Staff Augmentation vs. Consulting Services – Which is better for you?

So, you’ve decided to create a software or application. But where do you even begin? Perhaps you’re not inclined to tackle the daunting challenge of assembling an internal team. Two of the most widely used approaches for software development are staff augmentation services and project-based consulting. Thus, the question arises: which is the better fit for you – staff augmentation or project-based consulting?

What is staff augmentation?

Staff augmentation is similar to an outsourcing strategy for staffing a project to meet business goals.  It is a model that consists of assessing current personnel and evaluating which additional plans are necessary. Staff augmentation is the utilization of outside staff on a contractual basis to increase your organization’s capability. The main difference is that, unlike standard recruiting, staff augmentation involves only short-term assets, similar to outsourcing. 

Pros & Cons of Staff augmentation

Staff augmentation has a significant number of benefits. These are listed below.

Pros of Staff Augmentation:

1.  Staff augmentation to complete a project is cost-effective since you are only paying the staff temporarily until the job is complete. You also save time and resources on in-house staff development and production.
2. An augmented staffing model is perfect when there is a need to handle and staff needed resources, So staff augmentation aids in staff control.
3. Even businesses benefit from staff augmentation because they can recruit the requisite specialist staff to support their in-house team on any project, not just the current project.
4. With staff augmentation, you get your project done with more efficiency. You get experienced developers working in your company at your liked times and on your selected tasks. You have direct access to them if anything goes wrong, and they will come up with instant feedback.
5. Internal workers can find an augmented staff model less risky than an outsourcing model. It means that supplementing current workforces with a few people is riskier than outsourcing whole projects.

It’s critical to choose the right staff augmentation service provider for your needs. Although staff augmentation has many advantages, it has some disadvantages too.

Cons of Staff Augmentation:

1. Even if you are hiring staff for a temporary purpose, they would need workspace and equipment like desks, computers, employee badges, etc., which will increase the company’s expense.
2. In terms of costs, hourly rates for staff augmentation are often higher than project-based consulting.
3. In order to improve company processes, tools, and ethics there is often a need for training in resource management. Furthermore, training a new professional can result in management overhead.

When to choose staff augmentation?

There are lots of situations where staff augmentation can come in handy. Suppose you already have a team of software engineers working on a significant project. Still, you want to expand your team to include more programmers to work on another product unit. You now need to recruit 5-15 tech experts, but this is impractical due to a shortage of local talent in the organization. You know that local recruiting will take a long time and is not currently feasible. Such a situation is one of many examples where staff augmentation will be beneficial. 

In other circumstances, you are working with a team to produce high-end products. However, your organization is always having trouble finding the right talent, and you might have even hired several people that did not turn out to be worthy. Now  You’ve decided to recruit people from other countries or places.  Augmenting a staff is a perfect solution for this scenario.

What are consulting services?

Consulting services, also referred to as ‘managed services,’ are permanent supervision, feedback, and a high degree of organizational adaptation. These are very dynamic services that include external monitoring of a company’s non-profile network. Although you still get the same experienced developers working on the project you chose, consulting services are precisely the opposite of staff augmentation. There is no need for HR, IT, or any other department to be involved.

Pros and cons of consulting services

Similar to staff augmentation, there are both advantages and disadvantages of consulting services. Below are some of the benefits of consulting services.

Pros of Consulting Services:

1. Since the developers do not necessarily have to visit the office and can operate from their home, there is no need to have desks or equipment. This means fewer expenses will make the work done.

2. The first and key advantage of consulting services is to save the time of the clients. Making resources available would relieve the client company of additional time and financial risks.
3. The consulting services are also accountable for the management process by taking full responsibility for the execution, which helps manage the infrastructures.
4. Security risks and cyber-attacks happen at any moment. So,  Consulting services provide constant monitoring to avoid any risks and threats before they cause damage or result in a lengthy server or network failure.
5. When you choose an IT consulting service, you employ an entire team with an in-depth knowledge of the company’s needs and requirements. Any well-known IT consulting company employs professional IT developers who are trained in various IT domains. Their expertise will ensure that the project uses the new and most efficient technologies on the market.

You need Enterprise IT Consulting’s assistance in resolving these concerns. Although project-based consulting provides many unique advantages, there are still some drawbacks.

Cons of Consulting Services:

1. When collaborating with a project-based consulting firm, their developers work on the hours of their company. This means they may not respond to questions right away because they may be busy on several tasks simultaneously.
2. IT consulting means making suggestions for your company. This usually involves the type of technology your company uses, which has a significant impact on upgrades. You may be required to invest in newer technologies to keep up with the rest of your environment’s technology.
3. Consulting services could increase short-term expenses because many IT consultants charge based on the number of hours worked. Still, there are others you can rely on, particularly if you already have a relationship with them.

When to choose consulting services?

You can’t accurately predict what kind of external help you need without first conducting a thorough review of the current team. Before collaborating with consulting service, you must first understand the strengths and limitations of your existing unit. When deciding on consulting services, the budget you have for your project will play a role. You’ll need to know how much money you’ll need to invest so you can figure out whether you’ll be able to get the funding you’ll need to complete your project. You have to take a look at these scenarios before choosing any consulting services.

Conclusion

It would be instrumental in becoming acquainted with both the staff augmentation and consulting industries. It indicates that you are familiar with the consulting market’s available talent and whether it is sufficient to meet your needs. If you and your company are comfortable working with remote staff and holding meetings using video conferencing tools, project-based consulting will save you high costs. Otherwise,  Staff augmentation is a perfect choice if you have all of your staff in-house or if you need to expand your current team.

If you have found this information useful, we recommend that you also consider reading about the differences between IT Consulting and Managed IT Services.