In the IT industry, the same scenario keeps repeating: a company grows, needs more developers, posts job listings — and waits. 3 months. 5 months. Headhunters bring CVs of seniors who, after 2 interviews, accept a counteroffer from their current employer. Meanwhile, the deadline is approaching like a freight train.
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This case study shows how a SaaS company (200+ employees, headquartered in Warsaw) solved this problem with ARDURA Consulting — and why the financial results surprised even the CFO.
Starting situation: rising costs, declining productivity
Company profile
- Industry: SaaS / FinTech
- Size: 200+ employees, including 80 in IT
- Product: B2B payment management platform
- Market: CEE + expansion into Western Europe
Challenges
The company faced three problems simultaneously:
- Project delays — a critical compliance module (PSD3) was delayed by 6 months due to a shortage of 4 senior Java developers
- Recruitment costs — 25% of the annual IT budget was consumed by recruitment processes (internal HR + 3 headhunting agencies)
- Turnover — 22% annual turnover in the dev team, each departure = 3-6 months to replace + loss of knowledge
Attempted solutions before ARDURA Consulting
| Approach | Time | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Internal recruitment (HR) | 4 months | 1 hired out of 4 required |
| 3 headhunting agencies | 3 months | 2 candidates, both declined |
| Freelancers (Upwork/Toptal) | 2 weeks | 3 people, 1 left after a month, code quality below standards |
Solution: staff augmentation with ARDURA Consulting
Briefing and needs analysis (Day 1-2)
The meeting with the CTO and Tech Lead lasted 2 hours. Key agreements:
- Technology stack: Java 21, Spring Boot 3.x, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes
- Requirements: minimum 5 years of experience in fintech or banking, knowledge of PSD2/PSD3 regulations
- Team culture: Scrum, mandatory code review, test coverage >80%
- Scope: 4 senior Java developers + 1 DevOps engineer + 1 QA automation specialist
Candidate presentation (Day 3-7)
ARDURA Consulting presented 9 profiles from a network of over 500 vetted senior IT specialists:
- 6 senior Java developers with fintech experience
- 2 DevOps engineers (Kubernetes + AWS)
- 1 QA automation specialist (Selenium + Playwright)
Each profile included: CV, ARDURA technical test results, references from previous projects, availability.
Selection and onboarding (Day 8-11)
The client conducted short (30-45 min) technical interviews. They selected 6 out of 9 candidates. Formalities (contracts, access, equipment) took 2 days.
Day 11: first commit in the client’s repository.
Results after 12 months
Project metrics
| Metric | Before | After 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Team velocity | 45 story points/sprint | 78 story points/sprint (+73%) |
| PSD3 delay | 6 months | Caught up in 4 months |
| Time to deploy | 2 weeks | 3 days (CI/CD improvements by DevOps) |
| Test coverage | 62% | 87% |
| Production incidents | 8/quarter | 2/quarter (-75%) |
TCO analysis: recruitment vs staff augmentation
The table below compares the Total Cost of Ownership of both models over a 12-month period for 6 seniors:
| Cost component | Internal recruitment | Staff augmentation |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salaries (12 months) | 2,160,000 PLN | — |
| ARDURA rates (12 months) | — | 2,304,000 PLN |
| Employer costs (social security, benefits) | 648,000 PLN | 0 PLN |
| Recruitment (headhunters, HR) | 432,000 PLN | 0 PLN |
| Onboarding (3 months lower productivity) | 540,000 PLN | 0 PLN* |
| Turnover (22% annually) | 380,000 PLN | 0 PLN** |
| Equipment, licenses | 180,000 PLN | 0 PLN |
| TOTAL TCO | 4,340,000 PLN | 2,304,000 PLN |
| Savings | — | 2,036,000 PLN (47%) |
* ARDURA specialists with experience in similar projects — full productivity from week 2 ** 99% retention — ARDURA guarantees a replacement within 48h if needed
ROI of the model
- Annual savings: ~2 million PLN
- Additional revenue from faster PSD3 implementation: ~3.5 million PLN (new client segment)
- ROI: 240% in the first year
Why this model worked — 5 success factors
1. Network of vetted seniors
ARDURA Consulting doesn’t search for specialists from scratch. It has a network of 500+ senior IT professionals, each with a minimum of 5 years of experience, regularly vetted technically. This eliminates 3-6 months of the recruitment process.
2. Cultural fit
Technical competence alone is not enough. ARDURA evaluates the fit with the client team’s culture — communication style, approach to code review, way of working in Scrum. In this case, 5 out of 6 specialists extended their collaboration after 6 months.
3. Dedicated project manager
Each project has an assigned account manager who monitors the quality of collaboration, resolves issues, and plans team scaling. Feedback meetings every 2 weeks.
4. Flexible scaling
In month 4, the client needed an additional frontend developer (React). ARDURA delivered a candidate in 5 days. In month 8, the team was reduced by 1 person (completion of the compliance module). Zero termination costs.
5. Knowledge transfer
From day 1, ARDURA specialists document architectural decisions, create runbooks, and share knowledge with the internal team. The company builds internal competencies without becoming dependent on the provider.
Takeaways for CTOs/CIOs
This case study confirms a pattern we observe across 211+ projects at ARDURA Consulting:
- Staff augmentation ≠ “renting bodies” — it’s strategic competency management when recruitment can’t keep pace with business demands
- TCO is the key metric — comparing day rates alone is a trap; full TCO accounts for recruitment, onboarding, turnover, and productivity
- Speed = money — 6 months of PSD3 delay would have cost the company ~8 million PLN in lost revenue
- The hybrid model wins — the most effective organizations combine an internal core team with flexible staff augmentation for projects, peaks, and niche competencies
How ARDURA Consulting supports IT team scaling
ARDURA Consulting, with a network of over 500 senior IT specialists and 211+ completed projects, provides specialists ready to work within 2 weeks — with 99% retention and 40% cost savings compared to traditional recruitment.
Facing a similar challenge? Contact us — we’ll prepare a TCO analysis for your scenario and present candidates within 5 business days.