What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26On 8 Sep 2025 Helen Marsden said the repairs figure in the board pack does not reconcile, daily use is down, and the digital team is talking about an in-house build. She said she is worried, not unhappy.
What happened: Daniel Okafor ran an informal check-in with Helen Marsden. She raised a repairs figure that does not tie to the housing system. Arrears and complaints do tie.
Customer view: Few people use the brain daily, and managers read the pack rather than log in. Helen likes the joined-up view and is proud of the dashboards her team built, but wants proof of value for the board.
Commercial: Helen said the digital team is talking about building on its own platform and the board will ask about the forty-four thousand a year. She asked for a one-page value summary before any contract talk. The contract runs to 1 Sep 2026 on Growth.
Watch: No tickets were raised because the team has been working round the issue. Use rests on three or four people.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Daniel Okafor to send the repairs comparison of nightly records against housing system dates by Friday.
- Daniel to have engineers check the connections and to draft the usage and value summary for the analysts to review.
- Helen Marsden to send names for the managers' session the following week and to have the team log tickets.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The digital team is discussing an in-house build, and the board may question the subscription cost against low daily use.
- Use rests on three or four people, so one absence puts the board pack at risk.
- An unexplained repairs figure erodes leadership trust in the pack.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A usage and value summary by team and pack section can give Helen the case she needs for the board.
- A short managers' session built on their own questions could widen use beyond the core few.
- The customer's own dashboard building shows investment in the brain.
Transcript
- Daniel Okafor NoneHello Helen, can you hear me all right?
- Helen Marsden NoneI can, yes. Afternoon, Daniel. Sorry, give me one second, I'm just closing a spreadsheet.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo rush at all. Thank you for making the time. I know it's the first proper week back for a lot of people.
- Helen Marsden NoneIt is. The board cycle starts up again and everything lands at once. Did you manage to get away?
- Daniel Okafor NoneA few days walking and a great deal of rain, but I'm not complaining. How about you?
- Helen Marsden NoneMostly stayed put. Right, shall we crack on?
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes, let's. Just so you know what this is, it's the informal check-in between the quarterly reviews. Esther has the review in the diary with you, so I'm not stepping on that. I'd like to hear how the team is finding it, and whether anything is getting in your way.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood. Can I start with something, because I'd rather say it than sit on it? The repairs completed figure in the repairs section of the board pack doesn't reconcile with what the housing management system says. It's out by a small amount, but the board will ask, and at the moment I can't explain it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOkay. Thank you for saying so. Is it the same direction each month, or does it wander?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt wanders. Some months it's over, some months it's under. That's what bothers me. If it were always over I'd assume a definition problem and move on.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. Mm. And when you say the housing system, is that the monthly export your colleagues send you, or are you looking at the live screen?
- Helen Marsden NoneThe live screen. I take the figure from there and then compare it with what the brain gives me on the same day. The brain is lower, usually.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's useful. Lower on the same day makes me think of timing rather than a definition, so something to do with jobs that get logged late and are only picked up on the next nightly refresh. But I don't want to guess in front of you, because you'd quite rightly want the figures.
- Helen Marsden NoneI would, yes. I don't accept an explanation without the figures, I'm afraid. It's an occupational hazard.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt's the right instinct. What I'd suggest is that I take two or three of the months where it was out, pull what the brain held for each night, and put that next to the dates in the housing system. Then you can see exactly which jobs arrived late, and you're not relying on my word. I'll come back to you by Friday with that.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat would help. Thank you.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIs the arrears section behaving any better? I remember that was the other one you were watching.
- Helen Marsden NoneArrears is better. Hang on, let me look. Yes. That one ties, give or take a day's movement. Complaints too. It's really only repairs that I keep tripping over.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood, that's helpful to know, because it narrows it. If arrears and complaints tie and repairs doesn't, then it's something specific about how repairs jobs get completed and closed. That's a much smaller thing to look at.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat was my feeling, but I didn't want to point the finger at the wrong place.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo, quite right. Can I ask you something, and tell me if I've got the wrong end of it? There are no tickets from you at all, not this month and not last. Normally I'd take that as a good sign. Here I'm honestly not sure.
- Helen Marsden NoneNo. We haven't raised anything. To be honest, we've been working round it. The team would rather check a figure by hand than wait for someone to come back to us.
- Daniel Okafor NoneMm. I understand, and it's kind of you not to bother us, but I'd much rather you did. A figure that's out by a small amount is exactly what the support team can chase. Even a one-line message with the section of the pack would do.
- Helen Marsden NoneFair. I'll ask them to log it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you. Now, the other thing I wanted to be straight about. Looking at activity over the last quarter, the number of people using the brain on a normal day has come down. You have forty licences and on average only six or seven people are in there each day. That's about a third lower than the quarter before. How does that sit with what you see?
- Helen Marsden NoneSadly it matches. A couple of the team were pulled onto other work over the summer, and a couple were off. The people who still use it are the same three or four who built things in the first place.
- Daniel Okafor NoneMm. And the managers in housing and repairs? The people who were going to ask it their own questions?
- Helen Marsden NoneThat never really took off. They read the pack. They don't log in. I did say at the start that would be the hard part.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYou did, and I remember it. I don't think that's your team's failing. I think we haven't made it easy enough for them. How is the team finding it, the ones who do use it?
- Helen Marsden NoneThey like the joined-up view. Tenant calls next to repairs next to arrears, that's the thing we couldn't do before and it's why we bought it. But it's the same few people, and if one of them goes off sick, that's a problem for the pack.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's the key-person worry. I'm glad you named it.
- Helen Marsden NoneThere's something else I should be open about, so you hear it from me. Our digital team has started talking about building something on our own platform. It isn't my idea, and I haven't been asked to lead it. But the board will ask what we're paying forty-four thousand a year for, if only a handful of people are using it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you for telling me. Honestly, I'd rather know, and it's a reasonable question for a board to ask.
- Helen Marsden NoneIt is. I'd ask it myself.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSo what would you need in your hand to answer it? Not for me. For you, in that room.
- Helen Marsden NoneA page. What it has produced for the board pack, how much time it saves the team, which sections depend on it. And the reconciliation sorted, because if the figures don't tie, nothing else I say will land.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. So there are two pieces. The first is the repairs figure, which I'll come back to you on by Friday. The second is a short summary of usage and value, by team and by section of the pack, written so you can drop it into a paper. And I'd want your analysts to check it before it goes anywhere near the board.
- Helen Marsden NoneI'd want that too. They know where the figures come from better than anyone.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course they do. Can I ask about the dashboards? I can see your team has been building them. Is that going well?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt is, actually. That's the part I'm proudest of. They're building them for the sections of the pack so that each number has a source behind it. I'd like to talk about them properly at the review.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd like that, and I'll make sure Esther knows. That's real investment from your team, and it counts for something when we talk about value.
- Helen Marsden NoneIt should count for something. It took a lot of evenings.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThen it needs saying. Now, on the managers. Would it help if we ran a short session with them, using their own repairs and complaints questions, rather than a general tour of the product?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt might. I don't want to ask more of them than they can give. They're stretched too, and I don't want to go over anyone's head by sending out invitations.
- Daniel Okafor NoneNo, nor would I. Maybe half an hour, and only the people you choose. If you give me two or three names I'll shape it around their questions, so it's their data on the screen, not ours.
- Helen Marsden NoneI'll think about who. Let me come back to you next week.
- Daniel Okafor NonePerfect. Is there anything on the data side that's changed? Any system you've moved, any new fields, anything your IT colleagues have touched?
- Helen Marsden NoneNot that I know of. I'd tell you. I'd have expected someone to warn me, but you know how it is, things do get changed.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThey do. I'll ask our engineers to look at the connections as part of the repairs comparison, just in case something has shifted underneath. And the records are arriving each morning, as far as you can see?
- Helen Marsden NoneYes. The pack is built on them every month and they're there when we look. It's the totals, not the arrival.
- Daniel Okafor NoneGood. That's what I'd hoped. I want to be careful not to over-explain, but one thing I will say: availability and freshness are different things, and I'd like to be sure which one we're talking about when we look at those months.
- Helen Marsden NoneYes. I'd like to know that as well. If the data was late, I want to know it was late, not just that it was there.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAgreed. That's exactly what the comparison will show.
- Helen Marsden NoneSorry, I've just opened the pack so I can read you the section. It's the repairs completed in the month, and the footnote says it's taken from the housing management system. That footnote is the problem, in a way. The board reads it as a promise.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. That's a fair way to put it. So the footnote says one system, and the number comes through another route. I'd want the paper to say plainly how it gets from one to the other.
- Helen Marsden NoneYes. Exactly that.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThen I'll write it that way. Just to close the loop on timings, so you're not left guessing: Friday for the comparison. The usage and value summary I won't promise a day for yet, because I want to check it with our engineers first, but I'll tell you when I have the date.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's fine. I'd rather have it right than quick.
- Daniel Okafor NoneCan I ask about the team a little, since you mentioned people being pulled away? Is that settled now, or is it likely to stay this way for a while?
- Helen Marsden NoneI think it settles, but I wouldn't swear to it. We're always the team people borrow when there's a deadline. I've learned not to promise that anyone will be back at their desk.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat sounds very familiar. Which is another reason to spread the use around a bit, so it isn't resting on three or four people.
- Helen Marsden NoneAgreed. Although I'd say it's also why I worry about asking for more. If the in-house conversation goes anywhere, I'd be asking my team to learn a second thing.
- Daniel Okafor NoneMm. I won't pretend to know where that conversation will go. What I can do is make sure you have a clear picture of what the brain does for you, so that whatever the board decides, they decide it with the facts.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's all I'm asking for.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThen that's what we'll do. Is there anything in the contract you'd like me to look at, while we're here? It runs to 1 Sep 2026, so there's time, but I'd rather you didn't feel you were being rushed towards anything.
- Helen Marsden NoneNo. Not yet. I'd like the value page first. Then we can talk about the rest.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. In that order.
- Helen Marsden NoneWhile I think of it, can the summary show who is asking the questions? Not names for the board, but how many people, so I can see whether it really is the same few.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes, I can do that. I'll show it by team, so you can see the spread without putting individuals in the paper.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's better. Thank you.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHow's the rest of the group finding things? Your colleagues in the leadership team, do they ever look at it directly?
- Helen Marsden NoneNot directly. They see the pack. I'd say they trust it in general, and then one number doesn't tie and the whole thing wobbles. That's the pattern, really.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich is why the repairs one matters more than its size. I do understand that.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. I wasn't sure you would.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI would, and I do. Let me say back what I've got, and you stop me if I've missed something. First, the repairs figure: I pull the nightly records for a few of the months where it was out, set them beside the dates in the housing system, and send that to you by Friday. Second, I'll ask our engineers to check the connections in case something has moved. Third, a usage and value summary, by team and by section, checked by your analysts first. Fourth, a short session for the managers you choose. Is that it?
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's it. And on my side, names for the session next week, and I'll get the team to log things when they spot them.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you. I'll write that up after the call so we're both holding the same list.
- Helen Marsden NonePlease do. Can you copy Esther in? I don't want her to walk into the review not knowing.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. She'll have all of it before she speaks to you.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood. That's one less thing to say twice.
- Daniel Okafor NoneIs there anything you wanted to raise that I haven't asked? Sometimes the useful bit comes at the end.
- Helen Marsden NoneOnly that I'm not unhappy, Daniel. I want to say that. I'm worried, which is different. I think what you built for us is good. I just can't yet prove it to people who weren't in the room.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's very fair, and I'm glad you said it that way. Proving it is our job as much as yours.
- Helen Marsden NoneThen we're agreed.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWe are. How is the team finding the chat side, by the way? You mentioned pages and dashboards, but not chat.
- Helen Marsden NoneA couple of them use it for quick questions about complaints. I'd say it's useful but they don't trust it for anything that goes in the pack, not without checking the source.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's the right habit, actually. And it comes back to the same thing: if they can see the source quickly, the trust follows.
- Helen Marsden NoneYes. Can you show me the source, every time. That's all it takes.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll keep that in mind for the managers' session. It's a good test for us.
- Helen Marsden NoneSorry, one more thing, and then I'll let you go. When you write up the comparison, could you keep the language plain? I'll be passing it to someone who isn't technical.
- Daniel Okafor NonePlain words, and the figures in a simple table. I'll leave out anything that needs a glossary.
- Helen Marsden NonePerfect.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight. I think that's everything from me. Just to close the loop once more: comparison by Friday, names from you next week, and I'll tell you the date for the summary once I have it. Does that sound right to you?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt does. Thank you for not being defensive, Daniel. Some suppliers would have been.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd rather get it right than be defensive. How does the rest of your week look?
- Helen Marsden NoneBoard papers, mainly. Section after section of them. And a meeting on Wednesday that I'm not looking forward to.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI won't ask. I hope it goes smoothly, and thank you again for being so open with me today. It makes this much easier to put right.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSpeak soon, Helen. Best wishes.
- Helen Marsden NoneKind regards. Bye now.