Building an Inhouse Team vs. Finding a Technical Partner

Learn insights of CTO dilemma

 

Table of content

1 - CTO outsourcing types and opportunities
2 - Company needs- in-house team or outsourced partner
3 - Pros and cons of hiring an in-house team
4 - Conclusion

 

Let's understand what actually CTO outsourcing is and how it solves the purpose of your business requirements. When we talk about “outsourcing” we often mean the level of expertise, involvement, responsibility, and commitment. Through this blog, I will help you understand and review the four key types of chief technology officers and their roles. Its arrangements and as a customer how differences mean to you.

 Let's start with the major role of CTO-

The chief technology officer is the one head who plays a crucial role in every tech startup. Whether it is to scale business or it's about adopting the technical modernity he knows and suggests best. A CTO plays a significant role by looking after a company’s data security and protecting a company’s network and data. He protects data and network of a company from malicious attacks which are facing more exposure and culpability.

 

Here we bring four broad categories of CTO, though the nature of role often varies from company to company.

 

The four main categories are as follows

 

1- Infrastructure administrator-

1. Supervise data, security, maintenance, and network for the assigned company

2.  Execute business technical strategy 

3. Manage technological roadmap of the business 

4. Virtual CTO’s are mostly recruited in startups and established 

 

2- A technology creative-

1. To achieve goals, virtual or CTO sets the technical strategy

2. Drive companies success  by seeking current and future technology

3. It is considered to be with the company since the age of inception

4. Anticipate how to use technology for the company’s benefit

 

3- Consumer champion- 

1.  Operates as a channel between customer and business

2. Maintains customer relations, understands the target market and responsible for IT projects accordingly.

3.  Software focus and customer championship is common 

 

4- Big speculator-

1. Deciding and stretching the boundaries of technology use within business and operate ambitiously

2. Technology update, new business models and  target market analysis 

3. Internal relation with CEO and management team

 

Now the question is whether in this growing and demanding technological era what is the need for an hour? Whether to develop an in-house team or outsource CTO/ hire a virtual CTO. With twice the rate of growth and number of technical jobs there comes the need for confident tech pros who covers the back of creative visionaries.

 

What a company really need? In-house team or outsourced CTO

When we talk about building a startup we usually think of having an in house team whose professional capabilities are unbeatable. A team who covers all major problems and risks that startups face in an early-stage cycle of growth. Yes, of course, it is tempting to set up your own dedicated and professional team of engineers, but there are many aspects attached to it and need to be considered before making the right decision.

 

Let's discuss the pros and cons of having an In-house team-

 

• Pros of In-house team 

Yes, we usually think to have an in-house team is opting for a reliable option. So by doing a little research, I would like to make pointers like 

1. Reliable source 

2. The same level of interest in the success

3. Only one priority 

4. 100% product engagement  so high motivation level

5. Their major focus helps in long term development

6. Engaged in more activity related to product development

7. Right selection from development methodology to set up process

8. Convenient to have a local team of developers

9. Total control on progress, workload, and change in priorities.

 

• Cons of In-house team

1.  High expense on building a team and again this expense is divided into three parts

• Recruitment- recruiting and staffing can cost really high as it involves many complexities like the cost of a recruitment agency or advertising, etc
• Set-up- now again office set-up costs another expense which includes buying hardware and software, to keep up with competitors you need to facilitate the team with all the licenses to help them work properly.
• Operating costs- to keep business running you also have to incur monthly expenses like medical insurance, tax, social security coverage, and internal administration overhead charges.             

2.  Finding the best CTO is time and cost consuming

3. Lack of expertise 

4. Budget and other attributes should match the need 

5. Recruitment and staffing process takes 3-6 months and that too with no surety of expertise 

After learning the pros and cons lets start this with a conversation and questionnaire thing. Through this blog, we have brought a few questions and suggestions as to when to opt for In-house CTO or outsource CTO.

 

• When you know your product is your USP

If you are dealing with technology which is unique and is your value proposition than you are going to play a long term game. Developing such a unique product is obviously non-stop and for that, you will need constant support. Thus you have to switch to a team where your every issue is resolved and there will be add on feature release and bug fixing.

       Suggestion- Go for In-house team

 

• When you are a startup with a brilliant idea 

When you know your technology is only a medium for delivering a service, in that case, outsource the development process before you are sure your venture is ready to generate revenue. It is applicable mostly to online shops and applications like food delivery with basic functionality and needs short term development. Note that even if your project is small, you need to hire a cohesive team and not just a single freelancer developer.

Suggestion- Outsource CTO

 

• When you are a startup and you move fast and break things

If you are a start-up with a newly launched product and under conditions of extreme uncertainty, in this case, you will need a fast feedback loop to react. For eg slack also needed a kingpin for a point of time, just for the sake of not wasting more money on a product of which there is little or no demand. Such cases require a quick strategy and swift actions and thus to avoid day-to-day bottlenecks you might need an in house team rather than outsourcing.

Suggestion- In-house team

 

• When you completely rely on integrating into a technical ecosystem

If we talk about product requirements and if your product needs upfront technical support and integration with the company’s software, specific language, framework, etc then it will be sensible to find an experienced partner. There are many specialized software development providers who are experts in specific domains and can save you time and expenses you would have incurred on selecting staff.

Suggestion- outsource CTO

 

Conclusion- 

From the above analysis, we can judge what is the best choice for a company to select between CTO outsourcing or building a team. If you are still confused about your requirements as per your work and company needs, leave your queries in the comment section below or consult our experts for the right decision.