Ardcarne Life Assurance / BB-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Ardcarne Life Assurance: documents · 2026-02-09 11:15
First discovery call with Niamh Costello, Chief Data Officer, on 9 Feb 2026. She wants one view per broker firm, with regulatory control and SSO. Her decision target is 30 Jun 2026, with her COO signing.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26First discovery call with Niamh Costello, Chief Data Officer, on 9 Feb 2026. She wants one view per broker firm, with regulatory control and SSO. Her decision target is 30 Jun 2026, with her COO signing.
What happened: Niamh described broker data split across policy, CRM, helpdesk, calls and mailboxes, and defined success as one page per firm. Matteo Ricci and Hannah Lowe covered Enterprise tier, security review support and the Snowflake architecture.
Customer view: She is supervised by the Central Bank and sits under DORA, so exit without losing records matters. SSO is non-negotiable, and her CISO will have a long list.
Commercial: Matteo gave a working figure of £155,000 for the whole deal, stressing it includes the one-off implementation and is not the annual subscription. Niamh asked for the split in writing, and Ronan signs after a one-page summary.
Watch: Her main worry is delivery drama and vague timelines. She also warned that matching broker firms has drifted before without a named owner.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise discovery, broker single view
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Matteo Ricci sends a written summary with a one-page split of the £155,000 between one-off implementation and annual subscription.
- Hannah Lowe sends the architecture note with the exit point at the top, plus the sample-data request.
- Matteo Ricci arranges the demo with the distribution and customer service leads in a couple of weeks.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Niamh's 30 Jun 2026 decision target depends on the security review and her CISO being comfortable.
- Broker firm matching has drifted before, so a named owner of the firm list is needed on her side.
- She will not accept vague timelines after a past project that overran badly.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Enterprise tier fits her need for SSO, security review support and an executive sponsor, though she starts with two teams.
- A demo built around her three asks, using anonymised sample data, can win the two team leads.
Transcript
Matteo Ricci NoneHello Niamh, can you hear me all right?
Niamh Costello NoneI can, yes. Good morning, Matteo. Is Hannah joining us?
Hannah Lowe NoneI'm here, good morning both. Sorry, I was fighting with the headset. Can you hear me?- Niamh Costello NoneLoud and clear. Terrible weather over here, I got soaked walking in from the car park.
- Matteo Ricci NoneLondon is no better. Grey, wet, very February. Anyway, thank you for making the time, Niamh. Let me restate where we are so we all start from the same place. This is our first proper conversation, we are looking at the Enterprise tier, and the aim on your side, as I understand it, is to have a decision by 30 Jun 2026. Is that still right?
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's still the target, yes. Though I would say it is a target, not a promise. It depends on how the security conversation goes, and I need my CISO comfortable before anything moves.
- Matteo Ricci NoneOf course. I would rather we plan around that honestly than around a date that looks good in a slide. Hannah, would you like to take it from here?
- Hannah Lowe NoneThanks, Matteo. Niamh, before I say anything about how the product works, what do you most need to know from us today? I would rather answer your actual questions than walk you through things you already understand.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's helpful, thank you. Let me start with the outcome and then the plan. What I want is one view of each broker firm. At the moment, if you ask distribution who a broker firm is, you get one answer. Ask customer service, you get another. Different contacts, different history, sometimes a different name for the same firm.
- Hannah Lowe NoneMm. Can I ask what that looks like in practice? An example would help me.
- Niamh Costello NoneSure. A broker rings customer service about a delayed pension transfer. The agent sees the policy, but not that the same firm spoke to their relationship manager last week about a commission query and was already unhappy. So the agent starts cold. And the relationship manager has no idea the call happened. Nobody is being careless, the information simply lives in different places.
- Matteo Ricci NoneAnd the cost of that is, what, a poor broker experience, or is there a regulatory angle as well?
- Niamh Costello NoneBoth. Brokers are our route to market, so if service is patchy they send business elsewhere. But we are supervised by the Central Bank, and we sit under DORA now, so I also have to be able to explain where data comes from and who has touched it. If I cannot say that cleanly, it is a problem.
- Matteo Ricci NoneRight. That is the question I always put to regulated buyers: what does your regulator need to see? Not what you would like to show them, but what they will actually ask for.
- Niamh Costello NoneFair. Honestly, they want to see control. Where the data sits, who can read it, what is logged, and that we can exit a supplier without losing our records. I know the shape of the answer, but I need to see it written down by someone who is not selling me something.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI can do that. So, the short answer on where the data sits is: inside your own Snowflake account. The longer answer is that BB-Demo is built and run there, so we are not copying your records into a platform of ours and asking you to trust it. I'll put the detail in writing, with a diagram.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. A diagram would genuinely help. My CISO is a diagrams person.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThen we will get on well. Can I ask which systems hold the broker information today? Just roughly, not an exhaustive list.
- Niamh Costello NoneRoughly, then. There is the policy administration system, which is the source of truth for contracts. There is the CRM that distribution uses for relationship managers. There is the helpdesk that customer service lives in. Calls are recorded, though not consistently tagged by firm. And there is a lot in shared mailboxes, which I would rather not talk about.
- Hannah Lowe NoneEveryone has shared mailboxes, don't worry. To be precise about how we would treat them: we connect to a source, we index what it holds, and the brain answers with a link back to where each fact came from. So if a firm is called three different things in three systems, the matching work is the real job. That is where we spend time in implementation.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat matching is exactly my worry. We have tried it before with a project team and a spreadsheet. It worked for a month and then drifted.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes, drift is the usual failure. It happens when the match is done once and nobody owns it. We would want a named person on your side who owns the broker firm list, even if it is a small part of their week. Otherwise it goes stale, and I would rather say that now.
- Niamh Costello NoneI like that you said it. Let's not over-engineer it though. What does good look like for the brokers? To me it is simple: a relationship manager or an agent opens one page for a firm and sees the contacts, the policies, the recent calls and tickets, and the open issues. That is it.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThat is a very clear definition, and I think it is the right one to hold us to. Can I ask who would actually use that page? Distribution and customer service, I assume, but how many people are we talking about, roughly?
- Niamh Costello NoneTwo teams to begin with. The leads from each will want to see it before anyone commits, which is why I would like a demo that is aimed at them rather than at me. Beyond those two teams, I would be careful. Let's prove it with distribution and customer service first.
- Matteo Ricci NoneUnderstood. I will say, because I would rather you heard it from me, that the Enterprise tier is sized for company-wide use and regulated buyers, so it may be more than two teams strictly need. But there are things in it, the single sign-on, the security review support, the executive sponsor, that I suspect matter to you regardless.
- Niamh Costello NoneThey do. SSO is non-negotiable for us. And the review support, because my CISO will have a long list.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI run the security reviews myself, so you would have me for that. I should say the questionnaire answers are only as good as the checking behind them. If I am not sure about something I go and confirm it with our head of security before I reply. So it can take a few days, but it will be right the first time.
- Niamh Costello NoneRight the first time is worth a few days. What I cannot tolerate is a vendor who answers quickly and then corrects themselves in month three.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThat is precisely how we try to work. Can I touch on timing? You mentioned the end of June. If we count back from that, the order of things would be a demo, then the security review, then commercial terms, then your COO signs. Have I got the sequence right?
- Niamh Costello NoneNearly. Ronan signs, yes, I never sign these myself. But he will want to know the board risk and whether my CISO is content, and he will not read a long deck. So whatever you send him needs to be a page.
- Matteo Ricci NoneA page. Noted. I will keep Ronan's summary to a page and I will make sure it says plainly what is open as well as what is settled.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. Because open items are fine. Surprises are not.
- Hannah Lowe NoneCan I ask a couple more about the data, since it shapes the demo? When you say customer service, is the helpdesk where the history is, or does the policy system hold notes as well?
- Niamh Costello NoneBoth, unfortunately. The helpdesk has the conversations, the policy system has the formal case notes, and those two do not agree on what counts as a complaint. I will not pretend that is tidy.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat is useful to know, not alarming. It means the demo should show how the brain handles two sources describing the same event differently. I would rather show you that honestly than a clean example.
- Niamh Costello NoneYes, please. Show me the mess.
- Matteo Ricci NoneWe can do that. Niamh, one thing I should ask: is there anyone else who needs to be in the evaluation that we have not met? Procurement, risk, legal?
- Niamh Costello NoneProcurement will come in at the contract stage, and there is a colleague in risk who will look at the outsourcing arrangements. Under DORA that is a real workstream, not a formality. I will introduce them once we are past the demo.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThat is helpful. I will plan for it and not wait to be asked.
- Hannah Lowe NoneCan I come back to the exit point you raised earlier? About leaving a supplier without losing records. Because the brain sits in your Snowflake account, the answer is quite concrete, and I would like to be exact about it in writing. Would it help if I covered that in the architecture note?
- Niamh Costello NoneIt would, very much. Put it at the top, not the bottom. My risk colleague will go straight to it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneTop of the page, then.
- Matteo Ricci NoneNiamh, a sensible question from my side, and tell me if it is too early. Do you have a sense of the budget envelope? I ask so we shape the proposal properly and do not waste your time.
- Niamh Costello NoneIt is early, but I will answer. I have not got a number I would defend today. Give me the shape of it and what is one-off and what is annual, and I will tell you if it is in the right region.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThat is fair. For now, our working figure for the whole deal is £155,000, and I want to be careful here because that is the total value, including the one-off implementation. It is not the annual subscription on its own. I will split that out in writing, so there is no ambiguity.
- Niamh Costello NoneThank you, that distinction matters to me. Do put the split in writing, and keep it simple.
- Matteo Ricci NoneLet me confirm that in writing, yes. Simple, one page.
- Hannah Lowe NoneNiamh, could I ask what you would want to see in the demo that would make it a success from your side? So I plan it around that.
- Niamh Costello NoneThree things. One, a broker firm page that pulls the contacts and history together. Two, a question I would ask in plain language, such as which firms have raised the same issue more than once, and an answer that shows where it came from. Three, how access is controlled, because I do not want an agent seeing what only a relationship manager should.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat is a clear list. I will build the demo around those three. If I can use a small sample of your data, even anonymised, it will land better than invented examples.
- Niamh Costello NoneI can ask my team for a sample. Anonymised, yes. I need to check what I can release, so give me a couple of days and I will confirm.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat is fine. I will send a short note on what shape would be most useful, so your team is not guessing.
- Niamh Costello NonePerfect. And the demo itself, who should I bring?
- Matteo Ricci NoneI would suggest the lead from distribution and the lead from customer service, since they are the ones who will live with it. And Ronan if he wants to see it, though from what you say he may only want the decision at the end.
- Niamh Costello NoneI will ask him. He will probably join for the first part and leave. He tends to ask what decision he needs to make and then trust me with the rest.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThat is entirely reasonable. I will make sure the first few minutes are useful to him.
- Hannah Lowe NoneNiamh, one last thing from me, if there is time. Is there anything in this that worries you? Not the product, the project.
- Niamh Costello NoneHonestly? Delivery drama. I have lived through a data project that promised eight weeks and ran to nearly a year. I would rather have a plan that is slightly longer and true. Vague timelines I cannot accept.
- Matteo Ricci NoneI would rather you heard this from me now: I will not commit to a delivery date that our engineering team has not agreed. When we put a plan in front of you, it will be one they have signed up to.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat is what I wanted to hear. Right, I think I have said what I need to. What happens next?
- Matteo Ricci NoneThree things. I send you a written summary of today, including the broker view you described and the open items. Hannah sends the architecture note with the exit point at the top and the sample-data request. And we find a time for the demo in a couple of weeks, with the two leads.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI will get the note over tomorrow, so your team has time to look at the sample request.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. I will talk to my CISO this week so he knows it is coming. Thank you both, this was more useful than I expected.
- Matteo Ricci NoneThank you, Niamh. Best regards, and we will speak soon.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThanks, Niamh. Speak soon.
- Niamh Costello NoneBye for now.
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