Staff Augmentation vs. Managed Services |
Posted: December 17, 2018 |
A lot of companies and organizations face increased demand for IT services. Information technology is vital to the efficiency of business processes, particularly with time-sensitive projects or operations, that can’t afford even a minute of downtime. The lack of well-trained, adequately equipped, and reliable IT department can complicate the entire operations, something that you wouldn’t want to happen. The global IT outsourcing market has grown from $45.6 billion in 2000 to $88.9 billion in 2017. And as businesses continue to migrate to the digital sphere, the figure is expected to grow further. Managed IT Services experts at Firewall Technical noted that the cost of maintaining an experienced IT team can sometimes go beyond the budget of a company. As such, many businesses turn to outsourcing. IT outsourcing offers a way for businesses to meet enterprise challenges at a lesser cost thereby enabling them to focus on more important business functions. There are two approaches to IT outsourcing – staff augmentation and managed IT services. Below we take a look at these two models. Staff AugmentationStaff augmentation is an IT outsourcing model wherein the customer company brings in qualified IT personnel to augment its in-house IT team. The augmentation staff works alongside the in-house staff in completing specified projects or tasks. Usually, these outsource providers offer consultative services to assess and evaluate what IT assistance the business needs. For example, a company may only need an IT professional with specialization in data integration or hardware upgrade. Some of the benefits of staff augmentation are:
Although staff augmentation has a number of benefits, many consider this approach as a short-term fix that has some drawbacks when utilized in the long-term. Transforming staff augmentation into a permanent IT staffing solution may give rise to the following disadvantages:
Managed IT ServicesManaged Services is an outsourcing approach wherein the needs of a company are outsourced to a third-party contractor. It offers the major benefits of staff augmentation, specifically skill access and flexibility, while overcoming its drawbacks. This is applicable in IT needs of a company. In Managed IT Services, the contractor assumes full responsibility and control over the agreed IT needs of a customer company. Unlike staff augmentation, Managed Services offer service delivery commitments that are otherwise not available with augmentation providers. With supporting services under the hands of a contractor, businesses are able to focus on core business functions. Some of the benefits of Managed IT Services are:
Managed IT Services is beneficial because the project goals and deadlines are met by the contractor. The provider is incentivized to complete the project on time and with desired results. Moving to managed IT services can be a long process and you need to hire a reliable service contractor.
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