I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the concept of professional services, contractors, and staff augmentation. I think there are definite benefits as well as drawbacks to relying on this type of labor in your organization. I’ll start off today by analyzing some of the pros. I do promise to come back in a few days though and review “the case against” as well though.
Professional services firms and workers are largely very capable, talented, and respectful individuals who serve a great purpose in their part of the organization (or at least in the area of the business that has retained/hired them to perform a particular function).
In short, here is a list of pro’s I have for professional services:
- They can be specialized in very specific areas to add value to very detailed functions immediately (e.g. a specific technology, industry, location, function)
- They are flexible and can often show up on a moment’s notice (sometimes even same-day)
- They can and will travel in case you need them deployed to a different location (or locations) that is not their “home base”
- They do not bear many of the costs an internal employee would bear (e.g. health care, retirement contribution matches, training)
- They can be negotiated to relatively affordable rates, especially when you can have different firms/groups bidding on the same work
- They have contracts that are generally tied to specific time frames so you are not stuck employing them indefinitely even if their function or role is no longer needed
- They are completely expendable and can often be terminated on extremely short notice (in the event there has been something happen that requires this)
It’s not always a match made in heaven though. Again, stay tuned for my “case against” professional services in the near future.
Til Next Time,
Michael