How Staff Augmentation Can Benefit Your Internet of Things (IoT) Project

The IT industry is currently experiencing a skills shortage. According to IT management company TEKSystems’ recent report ‘Exploring the IT Skills Gap’, 60% of IT leaders say that the gap ‘severely or moderately impacts their team or organization.’

To combat this skills shortage, companies are increasingly turning to staff augmentation companies to ensure they have access to the expertise needed for their projects. Statista reports that in 2018, the global outsourcing market reached $85.6 billion worldwide.

As a relatively new phenomenon, finding the necessary skills for IOT projects is particularly challenging. Technically difficult tasks like incorporating sensors into software and integrating data with communications into household goods, like fridges for example, make finding IoT experts all the more important.

Let’s look at how staff augmentation can benefit IoT projects in more detail:

Fill Highly Specialized Roles

Staff augmentation enables companies to fill highly specialized roles without providing any additional training. For example, a software developer with no IoT experience would need to learn how to develop embedded software, integrate it with the IoT hardware, create sensor systems and factor in several environmental elements.

When outsourcing to a staff augmentation company that specializes in IoT, businesses can specify the exact skills that they need. The provider can then source the best developers immediately to meet their requirements.

According to research carried out by Glassdoor, the average interview process in the tech industry takes almost 25 days to complete. That’s almost a month of delay due to lack of access to suitable staff. And those 25 days don’t account for the time it could take to onboard a new team member.

Flexibility in Project Workflow and Delivery

With staff augmentation, software developers integrate fully with an existing team. The host company retains control over the workflow process and oversees the delivery of the final product.

Working with augmented staff also enables companies to chart progress and ensure that project milestones are being met. Companies can enforce expectations of quality as they do with their full-time staff, without having to make any long-term hiring commitments as an employer.

Internet of Things projects can often be unpredictable. Estimating costs and timescales are challenging, security needs to be watertight and return on investment is often unclear. In 2017, technology company Cisco found that 60% of IoT projects get stuck at proof of concept and only 26% of businesses consider their IoT project a complete success. Staff augmentation enables companies to mitigate the risk of unpredictable projects by only paying for the expertise that they need.

A Cost-Effective Method of Hiring

Traditional recruitment processes can be costly endeavors, especially when searching for candidates with highly specialized expertise in IoT. The aforementioned survey by TEKSystems also reveals that 81% of IT leaders find it extremely or moderately difficult to find quality candidates.

With staff augmentation, companies can find contractors that fit their needs within a matter of days rather than months, saving time as well as money. Staff augmentation providers handle the entire onboarding processes, which means that companies don’t have to worry about sick pay, vacation days, paying for training courses, and so on.

Given that augmented developers will already have the skills required, projects can hit the ground running. No time will be wasted in getting developers up to speed with the specification of your project.

With staff augmentation, companies only pay for the skills they need, which provides a more flexible budget. This can be very useful when working with new technological concepts like the Internet of Things, as projects may require additional funding in the future as they develop.

Learn from IOT Experts

By hiring contractors who already have the experience you’re looking for, you open the door to practical learning and development. Having expert developers working alongside your in-house staff enables your full-time employees to pick up skills that can be used for future projects.

Essentially, working with augmented staff can contribute to upskilling your internal team as well as improving your project’s overall efficiency.

Overview

Staff augmentation can benefit your IoT project in the following ways:

• Bypass convoluted hiring processes by specifying the skills you need
• Gain developers who can integrate with your team and work flexibly if the scope of the project changes
• Maintain oversight of the project and provide feedback as required
• Reduce costs by avoiding lengthy onboarding processes
• Give your internal staff the opportunity to learn from IoT experts