The main task of any business is to function efficiently. There are two indicators of effective business: profitability and waste of resources. The last item includes the amount of energy expended to complete the task and human resources. The more efficiently the allocation of resources is, the more profit the business gives.
In the IT sphere, there are many options for a reasonable allocation of time and resources: we are familiar with such concepts as outsourcing, outstaffing, and leasing. We will talk about the latter today: what are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing, what is the difference between outsourcing and leasing, and introduce an option of body leasing consulting.
What Are IT Leasing Services?
There are several types of IT leasing services: equipment leasing and body/team leasing. Reasons why companies should consider renting equipment include expanding business, choosing the best equipment, and saving money. Equipment rental allows you to distribute the costs of new equipment, and more expensive equipment allows staff to work faster. The IT equipment rental service can simplify the acquisition of IT equipment for your business. You can rent computers, laptops, servers, networking and communications equipment, and more.
Body leasing involves the hiring of one specialist. This option provides the client with one developer, project manager, QA, or any other specialist. It is worth choosing this option for small businesses and startups.
The client can contact the leasing service provider for consultation. The company will help the client to determine exactly what business needs can be covered by leasing.
Software development team leasing is preferable for large projects. The customer can choose either in-house full-stack developers or remote development teams. This type of leasing is preferable for large companies and startups. According to statistics, about 35% of companies prefer to hire teams through contractors, since it is not that expensive and the business can focus on its main tasks.
In body/team leasing, the software development company acts as an intermediary between the customer company and the development team. This is a suitable cooperation model for those who need remote programmers for a specific project, and not for permanent employment. The leasing company conducts interviews to find a candidate with the right skills. If successful, the developer starts working exclusively for the client, usually at the client’s office.
Main features of IT Leasing Services
Among the features of leasing services are:
- Fast solution for companies of all sizes
Leasing specialists has one advantage: it attracts companies — it is the fastest way to hire specialists. The contractor company offers to hire experienced specialists ready to start working on the customer’s project immediately. Since these companies have access to a large number of experts, they can easily move team members between different clients and projects.
- Predictable price
Through proper planning, the customer knows how much he should expect. While the project remains flexible (you can edit deadlines, add tasks according to the agile principle), the customer receives a predictable project with a fixed price.
- Transparent communication
The leased team bears the same share of responsibility for the project as the employees in the office. The customer manages them directly, he always knows what the team is doing and what stage of progress the team is at.
The disadvantage of leasing is also worth mentioning: it is not suitable for short term projects.
Finding the right specialist or team and aligning them with the goals of the project and other team members takes time. Going through this area of view in a month is not an efficient option from a business point of view. Therefore, choosing this working model is beneficial only if your project is large enough and requires a large number of developers.
Difference Between Body/Team Leasing and Outsourcing
Finding and hiring IT staff remains a challenge for any company, regardless of the budget for staff. The question is always about the amount of time for selection, identification of the right candidate — all this today is decided by body leasing or development teams outsourcing. However, the difference between the two hiring services may not be clear enough and needs to be explained.
Body leasing is the ad hoc hiring of IT professionals with competencies in various areas of software development. This is a good option for reducing project implementation costs and optimizing it. The lease term is from one day to a year, while the executing company independently hires the necessary personnel on its own and leases it to the customer.
It is better to conclude contracts for personnel leasing with those providers who are well aware of the market for these professions. They will be able to find the best-priced resources, which will ultimately help them reduce hourly rates and, as a result, give the client savings.
Outsourcing is preferable when a client needs to free up the time of key employees, but at the same time not lose the quality of work and maintain the necessary KPIs. The client does not need to know about the individual stages of software development, because the people he hires know everything about them and can give the result that the client orders. They can also work remotely from another country, and the client will only receive information about the results of each stage.
Conclusion
Body leasing helps to reduce software development team cost in the long term. The main advantage of these solutions is that companies no longer spend time searching for IT specialists in the market and, thus, avoid the financial costs of constantly recruiting staff. Turning to a software company that offers outsourcing of its employees simplifies the IT project implementation. A client of such a company doesn’t need to maintain a full-time employee or a team of specialists for one project. Leasing is a convenient opportunity to transform capital expenditures into operating expenses, which is especially important for developing companies or organizations that fulfill specific diverse orders.