Why Should You Choose a Team as a Service Model for Your Business?

Quick Summary: Discover the power of the Team as a Service (TaaS) model for your business. TaaS revolutionizes the way companies operate by providing on-demand access to skilled professionals. This flexible and cost-effective approach enhances agility, promotes specialized expertise, and fosters seamless collaboration, driving heightened efficiency and innovation.

Businesses must be agile, adaptable, and readily available 24x7 in today’s hyper-competitive landscape. To fulfil this requirement, either you can make your employees work extra hours or hire new team members who can fill in for your existing team after office hours. 

However, both options are not suitable. Here’s why:

• Making your employees work extra hours can increase stress and burn, affecting your productivity.
• Hiring is a costly initiative. The average cost of hire in the US is $4700, according to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). Similarly, it takes 42 days on average to fill a new position. Not everyone has the time and budget to spend on hiring new staff.

That’s why most businesses are turning to Teams as a Service (TaaS), a modern, efficient, and cost-effective solution to the abovementioned problems. 

In this blog, we’ll learn what the Teams as a Service model is, how it works, its advantages, and how much the TaaS model can cost. By the time you finish reading, you will have a clear overview of whether your company should choose a TaaS model. Let’s begin:

What is Team as a Service (TaaS)?

The team as a Service (TaaS) is an outsourcing approach using which you can hire remote developers and other dedicated experts without going through the conventional hiring process. 

The TaaS approach is similar to building a team from scratch. However, instead of spending time and money on hiring, the TaaS provider takes care of everything and provides you with a dedicated development team for software development pre-equipped with the necessary skills and expertise. These experts can work on your project or provide ongoing support. So you can easily assemble them to meet your business needs. 

How Does Team as a Service Work?

The team as a Service (TaaS) process involves the following steps:

• You define your requirements.
• The TaaS provider accesses these requirements and proposes a team of experts.
• You and the TaaS provider agree on the terms of engagement.
• The TaaS provider assembles the team and starts working on the project.
• You and the TaaS provider regularly communicate to ensure the project progress is on track.
• TaaS provider delivers the project and offers ongoing support.

The engagement would continue until the project ends or you end the agreement. 

Example Of Team as a Service:

Suppose you’re a business owner looking to hire software developers for your startup. Here’s how the TaaS process would be in this case:

• The first step would be to define your requirements, i.e., the type of services you want, the support you’re looking for, and the qualifications you prefer the team members to have.  
• Based on these requirements, the TaaS provider would assess your needs and propose a suitable team. Usually, the TaaS provider has multiple dedicated software development teams (QA, UX design, Software Development, Testing, IT support). Since you need a dedicated team of software developers, they would propose developers who are suitable for your project.
• At this stage, you and the TaaS provider would discuss the terms of engagement, such as the price, working hours, operating model, etc. Then after discussion, you both agree on the terms of engagement.
• The TaaS provider would assemble the team of software developers for your project, and they would start delivering their services. 
• Throughout the project, you and the TaaS provider would regularly communicate to discuss the project’s progress. The idea is to ensure that you get the desired services from developers and that no blockers affect your progress.

The support will continue till you decide to terminate the contract or its timeline finishes. 

TaaS vs In-house Hiring: What’s the Difference?

The general difference between team as a Service (TaaS) and in-house hiring is that:

• In TaaS, you don’t need to seek and hire individuals from scratch. Instead, TaaS providers have a dedicated team of developers and other experts with diverse skills. You only need to hire the team through TaaS providers and get on with your project. So, the process is quick.
• You need to seek and hire talent from scratch in in-house hiring. Hence, it is usually time-consuming.

Here’s a table outlining the differences between TaaS and in-house hiring in more detail:

Advantages of the Team as a Service Model

1. Access to specialized skills and talent

The lack of specialized talent is one of the biggest challenges businesses face. Especially those looking to tap into technical skills or expertise often face difficulty recruiting the right people if professionals with those skills are rare, such as data scientists and cybersecurity experts.

TaaS providers have a pool of pre-qualified professionals with various skills. With their help, you can easily find remote developers and set up an offshore development centre, thus quickly getting access to specialized skills and talent without spending too much time and money.

2. Reduced time and cost of hiring and managing a team

Hiring and managing a team is costly. Businesses often spend significant time and money on hiring, onboarding, and team management. As a result, they have little time to focus on core business activities.

TaaS providers hire and manage the outsourcing team so businesses can focus on activities that matter, saving significant time and money. Also, outsourcing to India, China, and Eastern Europe is much more affordable than managing your team in-house in the US, UK, or Canada. This way, you can save time and money and spend the budget on better business initiatives.

3. Increased flexibility and scalability

Some businesses operate on demand, and they quickly need to ramp up or down their operations based on market requirements. With dedicated in-house teams, you don’t get this luxury. You can fire team members just because the market demand is less at the instant because hiring new members later would be expensive. Similarly, hiring new members when in high demand takes time and costs money.

TaaS providers can help you easily scale your team up or down based on your requirements. You can hire more dedicated experts through them when the demand is high and relieve them when the market demand is less. You can quickly adjust to changing market requirements without financial or operational pressure.

4. Reduced risk of hiring the wrong people

According to a study by the Aberdeen Group, a bad hire costs $240,000 to a technology company, which can be significant for any business. Hence, hiring the wrong people is a concern for many companies.

TaaS providers typically have a rigorous screening process, so you can be confident they are hiring talented remote developers for the project.

5. High level of transparency and collaboration

Collaboration and transparency are the keys to successful projects. When everyone in your team is on the same page and knows how their contribution shapes the final product, the chances of success are much higher. 

The Team as a Service approach offers the highest level of transparency and collaboration. You can oversee the project, regularly connect with the team to discuss progress and blockers, and ensure you don’t miss crucial updates.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a TaaS Team?

Depending on the project size and complexity, team skills and expertise, and the team location, a TaaS team can cost anywhere between $5000 and $50,000.

Here are the tentative costs of hiring a TaaS team:

• A small team of 3-5 people with basic skills: $5,000 - $10,000 monthly.
• A medium-sized team of 10-15 people with specialized skills: $10,000 - $20,000 monthly.
• A large team of 20-30 people with specialized skills: $20,000 - $40,000 monthly.

The keyword here is tentative because the actual cost of a TaaS team would vary depending on the factors mentioned above.

The location also plays a critical role in defining the cost of hiring a TaaS team. It’s because software developer hourly charges will differ from country to country. A US, UK, or Canada-based software developer can charge between $100 and $150 per hour. On the other hand, a developer from India would charge $20-$25 per hour. It would make a huge difference in determining the final cost of hiring the TaaS team.

You must research and get quotes from multiple providers for a more accurate estimate. Some TaaS service providers also provide outsourcing cost calculators to help you accurately predict costs.

Key Considerations When Choosing a TaaS Provider

Here are a few things you must consider when choosing a TaaS provider to avoid making a wrong choice:

• Choose a TaaS provider with the skills and expertise to work efficiently on your project. Also, they should experience working on projects similar to yours.
• Get quotes from multiple providers before choosing a TaaS provider that fits your budget. Especially when hiring developers for startups, you must be careful with spending as the budget is limited.
• Choose a TaaS provider that can scale its team up or down based on your requirements.
• Your TaaS provider should be able to communicate and collaborate with your team effectively. This way, you can finish the project on time and to your satisfaction.
• Check the TaaS provider’s track record, references, and reviews before deciding.
• The TaaS provider’s culture and values should align with you.

Considering these points would help you avoid making a wrong decision and make working with the TaaS provider a breeze.

Here are a few additional tips for choosing the right TaaS provider:

• Get referrals from businesses that have previously worked with the TaaS provider. They would help you avoid choosing a provider who isn’t the right fit.
• Read reviews of TaaS providers to get a sense of their customer satisfaction and market reputation before deciding.
• Interview the providers after short-listing them to understand their capabilities and service offerings better. Interviews can also be a great chance to ask your doubts.
• Get everything in writing, including the cost, the timeline, and the scope of work, to avoid misunderstandings.

Is Team As A Service The Right Choice For Me?

Whether or not Team as a Service (TaaS) is the right choice depends on your specific needs and circumstances like budget, time, level of desired control, and need for specialized skills.

Here are a few questions you must ask to understand better if the Teams as a Service approach fit your business: 

• Do you lack the specific technical skills to complete a project?
• Is your in-house team packed and can’t take on new initiatives?
• Do you wish to scale your tech team quickly with minimum risks?
• Are you facing difficulty with hiring the right talents locally?
• Is lacking the right local talent a major hurdle in your growth?
• Does the lack of control in outsourcing bother you?

If the answer to all or one of these questions is yes, you should opt for the team as a Service model. Otherwise, it would be best not to consider it.

How Can YTII Help Me?

YTII is a trusted company that provides offshore development services with over 13 years of experience and a team of 200+ software engineers. We help businesses maximize efficiency and profits by working with offshore teams in India.

YTII has a proven track record of success, having delivered over 1,000 projects and maintaining a 90% client retention rate. 

A popular example is Gohire, an applicant tracking system brand that collaborated with YTII to scale its team quickly and economically. We helped them build a team of 2 software developers specializing in Angular, NodeJs, and PHP, 1 HubSpot Migration Expert, and three digital media experts in Strategy, SEO, and Social Media.

 Are you looking to hire offshore developers? Talk to our experts today!