The Virtual Factory
Organizations rely on digital and software services as part of their business model, but continually face the challenges of finding, retaining, and managing their talent to meet this demand. You can plug into TopCoder and use a global and scalable resource base to meet the needs of your customers. The Virtual Digital Factory model offers an array of benefits for TopCoder’s customers and a new way to meet your digital and software needs.
Reduce the Support Footprint
The traditional approach to scaling up and down resources – through hiring, contractors, outsourcing, and offshoring – is inefficient. Onboarding new hires, consultants, or outsourcing firms is costly. Finding talent that meets even the basic requirements can be a frustrating experience. How much money, time, and energy is spent finding, recruiting, and training engineers for product teams?
Align Engineering Spend with Business Needs, not Headcount
In a traditional model engineering spend is tightly coupled to the permanent work force. Additional upside scale can be brought on board by utilizing contractors and consultants, but only a reduction in headcount can lower the engineering footprint in times when the business needs decrease or slow. In the past, managers have had to make tough decisions about scaling a workforce to meet demand or paying a premium to use contractors. When they over hire the business has to absorb the costs of a layoff round. When they over rely on contractors the cost of development sky rockets. The Virtual Factory approach provides a new way to align your business needs and engineering spend.
Global Workforce, Results Focused
Each individual task run through the factory is based on a specification that the global community can compete to build. This is a key factor in managing the factory. Competition (along with the rigorous QA processes in the SDLC) ensures quality just like in any market. A global work force provides for an “anyshore” approach to talent. Instead of chasing labor rates around the globe, companies automatically tap into the best talent across the world. All the benefits of a global labor supply, without the costs of building a development center or entering a large scale outsourcing agreement.