A timeless quote from a well-known literary work captures the essence of how businesses strive to navigate through uncertain times. It says:

“… we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that.”

While companies reduce IT departments and seek ways to improve budget allocation, the work scope is decreasing along with the need for expertise in software engineering. This has made partnerships with external software development companies so popular these days as it helps to fill in such gaps. These numbers speak for themselves:

In this article, I’m sharing three of the most effective approaches to partnering with software solutions providers and explaining the cases where each of them works the best for ROI optimization.

Related: 5 Things to Consider When You’re Hiring A Software Outsourcing Partner

Dedicated development team

A dedicated development team works on a long-term basis intending to include all client’s requirements in software solutions and align them with the company’s strategic objectives. It consists of experts needed to create a project from scratch. In this case, the client transfers responsibility for administrative, HR, tax and social benefits matters to its tech partner.

Let’s imagine you plan to upgrade IT infrastructure in the company. Your goal is to make it smooth and minimize any problems or disruptions that might occur. It’ll take time to find a talented IT Infrastructure architect, and there is no guarantee that the person found is right for the project. On the other hand, partnering with a dedicated development team with such expertise will ensure faster change implementation.

To develop the Experimentation Platform and help drivers make wise parking and traffic-related decisions, Ford involved experts from IBM. Leveraging IBM Analytics delivered through the IBM Cloud, this partnership facilitated the continuous flow of data. As a result, Ford introduced a groundbreaking tech solution that also finds application in other companies’ projects.

The areas in which partnering with a dedicated development team brings the most business outcomes are:

Team augmentation

When a business chooses to collaborate with a software development company on the team augmentation model, this means enhancing the existing group of engineers with new professionals. The terms of this cooperative agreement specify that the involved professionals are required to allocate their efforts to specific tasks, and compensation is based on the number of hours worked.

Here’s how team augmentation works within the company: Suppose a growing ecommerce business wants to develop a mobile application with a specific 3D functionality. The in-house team is already working on this project, but they lack experience in creating some 3D features. Rather than waiting for the team to acquire these skills, the company finds a software engineer from a third-party vendor.

Cases when the tech team augmentation for businesses works the best:

Related: 4 Mistakes Not to Make When Choosing A Software Development Company

Managed services

Managed services is the practice of transferring responsibility for specific functions within the software development department to third-party service providers. Namely, they monitor, maintain and optimize the systems, acting as a trusted advisor.

Imagine you plan to create or restore data backup. This requires a group of cybersecurity specialists and back-end engineers who will regularly maintain the company’s digital file storage and look for solutions to facilitate search and collaboration. By partnering with a managed services provider and getting access to experts, businesses minimize the risks of file damage, loss or unauthorized access.

Managed services is a great option when a business needs services like:

• Hosting/cloud operations

• Infrastructure support

• Cybersecurity services

In the face of skill shortages and budget constraints, partnering with external software solution providers is a workable way for businesses. Although dedicated development team, team augmentation and managed services offer companies exclusive expertise and economically justified conditions of cooperation, they fit different business goals.

The outlined specifics and differences between these partnership models will help you to choose the right approach to address skills gaps and optimize the whole operations’ efficiency.

Related: Why Outsourcing Software Development Services Is Gaining Traction With Non-Technical Leaders