7 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring IT Outstaffing Company

Global digital transformation accelerates IT outsourcing. Businesses increasingly go digital and demand variable IT services from programming and application development to maintenance and technical support.

Businesses that do not revolve around IT search for opportunities to outsource entire IT departments, meaning they are seeking an outstaffed team of devs for their tasks.

Companies having in-house teams also require their extension from time to time or for specific tasks, so IT services outsourcing has grown immensely.

According to Statista , the revenue in the Segment of IT Outsourcing is projected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.26% in the nearest years, resulting in a market volume of $587.30bn by 2027.

The most reasonable cooperation model nowadays is IT outstaffing, utilized by many businesses to keep costs low and at the same time boost business efficiency. So, let’s revise the outstaff meaning.

What does IT Outstaffing mean?

Software development has become increasingly complex, so to provide cutting-edge solutions to their customers, businesses face the challenge of hiring talents for their successful creation.

Outsourcing the task to a competent offshore development team has become a natural choice and a routine practice for lots of companies.

Hiring an outstaff team is an ideal combination of project outsourcing, yet preserving full control over the development process by the customer. Turning to an outstaffing agency, the client gets an expert or a fully-formed team for software development working on his project offshore.

So, a dedicated team is formed for a special project, but the management of this team is on the part of the client. At the same time, the customer avoids all the recruiting and HR-related issues, as well as office and IT infrastructure costs.

What is more, the team is formed of specialists with the knowledge and expertise exactly required for the project, 'cause an experienced IT outstaffing company always has a vast talent pool and access to experts with unique expertise, if they're needed.

Being able to offload the software development and technology functions to the dedicated team, business owners or managers can focus on what matters the most – core business strategy and business growth.

So now, as the benefits of IT services outsourcing are clear, let’s speak about the challenges and the errors to be aware of when turning to an outstaffing company.

Mistakes to Avoid when Hiring an Outstaffing Company

Unfortunately, many companies have had unpleasant experiences when turning to external IT services they got chaos instead of value, project delay instead of a quicker time to market, misunderstanding, and communication bottlenecks instead of smooth interaction. To avoid an unpleasant experience like this, avoid the next errors.

1. Lack of profound knowledge about outsourcing companies

If you consider software solution development, you should be well-informed and up-to-date about the IT companies you consider for your next project. The right option of vendor determines the success of your project, so make sure you are making a careful choice.

Shortlist the top outstaffing companies, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and measure the benefits and drawbacks each of them has.

Avoid hiring a team with a limited skillset if you aim to create a sophisticated solution. Thus, you should check the companies’ portfolios and the experience their experts have, as well as their expertise across different techs and platforms.

A sound idea is to hire a technology professional, who has sufficient knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of the development companies and the way they influence the project. Such individuals can be helpful via the selection among the plethora of companies and also the hiring process .

It is highly advisable to opt for vendors who quote a price based on the precise technical needs and project challenges. Going for fixed price development, you risk not getting a really rich custom solution, but rather a сut-and-dried one.

2. Ignoring management gaps

This is the most common faultline in the process of IT services outsourcing. Project managers and project management tools are necessary for effective project fulfillment.

The letters let taking care of multiple tasks in a comprehensive manner, making the project run more smoothly, effectively, and transparently.

When an outstaffing company creates a team for you, make sure you have project managers both on the vendor’s site and on yours, their role is extremely crucial for you to stay in full control and awareness of the project's progress.

A kick-off meeting is essential before the contract is finalized, all the roles, responsibilities, milestones, deadlines, and payments should be detailed and defined. It is also important to care about minimizing discontent and misunderstanding between you and your contractor. If you want a top-notch software solution, introduce frequent follow-ups and get to the root of every issue, discuss and find the resolution to every problem.

3. Hiring a vendor without firsthand industry experience

Gauging a service provider’s tech skills level is without any doubt essential, however, it isn't sufficient. Your vendor should have experience in your particular industry to thoroughly comprehend the specific challenges and cope with them effectively. The contractor should also have a profound understanding of your objectives and typical issues unique to your industry.

So, ensure that the vendor has a proven track record in your vertical, and cross-check the references from their customers about the projects covering your niche. It can save you lots of time and means in the long run, – and avoid a tiresome onboarding process, undelivered goals, or unclear communication.

4. Outsourcing to contractors falling behind on modern trends

Devs can ascertain their excellence by prior experience references, their technology stack, skills, knowledge about platforms, etc. You shouldn't only pay attention to the experience in the respective niche but also ensure they are technologically advanced and aware of the industry standards best practices, latest technology trends , and know-how. You do not want an irrelevant and outdated product, do you?

If you aim to reach more customers, you should consider the cross-platform knowledge of your development team. Otherwise, you'll be constrained by only one platform’s consumers as your target audience.

Software solution development isn't a one-time process, as a rule, it is a continuous one. So, hiring contractors gives importance to the product life cycle and the future of your software, its maintenance, bug fixes, and upgraded functionality. Keep in mind to ensure full ownership of the source code, it'll help to switch to another vendor in the future in case of necessity.

5. Ignoring a proper hiring process

Not following the proper hiring process may become a serious roadblock on your way to successful project fulfillment. As we have already mentioned, it is essential to study portfolio and credentials: what software they have developed, which techs used, how many solutions, in what niches, and much more details should be meticulously assessed.

When turning to an outstaffing company, you get a preliminary formed development team, but interviewing the candidates is crucial. You should know to whom you trust responsibilities for your project. The needs for candidates in different countries may vary, that's why you should ensure each worker is a good fit for your project work.

It is also crucial to evaluate the devs’ communication manners and personal qualities, it'll help you understand if you're on the same page and share the same values.

Be careful with hiring specialists from various countries and different cultures, each of them will have certain cultural and communication specifics. It’s important to ensure your virtual team can interact smoothly and effectively and get messages across clearly, report and discuss issues, and much more. It will assist in avoiding additional cost factors in the future. What is more, if you form your team from experts located in different time zones, make sure project managers take the responsibility to arrange a smooth collaboration with the corresponding work schedule adjustment.

6. Not taking cost considerations

The major aim of outsourcing is cutting costs. So, naturally, the temptation is high to select the cheapest provider. However, you should put quality as your key priority and keep in mind that cheap service may mean a low-quality outsourcing team. That may later outcome in piling on additional costs over the initially planned budget for outsourcing.

So, seek the right balance of high-quality work and cost-effectiveness, and go for realistic and market-validated expectations. Also, provide that the vendor is reliable, experienced, and flexible to understand your needs. Check that the devs deliver improved quality software for you to get a higher return on investment.

What is more, pay attention to the technology stack, Microsoft development suits are for instance expensive. So, many promising startups and small IT companies choose non-Microsoft products for development. Consider both Microsoft and non-Microsoft development to widen your choice, and allocate expenses for product launch and marketing!

Allocating the whole budget for development: spending the entire budget on development is a serious error. You need to make provisions within the application budget for launch and marketing in phases.

7. Insufficient strategic planning for the transition

The common error of lots of outsourcing businesses is getting rid of their in-house specialists or overestimating the vendor’s ability to adapt to the business systems.

Remember about strategic planning, plan well ahead of the transition, and set up a well-thought-out business process outsourcing scheme to avoid impacting your company’s bottom line.

The options are – assigning a project manager for supervision on your part or arranging teamwork of your in-house experts in tandem with your vendor professional for the first few weeks. It will help your outstaff workers comprehend the systems and values your business has in place.

Stfalcon Outstaffing Services

Being an experienced IT outstaffing company in Ukraine, we would like to share the nuances of our candidate hiring process.

We aim to complete projects quickly and efficiently, so we always seek qualified specialists to provide high-quality development services for our customers. It lets us cover our clients' talent gaps, whether it is a single expert or a whole team, quickly and efficiently. Implementing the best projects in different niches, we have excellent references and rank high on the Clutch .

How do we manage to do it?

On getting job descriptions of the staff needed from our client, our recruiter checks the technical needs, business aims, and values of the team.

The recruiter shortlists suitable candidates and interviews them. Then, if the project requires, the English level of each candidate is checked and after that, the tech lead evaluates the potential employee's technical skills and level of expertise.

We ensure confidentiality to all our customers because signing NDA is obligatory in our company. Providing comfortable working conditions and all the necessary hard and software facilities, we ensure the quick and effective work of our employees.

The code is reviewed by the team lead, and it provides additional quality guarantees to our clients.

Being a leading IT outstaffing company in Ukraine, Stfalcon can provide dedicated IT professionals in any sphere : web and mobile development, UX/UI design, DevOps services, and many more. Our customers can always interview the candidates in person if they feel they want to.

We have teams that work together on several projects and can form a technical department to meet your specific requirements.

Stfalcon supports its client at all development stages and makes sure the outstaff team creates the software solution that fully complies with our customer's needs. So, you can rest assured your technical sphere is well-handled and take care of business processes.

In Summary

IT services oustaffing is a wonderful way to cut costs and get a professionally developed custom software solution. However, to get a cutting-edge product and not come across the pitfalls and unpleasant problems, follow our advice above.

To make this process even more effective, get in touch and a Stfalcon expert will assist you in finding out even more details about outstaffing and effective cooperation, looking at the process in the context of your specific niche and business.