Calderbrook Housing Group / BB-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group: documents · 2024-09-09 11:15
Kickoff for Calderbrook's Growth subscription. Helen Marsden wants board figures traceable to source. The first board-ready view hinges on finance approval, and Paul Rigby is the only admin so far.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Kickoff for Calderbrook's Growth subscription. Helen Marsden wants board figures traceable to source. The first board-ready view hinges on finance approval, and Paul Rigby is the only admin so far.
What happened: Callie Brennan and Marcus Bell ran the 9 Sep 2024 kickoff. Marcus restated Growth, with the term running from 2 Sep 2024 to 1 Sep 2025 and forty licensed users.
Customer view: Helen wants one place where figures join and each can be traced. Paul wants repairs dashboards that match job references, and a written job counting rule.
Watch: Helen was disappointed that the board view lands late and made finance sign-off her priority. Paul is the only admin until she names a second, and she said she will be watching the purchase closely.
Commercial: Helen asked how renewal works, and Marcus promised a conversation with evidence. A fifth connector, the repairs contractor file, was floated as a possible later addition.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Growth kickoff and onboarding
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Callie Brennan sends the setup note with an owner and date against each item, including the job counting rule.
- Helen Marsden confirms the Snowflake role, the call queue list, a finance contact and a second admin name.
- Marcus Bell sends the review calendar invites that week and runs the first short session once data has landed.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The first board-ready view depends on finance approval of the arrears data, which Helen found later than she hoped.
- Paul Rigby is the only admin until Helen names a second, and the job counting rule lives in his head.
- Helen says she will watch the purchase closely, having considered building it in-house, so early value must be visible.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A fifth source, the repairs contractor job completion file, may come up once the first four connectors are stable.
- The quarterly review with a list of untraceable figures gives a standing chance to show value against Helen's own goal.
Transcript
Callie Brennan NoneHello, hello. Can everyone hear me? I'll just give it a moment for people to join.
Helen Marsden NoneGood morning. Yes, I can hear you.
Marcus Bell NoneMorning all. I've got the audio on my end too, thanks.
Paul Rigby NoneMorning. Can you see my screen or just my face? Might have it muted, hang on.- Callie Brennan NoneJust your face for now, and that's absolutely fine. We'll get to screens in a bit. How's everyone's Monday been?
- Helen Marsden NoneBusy. The weekend was quiet and the inbox is not. I'm glad we've got this in the diary.
- Paul Rigby NoneSame. Queue of jobs as long as my arm. Nothing wrong, it's just Monday.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, I'll tell you the plan for the next hour so you know where we're going. Firstly, a quick round of who's who and what you want out of this. Then I'll walk through the sources we're connecting and what I need from your side for each one. Then owners and dates, and finally Marcus will cover how you and the team get value once it's running. Does that work?
- Helen Marsden NoneThat works. I'd like to start with what we want out of it, if I may, because it frames the rest.
- Callie Brennan NonePlease do.
- Helen Marsden NoneWhat I want is the board pack built on figures I can trace. At the moment my team joins tenant calls, repairs, complaints and arrears by hand, every quarter, and the numbers don't always reconcile. The board will ask where each one came from. If the brain gives us one place where those are joined, and I can show the source behind each figure, then it's done its job.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's very clear, and I'll hold us to it. When we get to the usage side later I'll ask you which questions you'd want to see answered first, so we can measure against your own goal rather than ours.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood. I'd welcome that.
- Callie Brennan NoneAnd from your side, what are you hoping for?
- Paul Rigby NoneMine's simpler. I run the repairs reporting. I want the repairs dashboards right before the morning stand-up. If I'm not having to check them against the system by hand every day, that's a win. Job refs that match.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat maps cleanly onto what we do. Repairs jobs from the housing management system, matched to the helpdesk and call records, so you can see one job with everything attached. We'll check job counts against the source as part of the first refresh.
- Paul Rigby NoneGood. Because counts are what I care about. If it says a number I want to be able to find the number.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll share my screen for a moment, if that's okay, just so everyone can see what's been agreed in the paperwork. Let me know when you can see it.
- Helen Marsden NoneI can see it.
- Paul Rigby NoneYes, got it.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. So, you're on Growth, forty-four thousand a year, subscription started on 2 Sep 2024, and the contract runs to 1 Sep 2025. There are forty licensed users. The Growth tier includes the dashboards builder and a quarterly review with me, which I'll come to. I've pulled the numbers I can on where you are today, and honestly there's not much to say yet, as you'd expect a week in. We've got one active user on average across the last month, which is mostly Helen having a look around.
- Helen Marsden NoneGuilty. I wanted to see what it felt like before the team did.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's exactly right. I'd far rather the champion sees it first. The aim is for that number to look very different by the time we do the first review.
- Callie Brennan NoneThanks, Marcus. Let me move on to connectors, because that's where most of my time is going to go. I'll go source by source. The first is the housing management system, which holds tenancies, rent accounts and repairs jobs. What I need from your side is a read-only service account, in writing, and someone who can tell me which tables are the reliable ones.
- Paul Rigby NoneI can do the repairs tables. I know those. Tenancy and rent I'd want someone in housing systems to say.
- Helen Marsden NoneA colleague in our IT team looks after the system itself. I'll introduce them to Callie by email today. They can set up the account.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat would be great. And just so it's clear, I never start a connector without written access. So the email with the account details is what unlocks that one, not a verbal go-ahead.
- Helen Marsden NoneUnderstood. I would expect nothing less.
- Callie Brennan NoneSecond source is the call recorder, for the tenant calls. I need to know which call queues you want in, and whether there are any you want to keep out, say for safeguarding reasons.
- Helen Marsden NoneYes, there are some. Anything flagged as safeguarding stays out, full stop. I'd like to confirm the exact queues with our contact centre manager before I give you a list, so can I send that after this call?
- Callie Brennan NoneOf course. Same rule, written list please, and I'll build the connector to that list and nothing else.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. That's very important to us.
- Callie Brennan NoneThird is the helpdesk, for complaints and repairs tickets. And fourth, the finance side, for the arrears and rent figures. For both of those I'd like to know who owns the data on your side, because the first time a field looks odd I'll want to ask somebody who knows.
- Paul Rigby NoneHelpdesk I know well. I've been in there for a few years. Complaints I'd say is Helen's team. Arrears is finance.
- Helen Marsden NoneCorrect. Complaints reporting is mine. For arrears I'll introduce someone from our finance team. They'll want to understand what's being pulled before they say yes, so it may take a few days.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's fine, I'd sequence it that way anyway. I'd do the housing system and the helpdesk first, then calls, and finance last. That way you get something useful early and we don't hold everything up waiting on one approval.
- Helen Marsden NoneI like that. It means my team sees something real quickly.
- Marcus Bell NoneCan I come in on that? On the Growth tier you have room for several connectors and I don't want you to feel boxed in. If a fifth source comes up later, say the repairs contractor's system, tell me and we'll look at where you are against what's included. No pressure, I just don't want it to be a surprise.
- Helen Marsden NoneNoted. We might. The contractors send us job completions in a file today and it's not tidy.
- Callie Brennan NoneWe can look at that once the first four are stable. Let's not stretch before the first refresh lands.
- Paul Rigby NoneFair. Walk before run.
- Callie Brennan NoneNow, one thing I'll say before we switch on the refresh. The brain is built inside your own Snowflake account, so someone on your side needs to be able to create objects there and give us a role to work in. Is that sorted?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt's in hand. Our IT colleague who looks after the Snowflake account has been told. I'd like to confirm that he's got the permissions he needs before I say it's done, so can I tell you by the end of the week?
- Callie Brennan NoneEnd of the week is fine. I'll note it as open, with Helen as the owner, and I'll chase on Friday morning if I've not seen it.
- Helen Marsden NoneChase me. I won't mind.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood. So that's the access list. Let me say it back so it's on the record. One, read-only account for the housing management system, from your IT colleague, in writing. Two, the call queue list, from Helen after talking to the contact centre. Three, the helpdesk access. Four, a finance contact for the arrears data. Five, the Snowflake role. I'll put all of that in a setup note and send it after the call.
- Helen Marsden NonePlease do. And can the note say who owns each item? I want to make sure nothing is sitting with me by default.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, owner and a date against each one. I like a date against every step, I won't pretend I don't.
- Paul Rigby NoneCan I ask something about the data itself?
- Callie Brennan NoneGo ahead.
- Paul Rigby NoneWhen the repairs jobs come in, how do you decide it's the same job? Because in our system a job can be raised, then re-raised after a no-access visit, and it gets a different reference. If you just count rows you'd overcount.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, that's exactly the sort of thing I want to hear now and not in week three. What I do is take the reference from your system as the key, and then we agree a rule for linking a re-raised job back to the original. I'd want you to tell me what the rule is, because you know how your schedulers behave. I won't guess at it. I'll write it down, show you the mapping, and you tell me whether it's right.
- Paul Rigby NoneI can do that. I'll write down how I'd count a job and send it over. Job refs from a few examples as well.
- Callie Brennan NoneBrilliant. A few real examples is much better than a description. Pick some awkward ones.
- Paul Rigby NoneI've got plenty of awkward ones.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's a good point to pause on, actually. For the board pack, repairs completed is one of the headline figures, and last time it was challenged. If the rule for counting a job is written down and signed off by Paul's team, then I can quote it. May I ask that the counting rule is part of what you hand over?
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. It goes in the setup note as a definition, with the examples. Then anyone who inherits this later can see how a job is counted and why.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. That's what I need. These things have a habit of living in one person's head.
- Marcus Bell NoneWhich is a good segue into my part, if that's okay. Callie will hand over a setup note, and part of my job is making sure the people who need to run this are actually able to. So can I ask, who's going to administer the brain day to day?
- Helen Marsden NonePaul. He's the admin, and I'd like him to be the person who knows how it's wired.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'm happy with that. I'd want to know what I can change and what I shouldn't touch.
- Marcus Bell NoneCallie will cover that in the walk-through. What I'd suggest is that we have a second person who can step in. Not because I expect trouble, just because it's good practice. A single admin is a thing I always flag, nothing more.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's sensible. I could be the second, but I'd prefer one of my analysts, so it isn't me by default. I'll come back to you with a name.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. Let me note that. Second admin, from Helen's team, name to follow.
- Callie Brennan NoneShall I give a rough sequence of dates now? I don't want to promise things I can't keep, but I can say what order they land in.
- Helen Marsden NonePlease. A sequence is what I need to tell the board.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo, this week, access and the Snowflake role. Next week, the housing system and helpdesk connectors go in and we do the first refresh on those two, with Paul checking job counts against his own examples. The week after, the call recorder. Then finance, once their approval is through. The first board-ready view comes after the finance data has landed and been checked, which I'd put at the back end of the implementation, not the front.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat is a bit later than I had hoped for the board view. Is there any way to bring it forward?
- Callie Brennan NoneThe honest answer is only by getting the finance approval earlier. If your finance contact can say yes within the first week, the whole thing moves up. The connector itself isn't slow, it's the sign-off that is.
- Helen Marsden NoneThen I'll make that my priority. I'll speak to our finance team this afternoon.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat would make a real difference. I'll write it into the note as the thing that decides the date.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, I'll go through how the first few months look from my side. Quick and practical. Once the data's in, the first thing I'd like to do is a short session with the people who'll actually ask questions. Not a big training day. Thirty minutes, on your own data, answering questions you'd actually ask.
- Helen Marsden NoneWho would you want in that session?
- Marcus Bell NoneWhoever prepares the board pack, whoever handles complaints, and whoever sits on the repairs side. Doesn't need to be all forty licences. A handful who'll tell their colleagues if it's useful.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'd put two of the repairs team in. They're the ones who'd tell me straight if it was rubbish.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect, that's the sort of honesty I want. And then the quarterly review. Growth includes one every quarter. I'll bring the numbers on questions asked, who's asking them, and what's being indexed, and we look at it against what Helen said at the start. Is the board pack getting easier? Are the figures reconciling? That's the test.
- Helen Marsden NoneI'd add one thing to that. I'd like the review to include a list of any figure we couldn't trace to source. If there's one, I want to see it, not have it smoothed over.
- Marcus Bell NoneYes. I'll make that a standing item. I'd rather show you a gap than have you find one.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood.
- Paul Rigby NoneWhat if something goes wrong in between? Like the refresh doesn't land and the dashboards are stale at stand-up?
- Marcus Bell NoneGood question. You raise a ticket through the helpdesk and it's picked up within the response time for your tier. The refresh is meant to be complete by seven in the morning on business days, so if it isn't, that's something to raise straight away, not wait on. I can't promise how quickly engineering would fix any particular fault, but I can promise you'd get a person looking at it and an honest update.
- Paul Rigby NoneFair. I'd just like to know it's being looked at.
- Callie Brennan NoneAnd in the setup note I'll put exactly how to raise it and what to include. Screenshot, job ref, what you expected. That makes it quicker for everyone.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'm good at screenshots.
- Helen Marsden NoneHe is. He keeps a spreadsheet of everything.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's a good habit to bring. It'll help me when I do the review too.
- Helen Marsden NoneCan I ask about the renewal? I know it's early. It's more about how it works, because our finance team will ask.
- Marcus Bell NoneSure. The subscription runs until 1 Sep 2025 and renews from 2 Sep 2025. I'd start the conversation well before that, roughly three months ahead, with a written notice from me, and by then we'll have a few reviews behind us so we can talk about what it's been worth rather than guessing. The commercial side of that sits with the account executive, I'd just make sure you had the facts.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's helpful. I'd rather it was a conversation with evidence than a surprise invoice.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's the plan.
- Callie Brennan NoneBefore we run out of time, can I check the user side? Forty licences. Who's going to get access first, and how do you want them added? One by one, or through your identity system?
- Helen Marsden NoneOne by one for now. I'd prefer to start with a small group and add as people ask. I don't want forty people logging in on day one and finding it half-built.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's wise. I'd suggest starting with the BI team, the repairs analysts, and one or two from complaints. Then widen after the first review.
- Paul Rigby NoneI can add people myself, can't I?
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, as admin. I'll show you in the walk-through. It takes a minute.
- Helen Marsden NoneWhile we have everyone, can I say one thing for the record? The decision to buy was not a quick one. We looked at doing this ourselves. I'm not saying that to be difficult, I'm saying it because I'd like us to be able to say, in a year, that it was the right call. So I'll be watching it closely.
- Marcus Bell NoneI appreciate you saying it. And I'd rather you watched it closely. That's how we both find out quickly if something's not right.
- Callie Brennan NoneAgreed. I'll make sure the first refresh is something you can check, line by line, against the source.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's all I ask.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, let me recap owners and dates, and then I'll let you get on with your Monday. Helen: introduction to your IT colleague today, call queue list after speaking to the contact centre, finance introduction this afternoon, Snowflake role confirmed by the end of the week, and a name for the second admin. Paul: counting rule for repairs jobs with a few awkward examples, and two repairs colleagues for the first session. Me: setup note with owners and dates after this call, then the first connectors next week. Marcus: the first session once data has landed, and the review calendar.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's everything on my list. I'll send the calendar invites this week so the dates aren't floating.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's all clear. Thank you both, this was more useful than I expected, and I expected it to be useful.
- Paul Rigby NoneSame here. I'll get the examples over today.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. Thanks, everyone. Speak soon.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks all. Take care.
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