Every category has a phrase it leans on too hard, and ours is data-driven. Every vendor configurator is data-driven. Every sustainability platform is data-driven. Every consulting engagement, every dashboard, every report. The phrase has been worn so smooth by use that it no longer carries any weight. So when we talk about what makes Interact different, we deliberately use a different word.
The word is homework. It sounds smaller than it is. What we mean by it is specific.
What the homework is
The homework is the nine years of peer-reviewed research that sits underneath the Interact dataset. It is the 100,000s of benchmarks that have actually been run, on real hardware, under real workloads, by people whose job is to measure rather than to sell. It is the methodology that turns those measurements into something that can be applied to a fresh decision, not just summarised in a report, but used to simulate what a different configuration would do in the same place.
Most of what the rest of the market calls data-driven does not have that underneath. A vendor configurator is data-driven in the sense that it is algorithmic. A sustainability platform is data-driven in the sense that it aggregates inputs from somewhere. Neither has done the homework. The homework is what would make either one defensible against scrutiny.
Why the distinction matters
A method without the homework underneath produces an answer that looks right and falls over the moment the buyer asks the second question. The first question is usually what do you recommend? The second question is usually how do you know? Whoever can answer the second question keeps the room. Whoever can't is auditioning for the next pitch.
The homework earns the right to an opinion. The track record is what backs it up.
Both halves are necessary. The homework on its own is research. Research without a track record is interesting but not yet useful. The track record on its own is anecdote. Anecdote without the homework is the consultancy pitch every buyer has been on the wrong end of at least once.
Put them together and you get something different: an opinion that is defensible before the decision, and verifiable after it. That is what an evidenced procurement looks like. It is what we mean when we say we have done the homework.
What this looks like in practice
In a Verify engagement, the homework is the part the customer never sees. They see the recommendation, the scenarios, the figures behind both. What sits underneath all of it is the dataset of measured behaviour that lets us say with confidence what a given configuration will do, not what the spec sheet says it should do.
In a Advisory engagement, the homework is the part the customer leans on hardest. It is the asset that lets a procurement function move from we think this is right to here is what the data says, not for a single decision, but as a way of operating.
If you are weighing a refresh and want to know what the evidence looks like before the decision lands, that is what Interact Verify is built for. Your Position on this site takes two minutes and tells you whether it's the right place to start.