There are five key ways to acquire skill and expertise for a solution. Each has a different cost-to-value structure—some are better suited for short-term outcomes, while others better align with long-term strategic moves. This article explores these options to help organizations make informed decisions about how to bring in the right capabilities for their needs.

In-House Skilling

  • Definition: Training and developing existing employees to build new capabilities.
  • Ideal Company Size: Mid-sized to large organizations with capacity for long-term investment.
  • Skills Provided: Automation, reporting, data integration, and other internal process improvements.
  • Duration: Best for long-term development and ongoing maintenance.
  • Innovation Criticality: Suitable for foundational or moderately critical innovations.
  • Extensibility: High, if the organization has the resources to scale learnings.
  • Core Competencies Alignment: Best when the solution aligns with the company’s strategic focus.
  • Cost/Benefit: High upfront investment in time and training; lower long-term external costs. Opportunity to benefit from investment in labor over time in addition to the technical solution’s ROI.
  • Example: We provided guidance and mentoring to the IT director at a real-estate company to allow them to make as-needed adjustments to their Dynamics environment.

Contracted Staff Augmentation

  • Definition: Hiring external individuals (W2 or 1099) for specific projects or over an extended period – months or years. Could be full time or part-time.
  • Ideal Company Size: Startups to mid-sized companies needing incremental support that they can manage.
  • Skills Provided: Specialized development, design, or implementation skills.
  • Duration: Ideal for short- to medium-term projects with defined scope or ongoing maintenance of same.
  • Innovation Criticality: Works well for non-core or experimental initiatives.
  • Extensibility: Moderate, depending on documentation and knowledge transfer.
  • Core Competencies Alignment: Useful when internal expertise is limited in some areas but present in others to ensure adequate oversight.
  • Cost/Benefit:: Higher labor hourly rate. When the effort required is not full time or permanent, it can reduce long term cost. Requires dditional administrative overhead and management.
  • Example: We provided a part-time web-developer to one of our clients for a fixed number of hours each month. The client coordinated the deliverable timelines and requirements.

Fractional Experts

  • Definition: Engaging experienced professionals or firms on a part-time or project basis.
  • Ideal Company Size: Small to mid-sized organizations needing expert guidance.
  • Skills Provided: Strategic planning, architecture, implementation, and oversight. Typically require a decade or more of specific related experience and advanced skilling.
  • Duration: Effective for medium- to long-term initiatives requiring precision and specialized skills. Often strategic or difficult to source skills.
  • Innovation Criticality: Ideal for high-impact, business-critical projects.
  • Extensibility: High, especially with proper documentation and internal follow-up.
  • Core Competencies Alignment: Valuable when internal teams need expert direction.
  • Cost/Benefit: Higher hourly rate, but lower total cost due to efficiency and speed for the overall effort. Access to otherwise inaccessible skills due to cost barrier for full time hire. Additionally small and mid-size organizations often do not have enough complex work to keep a senior level or specialized resource engaged.
  • Example: We implemented a Business Central and Power BI reporting environment for a manufacturing company to better understand their inventory and sales.

Hybrid Approach (Internal Skilling with Fractional Oversight)

  • Definition: Upskilling internal staff under the guidance of a fractional expert.
  • Ideal Company Size: Organizations aiming to build internal capability with support.
  • Skills Provided: Real-time learning, mentorship, and quality assurance.
  • Duration: Suitable for long-term development with short-term expert input.
  • Innovation Criticality: Effective for strategic initiatives requiring internal ownership.
  • Extensibility: Very high, as internal teams gain skills while delivering value.
  • Core Competencies Alignment: Best when the solution aligns with growth areas.
  • Cost/Benefit: Balanced investment in training with reduced risk of missteps due to oversight. Risk that internal staff will not have the necessary skill or, with fractional oversight, will not receive the priority for work to be performed. Organizational commitment to the model is critical to success.
  • Example: Training internal staff on adding/removing users to the Microsoft 365 environment and responding to system alerts, while relying on a fractional expert to handle escalations and more advanced configurations.

Fully Managed or Co-Managed

  • Definition: Outsourcing the solution to a third-party provider, either fully or in collaboration with internal teams.
  • Ideal Company Size: Organizations lacking internal capacity or seeking turnkey solutions.
  • Skills Provided: End-to-end delivery, support, and maintenance.
  • Duration: Best for long-term systems requiring ongoing updates and support.
  • Innovation Criticality: Suitable for mission-critical systems needing reliability.
  • Extensibility: Moderate to high, depending on vendor flexibility and integration.
  • Core Competencies Alignment: Useful when the solution is outside the company’s core focus.
  • Cost/Benefit: Like Fractional, provides access to more resources and skills that could for the same budget with internal or contracted skilling. Typically, engagement of all these resources requires that level of investment and provides a corresponding return.
  • Example: We developed and actively manage a data processing and report generation process for a pharmaceutical company so they can provide key documentation to their clients.

Whether you’re considering internal skilling, hiring a contractor, engaging a fractional expert, or exploring a fully managed solution, we’re here to help you make the right choice for your organization. Contact us today to discuss your goals and explore tailored solutions that support your growth.

 

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