On-Demand Technical Resources: 5 Key Things to Consider

For ages, IT enterprises have traditionally hired technical resources, such as developers, engineers, and support staff. 

Today, hire-on-demand, or IT-on-demand, is becoming increasingly popular. 

Instead of permanently hiring technical resources, companies use service providers to hiring the staff they need for their projects or to fill talent gaps, hence the name on-demand. 

Various factors have resulted in this change in hiring, where companies favor using resources like support engineers or hardware specialists on demand instead of having them on the payroll. 

Although this approach has several benefits, it may not be for everyone and not suitable for every situation. 

In this article, we will discuss the following:

• What to expect when working with on-demand IT resource providers.
• The top five key things to consider when choosing providers.
• How SmartHands, PivIT’s on-demand resource service, can help.

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Rise of On-Demand Technical Resources

Hire-on-demand may seem like an emerging trend in tech hiring, but it’s developing into a dominant market. 

Over the years, enterprises, especially those with a geographically decentralized footprint, are leaning towards consolidating their tech talent pool. They retain highly-skilled, critical tech staff in their hubs or headquarters while using on-demand talent from providers for lower-level or non-critical tech roles. 

Many companies still have on-site tech support staff for issues like hardware failure or software patches. 

However, many don’t, leaving them with just two options: either fly their resources from their hub to different locations or hire someone through a professional service just for that particular job. 

The latter option is cost-effective, which is why IT-on-demand is becoming popular for occasional needs, such as configuration changes, new gear installation, or rebooting operating systems. 

Is It Beneficial?

On-demand technical resources such as hardware engineers can enable companies to save money. 

Maintaining support staff can become expensive for companies with offices and facilities in different regions. 

At the same time, they occasionally need such workers' skill sets when software glitches or hardware breaks down. Hiring as such and when required and paying just for the job that needs to be performed saves them money. 

More importantly, by not having to dispatch their resources to every location, they can retain their critical technical staff for more important jobs that benefit the business. 

IT support on demand also addresses the tech talent gaps and shortages. For companies operating in different parts of the world, the right technical skills may not be available everywhere. 

Talent may not be available even if they want to hire talent permanently. So hiring tech engineers for projects or emergencies (for example, a security incident) can bridge the gap in talent availability.  

The tech talent shortage is likely to get worse. 

According to a report by the International Monetary Fund, there will be a shortage of 85 million tech workers by 2030. The on-demand IT resources apparatus can help distribute talent evenly so more companies can benefit and the markets don’t suffer from severe shortages. 

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Providers

With hire-on-demand IT resources becoming popular, the market of providers is increasing. 

As a result, enterprises have many options to choose from. Here’s what you should keep in mind when looking for a provider of on-demand technical resources:

Coverage and SLAs

It’s best to work with a provider covering all your business locations. 

If you have offices in North America, Europe, and Oceania, you’d ideally want a provider with engineers or other staff ready to be dispatched to each region you serve. Working with different providers for different regions can get messy and only increase the management workload for you. 

In this regard, it’s also crucial to consider the service level agreements (SLAs) defining how long a resource takes to reach your location. 

Depending on the job, you should go with the shortest SLA, for example, 12 to 24 hours. That way, you can ensure you’ll have a resource on-premise for critical, time-sensitive jobs. 

On-Demand vs. Project-Based

IT-on-demand services are either on-demand or project-based. With an on-demand resource structure, you can request a resource for ad-hoc needs anytime and for any number of days. With a project-based structure, you can hire talent for particular projects. Projects may last for weeks or months and have a bigger scope and different workloads. 

Evaluate your needs, decide which structure works best for you, and choose a provider accordingly. 

Project-based requests are more predictable as they are not that urgent. On-demand requests for ad-hoc jobs are unpredictable, so you need a reliable partner with guaranteed SLAs. 

Pricing

One of the benefits of on-demand hiring through service providers is cost savings. To do that, you need to work with a provider whose pricing is commensurate with the job. Every request and every job may differ, so a “fixed” price model is not the most suitable choice for this service. 

Similarly, it’s only fair that the pricing is dependent on the skill set. Work with a provider that offers the flexibility to price hiring requests fairly.

Request Management

Pay attention to how the request for resources is managed. You should be able to initiate, track, and evaluate requests through a central platform/dashboard. 

As resources may need to be dispatched to various locations, for different durations, with varying deliverables, having a central dashboard to manage requests will make the process smooth. 

You should be able to track the progress of the request from start to finish. This would also give you an idea about the efficacy of the hired resources. 

Contractors

It’s not uncommon for IT service providers to work with partners to deliver professional on-premise technical resources like engineers or analysts. However, too many subcontractors can result in lower quality of services, such as delayed arrival of resources on-site or resources with less than adequate skill levels. 

Speak to the provider about how they provision resources, if any subcontractors they use, and if so, how many and in what regions. Transparency is critical in such partnerships, as you expose your internal infrastructure to them. 

Extend Your Capacity With SmartHands!

SmartHands is the answer to staff shortages, skill gaps, and urgent technical needs. Whether you’re beginning a new project or need the expertise of an engineer to fix legacy servers, the experienced engineers at PivIT can help your business achieve more without going through the hassle of hiring. 

Experts are at your disposal with short SLAs in every region of the world. And PivIT understands the flexibility enterprises need when hiring on-demand engineers, so prices are quoted according to the project's scope.

SmartHands professional service can also be a lifesaver in emergencies where you lack the expertise for resolution. Engineer expertise is classified into three levels, so no matter what the job is, you can find the skillset you need to keep your operations running. 

With a growing shortage of engineers, hiring an engineer on-demand through SmartHands is a cost-effective decision that frees up resources you would have had to spend to add one to your team. Quote your project and get an engineer on premises in no time!