/14 May 2024

Finding the Right IT Staff Augmentation Strategy

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, it’s essential to have a team that can keep up and drive innovation alongside tech growth. Business leaders worldwide are adapting strategies to develop teams capable of staying ahead. Many of these leaders grapple with a common initial question: where will this development take place?

Outsourcing to an IT staff augmentation company or keeping everything onshore were once the most common methods. However, these days, companies are exploring taking development offshore, nearshore, or the fast-growing approach: the blended shore model.

Let’s analyze the pros and cons of each development strategy to discover the optimal approach given your unique priorities and constraints.

Offshore Teams – Economic Development Model

Offshore staff augmentation involves partnering with an IT staff augmentation company to assemble dedicated software development teams in lower-cost overseas locations like India, Pakistan, and Eastern Europe. This is a popular IT staffing method enterprises use to access high-quality talent at an affordable cost.

Here’s how offshore staff augmentation can benefit your organization:

  • Cost Savings
    Average salaries of offshore developers can range from 40-70% below comparable onshore roles. This allows business leaders to ensure cost-efficiency and diversify their tech investments rather than focus on acquiring in-house talent.

  • 24×7 Productivity
    Variable time zones allow for seamless round-the-clock collaboration between in-house teams and offshore developers, resulting in faster delivery timelines without compromising on quality.

  • Instant Scalability
    Offshore staff augmentation partners maintain large talent benches, allowing teams to rapidly scale up or down and provide access to resources across technology skill sets without lengthy recruitment delays.

  • Specialized Expertise
    Forward-thinking IT staff augmentation companies invest heavily in training programs, acquisitions, and partnerships to integrate niche technical and domain capabilities like blockchain, AI/ML, IoT, and cybersecurity into their offshore teams.

While offshore staff augmentation has benefits, it also poses challenges that only a reliable staff augmentation partner can help overcome.

  • Communication Gaps
    Nuances and context can easily get lost across language, culture, and time zone differences. These same barriers also make it harder to remotely transfer technical and tacit business knowledge, ultimately affecting development speed.

  • Data Security Concerns
    Perceived lower data protection from threats like cyberattacks and international surveillance in certain offshore regions discourages projects involving highly sensitive IP or personal information.

Nearshore Teams – Keeping it Close to Home

While, the offshore staff augmentation model is feasible for most organizations, allowing them to partner with professionals globally, the significant time zones difference is what deters others. To overcome substantial time differences and increase synergy between remote and in-house staff, we recommend considering our nearshore staff augmentation model.

Here’s how our nearshore developers who are based in Latin America (Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru) can benefit your organization:

  • Minimal Time Zone Differences
    Our nearshore staff augmentation model facilitates seamless collaboration by aligning your in-house teams’ schedule with our developers’ availability, eliminating the need to manage time zone differences. This approach enables faster development, and ensures quality delivery.

  • Rapid Talent Acquisition
    The nearshore staff augmentation model enables companies to quickly onboard developers without without the need for extensive candidate searches. By hiring from neighboring regions, talent acquisition teams can streamline the process, making it faster and more convenient.

  • Project Control
    Trust is a vital factor for companies con when choosing an IT staffing approach, as they seek to maintain control over their projects. Nearshore staff augmentation enables business leaders to closely manage dedicated teams, monitor project outcomes, and ensure transparency.

Nearshore staffing also has its drawbacks and challenges that companies must consider:

  • Communication Gaps
    Effective communication is crucial for collaboration between in-house teams and nearshore developers. However, language differences make it difficult for in-house teams to deliver instructions and specify expectations. At 10Pearls, we understand the challenges posed by language differences and prioritize overcoming them through continuous training and development.

  • Costlier Than Offshore Staff Augmentation
    While nearshore staff augmentation from neighboring regions offers a more cost-efficient solution compared to onshore teams, their rates are typically higher than offshore development options.

Onshore Teams – A stone’s throw away

Onshore staff augmentation focuses on hiring in-house development staff located domestically as full-time employees or contractors.

Here’s why companies still opt for this staffing method:

  • Hands-on Recruitment
    Onshore staff augmentation allows you to vet candidates that perfectly match your company’s needs and culture, ensuring that delivered outcomes align with your goals and values.

  • Seamless Management
    Onshore teams allow frequent progress check-ins, real-time feedback, and close productivity tracking.

  • Familiarity with the Business
    Onshore talent tends to develop a more profound knowledge of your products, services, and business objectives over time. This familiarity equips them with an invaluable perspective of desired outcomes.

Despite being a traditional, reliable staffing method, companies believe the onshore staff augmentation approach lacks versatility and flexibility due to the following reasons:

  • High-Cost Recruitment
    Onshore staff augmentation can prove costly as companies would typically adhere to local industry-standard pay scales and incentives.

  • Talent Shortage
    Competing with tech giants and filling skill gaps can be difficult, it is highly challenging and time-consuming to attract specialized onshore tech talent.

Our Blended Shore Model – The Best of Both Worlds

To innovate rapidly and sustainably, companies require a unique, end-to-end staff augmentation solution that blends the positive aspects of onshore and offshore. Our blended shore staffing approach strategically integrates the cost optimization and round-the-clock efficiencies of offshore talent with the institutional knowledge and cultural alignment of onshore team members. We create versatile, tailored teams to meet each client’s specific initiatives and objectives.

Here’s how our blended shore model helps global enterprises gain a competitive edge and innovate at pace and scale:

Maintain Top Quality While Lowering Costs

Our global delivery centers in Latin America, Pakistan, UK, USA, Australia, and the Middle East significantly reduce operational costs by providing specialized onshore, nearshore, and offshore teams who ensure faster releases without sacrificing quality. We thoroughly vet and train our offshore talent to assemble teams that meet the rigorous technical and communication capabilities our clients expect. Our QA standards remain consistent globally, allowing budget reduction through access to cost-efficient talent globally without impacting business outcomes and objectives.

Expedite Development Cycles for Faster Scaling

Our teams ensure 24/7 collaboration and provide bespoke solutions that accelerate your initiatives. We bolster product releases, increase velocity, inspire milestone achievement, and deliver exceptional, ingenious experiences. We provide access to our expansive global talent pool to augment your in-house team’s capabilities and enable them to keep up with ever-changing consumer demands. Our offshore and nearshore developers empower rapid scaling for clients pursuing aggressive growth trajectories.

Promote Nuanced Cultural Alignment

We provide companies with the perfect platform to hire software development teams and consultants directly engaging clients in strategic, growth-focused partnerships. Our offshore and nearshore developers understand first-hand organizational knowledge, grasp dynamics across management hierarchies, and gain perspective into business priorities. These insights allow them to pay detailed attention to cultural alignment and adapt solutions to client visions, goals, and workplace atmospheres.

Unlock Multifaceted Delivery Flexibility

Our consultants understand your requirements and determine what blend of onshore and offshore talent works best for you. With presence across different time zones, our highly skilled professionals become an extension to your in-house teams to introduce new, advanced capabilities and scale ROI. Our multifaceted delivery flexibility lets you meet changing business needs without being constrained by resources or budgets. 

Choose an IT staff augmentation partner that specializes in harmonizing onshore visions with offshore execution for seamless collaboration, sustainable innovation, and accelerated growth.

If you’re interested in learning more about our team, click here.