You agree the outcome. We manage the delivery.
For work with a defined end state, run to documented SLAs, so accountability for getting there sits with us rather than being spread across a team you have to coordinate yourself.
For work with a defined end state, run to documented SLAs, so accountability for getting there sits with us rather than being spread across a team you have to coordinate yourself.
The common thread is that the outcome can be described before the work starts. Where it genuinely cannot, a managed engagement is the wrong shape and we will say so.
Finance and back office work often sits on the line between the two models. Where it is a recurring function rather than a bounded project, a dedicated remote team member is usually the better answer, which is covered on outsourced accounting and bookkeeping.
Augmentation is the better model most of the time, and we say that on the staff augmentation page too. Managed services earns its place in a narrower set of situations:
The trade-off, stated plainly. Managed services costs more per hour of work than augmentation, because you are also buying management, coordination and delivery risk. If you have a capable manager and ongoing need, augmentation is cheaper and you should take it.
We define the outcome, the boundaries and what is explicitly out of scope. Ambiguity here is the single biggest cause of projects going wrong.
Milestones, reporting cadence, escalation routes and the SLAs we will be held to, agreed in writing before work begins.
We staff the engagement from our screened candidate network of more than 21,000 available for sourcing, sized to each phase rather than a fixed headcount.
We manage sequencing, quality and the trade-offs. You get reporting against the plan and a named point of contact, not a group chat.
Work product and IP transfer to you with documentation. Access revoked, equipment recovered, documented offboarding checklist.
Every engagement runs through one of our registered entities, Outstaff Solutions Limited in the UK, Outstaff Solutions & Technology FZCO in Dubai, or our Karachi entity, under NDA, with IP assigned to you from the outset. Employment, payroll, insurance and benefits for everyone on the engagement sit with us, and are included in the price rather than invoiced on top.
Who manages the work. Under augmentation you direct a person who happens to be on our payroll. Under managed services you agree an outcome and we take responsibility for getting there: the people, the sequencing, the trade-offs and the reporting. Augmentation gives you control; managed services gives you a counterparty who is accountable for delivery.
They always do, so it is written into the engagement rather than treated as a failure. Changes are assessed for impact on timeline and cost, agreed in writing, and then reflected in the plan. What we will not do is absorb material scope growth silently and let the deadline slip without telling you.
They are documented per engagement rather than generic, because a data migration and an e-commerce operations engagement fail in different ways. Typically they cover response and resolution times, delivery milestones, reporting cadence and escalation routes. You see them before you sign, not after.
You do, from the outset. IP assignment to the client is written into the contract, and every engagement operates under NDA. On completion or termination, work product transfers to you, access is revoked and equipment is recovered under a documented offboarding checklist.
Either we hand over to your team with documentation, or the engagement continues into an operational phase, that is common with e-commerce operations, where the work is ongoing rather than finite. Both are agreed up front so handover is not an afterthought.
Fixed scope or milestone-based, depending on how well-defined the outcome is at the start. Where requirements are genuinely uncertain, we would usually recommend starting with a smaller discovery engagement rather than pricing a fixed scope neither side can yet describe. A full rate card is available on request.
If it can be described, it can be scoped. If it cannot yet, that is worth knowing before anyone signs a fixed-price contract.
Scope a project →