Canada is facing a significant tech talent shortage. Demand for tech skills will continue to grow as more companies undergo digital transformation. And the shortage in available IT tech talent is impacting multiple industries, including healthcare, business, and mining.
Keeping your IT department fully staffed can become a full-time recruitment job itself. With the extreme global shortage in IT professionals, attracting and retaining skilled IT workers is difficult. Even as AI begins to alleviate some of the burden, many organizations are forced to consider IT staff augmentation services. An alternative – and better – solution, however, can be working with your managed service provider (MSP) to fill in your talent gaps.
What Is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation, often referred to as IT resource augmentation, is an IT outsourcing model in which a company uses temporary workers hired through staff augmentation companies to fill open positions in their IT department. The idea behind IT staff augmentation services is to provide organizations with an IT staffing solution to complete projects without having to consider offshore IT outsourcing or project basis contracts. While using temporary workers is commonplace in other departments, using IT outsourcing services from staff augmentation companies as part of your house team in your tech department can be problematic.
The Risk of Using IT Staff Augmentation Services
Your IT department manages the most sensitive areas of your organization, often having access to virtually every part of your business and network infrastructure. Employing temporary staff in your tech department introduces variables that may put your company at risk. IT outsourcing makes sense when you’re outsourcing to your MSP; relying on IT team augmentation services can result in increased risk for several reasons:
- When opting for IT team augmentation, your internal hiring staff are not involved with the process of vetting the worker. Instead, you’re relying on a third party to ensure that the IT person not only has the skills they need but that they are not going to put your company’s personally identifiable information at risk or share trade secrets and customer information.
- A temporary worker will not have the loyalty to your organization that an internal employee would have. There is an inherent risk in using a staff augmentation model and revealing project details to someone who does not have incentive to help your company thrive.
- Compelling augmented staff to observe policies that you would expect your full-time employees to follow, such as use of personal devices or the use of a VPN when accessing a remote network, is more difficult.
- A temporary staff member in your IT department has access to everything from security badges to passwords to trade secrets. Even by being in the office, the temporary worker may inadvertently overhear or become privy to confidential information. Using IT staff augmentation could potentially push your organization out of compliance.
- IT team augmentation comes at a much higher labor cost that can result in reduced profits for the organization. It is not a long-term solution.
According to CGI, one of the biggest issues with using IT staff augmentation services is that it becomes very easy to excessively rely on them:
As contractors become embedded in the organization, they accumulate information and capabilities upon which the organization is functionally dependent. With no contracted service commitment or requirement to document knowledge in a transferrable manner, contractors can and do often hold organizations hostage, perpetuating the permanency of their engagement.
Why Your MSP Is a Better Solution
It will take time, financial investment, and training to overcome Canada’s tech talent shortage. In the meantime, you need to keep your business running. If IT staff augmentation is not the answer, then what is?
Partnering with your managed service provider can help you meet your staffing needs without putting your network – and your organization – at risk. Your MSP can help extend your IT department with a team of experts who have the specialized skills you require to fill your skill gaps. Your MSP is investing in your success. At The ITeam, we’re not trying to make a sale; we are building lasting relationships with clients. We’re in business with you as long as you’re in business. Collaborating with us to meet your tech talent shortage makes sense.
IT outsourcing to your MSP allows you to benefit from their depth of expertise without the cost of hiring additional internal team members. The cost of hiring and training a new IT professional, and then absorbing the cost of high turnover, can be costly, and relying on IT staff augmentation services adds risk. By partnering with your Calgary MSP, your organization gains the opportunity to focus on building relationships with clients, developing business goals, and growth planning – all without worrying about monitoring your network, installing patches to software, or making sure servers are up and running. Outsourcing IT by partnering with your managed services partner is a proactive method of protecting your organization, your network, and your data while freeing your internal IT team to do more.
MSP vs IT Staff Augmentation
Managed service providers offer comprehensive support, including 24/7 monitoring and maintenance; staff augmentation merely provides a temporary manpower solution for your team, either in person or remotely, with minimal value add.
When it comes to choosing between your MSP and IT staff augmentation services for meeting project requirements, consider the following benefits of choosing your MSP:
Reduced IT costs. Choosing your MSP instead of an IT outsourcing company can potentially save you money. And when you are contracted with an MSP that already knows your business, the process of initiating new projects is far more streamlined. Your MSP partner has a team of skilled professionals who already have access to your entire network and have been involved in everything from assessments to remediating vulnerabilities.
Economical onboarding. Outsourcing IT through a staff augmentation company often demands an extensive investment in training someone who will only be with your internal team for a few months. An MSP, on the other hand, will already have the deep insights into your business strategy and industry challenges. Working with someone who already understands the challenges you face is preferable to the amount of onboarding time it would take to get a temporary worker up to speed.
Improved efficiency. A managed service provider has extensive technical expertise and will take a proactive approach to managing your IT, ensuring that your infrastructure is sound and that issues are identified and corrected before they result in downtime. This effort, in turn, frees your internal IT department and allows them to focus on other tasks that improve overall efficiency. One of the biggest issues with IT staff augmentation is that there is often a mismatch between the skills you need in your IT department and the skills of the temporary worker you are assigned. When you work directly with an MSP, you have access to the entire team’s wealth of experience, including dedicated teams and project managers who can help you meet your business goals.
Enhanced Security. The level of threat against organizations of all size in all industries is growing at a rapid rate. It’s no longer enough to implement a firewall and virus program and call it a day. External – and internal – threats require a proactive, layered, and comprehensive approach.
Scalability. Outsourcing your IT to your MSP allows you to scale your services so that you can be more agile and responsive to the needs of your business and your clients. Whether you experience rapid growth or the occasional downturn, you can adjust your outsourced IT to adapt.
Your MSP Is Dedicated to the Success of Your Organization
When your MSP works directly with your IT department to take on some of the heavy lifting of managing your infrastructure, it gives them the opportunity to gain an even better understanding of the needs and challenges your Calgary company may be facing in ways that improve not only your IT staff support but your overall managed services.
You don’t have to hire virtual strangers to oversee the most sensitive areas of your business. By partnering with an MSP, you can augment your internal team with people who are as dedicated to your success as you are, giving you the expanded team you need to handle short-term projects, complex projects, and regular oversight of your network.
There are many aspects of a well-rounded approach to IT service management, and The ITeam strives to meet every need of their clients through proactive planning and execution, including our vulnerability management program. Comprehensive services range from remote maintenance to fully managed cloud hosting, with limitless benefits for your business.
The ITeam is Calgary’s leading source for outsourced Managed IT support and cloud services. We have been recognized among the world’s 501 most strategic and innovative managed service providers (MSPs) by Channel Futures and named Sophos 2024 Partner of the Year, Canada. As we celebrate serving the Calgary community for 30 years this year, we look forward to helping you navigate the complexities of IT staff augmentation in a safe and viable way.
Get in touch today to learn more.