Calderbrook Housing Group / BB-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group: documents · 2026-08-06 12:15
On the 6 Aug 2026 check-in, Helen Marsden confirmed Calderbrook will not renew, with written notice due that week. The call covered what stays in their Snowflake, the dedupe fix and the lineage write-up for the board.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26On the 6 Aug 2026 check-in, Helen Marsden confirmed Calderbrook will not renew, with written notice due that week. The call covered what stays in their Snowflake, the dedupe fix and the lineage write-up for the board.
What happened: Helen Marsden confirmed the decision and said written notice needs her director's sign-off. Laura Penhaligon explained that the tables and views stay in Calderbrook's own Snowflake, while connectors, refresh, chat, search, pages and dashboards switch off at term end.
Customer view: Amara Obi's lineage shows the arrears figure matches the housing system and the double-counting is at source. Helen said she can now defend the number to the board, though it does not change her decision.
Commercial: The £44,000 order form stands for the term, and no licence relief was possible. The contract runs to 1 Sep 2026.
Watch: BB-Demo admitted it could have flagged duplicates much earlier. A good handover pack matters more than any save attempt now.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Non-renewal and exit handover
Importance
cancellation
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Helen Marsden sends written notice that week, once her director has signed it off.
- Laura Penhaligon puts the dedupe rule in Calderbrook's Snowflake and sends the first handover pack in a couple of weeks.
- Amara Obi sends the lineage document that day and books the review call.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Calderbrook has said it will not renew, and written notice is still waiting on director sign-off.
- Dashboards, saved searches and pages switch off at term end, so a poor handover could leave housing officers caught out.
- BB-Demo accepted it could have flagged the duplicates much earlier, which leaves a lasting impression of the service.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A clear handover note and lineage document may keep goodwill with Helen and the in-house team.
- The data stays in Calderbrook's own Snowflake, which may leave the door open for a later relationship.
Transcript
Amara Obi NoneHello hello. Helen, Paul, can you hear us? I've got Laura on with me today, Laura Penhaligon, she's one of our implementation consultants.
Helen Marsden NoneHello, yes, we can hear you. Hello Laura.
Laura Penhaligon NoneHi both. Nice to meet you properly. Apologies, I'm eating a sandwich, I'll try to do it off camera.
Paul Rigby NoneDon't mind me. I'm on my second cup of tea. Sorry, I'll share my screen. This is the repairs report that's wrong. Double-counted again, look, it's the same job on two lines.- Amara Obi NoneAh, you've brought it with you. I like that. Paul, hold that open, because that's partly why Laura's here. Before we start, quick thing from me. Helen, since Monday I've had the lineage traced on section four, I'll come to that at the end. First, let's do what we said we'd do, which is how an exit would work. Is that still the right call to be having?
- Helen Marsden NoneIt is. I've had it confirmed since we spoke. We won't be renewing. I'm sorry, Amara. I know it's not what you wanted to hear.
- Amara Obi NoneThank you for telling me directly, and don't apologise. I'd honestly rather hear it on a call than find out from a form. Is there a formal notice coming from your side?
- Helen Marsden NoneI'll send something in writing this week. It needs our director to sign it off first. I didn't want to wait for the paperwork before telling you.
- Amara Obi NoneUnderstood. That's fine, and we'll handle it properly on our side. The contract runs to 1 Sep 2026, so there's still a window where everything stays live, which is useful for what we're about to talk about. Laura, over to you.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThanks, Amara. So, the first thing, and I think this is what you were asking on Monday, Helen. The brain is built inside your own Snowflake account. So the tables, the views and the data we've loaded and joined, those are in your account and under your control. They're yours. They don't go anywhere when the subscription ends.
- Helen Marsden NoneRight. So I'm not asking you to send me a copy of my data. It's already sitting there.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneExactly. What does change is the layer on top that we run for you. That's the connectors that pull from your systems, the nightly refresh, the chat and search, the pages and the dashboards builder. That's what switches off at the end of the term.
- Paul Rigby NoneSo if I want a dashboard to carry on, I've got to rebuild it somewhere else.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePretty much, yes, but we can make that easier. What I'd suggest is we export the definitions of the dashboards you've built, so you've got each one written down: what it reads, how it's filtered, how it's grouped. So whoever rebuilds it in the in-house platform isn't guessing.
- Paul Rigby NoneThat'd be good. That's the bit I was worried about. I know what they show but not always how I got there.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's pretty normal. We'll do it as a document plus the underlying queries, so you can run them directly against your own tables if you want.
- Helen Marsden NoneAnd the pages? The housing officers have saved searches and the summaries of tenant calls. I said to Amara I'd not like them to lose those without warning.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, I've got that written down. Saved searches and pages can be exported as files, so people can keep a copy of what they've been using. We'd give you a heads up before anything's switched off, with a date, so no one's caught out.
- Amara Obi NoneAnd I'll own that notice. Nobody at Calderbrook should find a search missing without having been told.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. What about the call transcripts themselves? The tenant calls. They come from the call recorder, I presume, so who holds those?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThe recordings and transcripts are in your call recorder, that's the source, we only read from it. What the brain adds is the processed layer in your Snowflake, summaries and links to tenants and cases. That stays in your account. So you keep both.
- Helen Marsden NoneGood. That's what I'd hoped. Can you put that in writing? Not for me. For the board and for IT. They'll want it written down that the data didn't leave.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOf course. I'll write a short handover note: what stays with you, what's switched off, and in what order. Amara will review it, and it comes to you both.
- Amara Obi NoneI will. And Helen, I'd suggest you send it on to whoever's building the replacement. It saves them a lot of reverse engineering.
- Paul Rigby NoneThey'll want it. They're asking me things I'd have to look up. Right now it's all in my head and a spreadsheet.
- Amara Obi NoneWhich brings me to your spreadsheet. Paul, you said you've got every data-quality ticket logged in there. Could you share a copy? It'd help us document the known issues too, so the in-house team doesn't walk into the same double-counting.
- Paul Rigby NoneI can do that. It's just job refs and dates, nothing fancy. Any update on the cause, though? That's what I'd really want them to know.
- Amara Obi NoneYes, so, this is what I promised Helen. We traced section four back. The brain's arrears figure comes straight from the housing system's ledger. The discrepancy Helen was seeing is the repairs jobs feeding the cost per home, and that's the rebooked jobs being counted twice at source. The figure the brain shows is faithful to what the system sends. It's the system that's wrong.
- Helen Marsden NoneSo it's the upgrade. Not anything the brain did.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's what the lineage says. I've written it up as one page with the steps, and I'll send it today. I'd be careful, though. I'm not saying the brain was blameless, because we could have caught and flagged duplicates much earlier, and that's our miss.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's a fair thing to say. I can take that to the board, as long as I can show the source. Can you show me the source in the document, line by line?
- Amara Obi NoneLine by line, yes. Source table, the join, the figure at each stage. Nothing hidden.
- Helen Marsden NoneThen I'm content with that. It doesn't make me any happier about leaving, but I can defend the number.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneCan I raise the practical side? Timing. I'd suggest we don't leave the exports to the last week. A few weeks before the end, we do the dashboard definitions and the file exports. Then there's time for Paul to check them against what he sees on screen.
- Paul Rigby NoneI'd rather that. Last week I'd be juggling it with the move.
- Helen Marsden NoneAgreed. What's realistic for you, Laura? Could you have a first pack to us in a couple of weeks?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneA couple of weeks is realistic for the first pack, yes. The definitions, the saved searches, and the handover note. Then we review it together and fix whatever Paul finds is missing.
- Amara Obi NoneAnd I'll put a short review call in the diary for when you've had a look, so it doesn't drift.
- Paul Rigby NoneOne question. When it's switched off, what happens to the roles and permissions you've set up in Snowflake? I don't want things lying around with access.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGood question, and a sensible one. The roles and the service access we use are removed as part of the close-down. I'd give you a checklist so your own team can confirm it's gone. Nothing of ours should keep access to your account once it's finished.
- Paul Rigby NoneRight. Checklist's good. I'll tick it myself.
- Helen Marsden NoneAmara, can I ask something that's a bit different? About what happens with the licence. We've got forty users and we've used two. I asked on Monday and you said you'd come back to me.
- Amara Obi NoneI did, and thank you for reminding me, I'd rather you reminded me than waited. The honest answer is that the order form stands for the term. The £44,000 is the annual subscription and I've not been able to change it. I did ask. I'm sorry that's not the answer you'd hoped for.
- Helen Marsden NoneNo, I expected that. I just wanted it said.
- Amara Obi NoneFair. And in return, what I can do is make sure you get everything out of the remaining term. If there's anything you'd like us to build or fix before it ends, tell me and Laura will prioritise it.
- Paul Rigby NoneThen I'd say, the dedupe rule. Put it in now. If it's in, the dashboards are right while we're still on it, and the people who've still got it open can trust it for the last few weeks.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat I can do. It's a small change: identify rebooked jobs by reference and date and count them once, and flag it on the dashboard so it's visible. I'd do it in your Snowflake rather than touch the source system.
- Paul Rigby NoneAye, do it there. Don't touch the source.
- Helen Marsden NoneAnd I'd like to see the corrected repairs numbers beside the old ones, so I can show the board what changed and why.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, a before and after, with the difference explained. I'll make sure that's in the pack.
- Amara Obi NoneRight, let me recap, because there's a lot there and I don't want anything to slide. One: Helen sends written notice this week. Two: Paul shares his ticket spreadsheet. Three: Laura puts the dedupe rule in, with a before and after for Helen. Four: Laura sends the first pack in a couple of weeks, with dashboard definitions, saved searches and a handover note. Five: I send the lineage document today. Six: I put the review call in the diary. Did I miss anything?
- Helen Marsden NoneThat covers it for me.
- Paul Rigby NoneAye. Sounds right.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNothing from me. I'll get on with the dedupe this week.
- Amara Obi NoneLovely. I want to say one thing before we finish. I'm sorry we couldn't get this to a better place for you. It's a good team on your side, and the brain did what you wanted it to do when it was fed clean data. I'd like the last few weeks to be a good experience, not a slog.
- Helen Marsden NoneI appreciate that. It's been a mixed run, but I'd say you've been straight with us, and that counts. Thank you, all of you.
- Paul Rigby NoneThanks. I'll send the spreadsheet after this.
- Amara Obi NoneCheers, Paul. Speak soon, both. Take care.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneBye all.
- Helen Marsden NoneKind regards. Bye.
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