As of August 2021, the US labor market struggles to fill in over 105K software developer vacancies. Average staffing time now is 12 weeks. As a result, the situation on the market becomes even more heated.
Finding the needed professionals on-site becomes a challenge. So, many companies, such as Microsoft, TuneIn, Lebara, Google, Skype, Slack, and others opt for staff augmentation.
Why do you need staff augmentation outsourcing?
Staff augmentation offers a wide array of benefits. They include a predictable budget, delegating administrative, and other operational tasks. Now, let’s view other reasons why you need offshore or nearshore staff augmentation.
1. To scale your team more easily
One of the most significant benefits of this type of outsourcing is the ability to grow the engineering capabilities faster than with other outsourcing models. Trusted vendors have a vast internal talent pool, so they can help you quickly scale your team. What’s more, reliable providers of IT staff augmentation have strong recruitment departments on board, which also helps to find required engineers promptly.
2. To innovate
Staff augmentation outsourcing allows you to tap into new technologies. Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence - you name it. However, these services are often costly and require much time and resources to implement.
At the same time, vendors that offer information technology staff augmentation services usually have versatile expertise. Also, established providers have experience in many different technologies. So, it is easier to adopt new technologies with a trusted vendor by your side.
3. To have control over product development
Staff augmentation outsourcing allows you to choose the level of control you have over your project. You can either keep maximum control over product development or entrust all engineering processes to your vendor.
Thus, information technology staff augmentation provides flexibility. You can change the project scope, which allows you to adapt to the emerging market trends. You can control the team, track the working process, assign tasks, and monitor progress. At the same time, you can delegate all this to your vendor.
4. To access engineering talent around the world
Many businesses struggle to find the required talent for their project in their local markets. However, if you go for offshore or nearshore staff augmentation, this challenge gets a lot more manageable. One of the most popular outsourcing destinations - Eastern Europe - houses over 1M software engineers.
But what are the best destinations for information technology staff augmentation? Let’s find out.
Offshore and nearshore staff augmentation destinations
Whether the destination is offshore or nearshore depends on your current location. So, we gathered the top destinations from Eastern Europe and Asia to help you choose. We have assessed the talent pool, price-quality ratio, cultural proximity, and other factors that make these countries the best for staff augmentation outsourcing.
Staff augmentation in Ukraine
Ukraine is home to an extensive talent pool of more than 200,000 software engineers. The lion’s share of these professionals live in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro.
Ukrainian software developers are often recognized for their skills. For example, SkillValue places Ukrainian programmers 5th among the most skilled. The HackerRank recognizes Ukraine first in the field ‘Security.’ TopCoder lists Ukrainian developers as 6th most skilled across the globe. Also, nine Ukrainian computer science Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are recognized by Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The country also boasts a constant talent inflow, as local educational institutions graduate 39,000 engineering and computer science students every year.
What’s more, Ukrainian developers have a European mindset: they are open, tolerant, and decisive.
Software development staff augmentation in Poland
295,000 software developers reside in Poland. However, 40% of them are unavailable for information technology staff augmentation due to their work in the BPM sector.
The vast majority of Polish software engineers live and work in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Tri-City, Katowice, Wroclaw, and Rzeszow.
Polish experts are also widely recognized for their skills. For example, they ranked 5th most skilled in the world, according to TopCoder, and third as stated by SkillValue.
IT staff augmentation in Romania
Romanian providers of software development staff augmentation employ around 120,000 professional developers. The vast majority of these professionals reside in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, and Iasi.
The local labor market experiences constant talent inflow due to strong tech education. Romania is home to 41 computer science HEIs. These institutions graduate 7,500 computer science students each year. Also, Romanian professionals boast a high English proficiency level, as stated by the EF English Proficiency Index.
Information technology staff augmentation services in India
India houses more than 5M software developers. Indian programmers have made it to the top 10 most skilled professionals worldwide, according to the ranking by TopCoder. SkillValue ranks them 35th most skilled across the globe.
Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi are home to the lion’s share of Indian developers.
When it comes to education, there are 58 trusted HEIs in India, according to the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.
Working with IT specialists from India can be quite a challenge due to the cultural differences in how they do business. In this country, people avoid challenging anyone in a more senior position than themselves. This may lead to miscommunication and some unresolved issues.
Best practices to benefit from staff augmentation outsourcing
Find a vendor with high security standards
When it comes to intellectual property and infosecurity, you cannot underestimate the security issues. Your provider of information technology staff augmentation services must comply with international security standards, including ISO, PCI, etc. Also, make sure that your vendor dedicates enough attention to educating its employees and establishing an efficient security policy.
Opt for a partner that offers different cooperation models
Apart from staff augmentation, there are other cooperation models you can benefit from. For instance, a managed team and custom solution development. Each of these models has its peculiarities, so they work for different purposes.
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Extended team or staff augmentation
If you choose the extended team model, you get extra development capacity and expand your existing team. With this model, you have the most significant share of responsibility. You manage a team yourself, and you are in charge of product development. The extended team model is more flexible, as everything is done in accordance to your business requirements.
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Managed team
In this case, together with your vendor, you build a core development team. If you select the managed team you delegate part of your product development to a separate engineering team integrated with your delivery organization. In this case you communicate with developers and the project manager, who is responsible for the team management and executes day-to-day technical guidance of the team. Additionally, you discuss the team state and its achievements during quarterly business reviews.
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Custom solution development
Going for a custom solution development model allows you to solve your business issue with an end-to-end tech solution. Together with your vendor, you discuss roadmap progress updates, the project budget, its major milestones, and releases during quarterly business reviews.
So, the model you choose for software development staff augmentation depends primarily on how much control you want to have over the development process, team management, and the final product.
Sign a solid contract
Signing a contract is a critical aspect of IT outsourcing. The contract heavily depends on the type of cooperation model you choose. A poorly assembled contract may affect your business. It may lead to unexpected bills, loss of control over the quality, and other risks. To avoid such threats, both parties should thoroughly negotiate an agreement with particular attention to payment terms, liability, notice periods, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, non-solicitation terms, the governing laws, and a forum for dispute resolution.
Information technology staff augmentation: success stories
1. WEINMANN Emergency
WEINMANN Emergency is a Germany-based medical technology company that develops equipment used in emergency medical services, hospitals, and military medical corps. The company needed to bring new products to market faster and make sure they comply with medical regulations.
Together with N-iX professionals, our client sped up the process of software development and released a product that complies with all industry and security standards required.
2. cleverbridge
cleverbridge provides full-fledged e-commerce and subscription management solutions for monetizing digital goods, online services, and SaaS. The client partnered with N-iX to redesign their solution in order to boost customer outreach and enhance customer experience.
Our experts have helped cleverbridge migrate the desktop solution to the web, build brand-new UX design, and improve their value proposition to clients by designing lucid BI reports. With a new web-based application that is available across different operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices and improved UX design, our customer is now able to expand market reach and enhance customer retention.
Wrap-up
Staff augmentation outsourcing can solve a lot of challenges for your business. For instance, scaling up, growing your development capabilities, and adopting innovations faster are easy if you go for staff augmentation.
However, to benefit from information technology staff augmentation services, you have to consider many factors.
It is critical to define the most suitable location for your augmented team and assess the vendor’s security expertise. What is more, the vendor should have enough capacity to satisfy your growth needs and attract even the most scarce talent.
Why choose N-iX for staff augmentation outsourcing?
- N-iX is one of the biggest IT outsourcing companies in Europe that has 2,200+ tech professionals on board;
- Over the years, we have helped dozens of US, UK, and European clients expand their teams and even build dedicated development centers.
- The company has 21 years of experience in the global IT market, and staff augmentation is one of our essential services;
- N-iX has a strong internal recruitment team of 70+ professionals that can help you find the best experts for your project;
- N-iX has a strong employer brand to attract the best talent on the market;
- N-iX has been recognized among top employers by EY Ukraine.
