Partners

We disclose all referral relationships to our clients, ensuring they are aware of the fact we may receive bonuses or financial benefits from partners. This transparency builds trust with our clients.

We are obsessed with making our clients successful. We always work backwards from the unique challenges a client is facing and always put the client's interests first. We will not recommend a partner to a client without a clear problem statement or use case. We will not operate on behalf of a partner as a “hammer looking for a nail”.

We refer partners based on the alignment of their product capabilities and roadmaps to a client's specific needs and challenges. We do not make partner referrals if a partner is prospecting for new customers and simply looking for an “in” with a prospect. In this scenario, ikona may decide to reach out in good faith to our network contacts working at the partner prospect, and genuinely seek to understand the challenges and needs of their People Analytics practitioners and internal HR stakeholders. This outreach may result in ikona Analytics referring a partner, if a discussion is requested by the customer prospect. In rare cases, a referral may also be made to other partners based on these conversations, if another partner is a better fit.

The team at ikona analytics reserves the right to make the best referral for a client regardless of a vendor request to engage in accordance with our first principle of Client Obsession.

We believe market competition is a catalyst for innovation and leads to better solutions that meet our clients’ needs. We scan the market for opportunities equally for all partners, regardless of their size, market share, or the potential for incentives.

If a partner brings in ikona Analytics to advise one of the partner’s existing customers, we will honor the partner relationship and operate as an internal advocate for the partner. Alternatively, if ikona Analytics is working with a client who is a current partner customer, and that client initiates a conversation to explore the market or change vendors, ikona 1 http://www.redthreadresearch.com ikona Analytics Partnership Principles - October 2024 2 analytics reserves the right to work solely with the client and in the client's best interest. From that point forward it will be treated like a market exploration exercise. With that in mind, ikona will not initiate or recommend changes to a partner vendor if the client has not initiated that conversation. This will be made clear to clients upon the start of each client engagement where a partner vendor is present.

ikona reserves the right to keep our client’s interest in market exploration confidential, and we are not obligated to make the incumbent partner aware (though we will recommend to our client that they reach out to the incumbent partner). ikona Analytics’ primary obligation is always with our clients. If we encounter a situation where it would be unrealistic to maintain objectivity, we will err on the side of maintaining client trust and recuse ourselves (e.g. RFP negotiations on competing partner contracts).