Brackwell Freight Ltd / BB-Demo – Check In
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Brackwell Freight Ltd: documents · 2026-05-05 12:30
Liam Doherty says the brain is healthy technically but depots barely use it. Daily active users are down, value sits with two people, and finance is asking what to budget for the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Liam Doherty says the brain is healthy technically but depots barely use it. Daily active users are down, value sits with two people, and finance is asking what to budget for the 1 Dec 2026 renewal.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed usage, open issues and the renewal with Liam Doherty. Average daily active users were a bit over seven against forty Growth licences, down on the quarter before.
Customer view: Liam says depot managers are flat out and the brain is their third tool. He wants them to look before a retailer complains, and can make a value case with numbers.
Commercial: The contract renews on 1 Dec 2026 at £44,000 a year on Growth, matching the invoices and order form. Liam asked about pricing because finance want a budget figure; Marcus passed it to Tom.
Watch: Liam and one analyst ask most questions, a key-person risk. No tickets, connectors loading and records still climbing, so the issue is adoption, not the platform.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Depot adoption and renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Liam sends Marcus the quietest depots and the grocery retailer this week.
- Marcus books a working session next week to build the exceptions-by-retailer page.
- Marcus passes the finance budget question to Tom so he speaks to Liam directly.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Daily active users are falling and the depots have gone quiet, so renewal value is hard to show.
- Most questions come from Liam and one analyst, which is a key-person risk.
- Finance is asking for a budget figure and pricing has not been answered yet.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A regular summary or live team-meeting session could bring depot managers in on the Growth subscription.
- A page grouping delivery exceptions by retailer, built together, could give depots a reason to look.
- The early-warning grocery example could become the value case for the renewal.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneHi Liam, can you hear me alright?
Liam Doherty NoneYeah, loud and clear. Sorry, one sec, I'm just shutting a door. Right. Hi Marcus.- Marcus Bell NoneNo problem at all. How's the week going? Is it raining up there like it is here?
- Liam Doherty NoneDon't ask. It's only Tuesday and it already feels like Friday. I've had depot managers on at me about one of the retail accounts since first thing, so it's been a bit of a morning.
- Marcus Bell NoneI know the feeling. Thanks for making time over lunch, I do appreciate it. I'll share my screen, if that's okay, and just say what I want to cover so we don't wander off.
- Liam Doherty NoneGo for it. Love a plan.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo, three things. First, I've pulled the numbers on how people are using the brain, because there's a bit of movement there I want to talk through. Second, anything that's bugging you or the depot teams. Third, a quick look ahead to the renewal so there are no surprises later in the year. Does that work?
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, that's fine. Usage first, though, because I think I know what you're going to say.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, you can see it there. Over the last month the number of people active on a typical day is averaging a bit over seven. That's down on the quarter before, not dramatically, but it's down. And you've got forty licences on Growth, so there's plenty of room.
- Liam Doherty NoneMm. Yeah. That tracks with what I see. The core group is still in there every day. It's me, the two analysts on my side, a handful of the account managers from Trafford Park.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnd the other depots? I'm looking at the list and there are quite a few names that were active when we did the rollout and have gone quiet.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's the bit that annoys me, honestly. Can we get the depots on it, that's always been the question. One view, that's the point. But the depot managers are flat out. They've got drivers, they've got delivery exceptions, they're firefighting. Opening another tool is the last thing on their list.
- Marcus Bell NoneSure. And I don't think it's that they dislike it. Looking at the history, when they did use it they were asking about delivery exceptions for a specific retailer, so it's useful when there's a live problem.
- Liam Doherty NoneExactly. It's reactive. They only come to it when a customer's already shouting. What I want is for them to look before the customer shouts. That's the at-risk contract thing, spotting it early.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. That's helpful, because that's a different problem from the tool being hard to use. Can I ask, has anyone told you it's confusing, or is it just habit?
- Liam Doherty NoneHabit, mostly. One of the managers said to me he forgets it's there. He's got his spreadsheet, he's got the helpdesk open, and the brain is the third thing.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. So that's something we could actually do something about. I've seen it work at other accounts where the brain gets put in front of people rather than asking them to go to it.
- Liam Doherty NoneLike what? Go on.
- Marcus Bell NoneA few options. One is a short regular summary that lands in front of each depot manager, so they see their own accounts without having to log in and hunt. Another is a very short session with the account managers, maybe fifteen minutes in their own team meeting, where we ask the brain a question about one of their real accounts, live.
- Liam Doherty NoneMm, the live one is good. They like seeing their own customer on the screen. Less so a generic demo.
- Marcus Bell NoneAgreed. And I'd rather not turn up with slides anyway. If you can tell me which two or three depots are the quietest, I can look at what they've asked in the past and bring something relevant.
- Liam Doherty NoneI can do that. I'd say the two furthest from Manchester are the quietest. They feel a bit cut off from head office anyway, so anything that makes them feel part of it helps.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood. Can you drop me a line on which ones, and I'll go through the questions asked from each? I'll keep it short.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, I'll send it after this. Today if I can, but no promises with the morning I've had.
- Marcus Bell NoneTotally fine. Before the end of the week is plenty. Right, other things on usage. Questions asked overall are fairly steady, so people who are using it are still using it. It's a smaller group, but they're not drifting away.
- Liam Doherty NoneGood. I'd worry if it was the heavy users dropping off.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, the heavy users are the same people. Which, to be honest, is also a small risk of its own. If one or two of you are asking most of the questions, the value sits with a couple of people.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, that's fair. Me and one of the analysts do most of it. I do hear that. It's not ideal.
- Marcus Bell NoneNot a criticism, mind. It's common. It's why spreading the use to the depots matters more than the raw number of logins.
- Liam Doherty NoneRight. Okay. Next.
- Marcus Bell NoneNext is anything that's bugging you. I looked and there are no open tickets from you at all, nothing in the last month. Is that genuinely a quiet month, or are things going unreported?
- Liam Doherty NoneNo, genuinely quiet. If something broke I'd have been on to you, I don't let a ticket sit. The nightly refresh has been there when I've come in, and the connectors have all been fine.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood, that matches what I can see. The connectors are all loading and the record counts are still climbing, so nothing's gone stale.
- Liam Doherty NoneOne thing, not a fault, more of a wish. The delivery-exception tickets come in from the helpdesk and they're quite noisy. Lots of them are the same thing, a late drop, a damaged pallet. I'd love to see them grouped by retailer so I can see which contract is getting hammered.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay, so grouping exceptions by retailer. Let me make a note. I think you can do some of that already with a saved question or a page, and I'd be happy to jump on a call and set it up with you, rather than guessing what's possible.
- Liam Doherty NoneWould you? That'd be brilliant. Because if I can get a page that shows each retail account and how many exceptions it's had, I can put that in front of the depot managers and that might be the thing that gets them looking.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's exactly the sort of thing. Shall we book half an hour next week and build it together? I'd like it to be something you own afterwards, not something that needs us.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, go on. Send me a couple of slots. Not Monday, Mondays are carnage.
- Marcus Bell NoneNoted, no Monday. I'll send Wednesday or Thursday options.
- Liam Doherty NonePerfect.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, third thing, and I'll keep it light. The contract runs to the end of November and renews on 1 Dec 2026. It's forty-four thousand a year on Growth, and that's what we've invoiced, so the paperwork and the order form agree.
- Liam Doherty NoneOkay. Yeah. I'd lost track of how close that was, to be fair.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's not close yet, there's a good stretch. But I'd like us to be able to say, by the time we sit down to talk about it, what the brain's actually done for you. So the usage conversation we've just had matters.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah. No, I get that. Honestly, I think I could make that case. We caught a couple of retail contracts going wrong earlier than we would have. But I'd want numbers, not just a story.
- Marcus Bell NoneWhich is what I can help with. If you can tell me which contracts you're thinking of, I can look at when the signals first showed up in the brain compared with when the customer rang. That's the sort of before-and-after that holds up.
- Liam Doherty NoneLove that. There's one in particular, a big grocery account. We saw the exceptions stacking up and the account manager had a call with them before they'd even complained.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat, that's a proper example. Don't go and dig it out, just give me the retailer and roughly when, and I'll look it up from our side.
- Liam Doherty NoneOkay. Anything on pricing I should be thinking about? I'd rather know now than get it dropped on me.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair question. That's really for Tom, who looks after the commercial side, so I don't want to guess at anything and get it wrong. What I can say is that nothing's changing between now and then that I'm aware of, and I'll make sure Tom speaks to you well ahead of time.
- Liam Doherty NoneFine. That's fair enough. Just don't want a surprise. I've got finance asking me what they should budget.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. I'll flag that to Tom today so he knows finance are asking. He'll come back to you directly.
- Liam Doherty NoneThanks. Appreciate it.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnything else on your side before I recap? Anyone new joining, anyone leaving, any changes in how you run the depots that might touch the data?
- Liam Doherty NoneNothing major. We're talking about changing how the depots log exceptions, but that's months away and nothing's decided. If it happens I'll tell you early, because it'd change what the helpdesk feed looks like.
- Marcus Bell NonePlease do. That's exactly the kind of change that can quietly break a connector if we don't know about it, so a heads-up is gold.
- Liam Doherty NoneWill do. Sorry, one more thing. Do you have anything on how other logistics firms use it? Not names, just ideas. I'm always looking for what the next thing is.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll have a think and send a couple of general examples. I don't want to promise a big list, but a few ideas I can do.
- Liam Doherty NoneBrilliant. That's all from me then.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay, recap. You'll send me the quietest depots and the retailer for that example. I'll send times for a working session next week, look at grouping exceptions by retailer, and pass the budget question to Tom. And I'll think about some general ideas for you.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's it. Good call. Speak soon.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, Liam. Take care, and good luck with the rest of the day.
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