Decision Intelligence
Why We Do Not Sell Platforms (And What That Frees Us To Do)
By Ashutosh Bansal·May 4, 2026
Most enablement firms are platform resellers in editorial clothing. We are not. Here is why the distinction matters.
Most enablement firms are platform resellers in editorial clothing. The deck looks independent. The website talks about methodology. The first conversation feels like advisory. Three months in, the recommendation is the platform the firm has the deepest reseller margin on.
We do not sell platforms. We do not take reseller margin from platform vendors. We are, structurally, the sibling firm to VYAN — not its reseller. The distinction matters more than it sounds.
It matters because the question every enterprise should be asking about its decision intelligence program is not which platform should we buy. It is what operating model do we want, and which platform best supports it. The first question funds platform sales. The second question funds enablement. The firms that earn from the first question can never quite answer the second one honestly.
This is not an indictment of those firms. Their economics are what their economics are. It is an observation about the structural incentives a customer should understand before they pick an advisor.
What does our structure free us to do?
01Say no to platforms we do not believe in.
We have walked away from engagements where the customer was committed to a platform we did not think would survive contact with their operating reality. We did not take the work. We told the customer why. Some of those customers came back two years later, after the program failed, ready to start again. Some did not. Both outcomes are consistent with how we want to run.
02Recommend a different platform than VYAN, when it fits better.
Yes, we do this. Not often — because VYAN is the platform we believe in most deeply, and most engagements that come to us are a strong fit. But when the customer’s operating reality is better served by a different platform, we say so. We can say so because we do not earn from the recommendation. Customers tend to trust us more after we have said it.
03Be honest about what platforms cannot do.
The category is real. The platforms are improving fast. They are still platforms — pieces of software that do specific things well and other things less well. We tell customers the boundaries. Some of those conversations are uncomfortable. None of them have ever cost us a customer.
04Charge for outcomes, not for headcount.
Because we are not subsidizing licenses with implementation effort, we can scope engagements against outcome milestones instead of against weeks of staff time. Customers prefer this. We do too. It aligns the work with the value.
What this costs us is the platform margin we would otherwise take. What it gives us is the trust the customer extends when they realize we are the only advisor in the room whose recommendation is not pre-determined by their economics.
We think that trade is the right one. We have built the firm around it.
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