Within the contingent labor sector, the term “SOW” typically refers to the acquisition of contingent labor and/or professional services via a direct statement-of-work (SOW) agreement with a buyer. SOWs can be used to purchase both staff augmentation services and other forms of contingent labor (e.g., professional services). Unlike staff augmentation (see below), which is most commonly purchased via highly standardized Master Services Agreements (MSAs) for multiple suppliers, SOWs are typically used to structure a direct and less-standardized set of terms and conditions between a buyer and a provider. SOWs tend to be more appropriate for risk-based, highly specialized and/or proprietary types of services, whereas staff augmentation tends to be more appropriate for T&M based, non-proprietary skill and services that are broadly available on the open market

Staff augmentation refers to the acquisition of any/all types of contingent labor, including both professional and non-professional. The vast majority of staff augmentation is purchased within Managed Services Programs (MSPs), which typically leverage a Vendor Management Solution (VMS) such as SAP Fieldglass, Beeline, VNDLY (Workday), etc. Staff augmentation is most applicable for commonly available, non-proprietary skills, non-risk based skills and/or services that are used to supplement a company’s internal staff.