Types of IT outsourcing services

IT outsourcing lets organizations using advanced technology services without the need of searching, verifying and hiring developers on their own. They are presented with choice of outsourcing experts or outsourcing projects. Despite having the same result in both – finished project – the ways of getting there is quite different.

Maintaining in-house IT department generates costs and is prone to risks of staff reshuffles. However, one does not need to worry about that by initializing cooperation with IT outsourcing company, such as j-labs. Why? It is the software house that takes the responsibility of hiring and technical verifying of specialists appointed to working with client (specialists outsourcing) or for the client (project outsourcing). So, what is the difference between outsourcing company and recruitment agency and between specialists outsourcing and project outsourcing?

72 percent of companies are using the services of IT outsourcing and 31 percent are planning to increase the extent of using such services

Source: Global outsourcing survey 2022, Deloitte

What differs outsourcing company from recruitment agency?

IT outsourcing is often compared with personal counseling agency that provides the client with specialists. Despite superficial similarities they differ significantly. In case of IT outsourcing – both project and specialists – each engineer is employed directly by the outsourcing company. From mother-company they are ‘seconded’ to working with client or in projects for clients.

Outsourcing companies differ from recruitment agencies thus i.a. by taking full responsibility for their employees in the whole period of providing them for the client. It is their duty to handle the recruitment, staff problems, salaries (payroll), and providing the client with replacement in case of absence of outsourced engineers. As the time&material rule claims, a client only pays for working hours of developers. What is more, they can account it as company’s expenses.

What is an outsourcing of projects and an outsourcing of specialists?  

In IT branch we currently feature mainly two types of developer outsourcing. There are services such as: outsourcing of specialists (commonly called body or team leasing) and project outsourcing (called also as jurisdiction outsourcing). What are the differences between them?

Specialists outsourcing

Also called employee outsourcing or body leasing. Common form of body leasing is also team leasing, in which the client is provided with the whole team of specialists. In j‑labs we use the term IT Staff Augmentation for the process of providing the client with individual specialists and IT Team Augmentation when the client requires a whole team adapted to the needs. Specialists outsourcing guarantee filling a client’s team with chosen staff with experience and particular technological competencies.

In this case the project is managed internally by the client but realized with specialists from the outsourcing company. So, the whole, so called, know-how stays within the organization. Outsourcing specialists is an optimal solution when one needs specialists’ support in short period of time- certainly shorter than in-house recruitment.

Project outsourcing

Despite it being the alternative to specialists outsourcing, the working principle is quite different. Not without reason it is also called jurisdiction outsourcing, because the client is expecting finishing the project using particular competencies. They determine the project beforehand and list the specifications of it beforehand. In this scenario the outsourcing company realize the project on their own. The management of the project is therefore kept externally and there lays the know-how.

This solution is recommended, when the client knows what they are expecting and can list the guidelines in advance. In j‑labs, the project outsourcing is realized by Software Delivery Center, in which are working specialized engineers with vast experience in the field – in average it is 9 years. Dedicated team is working in the office in Kraków under the supervision of Delivery Manager. They are responsible for upkeeping the flow and timeliness of the project, but also for the contact with the client. On the client’s side to the contact appointed is so called Product Owner or Project Manager.

Do you want to use the specialists outsourcing or project outsourcing? You are in the right place. Write to us and we will quickly provide you with developers ideally matching your requirements.