Why We Created WeAre Talent Factory?
A strong plan and the right technology are not enough to deliver a digital project. Organizations also need people with the relevant skills, enough capacity, and the ability to work effectively with the existing team. When a critical role remains open, decisions slow down, internal experts become overloaded, and expected business value arrives later than planned.
In the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, 63% of surveyed employers identified skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation for 2025-2030. BCG research found that 70% of digital transformations fall short of their objectives.
These figures measure different things and should not be combined into a single failure rate. They do point to the same conclusion: talent, leadership, and execution determine whether technology becomes business value.
The IT talent shortage is not only a recruitment problem. It can become a delivery, quality, continuity, and business-value risk.
What does an IT talent shortage look like in practice?
A skills gap does not always appear as a vacancy. It often becomes visible in the daily work of a project first.
- A critical decision is waiting. Architecture, security, integration, or implementation choices cannot be finalized without the right specialist.
- Key people are doing two jobs. An internal expert is expected to keep production running while also driving a major change program.
- Work keeps moving to the next sprint. The team lacks either general capacity or a specific capability needed to complete the task.
- Quality is traded for speed. Testing, documentation, security, or maintainability is reduced to protect the schedule.
- Knowledge sits with one person. An absence or departure can stop progress because expertise has not been shared.
- The hiring timeline does not match the project timeline. A permanent hire may be the right long-term choice, but it may not close the gap during the project's critical phase.
What does a missing expert really cost?
A universal vacancy-cost formula may look precise, but it can be misleading. Revenue per employee does not show how much one missing role delays a specific release, displaces internal work, or increases operational risk.
A more useful estimate separates the different effects.
| Impact | Question | Possible indicator |
|---|---|---|
| Delayed value | What benefit, revenue, or saving is postponed if the release moves? | Weeks delayed and estimated value per week |
| Internal workload | How much time do other specialists lose from their core responsibilities? | Hours displaced, overtime, and backlog growth |
| Quality and rework | What will need to be corrected because the team lacked time or expertise? | Reopened tasks, defects, and test debt |
| Management time | How much time is spent searching, interviewing, meeting suppliers, and rearranging work? | Leadership and specialist hours |
| Continuity risk | Does critical knowledge depend on one person or supplier? | Documented dependencies and available backups |
Why did we create WeAre Talent Factory?
WeAre has operated in Finland since 2016. Across client projects, we repeatedly encountered the same problem: the work was clear, but the right specialist or functioning team was not available when the project needed it.
Sometimes the need lasted only a few months. Sometimes the customer needed development capacity without immediately adding permanent headcount. In other cases, the gap involved a demanding field such as identity and access management, cloud engineering, observability, or systems integration.
Those situations led us to create WeAre Talent Factory.. Its purpose is to help a customer find the right expert or team without forcing every capability gap into the same recruitment or sourcing model.
Sending a CV is not enough. We need to understand the intended outcome, technical environment, team structure, schedule, responsibilities, and the knowledge that should remain with the customer after the engagement.
What does WeAre Talent Factory provide?
Talent Factory is not a single standard package. The right model depends on whether the organization lacks one capability, general delivery capacity, or ownership of a wider implementation.
| Need | Suitable model | What it solves |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent, predictable core role | Internal recruitment | Long-term ownership and accumulated organization-specific knowledge |
| Defined capability gap | Individual external expert | Targeted expertise for a fixed period or critical project phase |
| Growing development backlog | Developer as a Service | Flexible additional capacity without immediate permanent hiring |
| Wider delivery need | Flexible development team | Complementary skills from design through implementation and testing |
| Complex specialist domain | Specialist partner or team | Deep capability in areas such as IAM, cloud, observability, or integration |
We also provide broader software development serviceswhen the need extends beyond one person. Complex programs can also draw on specialists such as our identity and access management experts..
When is an external IT expert a good choice?
An external expert or team works best when the need can be defined and the engagement has a clear internal owner.
- A critical skills gap is blocking the next project phase.
- The need is temporary or its future scale is still uncertain.
- The internal team needs specialist knowledge, coaching, or additional capacity.
- Permanent recruitment is under way, but the project cannot stop while it continues.
- The organization wants to begin with a small setup and scale based on results.
- Knowledge transfer to the internal team is part of the objective.
When will external resourcing not solve the problem yet?
More hands will not help when the foundations of the work are missing. Clarify the situation first if:
- the objective, priorities, or decision rights have not been defined
- nobody owns the product, service, or day-to-day direction of the expert
- the organization cannot provide the required access or onboarding
- one external person is expected to fix a broad leadership or collaboration problem
- The need is clearly permanent and business-critical, but internal recruitment has not been considered
A good resourcing partner does not sell an expert into every situation. It helps determine which model fits the need and what the customer must prepare before work begins.
The right expert is more than a technology list
Technologies and certifications help narrow the search, but successful delivery also depends on context and collaboration. We assess fit through six perspectives.
- Technical relevance. Does the person have enough practical experience with the technologies and problems that matter for this assignment?
- Operating context. Do they understand the demands of a regulated industry, enterprise environment, production-critical service, or agile product team?
- Can they work effectively with customer developers, business stakeholders, security teams, and other partners?
- Communication and judgment. Can they explain options clearly, surface risks, and ask for decisions at the right time?
- Availability and continuity. Do the start date, allocation, and likely duration align with the project schedule?
- Knowledge transfer. Will documentation, understanding, and operating capability remain with the customer after the engagement?
This approach also reflects how WeAre works as a partner:our experts should function as part of the customer's team, not as detached resources.
How does the Talent Factory process work?
- Define the outcome and missing capability. Begin with the project or business result. Explain what is not moving and which capability is needed to remove the obstacle.
- Describe the environment and way of working. Share the technologies, industry, team, language, location, security requirements, allocation, start date, and expected duration.
- Choose the right resourcing model. Decide whether the need calls for one expert, flexible development capacity, a complete team, or a specialist partner.
- Validate technical and team fit. Review relevant experience, practical examples, working style, communication, and availability. Both sides should understand the expectations.
- Onboard deliberately. Agree access, objectives, responsibilities, decisions, documentation, and the success criteria for the first weeks.
- Measure impact and transfer knowledge. Track project outcomes, not only hours. Make sure capability does not remain solely with the external expert.
How does flexible resourcing support digital transformation?
The right talent does not guarantee transformation success on its own. Executive support, objectives, decision-making, technical foundations, user involvement, and change leadership still matter.
McKinsey's analysis highlights how talent and technology decisions influence the entire transformation journey. Deloitte recommends using a broader talent ecosystem and flexible approaches to teaming and deployment.
Flexible expert resourcing can help at the point where a plan must become delivery capacity. It can accelerate the start, strengthen the internal team, and reduce dependency on one person. It still needs a clear objective and owner.
What expertise can be available through Talent Factory?
Every requirement and availability is assessed case by case. WeAre's own capabilities and wider network can cover areas such as:
- software and full-stack development
- cloud, DevOps, and infrastructure engineering
- identity and access management and security
- observability, monitoring, and Splunk
- Atlassian, Jira, and service management
- data, integration, testing, and quality assurance
- technical architecture, project management, and team leadership
The objective is not to produce the longest possible technology list. It is to find the capability that removes the next obstacle in the customer's project.
What information helps us find the right match?
Prepare the following information for the first discussion:
- the intended outcome and the main responsibilities
- the missing capability and essential technologies
- the current team, product owner, and decision model
- industry, privacy, and security requirements
- the preferred start date, duration, and allocation
- remote, hybrid, or on-site needs and working language
- the budget range and procurement steps
- what success should look like after 30, 60, and 90 days
The right capability at the right stage
WeAre Talent Factory grew from a simple observation: an organization does not always need permanent headcount, but its project may need specific expertise now. That is why the service can range from one expert to a flexible development team or a long-term specialist partnership.
Our goal is not to fill as many roles as possible. It is to understand what is missing, find the right fit, and build an engagement that strengthens the customer's own delivery capability.
If your project is waiting for a specific capability, explore WeAre Talent Factory and tell us the outcome, the missing skill, the preferred start date, and the expected duration. We can help assess whether the need calls for one expert, a development team, or another model.
Frequently asked questions about WeAre Talent Factory
What is WeAre Talent Factory?
WeAre Talent Factory is a flexible expert resourcing service. It can provide an individual technology specialist, additional development capacity, a complete team, or specialist support for a demanding domain.
Is Talent Factory a recruitment agency?
Not in the traditional sense. The main focus is understanding the customer's project and capability need, then bringing the right expert or team into delivery. We can also support talent search when appropriate.
Can we engage only one developer?
Yes. One expert can be a good fit for a defined capability gap or for strengthening an internal team.
Can Talent Factory provide a complete development team?
Yes. A team can include developers, a UI/UX designer, and DevOps or QA expertise depending on the need.
How quickly can an expert start?
Timing depends on the profile, availability, customer selection process, and access arrangements. Once the need is defined clearly, we can provide a realistic view of the next steps.
How do you assess whether an expert is suitable?
We review technical experience together with operating context, collaboration, communication, availability, motivation, documentation, and knowledge-transfer capability.
Is Talent Factory only for software development?
No. Expertise may also be available in cloud, DevOps, IAM, observability, Splunk, Atlassian, data, testing, and technical project leadership. Availability is always confirmed case by case.
Can the engagement be long term?
Yes. The model can support a short project, a fixed-term capacity need, or a long-term expert or team partnership.