down according to your project's changing needs. Scalability is essential for long-term projects.
- Legal compliance: Verifying the service provider's compliance with local and international law can be vital. The company's operations must adhere to data protection and labour laws.
- Exit strategy: Discuss the provider's exit strategy in case the partnership needs to be terminated. Ensure a smooth transition of project assets and knowledge.
Read more: Where to hire a dedicated development team: Poland vs Ukraine
Setting up a dedicated engineering team: a step-by-step guide
According to the State of Tech Staffing report, recruiting one software developer takes an average of 7.5 weeks, and 68% of companies say it takes more than a month. Therefore, hiring a dedicated software engineering team is the best solution to reduce the time it takes to recruit developers and to protect you if they don't work out.
The typical timeline for setting up a dedicated development team and getting started on a project can vary depending on several elements, such as the size and complexity of the project, the availability of qualified team members, and the onboarding process of the dedicated team provider. However, a general timeline might look something like this:
Week 1-2:
- Initial consultation: Go over your project requirements with the dedicated team provider.
- Team selection: The dedicated team provider will work with you to select a team of qualified professionals with the skills and experience necessary for your project.
- Contract negotiation: Negotiate and sign a contract with the dedicated team provider.
Week 3-4:
- Team onboarding: The dedicated team provider will onboard the team members and introduce them to your project.
- Project kickoff: The dedicated team will meet with you to discuss the project in detail, including the requirements, goals, and timeline.
Week 5-6 and further on:
- Project planning: The dedicated team will work with you to develop a detailed project plan, including milestones, deliverables, and budget.
- Development begins: The dedicated team will begin development work on your project.
- Regular check-ins: You will meet with the dedicated team regularly to discuss progress, review deliverables, and provide feedback.
- Project completion: The dedicated team will complete the project according to the agreed-upon timeline and budget.
Usually, it takes 4-6 weeks to set up a dedicated development team and get started on your project. However, it is important to note that this timeline is just an estimate. Based on the factors listed above, the timeline may vary.
To speed up the process of setting up a dedicated development team and getting started, keep these tips in mind:
- Have a clear and concise project requirements document prepared.
- Discuss your project in detail during the initial consultation with the dedicated team provider.
- Be flexible with your timeline and budget expectations.
- Work closely with the dedicated team provider to streamline the onboarding process.
- Communicate regularly with your dedicated team.
With these recommendations, you can ensure your project is completed within budget and on time.
Wrap-up
The dedicated team model in software development is a popular choice for businesses of all sizes looking to accelerate their development process and deliver high-quality products to market faster. By partnering with a dedicated software development team, you can gain a competitive advantage, focus on your core competencies, reduce costs, improve quality, and scale your development operations quickly and efficiently. As a result, you will be able to reach your business goals faster and more efficiently.
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