Businesses are responding to the global shortage of tech talent by nearshoring to companies like Ceiba. But what if companies need to plug a gap in their tech team, or scale up fast? Which of the staff augmentation vs professional services is best?
The shortage of expertise in software consulting and development
The world is experiencing a shortage of experienced software developers and other IT talent, hastened by companies’ urgent need for digital products and services.
Solutions to this ongoing global shortage of elite tech professionals include nearshoring, staff augmentation and the engagement of professional services.
Nearshoring, whereby businesses offshore the creation of a digital product to a complete team in a near or neighboring country, offers the most advantages.
Companies that are nearshore to Ceiba enjoy the benefits of proximity and the chance to work with an agile team with a proven record of excellence.
If companies need to supplement an existing development team – rather than offshore to a complete one – they may consider staff augmentation vs professional services.
Here we compare these two solutions to the IT staff shortage.
The benefits of staff augmentation versus professional services
What is staff augmentation and how does it work?
Staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing whereby companies ‘fill the holes’ in their internal tech teams with external staff, on a temporary basis.
Ceiba has access to a rich range of IT personnel and helps businesses in sudden need of disruptive tech talent or senior staff who can accelerate internal processes.
Our most requested IT staff augmentation services are software designers, software developers, project managers, DevOps engineers and UX/UI designers.
We take care of hiring, training, job benefits and the application of agile methodologies, allowing our staff to focus on clients’ needs, requirements, and guidelines.
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Why is Ceiba a top choice for staff augmentation?
Ceiba staff possess innovative coding skills and testing practices, as well as skilled technical judgment, excellent decision-making criteria and peerless teamwork abilities.
They are innovative, purposeful, and flexible, with a strong worth ethic. They are also highly adaptable and attuned to the cultural nuances of the teams they will join.
Our staff are agile and speak excellent English. Most are fully bilingual and are highly experienced, bringing competence and seniority to every project.
Does staff augmentation mean working with the best?
At Ceiba, we take pride in the talent, skills and dedication of our staff, and the seamless way they slot into pre-existing tech teams.
Mandatory training for our software developers, for example, includes CSD certification, object-oriented programming, clean code, best practices, solid principles, and continuous integration (Gradle, Jenkins, Sonar, coverage, and technical debt).
It also covers unit testing (JUnit, Mockito), integration testing (MockMVC), infrastructure testing (JMeter), functional testing (Cypress), clean architecture (hexagonal architecture), front-end architecture (Angular), and web service and database connection (Spring Boot).
Our software developers are fluent in multiple programming languages and platforms, including .NET (C#), Xamarin, Java, Spring Boot, Kotlin, Android, JavaScript, Angular, Vue.js, React, React Native, Node.js and Go, as well as Cloud providers such as AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure.
How does staff augmentation maximize cost efficiency?
Augmenting staff is the best way to avoid the frustration and stress of internal hiring procedures and secure top-quality tech talent in a flexible manner.
Ceiba’s agile, on-demand staff augmentation model means businesses can scale up or down according to need.
Our nearshore staff augmentation service offers extra advantages too. It means companies in the US and Canada, for example, can augment talent in the same or similar time zone, yielding benefits in costs, communication, and oversight.
Staff augmentation brings multiple advantages. Businesses can start work with our experienced staff immediately, targeting the skills they need and enjoying a fresh outlook and ideas.
In terms of cost efficiency, staff augmentation allows companies to engage an IT professional when they need one, avoiding the expenditure of permanent hiring.
Businesses only pay for the time worked too, which saves time and money.
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What are the challenges of professional services?
Professional services are the permanent approach to filling a tech team vacancy or responding to the need to scale up a tech team.
In terms of staff augmentation vs professional services, professional services are the least cost efficient of the two.
Hiring a permanent member of IT staff means allocating funds for their salary, tax, and other expenses, as well as health insurance and other mandated benefits.
Tech projects are often short, fluid and highly intense, which can also mean there are times when there is not enough work available for a full-time employee.
Staff augmentation offers the most benefits for businesses
Staff augmentation vs professional services are two ways to respond to the ongoing shortage of innovative tech talent capable of creating world-beating digital products.
Of the two, staff augmentation is the fastest, most flexible, and most cost-efficient response – offering businesses instant access to skilled, adaptable specialists.
To find out how Ceiba can augment your tech team today, contact us.
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