---
title: "What Makes a Dedicated Software Team at Azendo Different"
description: "A zero-risk start, a score for your dedicated software team every week and a delivery manager who steps in early. See how a managed team at Azendo works."
url: "https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/dedicated-software-team-at-azendo/"
---

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3. [Engagement models](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/)
4. What makes a dedicated software team at Azendo different

# What exactly is a dedicated software team? And why is Azendo so different?

A dedicated software team is a group of offshore developers, engineers or designers who work full time on your software product and on nothing else. In a standard placement, the provider steps back once the developer starts. At Azendo, we find the developers at our own risk, employ them, and keep looking after them and their work for as long as they're on your software team.

By [Mikkel Schmidt](https://azendo.co/about/mikkel-schmidt/) Published 12 October 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026 

If you’re curious about building with offshore tech talent, I’d look past the first question most people ask, which is where the developers are. The question that decides how it goes is who looks after them once they’ve started, and who you call when something isn’t right. I’ve built Azendo around that second question. At the end of this post are five questions you can put to any provider, us included.

## What a dedicated software team is

In general, a dedicated software team is a group of developers, engineers and designers who work full time on one client’s software product. They join your stand-ups, work in your repositories and on your board, and take their priorities from you. Their week isn’t shared with another client, so what they learn about your product stays on your product.

A team can start with one full-time developer and grow from there. Technical direction stays with you or your own lead: you decide what gets built and review the work, and the code is yours. Arrangements differ a lot in who employs the people, who finds them and who looks after them once they’ve started. Those are the things that decide whether it works.

## Four ways companies build a software team abroad

Companies that want developers in another country usually choose between four routes.

1. **Your own entity abroad.** You set up a company, hire locally and run it with a country manager. It gives you full control and takes six months or more before work starts.
2. **An employer of record.** A local firm employs the people you choose and handles payroll and contracts, while you recruit and manage them. Expect one to three months to get going.
3. **A standard placement.** A provider finds a developer, introduces them and steps back. It’s what people usually mean by [software offshore staffing](https://azendo.co/services/offshore-it-staffing/), and it can work well with strong managers on your side.
4. **A managed dedicated software team.** A provider finds, employs and manages the developers, and stays responsible for how the team is doing. That’s how we work.

Project-based [software development outsourcing](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/software-development-outsourcing/), where an agency builds a defined scope for you, is a different thing again: you buy a result, not a team.

## Where a standard placement ends, and where we keep going

In a standard placement, the managing becomes yours on the first day: onboarding, one-to-ones, reviews, and the difficult conversation when something isn’t working. It suits companies that have the managers and the time to run people themselves.

Staff augmentation is the commercial term for adding people to your team. A dedicated software team is what you get when those people work only on your product. A standard placement is [staff augmentation](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/staff-augmentation/) without the service around it. At Azendo, we deliver staff augmentation as a dedicated software team, fully managed. The developers on your team are our employees, and they work from our Chiang Mai and Bangkok offices. We pay their salaries, provide their equipment and handle contracts, payroll, benefits and leave. For product engineering that’s our [dedicated software development team](https://azendo.co/services/dedicated-software-development-team/), and the same model covers QA, DevOps, data, AI and design.

Who does the work after the developer starts

In a standard placement
* You onboard the developer
* You run the one-to-ones and the reviews
* You notice when something slips, and fix it
* You plan their training and their next step
* You manage the conversation if someone isn't working out

With a dedicated software team at Azendo
* A Talent Success manager from day one
* Check-ins with every side, every two weeks
* A service delivery manager who steps in at the first dip
* A development plan, a growth track and a career plan for each person
* If someone isn't the right fit, we find the one who is

You keep the product decisions in both models. What changes is who carries the work of looking after the people.

## Before anyone starts, we carry the risk

Finding the right people is part of the service. We headhunt for your stack and test every candidate on skills and mindset, to the standard of a professional recruitment agency, at no extra charge. We’re strict here, and proud of it: culture fit, mindset and logical thinking count as much as hard skills, so few candidates make it. You meet the people we put forward before anything is committed.

We don’t ask for a deposit or an upfront fee. The search is at our own risk and expense, and we take that on because we believe in the service. And if the hiring timeline we agreed passes without the right people, you owe nothing and you’re free to walk away.

## Someone looking after every developer from day one

The day a developer joins your team, they also get a Talent Success manager at Azendo. Every skill their role needs is scored from 1 to 10 and verified, and that profile becomes a development plan with skill and career goals. The plan can come to you for review before it’s approved, because you know what your product needs from them next.

A [service delivery manager](https://azendo.co/how-it-works/) keeps track of how delivery is going for you, and the check-ins around every developer run on a fixed rhythm.

The rhythm around every developer we assign

1. Every Friday**You score our overall performance**, with feedback for the team and for each person. Anything below four gets a response.
2. Every two weeks**Talent Success checks in with every side**: you, the team member and their peers, often with the service delivery manager in the same meeting. A separate well-being check-in looks after the person.
3. On a set rhythm**Coaching** against the development plan, weekly, every two weeks or monthly as the plan needs, with training aimed at the gaps.
4. Every quarter**A 360-degree review** with input from the team member, their Azendo manager, their peers and you.

Talent Success reviews all of it together, so a pattern can show up before anyone has to raise it.

## When a developer’s work starts to slip

Every team has bad weeks. Say you rate one of the developers on your team below four in the Friday survey. Or you mention in a check-in that their work keeps coming back from review. Your service delivery manager looks closely at that developer’s work the same week, and Talent Success talks to them and to the people around them. A dip has a cause, and you can’t always see it from where you sit.

What happens after a score below four

1. YouScore a team member below four in Friday's survey, or raise a concern in a check-in.
2. Service delivery managerReviews that team member's work closely the same week, from your feedback, their weekly report and their tracked hours.
3. Talent SuccessTalks to the team member and their peers to find the cause, whether it's skills or the brief.
4. You, the team member and AzendoAgree a plan, with training aimed at the gap and a clear expectation.
5. Next check-inTwo weeks later, everyone looks at whether it's working. The plan is adjusted if it isn't.
6. If it still isn't rightWe find the person who is the right fit and handle the handover.

Apart from the steps that involve you, the work is ours.

I believe honest, direct feedback is what makes a team better. If you don’t know something needs to improve, you haven’t been given a real chance to improve it. So we tell our developers where they stand and what’s expected of them, and we tell you what we see, while it’s still small. Danish directness takes a week or two to get used to. After that, it saves everyone a lot of time.

## Why our developers stay

Talent Success also tracks when someone is ready for more. It builds a live profile from skills, training and review history, so you see a developer’s next step coming before you have to ask. Every developer also has LinkedIn Learning through our partnership.

Our [dedicated developers](https://azendo.co/hire-a-dedicated-development-team-in-thailand/) stay with Azendo for 3.3 years on average, so the knowledge they build about your codebase has years to pay off.

## Around 100 people, by choice

We’re around 100 people across two offices. Large BPO and outsourcing providers can have thousands of people on their books, and that scale suits some kinds of work. For software teams, we’d rather know every person we assign well enough to notice when something changes.

We don’t sell cheap labour. Being based in Thailand keeps the cost reasonable, and our clients get that benefit. But we want to be chosen for the people we assign and how well we look after them.

The numbers behind our service

2weeks between check-ins with you, the team member and their peers

3.3years that our team members stay with Azendo, on average

4 to 8hours a week per person that you don't spend on managing, by our estimate

4weeks is our time to hire, counted from signing

Azendo's figures, October 2026.

## What the monthly fee covers

The fee is fixed: the same amount every month, for the hours we agreed. The search is inside it. So is everything around the people: the day-to-day management, the follow-up on delivery, Talent Success, the office and equipment, HR and payroll. There’s no management surcharge on top. With a standard placement, the managing still has a cost. It sits with you instead, at 4 to 8 hours a week per developer by our estimate.

Our pricing page shows [how the monthly fee is built](https://azendo.co/pricing/) for every role. A few examples, for junior developers working full time and fully managed:

* Backend, frontend or full stack developer: from USD 2,200 a month
* QA engineer: from USD 2,100 a month
* UX designer: from USD 2,200 a month

Mid-level and senior levels are priced in the proposal.

## Five questions to ask any provider before you sign

Put these questions to [IT staff augmentation companies](https://azendo.co/services/it-staff-augmentation-services/) and managed providers alike. The answers tell you most of what you need to know.

1. **Who employs the developers, and who manages them day to day?** If the answer to the second part is “you”, you’re looking at a standard placement.
2. **What happens in the first week a developer’s work slips?** Listen for a named person, a timeframe and a plan.
3. **How do you select people, and how many candidates make it through?** A provider that selects carefully knows its number.
4. **How long do the provider’s developers stay?** Turnover is where product knowledge leaks away, so ask for an average in years.
5. **What’s inside the monthly fee, and what do I pay if you can’t find the right people?** You want one number, and no bill for a search that didn’t work.

## Starting your development team

A remote software team gives you the freedom to grow without filling an office, and a far wider pool of talent to choose from. Our job is to take the risk and the work of looking after the people off your hands.

We hire the team within four weeks of signing. Thailand is on UTC+7, five hours ahead of Northern Europe in summer and six in winter, so a European morning is the team’s afternoon. If you’d like to see what a software team could look like for your product, drop us a message. You’ll hear from a service delivery manager within one business day.

Send us a message

Tell us what you want to build. We come back with the team we would assign and what it costs.

## Questions about a dedicated software team at Azendo.

What is a dedicated software team at Azendo? 

It's a team of Azendo developers, engineers or designers who work full time on one client's software product, in the client's tools and sprints. You set the priorities and own the code. We find, employ and train the people, and Talent Success and a service delivery manager keep looking after the team every week. You pay one fixed monthly fee.

How is a dedicated software team at Azendo different from a standard placement? 

In a standard placement, the provider steps back when the developer starts, and managing them becomes your job. With a dedicated software team at Azendo, we stay responsible. You score us every week, and we check in with every side every two weeks. Each person has a Talent Success manager and a 360-degree review every quarter, and a service delivery manager steps in at the first dip.

What does zero risk mean at Azendo? 

You pay no deposit and no upfront fee, and we search for your team at our own risk and expense. If we can't find the people you need within the agreed hiring timeline, there's no commitment and nothing to pay. You only pay once the team starts.

Is recruitment charged separately? 

No. Recruitment is included in the monthly fee, and you never get a separate invoice for it. We headhunt for your stack and test candidates on skills and mindset before you meet anyone.

Why does Azendo stay small? 

Because we want to know every person we assign. We're around 100 people across our offices in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, while large BPO and outsourcing providers can have thousands. Our size lets us select carefully, hire each person for a client team, and look after each team member closely.

## Tell us what you want to build and we will tell you what it takes.

A service delivery manager replies with the roles we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[Get in touch](https://azendo.co/get-in-touch/) [How it works](https://azendo.co/how-it-works/) 

## Not sure which engagement model fits your business.