As with time, the tradition of hiring candidates is changing, and companies are acquiring new ways or alternatives of hiring candidates. The demand for IT experts is very high, and it isn't easy to find them. Instead of doing all the hiring process, companies go for Staff augmentation or IT consulting services, and it also saves a lot of the company's cost. Which one is better?

According to Statista, In 2020, the global consulting market was forecasted at around 132 billion U.S. dollars. But because of the outbreak of COVID-19, the figure got decreased compared to last year. 

Both these techniques give almost the same results, so the question arises which approach is better and how? This blog will look after every possible aspect of IT staff augmentation and IT consulting services with their advantages and disadvantages. Stay hooked with it and find out what will be convenient for your business to go for. 

 

Let’s start with IT Staff Augmentation:

 

IT Staff Augmentation: 

IT staff augmentation is just a process in which the companies add "temporary" employees to their existing employees with different skill-set as per the client's need. This technique is comparatively new and introduced to fulfill the gaps of project-managed services. 

IT staff augmentation has several benefits: 

Less expensive                                                                                                                             

When companies hire anyone, they spend good money on hiring and training, so to neglect all the costs, the company directly hires employees from a third party and pays only for the given work. 

Flexibility

In today's hostile and competitive business environment, businesses need the flexibility to stay relevant and grow. Staff augmentation helps companies to expand their portfolios to non-core services and take on board an expert staff to complement the in-house team. This gives companies the flexibility and agility required to remain relevant in the industry.

Lower risk

Hiring IT consulting firms is not always best for data-sensitive projects like software development and others. Furthermore, outsourcing your work to a consulting agency can also cause losing control of project monitoring and status. 

On the other hand, hiring a temporary staff on-board would help reduce risks involved in data and identity thefts. In contrast, you can also monitor each and every aspect of the project till the end.                                

Control

With the help of expert staff on-board taking complete control of the project, the project manager has more control and capacity to manage essential aspects of the project and assure timely completion of the project. 

Counteracting Attribution

In the IT department, the possibility of an employee switching the job to another company is relatively high, and it causes the current company a lot of trouble in finding good talent for their company. In this case scenario, IT staff augmentation plays a crucial role, as you can hire a talented employee without any delay. 

Now with these amazing advantages, IT staff augmentation also possess few disadvantages: 

Training is required: 

Training is always required for the new staff since they are integrated into your company's processes. It is necessary to translate business rules and familiarize the team members with the current working methods that would mainly differ from the experience they had in previous projects. 

Integration with Team 

Integrating the new staff in the company isn't the simplest of the feat to achieve. Bringing outsiders to an existing team always comes with bumps. It takes time between the new staff and your current employees to adjust to the unique setting, affecting the project execution speed and efficiency for some time. 

As I have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of IT staff augmentation, Now, let's quickly move to some advantages and disadvantages of IT consulting companies before going to a conclusion. 

IT Consulting Services

IT consulting services are also termed "Managed services." These ae very dynamic services that include external monitoring of a company's non-profile network. Although you will still get the same experienced developers working on the project you chose, consulting services are specifically the opposite of Staff Augmentation. And in this process, there is no need for IT, HR, or any other department involvement.                      

Advantages of IT consulting firms

Time-Saving

Perhaps the fundamental purpose of hiring IT consulting firms is to save time. When you don't have much time to do some urgent project, and the deadline is near, you can always count on IT consulting companies. Their highly experienced developers can do the work pretty easily and quickly within budgetary constraints. 

Cost-Effectiveness

Most companies or businesses search out for consulting services to outsource non-IT aspects like financial management or marketing. That means you don't need to on-board full-time employees or build an in-house team to complete all the tasks, which will take vital resources. 

Consulting companies have all the resources with them, and they also offer the services at a very reasonable price, making them more financially practical than going for the in-house team. 

Project Assurance

While every project is crucial for the business's sustainability and growth, there are projects where failure isn't an option altogether. For those projects, there are no excuses, and satisfaction isn't an option, and you need the top talent or experts that have the best understanding of the right tools and technologies to make the project unique or unforgettable without any glitches. Consulting services help in giving all these benefits. 

Let's jump to some disadvantages of IT consulting services: 

 Expensive

Comparatively, to staff augmentation, IT consulting services are expensive. It means that if you are working with a low-budget project, you may need to rethink your choice of getting a consulting agency on board. Being consulting services is expensive because it offers its own resources, bringing a range of expertise to crack the project for you, and that's not the case with staff augmentation. That is why you need to pay more to IT consulting services rather than IT Staff Augmentation. 

 

Time boundation

 

When collaborating with a project-based IT consulting firm, their experts work on an hourly basis. This means they may not return to questions right away because they may be busy on numerous tasks simultaneously. 

Factors affecting IT Staff augmentation and IT consulting services

Some companies are very comfortable going for consulting services, while others look to hire in-house experts as IT staff augmentation services.  

These things depend upon several aspects like: 

  • Your budget/ Analyze the budget
  • Your Team/Experts
  • Do some research on the consulting company if you are opting to go for it. 

Wrapping UP

The choice between IT Staff Augmentation VS IT consulting services lies totally on the type of your projects and your preferences. With the help of the advantages and disadvantages listed above, you can easily calculate which of these services will be suitable for you and how you can capitalize on it. 

In my opinion, IT staff augmentation can be the better option to go for if you want to save some extra cost and want to see the work under your eye. Whereas in the case of IT consulting services, it can be good for you if you have an extra budget and have trust in a third-party vendor.

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