Glossary · Hiring and outsourcing models

Managed services

Managed services is an arrangement where an outside provider takes ongoing responsibility for a defined function, such as IT support, security monitoring, or payroll, under a service-level agreement. You pay for an outcome and a service level rather than for named people, and the provider decides how to staff the work.

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What it means in practice

A managed service provider (MSP) owns the result. That is useful for specialist work you do not want to manage, but it means less visibility into who does the work and less flexibility to change priorities day to day.

Staff augmentation is the opposite trade: you direct the work and the person, and the partner supplies and supports the talent. Many companies use both, with an MSP for infrastructure and dedicated hires for work that needs knowledge of the business.

If you want a dedicated person on your team rather than a service contract, see the roles we place.

  • Business process outsourcing (BPO)

    Business process outsourcing (BPO) is contracting a whole business function, such as customer support, claims processing, or back-office data work, to an outside provider.

  • Staff augmentation

    Staff augmentation is adding outside professionals to your existing team to fill a skills gap or add capacity.

  • Outsourcing

    Outsourcing is paying an outside company or person to do work your own employees would otherwise do.

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