Companies around the globe have been realizing over the past few years that the software that’s used in modern businesses plays an ever more active role in its performance. And this is particularly true for ecommerce stores.
eCommerce stores are increasingly looking at developing their digital presence whether it’s updating their website journey or expanding their reach through apps and having a social media presence – all with the goal of driving higher customer engagement and overall sales.
The pressure for businesses to produce the goods of a modern digital experience is massive and the time pressure likewise. Because of this, more and more businesses have pivoted towards staff augmentation for quick-fire yet quality-assured results.
Due to these pressing needs and demands, particular growing pains are inevitable. So let’s take a look at some of these growing pains and smoothen them out.
First challenge: the communication
Perhaps the most commonly cited challenge would be the communication (or language) barrier. The more traditional staff aug consultancies are based in South Asia and East Asia, areas where work is cheap yet struggles crop up connected to effective communication.
Miscommunication leads to poor results and despite its cheapness will in the end prove expensive. Doing the right research and speaking closely to your potential staff aug agency before you get started will help companies figure out if they have found the right type of partner for them.
Second challenge: the time zone
When your staff augmentation agency is located in the distant reaches of the universe – or perhaps based 6-7 hours away from your HQ – it can be difficult to arrange regular and consistent communication and meetups. The reality that we live in different time zones can be a real challenge.
Most outsourcing clients are based in the US and Western Europe while most staff augmentation companies are based in other continents. This becomes a major problem when teams need to be in sync and work together. A typical problem is that a 9am Monday in San Fran is a 9:30pm Monday in Mumbai.
That’s why the region that balances the time difference with cost effectiveness is Latin America. A 9am Monday in San Fran is 11am in Mexico City, and 1pm in Buenos Aires. Keeping close – geographically – to your staff aug agency will allow better business hours across teams and better synchronize communication.
Third challenge: the quality of service
A notable fear among brands and retailers that are considering expanding with staff augmentation is that the quality may suffer, or that their work could fail to meet the standards set by the company. Yet staff augmentation is not a synonym for poor quality. It really depends on who you are working with.
It’s true that one software developer who delves into a program they know little about could result in miles worth of complicated and incorrect code, causing major disruption to a project and the budget to balloon. If your main focus is on cutting costs, then don’t use staff augmentation.
Those that carry out thorough research in a staff augmentation company are the ones that will find a partner that best suits their needs. Not only that, but the better agencies out there will actually encourage you to research them by giving you feedback, access to previous clients, and peak at their processes.
Fourth challenge: institutional knowledge
When a business first begins working with a staff augmentation company, it makes sense that they are not going to know 100% the culture and processes of that business. What’s more, among millennials, 43% expect to leave their job within 2 years; the amount among Gen Zers is 61%. Put simply, there is a high turnover rate among young professionals.
Cultivating institutional knowledge while also working with augmented staff can be achieved by putting in place a set of procedures to guarantee that key data is stored for future usage. This would include outlining the reasons for the maintenance, the type of info to be stored, and how it’s going to be stored.
From the individual worker’s point of view, businesses can set in place a process in which each worker would provide a list of their tasks and responsibilities so that nothing flies under the radar – even when full-timers leave.
PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud & Adobe Experience Manager staff augmentation consultancies. Contact us to see how we can work together.
