Hiring Web Developers: A Contracted Development Team or Hourly?
An intriguing question that is common among aspiring entrepreneurs getting their foot in the door and large revenue-generating unicorns and MNCs – Should we go for a dedicated development team or hire contractual freelancers? Getting a team to work remotely for your organization’s projects seemed unreal, until the boom of virtual solutions launched into the stratosphere!
Outsourcing has been rising rapidly in popularity, which is justified by the outstanding revenue figures for the IT Outsourcing market. Revenue in this industry is forecasted to reach $12.5bn in 2024, with a CAGR growth of 10.99%. According to Bain and Company, nearly 60% of HR executives plan to scale outsourcing in the next 3 years.
You can be made to hear 1000 times that recruiting a developers’ team from external agencies is better than opting for professionals on an hourly project. But what about proving it? This blog is the perfect guide to justify the need to hire a team of developers for a long-term project. It unveils how the effectiveness and ease with which the objectives of an organization can be achieved, a healthy collaboration to foster, and many more – all with the help of investing in a developers’ team! Let’s address this never-ending debate below.
Distinction Between Dedicated Developers and Hourly Contractors
By definition, dedicated developers are a trained army of skilled professionals hired by an organization with its connections or via a software development company, who are exclusively appointed to work for project(s) on a long-term basis. Without joining the in-house team, they are completely involved in the development lifecycle.
Common roles and responsibilities of the teams:
- Contribute to the projects that are deployed and designed, considering a long-term prospect.
- Actively collaborate with team members to achieve perfection.
- Approach the client’s project with an agile mindset and practice.
On the other hand, hourly contractors are recruited on a need-only basis for a much shorter time-frame. Organizations hire these professionals to achieve a certain project objective. They are commonly known as “freelancers” who charge an hourly rate and are usually not chosen for a long-term relationship.
The duties of a freelancer generally include:
- Provide exceptional expertise on a topic, with superior problem-solving skills.
- Deliver projects that adhere to the highest industry standards.
- Execute and complete the work strictly according to the deadlines agreed upon in the contract.
- Maintain healthy communication between the client and adapt to changes as and when needed.
Now that both the contenders in this debate are introduced briefly, let’s throw light on the advantages of going for dedicated developers.
Perks of Hiring Dedicated Development Teams
Minimizes Overhead Costs
Overhead and administrative expenses like allocating office space, purchasing tech equipment, conducting training, and availing employee insurance can be cut off if you are planning to hire a team of developers.
Greater Focus And Understanding of The Project Goals
Hourly contractors work on multiple projects simultaneously. On the contrary, dedicated development teams function with a more concentrated focus. Also, thanks to the greater amount of time spent on the project, they are more aligned with the objectives of the project.
Improved Collaboration And Team Synchronization
Being solely focused on a single project or organization, dedicated developers get the chance to gel with their fellow team members more. This magnifies the collaboration in the group. Moreover, team synergy leads to increased proactive decision-making and a higher sense of accountability.
Ensures the Net Expenditure to the Minimum
Although hiring hour-based contractors may seem to be a cost-effective deal, the cumulative costs accumulated over time will be much greater, as compared to shifting focus on dedicated developers. For large-scale projects, opting for the second option will be a more viable choice.
Increased Flexibility And Agility
In this world, demands are ever-changing, and so are the expectations of clients revolving around a critical project. Recruiting a dedicated team of developers can help achieve agility in the workflow, catering to modifications requested in the software development lifecycle.
Easily Accessible Team Members
As compared to hourly-based freelancers, a dedicated developers’ team can be approached in a much better way. These teams have worked together for multiple prior reputed projects, and have a proper employment hierarchy. In fact, you can pass your message to the product manager to let the whole team know at once.
Promises Faster Completion Time
Freelancers usually work on a number of projects at the same time, thus leading to delayed outcomes. On the other hand, a devoted team is readily involved with the development process from start to end. This reduces the time for final product delivery
While this section covered the benefits of hiring a dedicated developer team, readers can also get a grasp of the limitations that contractual workers provide with a case study. In other words, two targets are achieved with one arrow!
Real-World Case Studies That Discuss the Impact of Dedicated Development Teams In Businesses
Here are some outrageous examples of the cons of securing the services of dedicated developers’ teams:
JXT
JXT, a leading digital marketing agency in Australia, has boosted its website development output by nearly 200% generating 500+ pages in just 5 years. All of these are thanks to the outsourcing of a diligent team.
Elite Mobile
The largest telecommunication distributor based in the UK, Elite Mobile was provided with an ERP solution with the help of a dedicated team of developers, QA testers, server-side associates, .NET coders, etc. This catapulted their retail partners to 45000, with over 200 field representatives.
Slack
Slack, the famous employee collaboration platform, that started as a messaging startup has reached a staggering valuation of $27 billion in 2021, with a forecasted 80 million user base by 2025. Outsourcing logo designing, and employing external teams for website and application development served as a masterstroke.
WhatsApp was successfully able to build a great product and cut costs, by deploying offshore developers from Russia. While the development services were provided by outsourcing, the core business operations were handled by the company. This led to its $19 billion takeover by Meta, in the year 2019.
The supreme tech giant, Google even outsources its AdWords project to third-party vendors despite boasting a 90000 employee headcount. This leads to halving its in-house costs along with working in unison with a quality talent pool.
Skype
Another great example of how outsourcing can be deployed to conquer heights is Skype. This well-known video conferencing platform hired a team from Estonia(East Europe) to hunt down skilled talents at a minimal cost. In this way, the business grew and was consequently acquired by Microsoft for 8.5 billion US Dollars in 2011.
Bottom Line
If you’ve reached this part of the blog, the positives of hiring dedicated developer teams are convincingly outweighing the need for hourly contractors. It is especially noticeable when the running project is a legacy, or is a trademark product of the brand for a long time.
Running live applications may necessitate the requirement for a support center at any point in time. A trustworthy remote development team working for your organization should be ready to help 24/7, which freelancers fail to provide. One thing to note here is, to go for the reputation of the software development company or the vendor through which the team shall be hired.
All in all, harness the power of a collective talent pool of outsourced developers and in-house employees to bring out the best of your organization’s abilities!
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Contact Eco York today to hire dedicated developers that will take your project to the next level.
