When your business needs help with your technology, full managed IT services and staff augmentation are two options for outsourced IT support.
Both models have different benefits and advantages, so it’s important to choose the one that best fits your needs.
When it comes to IT managed services, staff augmentation is often used as a way to supplement an existing staff. This can be helpful when there is a specific task that needs to be completed, but the in-house staff may not have the necessary skills or knowledge to complete it. By outsourcing this task to a company that specializes in IT staff augmentation, you can be sure that the job will be done correctly and efficiently.
You get the benefit of temporary employees without having to go through the hiring process for a job with a predetermined end date.
Managed IT services have a much broader scope than staff augmentation. With managed services, you generally have a monthly agreement with your IT provider. This agreement includes ongoing maintenance and support of your IT infrastructure. Managed services can also include project management, network design and implementation, and security monitoring.
Your managed service provider (MSP) can provide your help desk support, device and system monitoring and maintenance, network monitoring, cybersecurity solutions, cloud solutions, hardware procurement, consulting around new products or services, and more depending on your package and agreement.
When it comes to your company’s technology, you want everything to run smoothly. That’s where full managed IT services come in. Managed IT services generally include everything your company needs for its hardware procurement to function smoothly, replacing the need for an internal IT staff.
Different companies will choose different models for their IT support needs, depending on the size and scope of their business.
There are many advantages of staff augmentation, but some of the most notable ones include:
Some of the drawbacks are:
In general, staff augmentation is better for businesses that have specific project needs with limited internal resources, that only need short-term support, that have limited budgets, and that already have an IT department or consultant creating the strategy and heading up the project.
Within that scope, staff augmentation can be extremely useful in providing a simple and cost-effective means to complete projects more efficiently.
Managed IT services have their pros and cons as well. Some of the advantages include:
A potential negative point may be:
Managed IT services can serve a different role than staff augmentation does. Instead of providing only temporary support, it can effectively replace your hardware procurement. Managed services can provide the same level of support and expertise as staff augmentation, but at a fraction of the cost. With managed services, you can get the same high level support without having to hire and train additional staff with accessible cloud solutions.
It is important to note that there are different levels of managed IT support; if you don’t need the full package of managed IT services, you can staff augmentation to supplement your in-house team.
As businesses face the challenges of cloud migration, setup of all new IT infrastructure, and a rapid influx of support requests, they are turning to staff augmentation and managed services to help them manage these complex projects. By partnering with a team of experts who can provide hardware and software support, as well as project management and implementation services, businesses can focus on their core business goals while ensuring that their IT infrastructure is up and running smoothly.
SoftHQ is a staffing firm that can provide flexible, cost-effective workforce management solutions, risk management experience, and the agility to respond at your company’s pace. We provide workforce solutions for the future, and we are eager to go the extra mile for you.