Executive Summary
A fast-growing Midwestern manufacturer had expanded from a modest rural operation into one of the largest custom rotational molders in the region — spanning four facilities and a portfolio of well-known outdoor sporting goods brands across ice fishing, hunting, marine recreation, and power sports.
We partnered with their team to provide the on-site IT expertise and strategic guidance they needed to keep up with their growth — without adding the cost and complexity of a full-time hire.
The Challenge
Growth is a good problem to have — but it often brings complexity. As this manufacturer expanded its facilities, brands, and product lines, it struggled with:
- Complex infrastructure
- Core workflows that required more and more apps
- Increased demand for hands-on support
- IT skill gaps
The company already had a managed IT contract with Marco, as well as advanced security through Marco’s partnership with Arctic Wolf. But by 2022, it became clear that they needed more than remote support. They needed dedicated, on-site IT expertise — someone embedded in the business who understood their systems, their people, and their goals.
The question wasn't whether they needed more IT capability. It was how to get it without the cost and complexity of a full-time hire.
The Solution: Adding Staff Augmentation
Marco's staff augmentation service was able to provide exactly the right answer. We placed a full-time, on-site IT professional at the manufacturer's facility — someone who could support core business applications, handle day-to-day IT operations, and serve as an embedded extension of the Marco team.
Bridging the Gap Between In-House and Outsourced Support
IT staff augmentation wasn't just about adding skills — it was about getting the best of both worlds. By embedding a Marco team member directly in the business, the manufacturer gained someone who learned their systems from the inside, integrated naturally with the existing team, and could pull in Marco's full bench of specialized expertise whenever the situation called for it.
Combined with the company's ongoing Managed IT agreement and Arctic Wolf security monitoring, this created a layered IT model that covered every level of need:
- On-site support for daily operations
- Remote monitoring and management for infrastructure
- 24/7 security running in the background
The Results
Staff augmentation services delivered a meaningful impact across the organization:
- Day-to-day IT operations ran more smoothly
- The internal team gained a trusted IT partner embedded in their environment
- IT strategy became more intentional, with a resource in place to help identify improvements and support long-term planning
- Operational efficiency improved as IT bottlenecks were addressed faster and more proactively
- The company's overall IT posture strengthened — combining on-site support, managed IT, and enterprise security into a cohesive, well-managed infrastructure
For a manufacturer with ambitious growth plans and a lean internal team, the staff augmentation model proved to be one of the most practical and high-value IT decisions they made.
Key Takeaways
For this manufacturer, the answer wasn't a full-time hire or a complete overhaul — it was finding the right model to bridge what their team could handle internally with what required deeper expertise.
Staff augmentation worked here because it wasn't treated as a stopgap. It was a deliberate decision to layer on-site support, managed IT, and enterprise security in a way that fit how the business actually operated. The result was a more resilient, more capable IT environment — built without disrupting the growth that made it necessary in the first place.
For manufacturers navigating similar complexity, the path isn't always a single solution. Finding that path forward requires a partner who can see the full picture and help you build toward it.
Manufacturers have unique IT needs, which is why our dedicated manufacturing team goes the extra mile to understand the operational, security, and infrastructure challenges that come with growth — and to build IT strategies to support it.
