In outsourcing, the client receives results, gives feedback, makes corrections, and submits requests. Quality monitoring during work is carried out by the service vendor.
In staff augmentation, it’s quite the opposite. The company’s management is in contact with every outstaffed employee, keeps a finger on the performance, and makes all the necessary adjustments “on the run”.
Both options are not interchangeable and are targeted to perform different types of business tasks. The choice between one or another is dictated mainly by the founders’ desire to manage the project themselves or, otherwise, by lack of time, expertise, and the necessity to manage the project. Also, such decisions are affected by the product type, the duration of planned cooperation, and the rest of the company staff.
Outstaffing vs. outsourcing: what to choose?
In general, offshoring is a suitable approach to strengthen or expand an Israeli business because of the lack of talent and the high salaries of local programmers in the country.
A startup looking for funding needs a quality presentation or product demo. A non-IT company requires a turnkey project – be it a website or an application – but does not want to create an IT department. An experienced tech company has a one-time idea that needs to be implemented quickly. Then outsourcing comes in handy.
A hi-tech company requires engineers for stable work on open-ended projects. An in-house team cannot cope with the workload and additional “working hands” are needed. And this company has a strong team leader, able to deal with remote staff and supervise the tech nuances. Then outstaffing will be useful.