<p>In our digital era, companies need technologies on board, no matter their size or industry. That is why, oftentimes, they are one of the main business investments and thus they must be taken care of properly. That is when IT (information technology) support comes into play.</p>

 Read the article to know what IT support is, why you need IT support, how it functions, and what IT support consists of.

What is IT support? Types and tools | Agilie

<p dir="ltr">If you own an IT business, you probably know how difficult it is and how long it takes to recruit in-house IT specialists. Especially those with a Middle or Senior level of expertise or some with very rare tech skills. This could become a real nightmare if your project needs experts just right now.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What to do in such a case?&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">The smartest move you can take is to opt for a staff augmentation model that helps expand your team for a specific project extremely fast. Still don&rsquo;t know what this helpful model is? In this article, we will explain to you what staff augmentation really is, when it is best to use it, as well as give you all the cons of this model.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">But let&rsquo;s start with some basics.</p>
<div id="form-description" class="form-description" data-title="Key Takeaways" data-text="Staff augmentation is a flexible and cost-effective solution for companies that need to scale their workforce quickly. By extending their existing team with external talent, companies can access a wide range of skills and expertise without committing to the long-term costs associated with hiring full-time. 
There are different models of staff augmentation, including time and material, fixed-price, and dedicated team models. These models offer varying degrees of flexibility and control, allowing companies to choose the model that best suits their needs.
Staff augmentation enables companies to access the skills and expertise they need to complete projects more quickly, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes and success.
Among the most popular cases of team augmentation use are when a company needs to meet a tight deadline, requires specialized skills, or wants to maintain its core team's stability. By leveraging staff augmentation, companies can quickly access the talent they need to meet their business objectives, without the long-term commitment of hiring full-time employees.
By adopting a staff augmentation model, companies can access a pool of skilled talent, reduce costs, and remain agile and responsive to changing market conditions, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes and success.">
<div class="form-description-title">Key Takeaways</div>
Staff augmentation is a flexible and cost-effective solution for companies that need to scale their workforce quickly. By extending their existing team with external talent, companies can access a wide range of skills and expertise without committing to the long-term costs associated with hiring full-time. <br /><br />There are different models of staff augmentation, including time and material, fixed-price, and dedicated team models. These models offer varying degrees of flexibility and control, allowing companies to choose the model that best suits their needs. <br /><br />Staff augmentation enables companies to access the skills and expertise they need to complete projects more quickly, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes and success. <br /><br />Among the most popular cases of team augmentation use are when a company needs to meet a tight deadline, requires specialized skills, or wants to maintain its core team's stability. By leveraging staff augmentation, companies can quickly access the talent they need to meet their business objectives, without the long-term commitment of hiring full-time employees. <br /><br />By adopting a staff augmentation model, companies can access a pool of skilled talent, reduce costs, and remain agile and responsive to changing market conditions, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes and success.</div>
<h2 dir="ltr">What is Staff Augmentation?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">When you first hear about IT staff augmentation services, many people would immediately think of an augmented human from a modern cyberpunk movie. Are you one of them? That is understandable.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">In reality, IT staff augmentation is not about it at all. The word augment itself means to make something larger &mdash; in size, number, strength, etc. Augmented in the IT sphere means a bigger team. But having bigger teams doesn&rsquo;t mean becoming more effective. It can sometimes be quite the opposite, as bigger teams are quite difficult to manage. Staff augmentation can help you enlarge your team while ensuring that this staffing remains efficient.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">To put it simply, staff augmentation is an outsourcing hiring strategy where a business temporarily hires one or several outsourcing IT experts for a certain project.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/images/f9e66e179b6747ae54108f82f8ade8b3c25d76fd30afde6c395822c530196169-1676407005789.png" width="2001" height="1401" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Wait, so is it that simple? And you won&rsquo;t need to pay for time-consuming recruiting or consulting services?&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Yep, you can find numerous staff augmentation providers that will do the job instead of you and hire excellent temporary engineers for your project very fast. Besides, skilled talent is hired to cover only the necessary positions temporarily, permanently, or on-demand. The hires are added to the in-house team and collaborate with them on a specific project which enhances the capacity of your team and organization.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Why is staff augmentation so popular?&nbsp;</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Staff augmentation has become a widely used practice worldwide with <a href="https://www2.staffingindustry.com/site/Research/Research-Reports/Americas/Global-Staffing-Forecast-May-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$490 billion</a> of revenue annually. One of the main sources for staff augmentation is freelancing, which has become very popular recently due to the rise of numerous freelance platforms. Just imagine, in the US solely, about <a href="https://www2.staffingindustry.com/site_member/Research/Research-Reports/Americas/The-US-Gig-Economy-2019-Edition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">34% of workers</a> are freelancers, and this number grows each year.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">But why has staff augmentation become so popular?&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">It is obvious. Many companies today choose IT staff augmentation for a bunch of situations, including talent shortage, high cost of IT professionals, and many more. This model helps businesses minimize operational costs while skyrocketing their efficiency. It also helps quickly scale your IT department once you need it and add more employees to keep up with the demand.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Staff augmentation can, undoubtedly, help you enhance both the quality and speed of your projects, because by hiring professionals in various fields, you get the expertise that your in-house developers may lack. This could be extremely helpful if you have complex IT projects and you need a senior level of expertise.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Last but not least, staff augmentation service can present your workers with excellent training opportunities. Your in-house staff can share the experience with your in-house team, allowing them to learn and grow throughout the whole development process.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Types of staff augmentation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Today, IT staff augmentation can be divided into three main types, each with its own peculiarities:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/images/f9e66e179b6747ae54108f82f8ade8b3c25d76fd30afde6c395822c530196169-1676407019595.png" width="2001" height="1001" /></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Core augmentation</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr">This type of augmentation is long-term with a full-time contract. All the resources of the business are shared with another company and the core team works full-time at the hired company while paralelly working in their own company. The roles and responsibilities of the core team are stated in the contract.</p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Temporary augmentation</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr">This type of augmentation is short-term with temporary staff for a specific project. Usually, companies prefer the temporary augmentation model if they lack the resources for covering all their projects. Temporary augs can increase the number of people to handle multiple projects.</p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Functional augmentation&nbsp;</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr">This type of augmentation involves contracted employees working temporarily on a specific project. The main difference between core and functional augmentation is that the latter doesn&rsquo;t have an indefinite duration.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Use cases of staff augmentation</h3>
<p dir="ltr"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/images/f9e66e179b6747ae54108f82f8ade8b3c25d76fd30afde6c395822c530196169-1676407086168.png" width="2001" height="1201" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Before applying this cooperation strategy, it is crucial to know its best use cases. Here are some of the most common uses when you should consider opting for staff augmentation:</p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Reinforcing your in-house team: yes, you may already have a developer team that works in-house. However, when you launch new projects or release new products or services, it is better to improve your expertise by augmenting your existing IT team with temporary personnel. This way, you will get a better outcome.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">When you have short deadlines: the process of recruiting new employees is a complex process with lots of stages. But if you don&rsquo;t have time and patience for it, you can take advantage of staff augmentation. You can get programmers from any part of the world very fast and meet the needs of your project, no matter if it is short- or long-term.&nbsp;</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">If you need specific expertise: if you need to get a specialist with a certain skill set over a short period of time, this cooperation method will help you out.&nbsp;</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">If you need to bridge a gap: you can always hire temporary workers for short-term projects while looking for permanent candidates.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 dir="ltr">The Difference between Staff Augmentation and Delivery Teams</h2>
<p dir="ltr">When learning about staff augmentation, you may also come across the term delivery teams. These two terms can even be misused sometimes.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">But what is the difference? And is there any?&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">As we already found out, staff augmentation is the process of hiring one or more temporary tech specialists. So, when you have more demanding projects that need constant support through all their stages of development, staff augmentation might not be a good fit for you.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">In this case, you need a delivery team that usually consists of a skilled project manager, several software developers, and quality assurance specialists. Such teams work on projects autonomously and need little or no supervision from your side.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Just like with any other cooperation strategy, staff augmentation comes with a bunch of pros and cons. Here is the list of some of the benefits you can get when opting for this model:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/images/f9e66e179b6747ae54108f82f8ade8b3c25d76fd30afde6c395822c530196169-1676407045860.png" width="2001" height="1101" /></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">1. Reduction of the time for recruiting</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Organizing a well-functioning recruiting process takes time and energy. You need to create job descriptions, place them on the job portals, interview candidates, and do many other necessary steps. And even all of them do not guarantee fast and successful hiring.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">But what if we say that staff augmentation will eliminate all these stages, especially if you get help from a staff augmentation company? It will do everything instead of you and staff your business very fast with new full members of your team.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Besides, having temporary workers will help you fight another issue called overstaffing. When you have already delivered the project, you may not need the same number of workers anymore. And with staff augmentation, you won&rsquo;t face the problem of firing gifted tech talent.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">2. Access to a talented pool of experts</h3>
<p dir="ltr">When you need a candidate with a certain technical skill set, the staff augmentation company will offer you good fits without wasting your time. Besides, you can select experts from any part of the world to meet your business goals if you do not have matches in your region.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">With staff augmentation, you can use both internal and external resources while saving your time on onboarding and training of the new employees.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">3. Enhanced flexibility and scalability</h3>
<p dir="ltr">This model is extremely flexible and scalable. With IT staff augmentation, you can easily both upscale or downscale your development team, which is more comfortable than hiring full-time employees. What is more, when the project ends, you can end the partnership with temporary staff or revive it in the future if you need help again. This won&rsquo;t ruin your brand image like firing your employees.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">4. Quality on a budget</h3>
<p dir="ltr">If your business has a limited budget and payroll, staff augmentation is just for you. You don&rsquo;t need to pay any extra costs as you do with full-time staff. However, you can always add some bonuses to improve their happiness and performance.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Moreover, small businesses benefit a lot from temporary placement on a short-term basis with no long-term commitment as you do not need to pay taxes or insurance.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">But does this mean that the quality is lower, too? Of course, not. Staff augs deliver the same quality and quantity of work just like your full-time employees.&nbsp;</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">How to Succeed with Team Augmentation</h2>
<p dir="ltr">If done the right way, staff augmentation can significantly improve your bottom line and enhance productivity. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully implement this strategy in your business:&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/images/f9e66e179b6747ae54108f82f8ade8b3c25d76fd30afde6c395822c530196169-1676407061994.png" width="2001" height="1701" /></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Identify which skill or expertise your company needs</h3>
<p dir="ltr">The first step of staff augmentation adoption is identifying which tech expertise you currently need by conducting a detailed analysis of your business operation. You can also assess your projects requirements and your personnel audit outcome and find out which gap you have and whether the acquisition of the temporary employees will help you out.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Search for staff augmentation provider</h3>
<p dir="ltr">When you are looking for a staff augmentation vendor, you should always keep in mind your requirements as different staff augmentation companies have different approaches to recruiting. Conduct the research, assess their credentials and offers, and track records. Make sure to find someone who aligns with both your corporate and operational cultures.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Compare and choose one</h3>
<p dir="ltr">You don&rsquo;t need to choose only one staff augmentation provider as each of them has unique offers to consider. Try to multisource, select several of the most suitable vendors, compare them, and select the one that is the best fit for long-term cooperation.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Foster a healthy relationship between in-house and remote teams</h3>
<p dir="ltr">No matter if you work with in-house or remote teams, you need to force a healthy environment in which everyone is happy to work. How? You need to communicate with everyone and ensure that each of the teams is in sync. For example, when you are holding a meeting, ask about your team&rsquo;s interests or hobbies to figure out what they have in common. This will also help in building a healthy relationship in the team.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Make sure the communication is clear</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Did you know that your bottom line can be improved with the help of clear communication? How so? It is obvious. Your entire team needs to understand your business vision and mission as well as all project requirements. It is also very important to ensure clear communication so that everyone who takes part in the development and administration process can contribute to it and buy into decisions.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Master useful technologies</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Always master technologies and tools that might be helpful for you. Such team collaboration tools like CRM system, Slack, JIRA, task management system, or Basecamp help to share comments from team members as well as project statuses. Be careful as the lack of communication may result in miscommunication. And this can affect your entire project negatively. Many modern tools can do the contrary; they enhance the communication and collaboration within your team.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Conclusion&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Undoubtedly, a staff augmentation strategy allows you to focus on your core business objectives and stay competitive in this fast-paced world. By adopting this cooperation solution, you get several benefits, like decreasing time and cost for recruiting and employment, improved efficiency of your team, and extreme flexibility and scalability.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.9871999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;">If you often need employees for short-term projects, then IT staff augmentation is surely a must for your firm. And the abundance of staff augmentation providers on the market will ensure that you hire only skilled developers whenever you need them and won&rsquo;t spend too much time and money on recruiting. <span id="docs-internal-guid-38677343-7fff-dfcf-7319-998567c0d35d"></span></p>

<p>Staff augmentation is an outsourcing hiring strategy where a business temporarily hires one or several outsourcing IT experts for a certain project.</p>

Staff augmentation is an outsourcing hiring strategy where a business temporarily hires one or several outsourcing IT experts for a certain project.

What is Staff Augmentation and How it Works | Agilie

<p>Agilie&rsquo;s founder and CEO, Sergey Gladun, was nominated for CEO of the Year and became one of the three finalists&nbsp;at the&nbsp;IT Biz Awards event that took place during the Outsource People conference in Kyiv.</p>
<p>On November 5th, at the Hotel Ramada Encore in Kyiv, the second annual IT Biz Awards event gathered technology leaders and enthusiasts to award them for their achievements in Ukraine&rsquo;s IT industry.</p>
<p>Based on the voting by the expert jury committee and a public poll conducted on Facebook, our team leader was rated&nbsp;among the three best Chief Executive/Operating Officers of Ukraine&rsquo;s IT companies. Cheers!</p>
<p><img style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/ckeditor_assets/pictures/210/content_outsource_people.jpg" alt="Outsource People" /></p>
<p>The IT Biz Awards recognizes IT professionals for their achievements in top management, sales, and marketing as well as companies for their special contributions to the development of Ukraine&rsquo;s IT landscape. In each nomination, there can be a&nbsp;winner and&nbsp;up to four finalists chosen from least twenty candidates.</p>

<p>Agilie&rsquo;s founder and CEO, Sergey Gladun, was nominated for CEO of the Year and became one of the three finalists at the IT Biz Awards 2016.</p>

Agilie’s founder and CEO, Sergey Gladun, was nominated for CEO of the Year and became one of the three finalists at the IT Biz Awards 2016 event that took place during the Outsource People conference in Kyiv.

Agilie’s CEO Sergey Gladun Is Among the Three Finalists for the CEO of the Year at IT Biz Awards 2016

<p style="text-align: justify;">Last weekend was truly rich with happy events for Agilie! While our CEO, Sergey Gladun, was nominated and won the third prize as a CEO of the Year at the Outsource People conference, our football team became the absolute champions by achieving the top position in the Dnipro Football IT League and winning the League Cup!</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Dnipro Football IT League is the regional football/soccer championship where teams from local IT companies compete for fun and to prove they&rsquo;re good not only in software development and modern technologies. The League features playing seasons a year: one takes place in Spring, the other is in Autumn. Last weekend&rsquo;s games concluded the Autumn season of 2016.</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IT League Cup" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/ckeditor_assets/pictures/212/content_14991928_10211040269632265_4299595871486949028_n.jpg" style="width: 720px; height: 960px;" /></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">On Saturday, November 5th, the Agilie team played the final Cup game, having defeated our colleagues from Playtika. A quick goal in the first minutes of the game brought confidence in our guys, which helped them to score five more goals and finish the game with a score of 6:0.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">On the next day, November 6th, our team played the season&rsquo;s last game in the IT League Championship. This game wasn&rsquo;t a decisive one for our team - we have ensured our championship about a game ago. But it was decisive for our rivals, Noosphere - they had to struggle for the second position in the table. They almost did it: after the half-time Agilie was losing 1:0. But our guys managed to overcome and scored two goals in the second half of the game, winning with a score of 1:2.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Another big thing to celebrate about the season&rsquo;s finale is the becoming of our bombardier, Eugene Kovalenko, the top goalscorer both in the Championship (14 goals after 7 games) and in the Cup (7 goals after 4 games, two of which were scored in the final).</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Agilie had won the Cup before - during the Autumn season of 2015. And it&rsquo;s also noteworthy that this year was Agilie&rsquo;s debut in the Championship after ascending from the lower league, the First Division. And the guys aren&rsquo;t going to stop on that!</p>


<p>Our football team became the absolute champions by achieving the top position in the Dnipro Football IT League&#39;s Championship!</p>


Our football team became the absolute champions by achieving the top position in the Dnipro Football IT League's Championship and winning the League Cup!

Agilie’s Football Team Becomes the Absolute Champions of the Dnipro Football IT League Autumn Season 2016

<p>On November 1-3, Dnipro State Chemical Technology University of Ukraine hosted the second all-Ukrainian scientific and technical conference on Computer Modeling and Optimization of Complex Systems (CMOCS).&nbsp;</p>

<p>The conference was devoted to the topics of mathematical modeling, neural networks, intelligent computer systems, data processing, and other informational technologies and how they can be utilized in chemical technology, engineering, and economics.</p>

<p>In this event, Agilie took the roles of both of a backer and a contributor. Four of our web and iOS developers wrote articles based on their research works for the university&rsquo;s annual scientific digest.</p>

<p>Web developers Dmitry Derevyagin and Sergey Melashich had their talks on the conference and presented their researches. Dmitry spoke about the building and optimization of custom high-load server systems based on the experience of the development and support of one of Agilie&rsquo;s projects, a mobile taxi booking service <a href="/blog/step-by-step-guide-on-taxi-app-development-features-and-business-model">Shark Taxi</a>. Sergey shared an extensive research on applying neural networks and machine learning in the gas-turbine engines design, which is based on his current work as a PhD candidate in a research institute.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="Agilie at cmocs" height="600" src="https://d12zh9bqbty5wp.cloudfront.net/ckeditor_assets/pictures/621/content_content_img_0035.jpg" width="800" /></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Agilie&#39;s&nbsp;Dmitry Derevyagin speaking at </em><em>CMOCS</em><em> 2016</em></p>

<p>Our iOS developer, Gennady Knizhnik, wrote about the peculiarities of using CASE (computer-aided software engineering) for building client-server applications.&nbsp;Agilie&rsquo;s&nbsp;iOS development team lead, Vladimir Zgonik, has contributed an article where he shared our team&rsquo;s experience in&nbsp;<a href="/blog/apple-watch-app-development">Apple Watch app development</a>.</p>

<p>Among speakers and guests at CMOCS 2016 were professors, technical science and engineering &nbsp;PhDs, and students from universities of Ukraine and Poland, as well as specialists from a number of research institutes and technology companies.</p>


<p>On November 1-3, Dnipro State Chemical Technology University of Ukraine hosted the second all-Ukrainian scientific and technical conference on Computer Modeling and Optimization of Complex Systems (CMOCS). Here&#39;s how we took our part in it.</p>


On November 1-3, Dnipro State Chemical Technology University of Ukraine hosted the second all-Ukrainian scientific and technical conference on Computer Modeling and Optimization of Complex Systems (CMOCS). Here's how we took our part in it.

Agilie at CMOCS 2016

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;">​If you're willing to make a perfect trading app like E-Trade, follow the guidelines of our article.&nbsp;</p>

How To Build a Trading Platform? Follow our advice on the best stock market application development

How To Build a Trading Platform. 5 Things To Know Before You Start a Stock Market App Like E-Trade

<p style="text-align: justify;">How to create a live streaming website? Read all the details in our article!</p>

Wanna know how to create a successful streaming site like Twitch, with 300+ million visits per month?  ➠ Click here to find out all the details!

How to Create a Live Video Streaming Website Like Twitch and Get Your Revenue

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-57f8bcc3-7fff-ac96-f71f-9c535c41c6b8">Read our article to find out how to </span>create a financial app and make your profit.</p>

Do you want to earn with your own personal finance app? Read our article to find out how

How to Build a Personal Finance App (Updated 2023 Guide) | Agilie

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-eaafea18-7fff-519b-f0fa-36e7b26b602d">What is the</span> discovery phase, and why do you need it? Read our article to find out the answers!</p>

You’re planning to create a website or application and want it to make you profit as soon as possible, right? In this case, you cannot do without the discovery phase in software development ⚡ But what is the discovery phase of a project, and how to implement it in practice? Read our article to find out the answers ✅

Articles on Agilie public life