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Attracting external professionals best suited for a certain task allows businesses to save money by avoiding traditional hiring and maintaining full-time employees. Instead, they pay only for the expertise they need. Time is also saved as a ready-to-go team allows businesses to start projects immediately.
The article discusses the pros and cons of this approach, the specifics of engaging the external workforce, and the best way to do it right.
What is Team as a Service?
What is TaaS in its essence? This is a process of buying expertise elsewhere instead of training your own employees for a single task that is not a routine one for your business. Not only does it save time and money, but it also ensures that the skill set and experience of a contractor are at a high level. The core principles here are flexibility and specialization, allowing businesses to access skilled professionals on demand without long-term commitments.
How does Team as a Service work?
In the Team as a Service model, the business partners with an external service provider who assigns specialized professionals for a specific project. The management process is typically streamlined, with the TaaS provider handling team coordination. Business maintains regular communication with the provider to ensure alignment on goals and timelines.
Coordination mostly happens through digital tools, allowing seamless integration between the external team and the client’s representative. The client oversees the project’s strategic direction, while the contractor focuses on execution, ensuring efficiency throughout the process. The flexibility of the model makes it a powerful tool and provides a competitive edge for businesses.
TaaS Delivery Models: Dedicated Team vs Extended Team
When hiring a TaaS team, you can choose between the Dedicated Team model and the Extended Team model.
A dedicated development team works exclusively on a client’s project. This model suits long-term endeavors requiring deep involvement and a strong understanding of company goals. In contrast, an Extended Team supplements an in-house unit, filling skill gaps or handling specific tasks while the core team retains control. This approach is ideal for short-term needs, scaling up quickly, or bringing in specialized expertise.
💡 Pro Tip: To make the right choice and hire a TaaS team that better suits your company, consider project complexity, duration, and the level of integration required.
What services TaaS can provide?
A Team as a Service is useful for various tasks and can support businesses in achieving efficiency goals. These are the areas they are commonly hired for:
- Software Development and IT – Building applications, business digital transformation, managing cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and technical support.
- Marketing and Content Creation – SEO, social media management, copywriting, and branding strategies.
- Business Operations and Support – Customer service, data analysis, project management, and HR.
- Creative Work and Design – UI/UX design, graphic design, and video production.
Is Team as a Service the right fit for my business?
To determine whether TaaS is the right solution for your company, use the following checklist:
- Do you need specialized skills that your in-house employees lack?
- Is hiring full-time employees too costly or time-consuming?
- Does your workload fluctuate, requiring flexible staffing?
- Do you want to force development and scale quickly without long-term commitments?
- Are you struggling to manage multiple projects efficiently?
- Do you need experts to handle non-core business functions?
- Are you aiming to boost innovation and efficiency?
Assess the results. If you answered "Yes" to most questions, then employing external expertise is a great fit for your business development, offering flexibility, cost savings, and access to top talent.
If you mostly answered "No", your current structure may be sufficient, but you may consider partnering with a TaaS company for future scalability. Companies in tech, finance, software development, marketing, customer service, and creative industries often gain the most.
What benefits does my business get with TaaS?
Team as a Service offers a wide range of advantages. Here are the benefits of employing a TaaS team and how it can contribute to your company’s growth.
Flexibility in Scaling the Business
You can scale your team up or down based on current demands, ensuring your company has the right resources at the right time. When you're working on a large product launch, you can quickly add more developers or designers by hiring a TaaS team to meet tight deadlines. When the development phase comes to an end, you can reduce the size without worrying about layoffs or long-term commitments.
Access to Broader Expertise Beyond Your Company’s Specialization
You can bring in highly specialized experts that your in-house staff may lack. If your company needs a data scientist for a short-term project but doesn’t have one on staff, a TaaS company can offer an expert with the necessary experience in the field that would typically be difficult or expensive to hire full-time.
Sharper Focus on Core Business Goals
By outsourcing non-core tasks, your internal team can focus on high-priority business goals. If your business is focused on product development, outsourcing tasks like content writing, marketing, or customer support to a TaaS provider frees up time to concentrate on innovation and improving your product.
Cost Savings on Recruitment and Employee Engagement
Recruiting, onboarding, and retaining full-time employees is expensive and time-consuming. With Teams as a Service, you can skip the lengthy recruitment process and only pay for the skills and resources you need at any given time. You can engage an expert team without the overhead costs of hiring a full-time employee if you need them for a three-month campaign.
Faster Time-to-Market Achievement
TaaS companies enable faster project completion and quicker time-to-market. When launching a new feature or product, a TaaS team of developers can quickly join to accelerate the project’s timeline. This ability to scale quickly and efficiently allows your business to stay ahead of the competition and meet market demands faster.
Reduced Risk of Overstaffing or Understaffing
TaaS helps avoid the common pitfalls of excessive staff augmentation or understaffing. With the ability to scale your team, you're only paying for what you actually need. You're not overburdened by unnecessary costs associated with keeping too many employees during slower periods.
Improved Project Quality and Efficiency
With access to specialized professionals, the quality of your product can significantly improve. You can select a team with expertise specifically suited to the project. For instance, if you’re developing a mobile app, working with app developers will likely lead to a higher-quality product than having a general programmer do the job.
TaaS vs In-House Hiring
While traditional in-house hiring involves building permanent units within the organization, TaaS refers to hiring a specialized team with needed skill sets from an external provider. They are ready to work immediately which implies no time for onboarding and training, and is beneficial in many cases. The Team as a Service model is especially useful for tasks that are not typical for the company, require expertise in fields it does not specialize in, or need more staff to accomplish.
Well-Known Companies That Already Use Outsource Hiring
Some companies that are well-known now have become what they are thanks to using a TaaS team. Slack, a communication platform, outsourced its app design to a Canadian firm called Metalab which helped create a quality and successful product. Basecamp, a project management software company, outsourced its development to a team in Romania during its early stages. This allowed them to focus on scaling their business while keeping costs low.
How to Successfully Set Up a TaaS Model?
Employing Team as a Service solutions involves planning, resource allocation, and execution. Follow this step-by-step algorithm to seamlessly integrate external teams, maximize efficiency, and achieve your goals.
- Define specific goals and requirements
You need to understand what exactly you need external professionals to take over. Define the area you want to hire TaaS teams for and the desirable outcome of their performance.
- Evaluate Potential Vendors
To choose a TaaS company, check reputable review sites, examine their portfolio and case studies, and ensure their experience aligns with your current goals. Providers with relevant use cases similar to yours can offer valuable insights and better results.
- Assess Communication Skills and Cultural Fit
You need to also check Team as a Service provider for communication skills, teamwork abilities, and cultural fit with your company. Strong collaboration and alignment with your values ensure a successful partnership, smooth workflows, effective communication with your current employees, and fast integration within your business environment.
- Set Up the Interview to Test the Compatibility
Another step to ensure you’re choosing the right company. Have an interview with team members to check if you are well suited for collaboration and share the same understanding of goals and processes as well as core principles to consider while working on the project.
- Hire and Integrate the TaaS to the Processes
When hiring and integrating service teams into your processes, define clear project stages, checkpoints, deliverables, and performance metrics. This ensures alignment between your team and the provider, setting expectations for success, tracking progress, and maintaining accountability throughout the collaboration.
The Average Cost of TaaS Solution
The cost depends on factors such as the complexity of the job, the skill set required, the duration of the engagement, and the region where the provider is based. In the U.S., the average cost typically ranges from $80 to $250/hour, depending on the expertise needed. Rates may vary based on the level of specialization, with highly skilled professionals or niche expertise such as employing generative AI services commanding higher prices.
Things to Consider When Hiring Team as a Service
When opting for a Team as a Service model, several factors should be considered to ensure a successful collaboration.
Data Security Concerns
When outsourcing, protecting sensitive company data is crucial. Ensure the provider complies with industry-standard security practices, such as encryption and secure access controls. Signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) can also provide added protection.
Company’s Expertise in the Specific Industry
If your business requires a TaaS model for specialized knowledge, confirm that the provider has experience in your industry. Ask for use cases to evaluate their expertise before proceeding.
Potential Communication Challenges
Cultural and time zone differences can create communication issues. Set clear expectations, schedule regular check-ins, and use collaboration tools to streamline communication and ensure everyone is aligned on project goals.
Why Choose Datavise For Creating AI Solutions for Your Company?
Tailored AI solutions can unlock new opportunities for businesses, and Datavise specializes in delivering them. Understanding the unique challenges of fast-growing enterprises, we create solutions that seamlessly adapt to your needs, budget, and existing tools. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, our team works closely with you to define your business goals and craft AI-driven strategies that accelerate digital transformation, reduce costs, and enhance decision-making. With Datavise, you gain not just cutting-edge technology but also expert support and a team committed to your success.
