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Alliances and partnerships

We have held a WalkMe partner agreement without a break since November 2019, and we have not earned a cent on a WalkMe licence since September 2024. We do hold referral agreements with Smartsheet and Pendo, and we will say so when one is in play. Mostly we are interested in the platforms you already own and are not getting enough out of.

Why the incentive matters more than the badge

Most platform advice is paid for by the platform

The usual arrangement is simple enough. A consultancy resells the licence, takes a margin on it, and then advises you on how much of it you need. Nobody involved is dishonest, but the incentive only ever points one way, and it never points at a smaller deployment.

We removed that incentive, and not by choice

WalkMe ended its referral programme on 12 September 2024, the day the SAP acquisition closed. Since then every dollar Five earns on WalkMe has been services. We would not pretend it was a principled decision at the time, but it has turned into the most useful thing about how we work: when we tell you to keep a platform you can believe us, and when we tell you to shrink it you can believe that too.

Where money does change hands

We hold referral agreements with Smartsheet and Pendo. If we introduce you and you go on to sign, we are paid for the introduction. You will hear that from us at the time rather than find it in a footnote afterwards. It is a small part of the business and it is not the part we are trying to grow, because we are not in the business of selling technology. The work we actually want is with organisations that already have the platforms and want to get more out of them.

Independent, with a deep bench

We are not the WalkMe company in New Zealand and we would not want to be. We are the independent adoption partner whose deepest bench happens to be WalkMe. Where a different tool fits the job better, that is what we will say.

How a platform engagement runs

Establish the baseline first

We walk the journey your people actually take, count the steps, and write down where they give up. Instrumenting a product with no baseline underneath it gives you a clearer view of the same problem and very little else.

Agree the measures before the build

A handful of outcomes with a measure against each one that you can actually collect. Agreed up front, in writing, so the question of whether the investment worked has an answer you can look up rather than argue about.

Design the adoption layer into the workflow

Guidance, measurement and support built into the workflows people already touch, rather than bolted on after the complaints start.

Hand it over

We build the internal capability to run it after we have gone. We measure ourselves by whether your organisation is stronger when we leave than when we arrived, and a platform you cannot operate without us fails that test.

The alliances

WalkMe

A partner agreement held continuously since 11 November 2019 and contracted through to June 2028. We were the first certified WalkMe delivery partner in New Zealand, in December 2022. We have taken WalkMe through a registered New Zealand bank's security review twice and into production, and we have had six platforms running for one client since December 2023.

Smartsheet

We implement Smartsheet as the operating layer for delivery: intake, approvals, dashboards, resource heat maps and the joiners-and-leavers plumbing. We build the thing rather than wrapping change around someone else's build. We hold a referral agreement, so an introduction that leads to a signed deal pays us — though most of our Smartsheet work is with organisations that already own it and are using a fraction of it.

Pendo

We run fixed-scope reviews that work out what people actually do inside your software and whether Pendo suits the job. Two to three weeks, a fixed fee, and a straight answer that includes no. We hold a referral agreement here too, and it rarely comes up, because the people who call us have usually already bought the licences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you resell software licences?

No. You buy your licences directly from the vendor and we are paid for the work. Two things worth saying out loud: we have earned no WalkMe licence margin since September 2024, and we hold referral agreements with Smartsheet and Pendo, so an introduction from us that leads to a signed deal pays us a referral fee. We will tell you when that applies. It does not change the advice, and it is not the business we are building — we are not in the business of selling technology.

Are you tied to WalkMe?

No. WalkMe is where our bench is deepest, not where our advice starts. If the answer is a different platform, or no platform, that is what we will tell you.

Can you work alongside our systems integrator?

Yes, and usually we should. They build the platform. We build the conditions for it to land. The best programmes have both.

Will your platform work pass our security review?

We have taken WalkMe through a registered New Zealand bank's security review twice and into production. We would rather have that conversation with your security team in week one than week twelve.

What if we already own the licences and nothing is being used?

That is the most common conversation we have, and the one we are most interested in. It usually starts with a review of what is actually happening inside the software before anyone spends another dollar on it.

Bring us the platform you are not sure about

Whether it is a licence renewal you cannot justify, a roll-out that has stalled, or a proposal you would like read by someone who is not trying to sell you the software, we are happy to have that conversation.

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