Calderbrook Housing Group / BB-Demo – Qbr
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group: documents · 2025-04-28 12:45
Quarterly review with Helen Marsden and Paul Rigby. Duplicated repairs rows undermine the board pack, and Helen said she cannot defend the renewal if the issue is unresolved. Usage is steady with headroom on forty Growth licences.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Quarterly review with Helen Marsden and Paul Rigby. Duplicated repairs rows undermine the board pack, and Helen said she cannot defend the renewal if the issue is unresolved. Usage is steady with headroom on forty Growth licences.
What happened: Natalie Eze reviewed usage, the high priority ticket on repeated repairs lines, and the contract. Helen and Paul showed the same job appearing twice since the housing system upgrade.
Customer view: Helen said she is not unhappy and the team likes the brain, but she needs the numbers to stand up. She tied the renewal directly to the fix.
Commercial: Growth at £44,000 a year, nothing overdue, term to 1 Sep 2025, renewal on 2 Sep 2025. Nine or ten daily users out of forty is headroom, but Helen will not widen it until the counts are clean.
Watch: Paul is the biggest single asker of questions, a key-person risk. Helen wants a scheduled board-ready report, logged as a request only.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Repairs data accuracy and renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Natalie Eze to give Helen a firm answer on fix timing by the Friday after the call.
- Natalie to chase the ticket and annotate it so Paul can see progress.
- Natalie to draft a value summary for the early summer and copy Tom Ashdown.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Helen said she cannot defend the renewal to the board if the repairs double-counting is not resolved.
- Paul Rigby asks a large share of questions, so his absence would cut usage sharply.
- Only about a quarter of the forty Growth licences are active and wider rollout is on hold until the data is right.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Forty licences with nine or ten daily users leave room to bring in repairs supervisors once counts are clean.
- A session for analysts on sourced questions and an early summer value review can deepen value before renewal.
- The dashboards builder on Growth could cover Helen's request for a scheduled monthly board report.
Transcript
Natalie Eze NoneHello, can you hear me all right? I can see Helen. Paul, I think you're still in the waiting room, give me a second.
Helen Marsden NoneYes, loud and clear. Afternoon, Natalie.
Paul Rigby NoneHere, sorry. Got held up on the repairs report. Can you hear me?- Natalie Eze NonePerfectly. Afternoon, both. How's the week been? It looked properly miserable out of the window when I was driving in.
- Helen Marsden NoneWet. Leeds being Leeds. It's a busy one though, we're in the middle of board pack preparation, so I'll be honest, I've got half a mind on that.
- Natalie Eze NoneThat's fine, that's partly what today is for. So this is the quarterly review. The plan is I'll walk through how the brain's been used since we last spoke, we'll talk about the ticket Paul raised, and then I want to hear what you need from us before the summer. Does that work?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt does. Can I start with the thing I'm chasing, though? The repairs completed figure in the performance section of the board pack. These don't reconcile with what the housing management system shows for the same month. The board will ask, and I'd rather know before they do.
- Natalie Eze NoneRight, yes. And I think that's the same thing Paul's ticket is about?
- Paul Rigby NoneIt is. Double-counted again. Let me share my screen. Can you see the report?
- Natalie Eze NoneYes, I've got the repairs dashboard up. Go on.
- Paul Rigby NoneSo this is completed jobs by week. These three weeks here are high. I've put the job refs in the ticket, the same job comes through twice with a different status line. Since the upgrade on the housing system side, it's been doing it.
- Helen Marsden NoneAnd that's the number that ends up in my section. Can you show me the source, Paul? Not the dashboard, the underlying rows.
- Paul Rigby NoneYeah. Give me a minute, I'll open the table. Right. This one, job ref attached in the ticket, appears here and here. Same job, same date, two rows.
- Natalie Eze NoneOkay, that's really helpful, thank you. So what I can tell you is the ticket was flagged high priority on our side, and it's with our engineers now. I don't want to promise a fix date on this call because I haven't got one in front of me. What I can say is they have your job refs and they're looking at how the brain handles those repeated lines.
- Helen Marsden NoneWill it be fixed in time for the next pack? That's what I need to know.
- Natalie Eze NoneI'll get you a straight answer by Friday. I'd rather come back with something firm than guess now.
- Helen Marsden NoneMm. Friday's fine. And in the meantime, can Paul put a note on the dashboard so nobody downstream quotes the wrong figure?
- Paul Rigby NoneAlready done. Put a banner on it this morning.
- Natalie Eze NoneGood. Okay, let me move on to usage and come back to this at the end if there's more. I'll share my screen. Can you see it?
- Helen Marsden NoneYes.
- Natalie Eze NoneSo, headline. You're on Growth, forty licensed users. Over the last month, on average, about nine or ten people a day are actually in the brain. Compared with the previous quarter that's essentially flat, a couple of percent down, which I wouldn't read anything into.
- Helen Marsden NoneNine or ten out of forty. That's not many, is it?
- Natalie Eze NoneIt's a fair question. It's headroom more than a problem, in my view. The people who are using it are using it properly. But if you've got forty seats and a quarter of them are active, there's a conversation about who else should be in there.
- Helen Marsden NoneHonestly, it's my team, Paul's team and a handful in performance and customer services. The wider housing teams still go to their own systems. I haven't pushed it, because until the repairs numbers are right I'm nervous about putting more people in front of it.
- Paul Rigby NoneSame here. I'm not rolling it out to the repairs supervisors until the counts are clean.
- Natalie Eze NoneThat makes sense. And I'd rather you did it that way round. There's no point widening it onto a number that's wrong.
- Natalie Eze NoneOkay, next view. Questions asked. This is the one I care most about, because it's the best sign of whether people are getting value. Roughly steady month on month. A fair few are from Helen's team on the arrears and complaints side, and a lot from Paul on repairs.
- Helen Marsden NoneIs that mostly Paul, then? Asking the questions?
- Natalie Eze NoneHe's the biggest single user, yes. Which is good for you in one sense and a bit of a risk in another. If Paul's on leave, a big chunk of the questions stop.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'm not going anywhere.
- Helen Marsden NoneHe's not, but she's right. It would be better if my analysts were asking more of their own. I'll take that away.
- Natalie Eze NoneWe can help. I could run a short session with your analysts, nothing heavy, how to ask the sort of question that gets you a sourced answer. Complaints against repairs by area, that kind of thing.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat would be useful. Complaints against repairs by area is exactly what the board asked for last time. Can the brain show where the answer came from? I always want to see the source.
- Natalie Eze NoneYes, every answer links back to the records it used, so you can open the call, the ticket or the row behind it. I'll do that live in the session so your team see it.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood. Then they can see it themselves rather than taking my word.
- Natalie Eze NoneConnectors next. You've got the housing management system, the call recorder, the helpdesk and the finance data loading in. All four loaded fine overnight this week. Paul, you'd tell me if one of them had gone quiet, wouldn't you?
- Paul Rigby NoneI'd see it. Dashboard goes blank. Hasn't.
- Natalie Eze NoneGood. And records indexed are still growing, so the brain's fresh. No stale source, which is what I look for.
- Helen Marsden NoneCan I ask about the rent arrears picture? Section four of the pack. That's the other place I've had a mismatch, smaller, but the board will ask. Arrears by tenancy type, the brain total is a bit under what finance reports.
- Natalie Eze NoneOkay. Do you know whether finance's figure is as at month end or as at the day they ran it?
- Helen Marsden NoneI don't. That's a fair point. I'd assumed month end.
- Paul Rigby NoneCould be timing. I'll check with the finance analyst.
- Helen Marsden NonePlease do. If it's timing I'll footnote it. If it isn't, I want to see the rows.
- Natalie Eze NoneGood. I'll add that to the list. So, summary so far. Usage is steady, there's headroom on the licences, one open data quality issue we're on, and one possible timing question on arrears. Anything I've missed?
- Helen Marsden NoneDashboards. We built a few in the autumn. Are they being used? I never know.
- Natalie Eze NoneA few are well used, the repairs one obviously, and the complaints one gets opened most weeks. A couple haven't been opened in a while. I'd tidy those up, honestly, so people aren't confused about which one's the live one.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'll archive the old ones. Two, maybe three.
- Natalie Eze NoneLovely. Right, let me talk about the contract, just so it's not a surprise later. You're on Growth at £44,000 a year, that's what the order form says and what's been invoiced, nothing overdue, so all tidy there. The term runs to 1 Sep 2025 and the renewal falls on 2 Sep 2025.
- Helen Marsden NoneYes. I'm aware. Procurement have already mentioned it.
- Natalie Eze NoneI won't open a renewal conversation today, it's too early and you've got a board pack to get out. But I'd like us to do a proper value review in the early summer so you've got something to take to your finance director.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat would help. To be candid, the board will want to know what the brain has actually done for them. Not how many questions. What changed.
- Natalie Eze NoneThat's the right framing. I can pull together some examples of where it's saved reconciling time, and where it's surfaced something you wouldn't have caught. But I'll need your help, because you know what the board cared about.
- Helen Marsden NoneThe honest one is the complaints and repairs link. Before, we couldn't say which repairs delays were driving complaints. Now we can, roughly. It's still a bit rough because of the double-counting.
- Natalie Eze NoneWhich is another reason to get that fixed properly. It undermines your best story.
- Helen Marsden NoneExactly. And I'd say plainly, if it isn't resolved I can't stand in front of the board and defend the renewal.
- Natalie Eze NoneUnderstood. I'm not going to argue with that. Let me take that back to the team with that wording, because it's clear and fair.
- Paul Rigby NoneCan I add one? The ticket's been open a while. Any update on this? That's the question I get asked every stand-up.
- Natalie Eze NoneI hear you. It was raised this month, so it isn't ancient, but I know it feels long when you're looking at it every morning. I'll chase it today and put a note on the ticket so you can see it moving.
- Paul Rigby NoneRight. Thanks.
- Natalie Eze NoneAnything on the product side you'd like? Things you wish it did? I've got a bit of time.
- Helen Marsden NoneOne thing. I'd like to schedule a board-ready report, so the same figures land in my inbox the same day each month, with the sources. At the moment I rebuild it every time.
- Natalie Eze NoneI can't promise that as a feature, I'd be guessing. What I can do is note it as a request with your wording, and show you what's possible with the dashboards builder in the meantime, which is on Growth.
- Helen Marsden NonePlease. A request with my wording is fine.
- Natalie Eze NoneOkay. Let me recap actions so I've got them right. One, I come back to you by Friday on the fix timing for the repeated repairs lines. Two, I chase the ticket today and annotate it for Paul. Three, I set up a short session for your analysts on asking sourced questions. Four, Paul checks the arrears timing with finance and archives the old dashboards. Five, I draft a value summary for the early summer. Right?
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's all of it. And can you copy Tom on the summary? He's not been on a call with us for a while.
- Natalie Eze NoneOf course. I'll copy Tom Ashdown so he's across it.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. I'll say one more thing and then I'll let you go. I'm not unhappy. The brain is useful and my team like it. I just need the numbers to stand up.
- Natalie Eze NoneThat's helpful to hear, and it's fair. The numbers standing up is the whole job.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'll send the arrears check tomorrow.
- Natalie Eze NoneBrilliant. Thanks both. Good luck with the pack, and let's speak Friday, one way or another.
- Helen Marsden NoneKind regards, Natalie. Speak Friday.
- Paul Rigby NoneCheers.
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