Finding the Right Partner In IT Projects

September 18, 2025

As businesses struggle to keep up with rapid technological advancements and continuously changing compliance regulations, aligning with an IT partner gives you abilities that would be challenging to achieve on your own. With so much at stake, it’s critical to distinguish a tech provider from a true partner. The best IT project partners are preemptive, invest in continuous improvement and prioritize your business goals.

Key Criteria for Choosing an IT Partner

There is no shortage of IT outsourcing partners to choose from, each with their own service offerings and specialties. With such a large field of play, there is the potential for good and bad choices. The right partner will understand your unique objectives and challenges and will go the extra mile to support your success. Elevate your efforts and increase your business’s profitability with these criteria:

Specify your project and needs: Include goals and desired IT project success factors. Setting out required skills, technologies and platforms, along with a budget and timeline, will narrow your search. Include in this first phase the preferred model — onshore, offshore or hybrid.
Technical expertise and experience: According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, technology is the bedrock of national competitiveness. However, Gartner’s prediction that lack of talent or human failure will account for over half of significant cyber incidents demonstrates how important it is for businesses to have technical expertise to future-proof their operations. The best IT project partners have a track record of delivering cutting-edge tech expertise in response to industry shifts and their clients’ evolving needs.
Vendor-agnostic solutions: It’s critical to be able to build, expand and manage your data center on your terms, using the best technology available. Choosing an IT partner that offers agnostic solutions gives you flexibility to integrate new technologies without being locked into a single supplier’s ecosystem. You control costs by shopping around for the best price or performance, and can adopt new innovations or switch vendors without having to overhaul your infrastructure.
Customization and scalability: You should be able to choose data center features, configurations and integrations to match your environment and workloads so your technology investment supports your operational requirements, increases efficiency and meets your specific challenges. An IT partner should have the capacity to meet your needs, small and large, accommodating growth, spikes in demand or new business opportunities without necessitating disruptions or costly overhauls.
Security and compliance focus: With 50% of businesses failing to secure the cybersecurity skills they need, IT project vendors can offer advanced security expertise that mitigates the risk to your company and covers your operation with a fast, powerful and automated response to threats.

The Role of Advanced Technology in IT Project Success

Contracting IT outsourcing partners is a highly effective way to bring advanced technology into your business without overextending resources. Businesses that adopt technologies like cloud computing, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are more likely to achieve project success by streamlining operations, eliminating manual tasks and improving their ability to administer complex and large-scale projects. Partnerships benefit small businesses in a similar way, with solutions that can be scaled up or down depending on their growth.

IT project vendors can analyze large datasets and provide predictive insights using the latest AI and ML algorithms. This allows IT project managers to make informed decisions and more effectively offset risk.

The type of advanced technology provided by an IT outsourcing partner is more than a tool for IT project managers — it’s a fundamental enabler of success. By effectively leveraging advanced technology, a business can boost efficiency, optimize collaboration, make data-driven decisions and mitigate risks and, ultimately, ensure its infrastructure can adapt to emerging trends and business demands.

Evaluating Reliability and Support in Your IT Partner

A critical part of selecting an IT vendor is assessing their reliability and the quality of their support, as well as their track record and financial stability – a stable IT project partner is able to deliver consistent services and support in the long term. Additional criteria include:

Service level agreements (SLAs) that lay out guarantees and issue resolution, ensuring both parties understand the minutiae of the partnership agreement.
An ability to demonstrate business resilience, 24/7 support and a dedicated account manager.
Security protocols that are robust, cutting-edge and fully compliant with industry standards.
Case studies and testimonials, client referrals, industry awards and recognition.

A Case Study — New Data Center Expansion in Record Time

A global leader in digital transformation, specializing in cloud, cybersecurity and high-performance computing, was facing a critical deadline. Their aging data center was due to be shut down, and they needed to expand into a new facility quickly. The goal was to maximize their budget while ensuring top-tier infrastructure for their operations.

The Solution

The customer sought help from DataSpan, their longtime trusted IT infrastructure advisor. DataSpan’s mission was to find a high-quality, cost-effective solution that could be delivered quickly. This was something their incumbent vendor couldn’t provide at the right price.

Drawing on their strong industry relationships, DataSpan reached out to Enconnex, a proven partner known for innovative data center products.

The Results

Enconnex designed a custom server cabinet solution to meet the client’s needs. Their prototype had advanced cable and vertical airflow management, crucial for high-performance environments. Enconnex delivered on quality and their pricing was also the most competitive among all vendors considered.

Thanks to the collaboration:

The customer received fully customized, high-quality cabinets at a great price.
DataSpan presented a compelling, budget-friendly solution to the client.
The project was completed quickly, supporting the customer’s data center migration without disruption.

This case is an example of the value of trusted partnerships and industry expertise. By working together, DataSpan and Enconnex delivered a fast, reliable and cost-effective solution that helped the client stay ahead in the fast-paced world of IT and digital transformation.

DataSpan — The Right Tech Partner for Your Business

The effect of a tech partner on your business should never be underestimated. A McKinsey study suggests businesses that prioritize strategic partnerships are 2.5 times more likely to realize their goals.

At DataSpan, we’ve been in business for 50 years and offer a range of information technology products and services for businesses, including data center and physical IT infrastructure, data storage, networking, cloud and colocation solutions, and specialty services like professional and IT staffing solutions.

We’ll work with your current needs and schedule while keeping an eye on your business goals. No matter what your needs, our team does whatever it takes to get the job done right. We never promote a cookie-cutter fix dressed up as a custom fit — our vendor-agnostic approach to data center solutions always speaks directly to our clients’ needs.