In today’s environment of massively digitalized and automated business processes, operations, and workflows, having a reliable team of technical experts is a necessity for organizations in any industry.
Rapid corporate development and growth, escalating workloads, and rising client demands often prompt the need for companies to quickly build a new software development team or scale their existing in-house IT teams. And this is the point at which many business organizations start facing challenges.
How To Build an IT Team or Scale Up Fast: Speed and Quality
When pressured by newly-emerging technical needs, growing requirements, and short deadlines, figuring out how to build an IT team or scale up fast is important. But you should never sacrifice quality for speed.
It’s essential to start by looking for experienced IT outsourcing services companies that offer prime service quality along with highly engaged IT resources that actually solve problems. When faced with the challenge of expanding your current IT human resource capacity or creating an external team, your best resource is a company that can offer these services. You need an ally that will help you serve your technical needs and meet your business goals.
Flexibility and reduced cost are the key advantages of this type of business. These benefits allow you to add and cut human resources whenever you need to, without being limited by legal considerations. In this way, you not only pay less for the outsourced resources, but also reduce expenses within your in-house HR department by avoiding insurance, benefits, and office space costs.
How fast can you scale up and start working to achieve your objectives? The answer to that question will firstly depend on whether you currently have contacts with suitable IT vendors. In addition, there are a number of steps you need to take to select a reliable partner, and certain factors to consider that determine how quickly you can scale up.
Due Diligence and Making an Informed Choice
No matter how urgent your need for expansion might be, the following steps are necessary to take if you do not yet have a trusted IT partner to turn to for support.
#1: Identify the Best IT Outsourcing Destinations
First, you need to do your research on IT outsourcing locations that are well-known for offering an optimal quality-price ratio. One tip we can offer is that Eastern Europe is a globally preferred destination for IT outsourcing. This is due to the vast availability of experts and lower cost of services.
Bulgaria is the country that has proven to be one of the most reputable software development outsourcing hubs. Thanks to its strategic geographic position, time-zone benefits, financial attractiveness, and a pool of highly educated and skilled IT professionals, Bulgaria has shown itself to be the globe’s epicenter of world-class IT outsourcing.
#2: Research Reliable IT Vendors
As soon as you have narrowed down your search of preferred IT outsourcing destinations, vendor research is next on your to-do list. Pay attention to available client reviews, Clutch vendor listings and ratings, case studies, and content based on the rich industry expertise of IT outsourcing services companies.
#3: Conduct an In-Depth Review of Shortlisted Companies
The final step that will take you to the threshold of scaling your IT capacity is performing an in-depth review of the shortlisted companies. At this stage, you should establish contact with selected vendors, inquire about client references, and evaluate their industry experience and cultural mindset.
We advise that you complete each of the above steps in full. By skipping any steps, you risk going into business with the wrong service provider, threatening the success of your project and business goal. It is crucial to find a partner who has specific expertise in the type of project you are looking to cover.
By the Numbers: How Fast You Can Build or Extend an IT Team
Now, it’s time to get a bit more specific and speak in numbers.
What does the amount of time needed for building or extending an IT team depend on? First of all, it depends on whether you want to augment your already existing software development crew or create an entirely new team. Secondly, timeframes will vary according to the scale, number of resources, and type of resources needed.
Scaling an Existing IT Team: Staff Augmentation Model
For companies that have an internal technical department and team, IT staff augmentation is the easiest way to expand current scale and acquire the resources needed to meet company-specific needs. The staff augmentation model is the ultimate solution that will allow you to save cost and scale up fast while having quick access to top global talent.
The general timeframe for extending an existing team with one or two augmented IT resources is up to 4 weeks. Those resources could be, for example, software developers skilled in a concrete programming language or technology, quality assurance analysts, DevOps engineers, application support engineers, or more. Everything depends on your company’s current project specifics and in-house deficiencies.
Staff augmentation is more risk-free when it comes to measuring team synergy than building a team from the ground up. This is due to the fact that you know your in-house team well. You are aware of their capabilities and how they respond to a certain workload. You also know what motivates your employees and how you can achieve the perfect synergy within the team.
With the staff augmentation model, which we have been practicing with global clients for more than 15 years, we pay attention to all the above factors when searching for the right resources to add to a client’s team. Getting familiar with the specifics of a customer’s existing team and their requirements, we always provide the most suitable remote IT resources that perfectly fit the in-house team of a client.
Building a Remote IT Team: Dedicated Team Model
Equally suitable for companies that have and companies that lack an internal IT department, the dedicated team model is an efficient way of creating a complete team composed of resources with different roles. This model allows you to effectively cover a specific software development project from beginning to end.
Building a dedicated team from ground zero is more difficult and time-consuming as compared to augmenting an already existing team.
The time needed to assemble a dedicated team depends on the requirements and the team size. It usually takes up to 8-12 weeks to build a full-blown agile team of IT resources with different roles. Your remote dedicated team can, for example, consist of two .Net application developers, two quality assurance analysts, an application support engineer, and a project manager. As we said, it all depends on the scale of your project and its specifics in terms of technologies and roles required.
Based on our extensive experience in providing IT outsourcing services to offshore and nearshore clients, our recruitment department knows how to build an IT team that is perfectly synergetic and matches the unique demands of our clients.
Final Words
Staff augmentation and dedicated team collaboration models are the best ways to deal with the challenges arising from growing IT needs in-house. Which one you should choose depends on the current IT setup of your organization. And, how fast you can extend your technical department or create a new team that will be managed within your company is determined by the experience, swiftness, and flexibility of the partner you have chosen from the available IT outsourcing services companies out there.
If you wish to gain more insight into the dedicated team and staff augmentation models, or need to find out which one of them would fit your needs better, benefit from our free IT consultation offer, which is currently available to prospective clients.
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