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Building Your Ultimate Team: What are Supplemental Software Development Services?

Haley Hermanson : January 30, 2024

Custom Development

Building Your Ultimate Team: What are Supplemental Software Development Services?

Your company has been successfully running with a skilled in-house development team. However, you want to create a customer portal to stay competitive and engage your current customer base better. Your team’s workload is currently at capacity, and you also know that to implement this, you must hire to help bridge the skill set gap within your team.

Implementing new technologies can be risky, especially when your in-house team lacks experience in these areas. Disrupting the current operations without assured expertise doesn’t always make sense either. On top of that, in a fast-paced industry, learning and implementing new technologies in-house could significantly delay the time to market.

What if there was an alternative to hiring an in-house developer to help solve your need? Enter Supplemental Software Development Services.

With supplemental software development services, you can bridge the gaps within your team without hiring a full-time in-house developer with the necessary expertise and skill set. Supplemental software development services provide you with:

Specialized Expertise: These services provide immediate access to an expert with knowledge and expertise in advanced technologies.
Resource Flexibility: You can supplement your in-house team, allowing you the flexibility to scale up efforts on specific projects without the long-term commitment of hiring more staff.
Reduced Risk: Bringing on external services brings along proven experience and knowledge in implementing new technologies, thereby reducing the risk of failure.
Faster Development Cycle: With their focus and expertise, supplemental software development services can speed up development, ensuring quicker deployment and faster time-to-market.

This article will look at and define supplemental software development services. How supplemental software development services can be a cost-effective alternative to hiring, the value software development services can bring, and our approach to the supplemental software development service here at Onsharp.

What are Supplemental Software Development Services?

Supplemental software development services refer to bringing in external developers to help fill in the gaps and work alongside your in-house team. These developers can be freelancers, contractors, or members of a specialized development firm like ours here at Onsharp.

Typically, developers are contracted on a short-term basis to help with specific projects, such as building a web portal, creating custom software, or supplying support on a special project.

Supplemental development services aim to provide additional resources and expertise to help your in-house team meet goals, not replace your team.

Using Supplemental Software Development Services vs. Hiring

Supplemental Software Development Services Benefits

With supplemental software development services, you don’t have to worry about scouting, hiring, training, and supervising a full-time employee(s) — or providing enough work to keep them busy. Instead, you can outsource the development of a particular project, either in full or partially, to a highly experienced team of professionals.

The catch? There isn’t one, really. Supplemental software development services gives you:

Seamless Integration: You get access to expert developers who will work alongside and seamlessly integrate with your in-house development team. Experienced developers can quickly adapt to your processes, tools, and communication methods.
Flexibility: Supplementing software development allows you to choose when, who, and for how long you need support. External developers can integrate into your team and help with various work to support your team and goals.
Experience: Attracting and keeping top talent comes with a hefty price tag. With a supplemental software development service, you access expert developers fluent in the most popular and in-demand coding languages, including C#, .Net, HTML, JavaScript, and more.

The Hiring Cost

Hiring full-time, in-house developers is a great way to drive long-term growth. However, recruiting takes a lot of time, resources, and money.

Let’s put this into perspective: finding and hiring a new in-house developer requires months of searching, interviewing, negotiating, and training — on top of paying them a salary and an enticing benefits package.

Multiple studies have estimated that hiring one new employee costs between $4,000 and $20,000, depending on the industry. This amount creeps even higher for full-time software engineers, as most companies use an external recruiting firm to find talent. In turn, those firms typically charge a fee of about 25% of the prospect’s yearly salary. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for software developers is $130,160 So, before considering all other associated costs, employers are looking at as much as $32,000 to find someone.

This traditional take on finding talent doesn’t always make sense. In the short term, you spend more on onboarding and training than it’s worth. And, if business starts to slow down or a big project wraps up, you may have to scale back your development team — despite all the time and money you spent on recruiting.

The Value of Supplemental Software Development Services

There are several reasons why supplemental software development services are an excellent choice for your business:

Access to specialized skills: Sometimes, you may have a gap in your team with a specific skill set needed to complete a project, such as familiarity with a coding language or expertise in iOS or Android development. Bringing on external developers to work alongside your in-house team to fill those gaps can help complete your project on time and within budget.
Increased productivity: By supplementing your in-house team with added resources, you can increase productivity and complete projects faster. This can be particularly valuable for businesses with tight deadlines or limited resources.
Cost-effectiveness: Hiring full-time employees can be expensive, especially for short-term projects. By contracting external developers on a project-by-project basis, you can save money and get the support you need right when you need it without the time and effort of onboarding new employees.
Scalability: Supplemental software development services allow you to scale your development team up or down depending on your needs. This can be particularly valuable for businesses with shifting demands or unpredictable workloads.
Reduced risk: By bringing in external developers with specialized expertise, you can reduce the risk of project failure. These developers can help find potential issues early on and provide solutions to ensure your project is completed on time and within budget.

Bringing on Supplemental Software Development Help

Have you tried software development services before and not had the most ideal experience? We get it; outsourcing your development usually means you will work with a company that will ship your project off and you will probably never hear from them again until your project is complete or if problems arise. That is why choosing the right partner is so important from the start.

Concerned about onboarding outside developers onto your team? With the right partner, you shouldn’t be!

How to Choose the Right Partner

Before bringing on outside development help it’s important to make sure you choose the right partner.

Here are four tips to help you make the right choice:

Look for developers with the right skills and experience: Before hiring external developers, make sure they have the skills and experience needed to complete your project. Look for developers with a track record of success in similar projects and get specific with your needs and goals.
Choose developers who are a good fit for your team: It’s important to choose developers who are a good fit with your in-house team. Look for developers who communicate well and are easy to work with.
Consider the cost: While you shouldn’t aim to bring on the cheapest help you can find, it is important to consider your budget when hiring external developers. You want to make sure you are getting high-quality work while staying within your budget.
Check their track record: Before hiring external developers, check their references and ask about their experience with similar projects to ensure that they have a track record of success.

Onboarding Made Easy: Our Process to Ensure Success

At Onsharp, we are working to change the industry with our approach to service. Our team of expert developers is entirely US-based and is headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. This guarantees you’ll be working with reliable professionals who are easily accessible and understand the importance of clear communication and meeting your deadlines.

With our supplemental software development service, you get access to experienced software developers right out of the gate. Providing ongoing support is our specialty, so whether you need developers for twelve months or are looking for a long-term partnership, rest assured that our expert developers are here to help.

Our onboarding process is designed with efficiency and effectiveness in mind. Every company’s process may look different, but here is our approach:

Consultation: First, we will sit with you to understand your needs and business requirements. We genuinely want to understand the challenges you face and work to identify the specific skill set and solutions you are looking for.
Developer selection: Based on your needs, we’ll match you with the experienced developer(s) best suited for the job.
Onboarding: Our developers will seamlessly integrate with your in-house team. It’ll be like they were there all along.
Execution: We’ll get started on tackling your projects.
Support: We’re committed to your satisfaction. So, even after things are said and done, we’ll still be here to provide added support as you need.

But don’t just take our word for it! Here is a client success story featuring Steffes Group.

Conclusion

For many companies that may be in the midst of a large project, are looking for immediate access to expert developers, or are interested in building a long-term and flexible partnership, supplemental software development services offer all of that and more — and without the laundry list of costs associated with traditional hiring.

By bringing in external developers to supplement your in-house team, you can access specialized skills, increase productivity, save money, and reduce risk. Supplemental software development can be a cost-effective way to tackle projects you couldn’t tackle otherwise.