Kognitiv Inc. offers Workday support without minimum spending or long-term contracts in its Power by the Hour overview . The customer pays for service used rather than reserving mandatory consumption.
That condition changes the consultancy sale. A business can resolve a limited need without committing to months of spending. For the provider, the next purchase depends on another need arising and the customer choosing its help again.
A small entry reduces the commitment to decide
A post-production support buyer does not always know how many issues will arise. A minimum obligation turns that uncertainty into spending agreed in advance. Usage-based support starts the relationship around a particular problem and allows the assignment to expand when justified.
Budget is only part of buying assistance. In Amazon Business’s global study published by Statista, 21% of decision-makers cited costs and budgets as a procurement difficulty, while 47% cited efficiency and operational complexity. The survey covers purchases across sectors, rather than Workday support. For Kognitiv, removing mandatory hours makes spending easier to discuss, while the intervention still needs to reduce a specific task the buyer needs resolved.
Budget concerns coexist with the work of managing purchases
Procurement issues cited by purchasing decision-makers in 2024.
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
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Amazon Business: online survey of 3,458 decision-makers, June 11–August 1, 2024. Statista labels it worldwide and covering purchases across sectors, including operations and supply chains. Responses overlap and do not describe this company’s customers.
Explore the data table
| Category | Respondents |
|---|---|
| Efficiency and complexity | 47% |
| Costs and budgets | 21% |
| Supplier relationships | 19% |
| Compliance and quality | 17% |
| Technology and automation | 8% |
That flexibility has commercial value because it makes the first agreement smaller. Improving a report or a limited integration can become a separate decision with a visible deliverable. A broader relationship grows through those purchases without requiring all of them at the start.
The other side is economic: the provider needs available capacity for demand that has not yet been contracted. Removing the customer’s minimum does not remove the cost of retaining specialists. Acquisition therefore needs to attract tasks existing capacity can serve.
Scope separates occasional assistance from strategic work
The ISV Partner Connect program distinguishes flexible support, integration building and enterprise solutions. Its delivery proposition includes knowledge transfer. These create different work commitments even when they share a flexible commercial entry.
| Assignment | Question defining the purchase |
|---|---|
| Occasional support | Which issue or change must be resolved? |
| Integration | Which systems and data must connect? |
| Broader relationship | Which responsibility continues after delivery? |
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Defining that boundary before the sale prevents a small assignment from absorbing an extensive availability or maintenance promise. It also protects the buyer by identifying what will still require work after the intervention.
Knowledge transfer creates a useful tension. A customer learning to resolve more tasks can buy fewer hours for those tasks. That reduction need not prevent a lasting relationship; it requires future purchases to address new or more complex problems.
Choosing a specialist again also requires recognizing their understanding of the business. Edelman and LinkedIn’s US study places that quality above being considered the safest choice among internal decision-makers who are not specialist users: 85% versus 41%. In Kognitiv’s model, knowledge transfer can demonstrate that understanding even when it reduces hours for the previous task; the next engagement needs its own reason to exist.
Expertise needs to explain the next engagement
Stated importance when selecting a vendor in an RFP, United States, 2025.
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
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Edelman and LinkedIn surveyed 1,934 executives March 17–April 3, 2025. This chart covers the subgroup of internal decision-makers involved in buying without being expert users of the product; its size is not separately reported. Importance ratings, not contract win rates.
Explore the data table
| Category | Very or moderately important |
|---|---|
| Understand business needs | 85% |
| Understand industry | 76% |
| Relevant expertise | 74% |
| Strategic fit | 68% |
| Cultural fit | 56% |
| Safest choice | 41% |
Repeat business needs to follow the customer’s need
An account that stops requesting help after a problem is solved can represent a successful delivery. Treating every fall in consumption as a commercial failure encourages prolonging work that is no longer needed. The analysis needs to distinguish a resolved need from a relationship lost through poor service.
Public materials do not disclose account consumption or profitability. They do identify the offer’s mechanism: Kognitiv lowers the initial commitment and leaves continuation dependent on the perceived usefulness of each intervention.
The commercial priority is to sell a scope that can finish well and clarify when returning makes sense. Without minimum hours, repeat buying is the customer’s decision. Growth holds when the next task earns its budget and the provider retains the capacity to resolve it.
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Marian Vasile
Marian Vasile is a MarTech and growth professional. His work spans product marketing, SEO, paid advertising and deep online tracking, including behavioral analytics and attribution.
