GBCORP BLOG · IT SERVICES
Dedicated Development Team: What You Get, What Not to Pay For
A dedicated development team sounds like control. In practice it is a payroll in another building. GBCORP offers something narrower and more useful: a team dedicated to your releases, priced per release.
A dedicated development team is a group of engineers reserved for one client, usually billed monthly per person. Businesses ask for one because they want continuity, priority and people who know the product. GBCORP gives all three, but prices them differently: a named team stays on the client’s product across releases, each release has a fixed price and a date, and the client pays for working software rather than for seats. This article sets out what a business actually needs from a dedicated team and how GBCORP provides it.
What businesses want from a dedicated team
| What is wanted | What it means | How GBCORP provides it |
|---|---|---|
| Continuity | The same people across releases, who know the product | Named team per client, kept across releases |
| Priority | Work starts when the business needs it | Fortnightly release rhythm, scoping week priced on its own |
| Knowledge | Nothing lost when someone leaves | Documentation with every release; the engine is shared, so knowledge is in the code, not a head |
| Control | The business decides what is built | Written scope per release, approved before work |
| Cost certainty | A known figure | Fixed price per release; monthly support at a known figure |
Why not seats
A monthly fee per developer pays for time whether or not it produces anything. The client becomes the project manager, and idle weeks are billed. A fixed price per release pays for a result with a date. The team is still dedicated, in the sense that matters: the same engineers, the same product, release after release. What changes is who carries the risk of a slow week, and at GBCORP it is GBCORP.
When a retained team does make sense
A product with continuous change, a roadmap of releases stretching a year ahead, and a person on the client’s side who can feed it. For that case GBCORP offers a retained arrangement: a committed number of releases per quarter at a fixed price each, with a named team and a standing fortnightly rhythm. It is still priced per release; the retainer buys priority and a lower price per release, not hours.
Ownership and rhythm
Code in a repository the client controls. Cloud project, domain, store and payment accounts in the client’s name from week one. A build every two weeks the client opens on a phone. Decisions in writing. A named contact. If the arrangement ends, everything stays with the client and a hand-over period is part of the plan.
Checklist before asking for a dedicated team
- A roadmap of releases for the next two quarters, in ten lines.
- One person on your side who decides, and how fast they answer a build.
- Whether you need continuous change, or a first release and support.
- Accounts in your name, or authority for GBCORP to open them.
- The number the software should move.
- What you will do if the roadmap empties: stop cleanly, or move to support.
The numbers to expect
Scoping in one week. Releases every two weeks at a fixed price each. A retained arrangement with a committed number of releases per quarter at a lower price per release. Support at a known monthly figure. Customised or more complex functionality is quoted separately before any work starts.
A worked example
A logistics company had a dedicated team of four at a monthly fee for two years. The product improved in bursts and stalled in between, and the invoices did not. GBCORP’s scoping week produced a two-quarter roadmap of eleven releases; a retained arrangement committed six releases a quarter at a lower price each, with the same three engineers throughout. The company now pays for eleven working builds, reads a release note every fortnight, and in the quarter the roadmap emptied it moved to the support plan without a conversation about redundancies.
How continuity is kept without seats
The team named in the scoping week stays on the product; releases are not handed to whoever is free. Documentation ships with every release, so a change of engineer is a hand-over of a document, not a loss. The engine underneath is shared across GBCORP’s products, so the deep knowledge is in code that hundreds of releases have exercised, not in one person’s head. Continuity is a property of the method, and it survives holidays.
What the client’s side must provide
A person who decides, and answers a build within days. A roadmap kept two quarters ahead, in ten lines. Content and accounts on time. The one number the product should move, read monthly. A dedicated team on the supplier’s side is wasted without a dedicated decision-maker on the client’s, and GBCORP says so in the scoping week.
Working across time zones
A fortnightly build and written decisions matter more than overlapping hours. The team works across 17 countries on 4 continents; the client sees a build on its phone every two weeks and a note with it, and answers within days. Meetings are the scoping week, the fortnightly review and a quarterly look at the number.
Ending cleanly
A retained arrangement ends with thirty days’ notice or when the roadmap empties. The client keeps everything: code, accounts, documentation, data. A hand-over period is part of the plan, and the support plan is available afterwards at a known monthly figure. Nothing about the arrangement makes leaving expensive.
Ownership terms
Code in a repository the client controls, documented with every release. Cloud project, domain, store and payment accounts in the client’s name. Data exportable at any time. No commission on sales, and no credentials retained after a hand-over unless a support contract requires them.
Questions we hear first
Can we meet the team?
Yes. The named engineers join the scoping week and the fortnightly reviews; they do not change between releases.
What if we need more capacity?
More releases in parallel, priced per release; the engine and the documentation make it possible without a ramp-up.
Is this cheaper than hiring?
For most businesses, yes: no payroll, no idle time, no recruitment; and the shared engine means fewer people build more.
Can we switch to seats if we prefer?
GBCORP does not sell hours; the retained arrangement gives priority and a lower release price, which is what seats were meant to buy.
Where to start
The GBCORP software development hub sets out the method; the GBCORP Custom App Development product is the priced starting point. For the hiring comparison, read hire software developers, or buy releases.
GBCORP operates across 17 countries on 4 continents through six pillars: AI & IT, Innovation, Sustainability, Infrastructure, Premium Business, and EV's & Solutions.
