What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Callum Reid wants proof the brain earns its keep before the renewal. Roughly fifteen of forty seats are active, refresh is on time, no tickets, and he flagged a policy admin change and stale search results.
What happened: Callum attended alone and asked for usage, value and anything that could bite. Daniel Okafor reported roughly fifteen active users against forty licensed on Growth, with the nightly refresh completing ahead of 07:00.
Customer view: Callum says cross-system questions that took half a day to two days now take about ten minutes. He wants to tell his people it is more users, not just more cost.
Commercial: The term runs to 30 Jun 2026 with renewal on 1 Jul 2026, and Growth moves to the current list. Daniel will put exact figures in writing with the notice.
Watch: A policy admin system change later in the year could break a connector. Callum also sees search returning older document versions, and dashboards beyond the bordereaux one are not used.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Daniel Okafor sends proposed session slots, avoiding Tuesday afternoons, and refresh completion times by the end of next week.
- Daniel Okafor sends a draft one-page value summary the week after.
- Callum Reid sends the policy admin change date, an IT introduction and the older-document example.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Only about fifteen of forty licensed seats are active, which weakens the value case at renewal.
- A policy admin system change could stop a connector loading unnoticed.
- Callum does not control budget and needs something short to show the people above him.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A short underwriter session on their own submissions could lift seat usage before renewal.
- A one-page value summary built from questions asked and time saved supports the renewal price conversation.
Transcript
- Daniel Okafor NoneHello Callum, can you hear me alright? I think I've just come in on mute and then off again.
- Callum Reid NoneLoud and clear. Hello. Bit of a grim day out there, I've just walked back from the other side of the building and I'm soaked.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSame here, it's been sideways rain since I left the house. Anyway, thank you for making the time, I know Fridays are never quiet for you. Is it just us two today, or is anyone else from your team joining?
- Callum Reid NoneJust me. What I need out of this is simple. I need to know the brain is earning its keep before we get to the renewal conversation, and I need something I can put in front of the capacity providers if they ask. So, usage, value, anything that's going to bite us.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's exactly the shape I had in mind, so we're aligned. I'll take you through usage first, then what people are actually asking the brain, then the connectors and refresh, and I'd like to finish on the renewal timetable so there are no surprises. Does that work?
- Callum Reid NoneFine. Go.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. So, just to set the scene, you've been with us since 1 Jul 2024, you're on Growth at forty-four thousand a year, and you have forty licensed users. Over the last quarter the number of people actually active in a typical month has crept up. Roughly fifteen on average, and that's up a bit on the quarter before, so the direction is the right one.
- Callum Reid NoneFifteen out of forty. That's not even half.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt's not, no, and I'm not going to dress it up. I'd read it two ways. One, it's steady growth from a core group who've made it part of their week. Two, there's real headroom, because you're paying for forty and you're using well under half of that. Which of those feels closer to the truth from where you sit?
- Callum Reid NoneBoth. The core group is my ops team and the three or four underwriters who got converted early. The rest of the underwriters think it's a thing for ops. That's on me, partly. By when would you need a view on that?
- Daniel Okafor NoneWell, there's no hard deadline, but I'd rather we had a plan before the spring, so that by the time we talk about the renewal you can say more people are using it and here's what they're getting out of it. I can help with that. We could do a short session for the underwriters, built around the questions they already ask you.
- Callum Reid NoneGo on. What does that look like?
- Daniel Okafor NoneThirty minutes, on their own submissions. Not a tour of features. Someone asks, what's the status of this binder, which bordereaux queries are open against it, what's the claims ticket history, and the brain answers from the one view. They see their own book. In my experience that's what turns people, they don't want a demo, they want to see their own data answer back.
- Callum Reid NoneYeah. That I can sell internally. Not a training day, I haven't got a training day in me. A short one, fine.
- Daniel Okafor NoneShort it is. I'll come back to you with a couple of proposed slots, and you tell me which ones the underwriters can actually make.
- Callum Reid NoneNext two weeks, avoid Tuesday afternoons, that's when the syndicate calls stack up.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNoted, no Tuesday afternoons. Right, so let me move on to the questions being asked, because I think that's the best single measure of whether this is worth having.
- Daniel Okafor NoneLooking at the last few months, the volume of questions is up, and the mix has shifted. Early on it was mostly search, people looking for a document or an email thread. Now a bigger share is the kind of question that crosses systems. Things like, which of these bordereaux queries relate to submissions we haven't bound, or what's the oversight picture for this capacity provider. That's the thing you bought it for.
- Callum Reid NoneThat's a capacity-provider question. That's exactly what used to eat my team's week. Somebody from a syndicate asks for the position and then it's three people and four spreadsheets.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight, and that's the bit I'd love to be able to quantify for you. How long did one of those take before? I'm not asking for a number for the record, I'm asking so we can build the value case properly.
- Callum Reid NoneDepends on the question. A simple one, half a day. A proper oversight request, it could be most of two days between people. Now it's, what, ten minutes if the data's right.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIf the data's right. Yes. Which brings me to the thing I know you care about most. The nightly refresh. It's been completing ahead of 07:00 on business days throughout the period I'm looking at. Have you or the team seen anything that suggests otherwise?
- Callum Reid NoneNo. Which is what I'd expect. I'd have been on the phone. By when is it done in the morning, typically?
- Daniel Okafor NoneComfortably before seven. I can pull the actual completion times and send them over after the call so you've got them in black and white, rather than my saying comfortably.
- Callum Reid NoneYes. Send them. I want that for the file.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll come back to you with that by the end of next week. Just to close the loop on support as well, because it's relevant here. You've had no tickets raised in the last month at all, and nothing outstanding. So either the thing is working or people have stopped telling us when it isn't, and I'd like to be sure it's the first.
- Callum Reid NoneIt's the first. If it broke I'd say. Loudly. Honestly, quiet is the best report you can give me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneFair enough, I'll take quiet. And on invoices, nothing overdue on either side, everything's tidy, so there's nothing there to worry about.
- Callum Reid NoneGood. Not my area anyway. Budget goes to the people above me, I just need to be able to tell them what it does.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood, and that's why I'm keen to give you something short you can hand over. Let me get on to connectors. You've got your CRM, your claims helpdesk, mailboxes and the shared drive all feeding in. Is there any source you've been wishing was in there that isn't?
- Callum Reid NoneNot wishing, no. What I'd want is for the ones that are in there to stay in there. We're changing a couple of things on the policy admin side later in the year and I don't want the brain to go dark when that happens.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a really sensible flag, thank you. When a source system changes, that's usually where a connector stops loading and nobody notices for weeks, because the records indexed go flat and everyone assumes it's quiet. If you tell me when the change is planned, I'll watch it with you rather than after the event.
- Callum Reid NoneI'll find out the date. I don't have it yet. What do you need from me?
- Daniel Okafor NoneJust the date and the name of whoever on your side owns that system, so my engineers can speak to them directly. Nothing heavier than that.
- Callum Reid NoneRight. A colleague in IT. I'll introduce you by email.
- Daniel Okafor NonePerfect. Now, the dashboards. You've built a few yourself, which is something I always note, because it shows the customer investing rather than just consuming. Are they getting used beyond you?
- Callum Reid NoneThe bordereaux one, yes, the team has that open every morning. The others, I'd say no. I made them and then everyone went back to asking me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa, I've heard that more than once. So that's maybe another thing for the underwriter session. Show them the dashboard exists, show them which questions it already answers, so they stop asking you.
- Callum Reid NoneThat would be a relief, frankly.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHow is the team finding it day to day, the ops people? Are there any irritations that wouldn't show up as a ticket?
- Callum Reid NoneOne thing. Search sometimes gives me the older version of a document. Not wrong, just not the latest. It's minor, but it's the kind of thing a syndicate would pick up on.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's useful, and I'm glad you said it. It's not a ticket, but I'd like it written down. Do you remember an example, a document or a binder it happened with? Even roughly.
- Callum Reid NoneA binder wording, last month. I'll forward you the one. Don't promise me a fix on the call, just look at it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI won't promise a fix. I'll look at it properly and come back to you with what I find and when, so you're not waiting on a we're looking into it.
- Callum Reid NoneGood. That's the answer I want.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight then, renewal. I want to be open about the timetable, because I know you like to see the whole path. Your term runs to 30 Jun 2026 and the renewal date is 1 Jul 2026. I'll send the formal renewal notice in good time, in the spring, and I'll make sure it lands with you first so it doesn't arrive cold on someone else's desk.
- Callum Reid NoneWhat's going to be different on price? I'll get asked.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYou'll have seen the note we sent customers in January. When you renew, Growth moves from the list you signed on to the current list, so there's an increase. I don't want to quote you a number from memory on a call, so I'll put the exact figures in writing with the notice. What I can say today is that it's not a surprise, and that I'd like it to arrive alongside the usage story we've just talked about.
- Callum Reid NoneFine. I'd rather have it in writing. And I want to tell my people it's more users, not just more cost.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's the right framing. And that comes back to the underwriter session. If we get a good chunk more of the forty seats active before the renewal, the conversation is much easier for everyone.
- Callum Reid NoneUnderstood. So the actions. You send me slots for the underwriter session, avoiding Tuesday afternoons. You send me the refresh completion times. You look at the old-document issue when I forward it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd you send me the policy admin change date and an introduction to your colleague in IT. And I'll draft a one-page value summary you can use internally, built from the questions asked and the time you described saving. I'll send you a draft to correct, not a finished thing.
- Callum Reid NoneGood. That's useful. By when?
- Daniel Okafor NoneThe slots and the refresh times by the end of next week. The one-page summary by the week after. Does that suit?
- Callum Reid NoneThat suits. Anything else from you?
- Daniel Okafor NoneOnly thank you. It's been a good quarter and I'm glad the team's getting value. Enjoy what's left of the Friday, and try to get dry.
- Callum Reid NoneCheers Daniel. Speak soon.