What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26First onboarding call on 23 Jul 2024. Callum Reid wants one place for submissions and bordereaux queries. Written helpdesk access, mailbox addresses and syndicate values are still owed before connectors start.
What happened: Callie Brennan agreed a first wave of four sources on the Growth tier: CRM, helpdesk, Microsoft 365 mailboxes and SharePoint files. Only the CRM sign-off had arrived in writing.
Customer view: Callum wants to see submissions and bordereaux queries together, and he is sensitive to stale data at seven. He will not accept an open-ended "we're looking into it".
Commercial: Growth allows eight connectors and only four are planned, so there is room to deepen. Callum plans a pilot of five people against forty licensed seats, which is a base for wider rollout once the data is trusted.
Watch: The refresh will not be reliably complete by seven in the early weeks. Callum is the single admin until a second is named, and the binder reference field is patchy.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Callum Reid to send the written helpdesk credential, three shared mailbox addresses, syndicate values and second admin name by the end of the week.
- Callie Brennan to send the plan and mapping sheet that evening and link the open high-priority ticket.
- Callie Brennan to hand over to Daniel Okafor with a setup note listing connectors, mappings and open items.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Helpdesk, mailbox and syndicate inputs are not yet in writing, so the first connectors cannot start.
- Seven o'clock refresh is not promised during onboarding and Callum has said stale data lands on him.
- The binder reference field is filled only about half the time, so binder questions may return thin answers.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Four of the eight Growth connectors are planned for the first wave, leaving room to add sources later.
- A five-person pilot against forty licensed seats gives a base for wider rollout once the data is trusted.
- A second admin from the pilot would reduce dependence on Callum.
Transcript
- Callie Brennan NoneHello, Callum. Can you hear me alright?
- Callum Reid NoneLoud and clear. Afternoon.
- Callie Brennan NoneAfternoon! Brilliant. Sorry, I was just finishing a note from this morning's call. How's your week going?
- Callum Reid NoneBusy. Binder renewal on the cargo side and a capacity provider chasing us for a view of open bordereaux queries. Same thing every quarter. Hence four o'clock, it was the only gap I had.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's honestly why you're doing this, so it's a good place to start. Right, let me tell you what I'd like to get through in the next forty-odd minutes, and you stop me if it's the wrong order.
- Callum Reid NoneGo on.
- Callie Brennan NoneFour things. One, I confirm what access we've got in writing and what we haven't. Two, we walk through the sources you want in the brain first, and I tell you what I'm going to connect and in what order. Three, we agree who on your side owns what, because I want somebody there who can run this without me. And four, we pin down what has to be true before we switch on the refresh. Then I send you a plan with a date against every step.
- Callum Reid NoneFine. What I need is a clear idea of when I can open a dashboard and see submissions and bordereaux queries in one place. That's the whole point. By when?
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood, and I'll come back to that with a proper answer at the end rather than waffle now. Can I start with what's arrived? I've got the sign-off from your IT contact for the CRM connection, and that's it so far. Nothing in writing for the helpdesk or the mailboxes.
- Callum Reid NoneYeah. The CRM one went through quickly because it's Salesforce and we've had an integration user set up there for a while. The helpdesk is where the claims tickets live, that's Zendesk, and I know that's with a colleague in IT but I haven't chased.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. So what I need from your side is a named admin credential for the helpdesk, read access only, in writing, before we go near it. I won't start a connector on a verbal yes. It's not a trust thing, it just saves us both a mess later.
- Callum Reid NoneNo, that's fair. Compliance would have my head anyway. I'll get it from IT today. Is an email enough?
- Callie Brennan NoneAn email from your IT contact saying what it covers is plenty. Read only, which objects, and who holds the key. Now, the sources. You're on Growth, so you've got room for eight connectors and I don't think we need to use all of them on day one. What's the list in your head?
- Callum Reid NoneIn order of pain. Submissions, which sit in the CRM as opportunities more or less. Claims tickets in the helpdesk. Broker emails, because half of the bordereaux queries come in by email and never get logged anywhere. And the shared drive where the monthly bordereaux files land.
- Callie Brennan NoneFour. That maps cleanly onto what I'd propose for the first wave: the CRM, the helpdesk, Microsoft 365 for the mailboxes and SharePoint for the files. Is the drive SharePoint?
- Callum Reid NoneSharePoint, yes. Well. Mostly. There's a folder tree some of the underwriters still keep on their own machines, which I'm trying to kill.
- Callie Brennan NoneHa, I'll assume that's out of scope for wave one. We only index what's in the sites you give us. Now the mailboxes, because that's the one people get nervous about. Which mailboxes, and are they shared or personal?
- Callum Reid NoneShared. The submissions inbox, the bordereaux inbox and the claims one. I don't want anybody's personal mail in there. That's a capacity-provider question as well, they'd ask exactly what the thing can see.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, that's the cleanest way to do it, and I'll write down precisely which folders are in scope so you can show the capacity providers. Can you send me the three addresses?
- Callum Reid NoneI'll do it after the call.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. While I've got you, a quick word on how the brain gets built, because it affects what you'll see. Everything runs inside your own Snowflake account, so your data doesn't leave. The connectors land raw data there, I map fields, and then there's a nightly refresh which should be complete by seven in the morning on business days.
- Callum Reid NoneSeven. Right, that's my time. If it's not there at seven the underwriters are already looking at stale numbers and I'm the one who hears about it.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, and I'd rather you heard it from me now: during onboarding the first few refreshes will be slower and a bit messy while we tune the mappings. I won't promise seven o'clock on day one. I will promise I'll tell you each morning if it landed.
- Callum Reid NoneOkay. As long as I'm told. What I don't accept is 'we're looking into it' with no time on it.
- Callie Brennan NoneNoted, and fair. I'll always put a time on it, even if the time is just when I'll next update you.
- Callum Reid NoneCan I ask something about the users? We've got forty seats on the contract. I don't want forty people poking around in week one. I want a small group who'll actually use it and tell me what's broken.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's exactly what I'd suggest. Pick a handful. Ideally one person from each of the cargo and professional indemnity desks, somebody from claims liaison, and whoever deals with the bordereaux queries day to day. Who does that?
- Callum Reid NoneMe, obviously. Two underwriting assistants who do the bordereaux checks, one senior underwriter on cargo who's sceptical, which is useful, and a claims coordinator.
- Callie Brennan NoneA sceptic is the best tester you can have. So that's five. And I'd like one of those to be a second admin, not just you. If you're out for a week and the connector needs a credential refreshed, I don't want everything waiting on one person.
- Callum Reid NoneOne of the assistants, then. Probably the more senior of the two. I'll confirm who.
- Callie Brennan NonePerfect. Let me share my screen. I'll show you the mapping sheet so you can see what I mean by field mapping, because that's where your input matters most.
- Callum Reid NoneRight, I can see it. So this is the CRM side. Opportunity stage, broker, line of business, inception date.
- Callie Brennan NoneExactly. These are the fields I'd map straight across. This column is what the CRM calls it, this is what the brain will call it. The ones I've highlighted are the ones where I genuinely don't know what you mean by it. Look at this one. 'Binder reference'. Is that a field you rely on?
- Callum Reid NoneYes. Well, it's supposed to be filled. In practice about half the time it's in a free-text note instead. That's a data quality issue on our side, not yours.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood to know, thank you. I'll map the field and I'll flag in the setup note that it's patchy, so nobody blames the brain when a question about a binder comes back thin.
- Callum Reid NonePlease do. Because the first thing a syndicate asks is what's open against a given binder.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood. Okay, next one down. Lloyd's syndicate number, is that a picklist or typed in?
- Callum Reid NonePicklist. Mostly. Somebody added a few by hand last year. I'd have to look.
- Callie Brennan NoneMm, then I'd rather you looked than I guessed. I won't say a mapping's right when I haven't checked it. Can you export the distinct values and send them with the mailbox addresses?
- Callum Reid NoneI'll get an assistant to do it. Anything else on the sheet?
- Callie Brennan NoneA few smaller ones, which I'll put in the follow-up so you're not carrying them in your head. Can I pause there? I want to answer your 'by when' properly.
- Callum Reid NonePlease.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo the dependencies are the helpdesk credential, the three mailbox addresses and the syndicate values. If I have those by the end of this week, I can connect the CRM and the helpdesk early next week and run a first refresh a couple of days after. You'd see something in a dashboard by the middle of the following week, though I'd call it a draft.
- Callum Reid NoneA draft I can show the sceptic.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's precisely the idea. Mailboxes and the files come in the second wave, because they're the most work to get right.
- Callum Reid NoneFine. And it's all inside our Snowflake. I'm going to be asked that.
- Callie Brennan NoneAll of it. I'll put it in the plan in plain words so you can lift the sentence straight into a reply to the capacity providers.
- Callum Reid NoneOne more thing. There's a ticket open from last week, one of the high ones, about the helpdesk access. Somebody in my team raised it with your support. Is that the same thing we're discussing?
- Callie Brennan NoneI think so, yes, it's the same access question. It's waiting on that written credential, so it'll clear when you send it. I'll note it in the plan so it doesn't sit there looking neglected.
- Callum Reid NoneGood. I don't like seeing a high-priority ticket with nobody on it.
- Callie Brennan NoneNo, quite right. I'll link it myself this afternoon.
- Callum Reid NoneWho do I talk to on your side once you're done? You said you'd hand over.
- Callie Brennan NoneDaniel Okafor is your customer success manager, he picks up adoption once the brain is live and he'll run your check-ins. Priya Raman owns the account on the commercial side. But I don't hand anything over without a setup note, so when I step back you'll have a document listing every connector, every mapping decision and every open item.
- Callum Reid NoneGood. That's what I need. Something I can hand to the next person if I leave.
- Callie Brennan NoneWhich is the reason for the second admin as well.
- Callum Reid NoneOkay. Let me think about whether there's anything I've forgotten. Reporting. What do the underwriters actually see?
- Callie Brennan NoneIn week one, search and chat. They ask a question in plain English, like which open queries are older than a certain age on this binder, and it answers from the sources. Pages and dashboards come on top once the data's trustworthy. I'd rather you had five people asking real questions than forty looking at a dashboard nobody believes.
- Callum Reid NoneAgreed. Dashboards that are wrong at seven are worse than none.
- Callie Brennan NoneCompletely. Right, I think we're at a good place. Let me read back the actions so we both leave with the same list.
- Callie Brennan NoneYou: the written helpdesk credential from IT today or tomorrow, the three shared mailbox addresses, the syndicate values export, and the name of the second admin, all by the end of this week. Me: send you the plan and the mapping sheet this evening, link that ticket, and connect the CRM as soon as the access is in. Anything I've missed?
- Callum Reid NoneNo. That's it. I'll ring IT now, actually. Before I get dragged into something else.
- Callie Brennan NoneDo. And if the credential goes sideways, tell me straight away rather than waiting for the next call. I'd rather lose a day to a short email than a week to silence.
- Callum Reid NoneUnderstood. Thanks, Callie.
- Callie Brennan NoneThanks, Callum. Speak soon. Bye.