How an Extended Team Will Grow Your Business

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CodeIT
  • Date Published
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  • Reading Time 10-Minute Read

Find out how the extended team can make your business grow.

If you, as an entrepreneur, are wondering how you can make your business grow and reach greater heights then it is time to embrace the extended team model. Now the question is what is the extended team model and how can it possibly make your business successful?

Let us go over these questions one by one to provide you clarity.

What Is the Extended Team Model?

The extended team model approach is the newest and most efficient way to make your business a success. With this model, you can integrate experts from different fields and geographical areas to your in-house team.

This approach is different from the outsourcing strategy as you do not completely hand over the entire project to another firm. The project is shared between your in-house team and experts working from abroad. This ends up increasing the productivity, capability, and flexibility of the team and the joint project they’re working on. Thus, the in-house team is in charge of the development process of the project while also employing the expertise from around the world. It is a customized offshore model, which ensures greater productivity and long-term partnerships with various vendors.

How Is It Better Than Offshoring and Outsourcing?

As mentioned above, the extended team model is a refined and more productive version of the outsourcing model. So, if offshoring and traditional outsourcing have been around for quite some time, what is it about the extended team model that is making so many businesses embrace it?

With the extended team model, your business spreads throughout the world. Therefore, you are able to tap into talent from international markets and get the resources not available locally.

Having an extended team model is better than offshoring and outsourcing because:

You Will Be In Charge

Even if your offices are spread out throughout several different continents, you will be directly heading the project so there won’t be any communication gap between the international team and in-house team and the international team will have clarity on the specific requirements of the project. This will make the entire workflow much more efficient and up to the requirements of the employer.

Contractors Turned into a Long-Lasting Relationship

Usually, people outsource a limited number of projects to a company. After the project is completed, the contract ends. It is a hassle to establish new relationships with firms for every project. With the help of the extended team model, the contractors turn the remote team into a branch of your business offshore. This way, long-lasting relationships can be developed.

Prioritization of Your Projects

When you outsource a project to an outsourcing firm, they will be working on several other projects simultaneously as well so they want to able to give your project the undivided attention it requires. With the extended team model, your project will be prioritized since your team will be heading it from the head office.

Integration of the Entire Team into Work

The extended team model is different from traditional outsourcing as it integrates the remote team into the business. The remote team’s work and efforts are in sync with the in-house team. It runs under the terms and conditions of your business in management, development, and design of the entire project.

United Goal

An extended team has one goal across the board. The remote and in-house teams must work on making the product a success. Their work does not end after the launch of the product as they work towards promoting it into the target markets. They also initiate other projects as an outcome to the response of the previous project.

Less Stressful

Having and keeping up with a remote team offshore can become stressful as it lacks transparency. In an offshore context, the team is used on multiple projects so the project ends up being assigned to multiple people. Managing multiple people over people who were initially assigned for the project can be a strain which is why the extended team model is beneficial as the in-house team assigns different tasks to different remote teams.

Flexibility

As you have full control in the extended team model, you have flexibility when it comes to getting tasks completed. If a certain remote team isn’t able to complete an assigned task in time, you can get another remote team to complete it efficiently. You are responsible for your business tasks as there are no intermediaries.

Thus, you communicate your requirements directly to the remote teams and if they aren’t able to help you, you can get another team without any trouble. In this way, the extended team model is flexible for the in-house team and remote team members.

How Can the Extended Team Model Help My Business?

The extended team model consists of remote teams which are like extensions of the home-office across the globe. Through this model, the people in the home-office and remote office are always in direct contact with each other about all business dealings. Moreover, the responsibility and management of the project are in the hands of the core team that initiated the project.

Businesses opt for extension team models to integrate professionals and diversify their workforce. These are qualified specialists with experience in their relevant fields. The extended team model provides a strategic advantage to businesses as compared to offshoring. This is because the team in the head office is spread out internationally.

The extended team model can help your business grow due to its various benefits:

Shared Workload

There are instances when your in-house team would be working on an extremely important project with a tight deadline. They have to complete this project. Along with this project, other projects with tight deadlines also come about. In such cases, with the help of the extended team model, you can divide the increasing workload of your business among the remote teams while the in-house team completes the project it had been working on. This makes it easier to handle various tasks at once.

Mutual Contract

In an extended team model, a mutual contract is signed between the in-house team and the remote team. In other words, the in-house team chooses the remote team and vice versa. In the long run, this helps to increase the productivity of work.

No Conflict of Interest

Since you have complete control over your business operations, there are no conflicts of interest. Making the final decisions becomes easier with a single entity in charge and others present to follow that decision. With everyone in your business on the same page with the same interests, overall productivity is bound to improve.

Integration between Teams

Due to efficient communication, all the members of the team (whether in-house or remote) are integrated into the business’s operations. They have an equal contribution as there is greater transparency between team members. A business with a completely integrated team offers more productive strategies for the growth of the business.

Access to Diversified Knowledge

As your business is not restricted by location, you will get access to a wide knowledge base and the cultures of different markets through your remote teams. With the help of new technology and diversified skills, your business will flourish as it will promote diversity. When there are different people from different backgrounds working together on a similar project, they bring about their unique set of skills and knowledge to the table because of their distinct experiences. Thus, the accumulation of different ideas and experiences will lead to business growth.

Integration of Different and Diverse Cultures

With a remote team employed in different parts of the world, you can tap into different markets. The remote team will help you with the knowledge of what people in a particular geographical area want based on their cultural preferences. In this way, your business will become more diverse as you include products and services for people of different cultures.

Global Impact

With the help of remote teams spread out all across the globe, your business will have a global impact. The global outreach of the business will attract more customers in the international markets, making the business grow.

Increased Transparency

The extended team model promotes effective communication among team members, which leads to greater transparency as compared to traditional offshoring and outsourcing. The increased transparency inculcates a culture of trust and accountability among different teams of the business. With trust developed, the business becomes more productive.

The potential for Scalability and Development of the Business

The extended team model offers the option of scalability to businesses. As a business grows, more remote teams can be added to it to ensure the completion of projects. It is easier to include developers from different areas rather than concentrating all the developers in the head office.

Good Fit for a Range of Projects

The biggest benefit of extended teams is that the diverse workforce makes it easier for your team to work on a diverse range of projects. These can be long term and multi-part projects. The requirements of such projects keep increasing over time and if you had only one head office dealing with it, you wouldn’t have access to the required tools and resources to complete the project.

There are also side projects which are not related to the core business, which is why you wouldn’t want your in-house team stressing over it. For such projects, the remote team takes responsibility for completion. This way, the core business does not get distracted and operates at its maximum capacity.

Lastly, there are some projects that go on for a long period of time and require a lot of manpower for completion. For such projects, the in-house and remote teams coordinate and integrate workflow so that the project is completed smoothly.

Is Extended Team Model Worth It?

It is the aim of every business owner to produce maximum profits at the minimum cost. As a business owner, you must be wondering whether integrating the extended team model into your business is worth the risk and costs.

In the extended team model, the business employs a remote team in different parts of the world at a lower price. Moreover, the extended team model involves cost-cutting. Thus, through cost-cutting techniques of employing labor at lower rates, your business will become cost-effective.

This model presents numerous growth opportunities for businesses. They can continue to take on new projects without the fear of them being incomplete. The remote teams in different parts of the world have the responsibility of completing these projects.

Thus, you need to integrate the extended team model into your business as the benefits outweigh the costs.

Final Thoughts

It is evident that the extended team model can provide many benefits to your business and has the potential to make your business grow.

By using the extended team model, your business will establish an international presence. It is the next step after outsourcing and offshoring models and most business owners are shifting towards it to make the management processes easier and their businesses more productive. Your extended team will work according to the core values and objectives of your business and establish a uniform identity for it as well.