3 Benefits for Staff Augmentation Services in Healthcare IT

The healthcare information technology (IT) landscape presents unique challenges for companies aiming to scale their teams due to the wide-ranging expertise needed to develop IT successfully. From front-end developers focusing on user experience and interface to back-end developers improving structure and communication among servers and minimizing cybersecurity risks, a company seeking to develop healthcare IT has many knowledge gaps to fill.

Let’s explore the concept of staff augmentation services and outsourcing software development as effective strategies to overcome these hurdles, along with how these practices have gained popularity due to their contributions toward achieving project outcomes faster.

1. Scaling Faster with Staff Augmentation Services

Team augmentation is the process of bringing in outsiders to serve for a period of time on your team to complete a project. Augmentation can be done by increasing workforce numbers during a busy time, such as the holiday season, or by expanding the department’s knowledge base and skills via recruiting outsiders who have different skills from your in-house team. Many healthcare IT companies benefit more from the latter, as it enables them to rapidly expand their development capacity by helping the team overcome knowledge limitations. The professionals being brought in typically have valuable insights and lessons learned from previous healthcare IT projects at other institutions.

By leveraging staff augmentation services, companies can benefit from reduced training time and ensure that team members already possess the necessary experience to meet target expectations. Furthermore, outsourcing software development provides access to a broader talent pool, as an organization can expand its network of people looking for the appropriate talent. While team augmentation may seem like a new concept, healthcare software consulting is actually commonplace, with the healthcare industry being one of the top five industries to utilize these services.

2. Lowering Resource Onboarding Time

Hiring and onboarding new team members internally can be time consuming and costly. The process of recruiting takes time due to screening applicants, interviewing them, and assessing their fit for the job. An organization can utilize a hiring firm without even finding the correct fit for the job because applicant pools may be limited based on your specific project need. Moreover, managing human resources and employee benefits can divert valuable resources from core development activities.

Outsourcing software and technology development mitigates these challenges, as external team members will join projects with the understanding that their tenure will be limited. Their previous experience working on similar projects at other institutions provides these external team members with the hands-on experience to complete your project efficiently and accurately. This means they require less extensive onboarding and training, allowing for quicker integration into the project. Partnering with experienced professionals who are already familiar with the required technologies and processes accelerates productivity and reduces time devoted to learning the basics of how to complete your project.

3. Reducing Costs through Outsourcing

A significant advantage of staff augmentation services for software development is the potential for cost savings. The price of consultants may seem expensive initially, but you must consider the extensive costs of bringing in a new employee for the long term. New employees require investing in recruitment, hiring, training, and providing infrastructure support and benefits. Utilizing a consultant firm that has expertise in all the skills that you need bundles these investments into a single cost. Furthermore, the skill set of a new employee might not bring long-term value to your organization if the need is temporary. Developing healthcare IT requires input from numerous experts for a limited period, so it may not make sense to expand in-house during a project development phase because your organization will bear those costs in the long run.

The wide-ranging and long-term investment costs of hiring new in-house staff can impede a company’s ability to better manage its cash flow and long-term financial commitments. Moreover, longitudinal training and promotion of employee satisfaction receive less emphasis for your company, as this responsibility lies with the outsourcing organization. Therefore, the time and financial burden that your organization commits to is lowered by augmenting your team’s development needs.

Addressing Concerns of Team Augmentation and Mitigating Risks

While outsourcing offers numerous advantages, there are potential concerns and risks that your organization should consider. Make sure the outsourced team members educate the in-house team members on how they made the technology work. An in-house member may not need to know how to code for technology-server communication, but they should still know how the communication process works so they can utilize the right resources to fix future issues without the outsourced team.

Furthermore, organizations should be mindful of the culture and ethos of their workplace and ensure that communication and values are aligned to promote team satisfaction and productivity. One simple approach for evaluating this is to consider the augmentation team’s track record and their ability to demonstrate proficiency in your desired product.

Conclusion

Staff augmentation services provide a range of benefits for healthcare IT and software development. This approach enables companies to scale faster, reduce resources devoted to onboarding and training, and cut costs in the long run. The ability to leverage the knowledge and expertise of external professionals enhances the development process because their experience minimizes the need for trial and error.

Companies should seriously consider team augmentation as a viable option to optimize their healthcare IT development efforts due to the complex and expansive knowledge base needed to successfully develop new technologies.

Here at OtterSoft, we help healthcare technology providers drive innovation and integrate smoothly with legacy systems to keep things in motion, address the challenges of healthcare innovation, and seamlessly keep information in sync. Please get in touch with us today to see how we can help you overcome healthcare innovation challenges by strategically augmenting your team!