Ardcarne Life Assurance / BB-Demo – Kickoff
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Ardcarne Life Assurance: documents · 2026-10-05 13:45
Kickoff for Ardcarne's Enterprise contract. Niamh Costello wants one view of each broker firm, starting small with CRM and helpdesk. Security conditions carry over from the review. A dated plan is due by the end of the week.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Kickoff for Ardcarne's Enterprise contract. Niamh Costello wants one view of each broker firm, starting small with CRM and helpdesk. Security conditions carry over from the review. A dated plan is due by the end of the week.
What happened: Niamh Costello set the outcome as one view of each broker firm used by distribution and customer service. Ollie Pearson proposed access first, then CRM and helpdesk, with the call recorder held back.
Customer view: Niamh praised how BB-Demo handled the review. Declan Furlong confirmed his security conditions remain in force and that he alone closes them.
Commercial: Elena Novak confirmed the Enterprise order form at £125,000 a year, started 1 Oct 2026, renewing 1 Oct 2027. The licence is for 150 users, with a small pilot first.
Watch: Access approval gates everything, a supervisory exercise may slow approvals, and a CRM change freeze is coming. Duplicate broker records need a named resolver.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise onboarding kickoff
Importance
praise
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Ollie Pearson to send the access request today and a dated plan by the end of the week.
- Elena Novak to send written actions, invitations and incident path contacts by role.
- Niamh Costello to send three names, CRM freeze dates and real team questions.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Access approval gates all loading, and a supervisory exercise at the customer may slow it.
- A CRM change freeze before year end could limit field changes.
- Duplicate broker records could erode trust unless a named person resolves them quickly.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Licensed users well above the pilot size leave headroom for wider rollout across teams.
- The call recorder connector is a possible third stage once the data protection assessment is agreed.
Transcript
Elena Novak NoneGood afternoon, everyone. Can you all hear me? I am dialling in from Amsterdam, so if my connection drops, please tell me.
Niamh Costello NoneGood afternoon, Elena. We hear you well. Declan is just taking a seat, I believe.
Declan Furlong NoneI'm here. Good afternoon. Apologies, I was finishing a call with a colleague in IT.
Ollie Pearson NoneAfternoon all. Ollie here, from the implementation side. It's good to finally put faces to names. Elena's told me a lot about the review you've been through.- Niamh Costello NoneHa. I hope it was kind. How was your weekend, Ollie? Ours was mostly spent trying to get a Monday that wasn't full of meetings. We did not succeed.
- Ollie Pearson NoneQuiet, thanks. I did some gardening and then it rained. So a fairly typical Sunday.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you. If I may, I will begin with the agenda that I emailed beforehand. There are five parts. First, the outcome you want and how we will recognise it. Second, the plan and the connectors, in order. Third, the owners on both sides. Fourth, the security conditions that carry over from the review. And fifth, how we will work together in the first weeks. Is that acceptable?
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's exactly what I'd hoped for. And if it's alright, I'll start with the business outcome, then the plan. I find it easier for everyone.
- Elena Novak NonePlease, Niamh.
- Niamh Costello NoneThank you. The reason we bought this is that broker distribution and customer service each hold part of the picture of every broker firm, and neither sees the other's part. A broker rings customer service about a policy and the person answering doesn't know what distribution agreed with them last month. And distribution doesn't know what that firm has been complaining about. So what I want is one view of each broker firm that both teams work from. Not a report. A view they actually use.
- Ollie Pearson NoneThat's clear, and it's useful to hear it in your words, because it shapes which sources come first. When you say one view of each broker firm, is the firm the unit, rather than the individual broker?
- Niamh Costello NoneThe firm. Individuals matter, but the firm is what the commercial relationship hangs on. What does good look like for the brokers? It looks like not having to repeat themselves. And for us, it looks like someone in customer service being able to ask a plain question and get an answer that distribution would agree with.
- Elena Novak NoneTo confirm, then, the first success measure is that both teams ask questions of the same view and trust the answers. I will write that down as the outcome, in your words, and we will return to it at each checkpoint.
- Niamh Costello NonePlease do. And let's not over-engineer it. I would rather have a small thing working in a few weeks than a grand design in the spring.
- Ollie Pearson NoneUnderstood, and that fits how I like to run it. So let me lay out the plan. It's in stages. Stage one is access and the foundations: the brain is built inside your own Snowflake account, so the first job is agreeing how we get in, with which service accounts and which permissions. Nothing is loaded until Declan's team is happy with that.
- Declan Furlong NoneI am very glad that is the order. May I ask what exactly you will need? I would like the list before anyone requests it.
- Ollie Pearson NoneOf course. A dedicated database and schema in your Snowflake account, a service account for the brain, and a role with the minimum rights it needs. I'll write it up as a one-page request so your team can approve it against your own policy. I'd rather you gave me less and we extended it than the other way round.
- Declan Furlong NoneLeast privilege, then. Good. And the logging of that account's activity?
- Ollie Pearson NoneIt's visible to you in Snowflake's own access history, which is yours, not ours. I'll point your team to where it sits, so you aren't relying on a report from us.
- Declan Furlong NoneThat is the right answer.
- Ollie Pearson NoneStage two is the first connectors. In line with what Niamh described, I'd start with your CRM, because that's where the broker firms live, and the helpdesk, because that's where customer service's side of the story lives. Between them you'd already have a view of each firm that combines relationship and service. That's a small thing that works.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat sounds right. I would put the call recorder after those, if at all in the first phase. Distribution does record broker calls, but I'd want the pilot proven before we bring in conversations.
- Ollie Pearson NoneAgreed, and it's sensible to hold that back, particularly because call content needs its own conversation with Declan. Stage three is where we'd look at it, once the first two are loading cleanly and people are using them.
- Declan Furlong NoneI would want to see a data protection assessment of the call content before it is connected. I raise it now so that it is not a surprise later.
- Elena Novak NoneI will note that as a condition. To confirm, the call recorder connector will not be started until Declan has seen the assessment and agreed in writing. I will make sure that it is on the plan as a gate, not as a task.
- Declan Furlong NoneThank you, Elena. That is exactly how I want it recorded.
- Niamh Costello NoneCan I ask about timing, Ollie? I never accept vague timelines, as Elena may already have learned. What does stage one and two look like in terms of weeks?
- Ollie Pearson NoneFair challenge. I don't want to give you a loose number on the first call, because it depends on how quickly access is approved on your side. What I can say is that I'll bring a dated plan to the next session, working back from your approvals. If access lands this week, the first connector can be loading shortly after. Give me until the end of the week to produce dates you can hold me to.
- Niamh Costello NoneEnd of this week. That I can work with. Elena, will you put it in the actions?
- Elena Novak NoneI will. Ollie, a dated implementation plan by the end of this week, with the access request as the first dependency. I will send it in the written actions today.
- Ollie Pearson NoneYes. And I'll flag anything that moves, as it moves, not at the next checkpoint.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. Now owners. On our side, I will sponsor it, but I will not be doing the daily work. For access and security approvals it is Declan, or whoever he nominates. For the CRM, I will name someone from the distribution operations side. And for customer service, someone who knows the helpdesk well. I would rather give you names in writing tomorrow than say them here and have them be wrong.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is perfectly acceptable. To confirm, you will send three names by tomorrow: one for the CRM, one for the helpdesk, and one as the day to day coordinator. And Declan nominates the security contact.
- Declan Furlong NoneI will nominate someone in my team for approvals. I will remain the person who closes security conditions. That is not delegated.
- Ollie Pearson NoneThat's how I'd assumed it. Then on our side, I'm the day to day lead on the build, Elena is your customer success manager and owns the written follow-up and adoption, and Matteo remains the contact for anything contractual.
- Niamh Costello NoneMatteo has been very good through all this. I'd like him to stay close to it, even though it's no longer a sale. The sale is the easy part, in my experience.
- Elena Novak NoneI will pass that on. He will be glad. Shall we move to the security conditions, Declan, since you have a firm list?
- Declan Furlong NoneYes. I will list them. The review closed with commitments that I have in writing. They carry over into delivery. First, the notification commitment for incidents, which I would like reflected in the onboarding contacts. Second, the escalation path, with the out-of-hours route having been tested. Third, the notice of any change to sub-processors. Fourth, the exit plan and the exercise we agreed. Fifth, evidence on request. I will not go through the detail now, only confirm that they remain in force.
- Elena Novak NoneTo confirm, they are all in the documents you hold, and none of them is changed by the onboarding. I will add them to the project plan as standing conditions, with you as the owner who closes each one.
- Declan Furlong NoneThat is acceptable. I should also say, for the register of information, I will need the contact details of your named people on the incident path. Please send them in writing, not on a call.
- Elena Novak NoneI will make sure that is sent. By role as well as by name, because names change.
- Declan Furlong NoneBy role, yes. That is what I would have asked for.
- Niamh Costello NoneI need Declan comfortable, as you've gathered. If he is, the rest follows. I'd say that to every vendor.
- Ollie Pearson NoneThat's a good way to run a project. I'll make sure that anything touching security goes to Declan before it goes anywhere else.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. Let me ask about users. We're licensed for a hundred and fifty. I don't expect to use anything like that at first. How should we think about rollout?
- Elena Novak NoneYes, the order form provides for 150 users on the Enterprise tier. My suggestion, and Ollie may wish to add to it, is to begin with a pilot group from distribution and customer service, perhaps a small number from each, and let them tell us what is missing before we widen it.
- Ollie Pearson NoneAgreed. A small pilot also helps with the questions people ask. The value shows quickly if the right ten or so people use it daily. And you've got room, so there's no pressure to hurry the number.
- Niamh Costello NoneI like that. And single sign-on? I don't want people with more passwords.
- Ollie Pearson NoneEnterprise includes single sign-on and automated user provisioning, so that's part of the setup, not an extra. It does depend on your identity team, so I'd add that team to the owners list. I'll put the request in the plan, in the second stage, so the pilot group signs in the same way they do everywhere else.
- Declan Furlong NonePlease include my team in that conversation. Identity configuration is something we review.
- Ollie Pearson NoneOf course. I'll put you on the first session.
- Niamh Costello NoneElena, I should ask while we are all here. The contract. I want to be sure I have the basics right, because I'll be asked.
- Elena Novak NoneOf course. To confirm, you are on the Enterprise tier. The order form is for £125,000 a year, and the contract started on Thursday 1 October 2026. It runs to 30 Sep 2027, and the renewal date is 1 Oct 2027. The first invoice matches the order form.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat matches my understanding. Thank you.
- Declan Furlong NoneAnd the service levels are as stated in the order form, not as in the general terms. I assume that is correct.
- Elena Novak NoneYes. The order form governs. If at any point you see a difference between a general document and the order form, please tell me, and the order form will be the reference.
- Declan Furlong NoneI will do so.
- Ollie Pearson NoneCan I come back to the plan for a moment? There's something I want to be upfront about, because it'll affect the first weeks. The first connector can't be tested properly with the fields as they are in most CRMs. Broker firm records are usually messy. There'll be duplicates, different spellings, firms that have merged. The brain will show you that, and it can look worse before it looks better.
- Niamh Costello NoneI would prefer to know. In fact it's a large part of why we want this. We suspect that we have the same firm three times under different names.
- Ollie Pearson NoneThen it'll be a good first finding. What I'd ask for is somebody in distribution operations who can say which of two firms is the right one, quickly. Without that person, the duplicates sit there and people stop believing the view.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat is the person I'll name for the CRM. They know the firms. I'll make sure they have the time.
- Elena Novak NoneI will add it to the actions: a named person with time set aside for resolving duplicates in the first weeks. As agreed, it will be in the written summary.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. Now. Declan, anything you want to ask Ollie directly about how the thing runs? You've done the review, but this is the first time you've spoken to the person building it.
- Declan Furlong NoneYes. Ollie, the nightly refresh. When does it run, and what happens if it fails? I want to know who tells me and when.
- Ollie Pearson NoneIt runs overnight and is meant to be complete by 07:00 your time on business days. If it doesn't complete, the first place it shows is the freshness indicator in the brain, and the support team sees it as well. As to who tells you, I'd make it part of the contact list we're building, so that your named security or data contact is on the list for freshness failures. Whether it's a notification you want for every failure or only a repeated one is your call.
- Declan Furlong NoneI would want every failure at first. I can reduce it later. I would rather have noise than silence.
- Ollie Pearson NoneUnderstood. Every failure, to start with. I'll note it.
- Niamh Costello NoneYou said the freshness indicator. Is that something the users see, or only your team?
- Ollie Pearson NoneUsers see it. When they ask a question, the answer carries the date the underlying data was last refreshed. So nobody is relying on an answer without knowing how old the data is. It's one of the things I like about it.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's important to me. A regulator will ask how old the data is, and I'd like to be able to say it's on the screen.
- Declan Furlong NoneIt is also the kind of statement I would verify rather than accept. I will look at it in the pilot.
- Ollie Pearson NonePlease do. It's much better if you've seen it yourself.
- Elena Novak NonePerhaps I may move to ways of working, the fifth item. I propose a short weekly session in the first weeks, with Ollie, Niamh's coordinator and a security contact. A written summary will follow each session, with actions and owners. And a checkpoint with Niamh and Declan at the end of the first phase.
- Niamh Costello NoneA weekly session is fine, provided it is short. Half an hour, and it needs to be a working session, not a presentation.
- Elena Novak NoneTo confirm, half an hour, weekly, working in nature. I will send the invitations after this call.
- Ollie Pearson NoneAnd between sessions I'll be on the shared channel if there's something quick. I find it saves a lot of email.
- Declan Furlong NoneI would ask that anything involving security conditions is also by email, so that I have a record. The channel is fine for logistics.
- Ollie Pearson NoneOf course. Security items by email, logistics on the channel. I'll keep to that.
- Niamh Costello NoneIs there anything about this that worries either of you? I'd rather hear it now than in a month.
- Ollie Pearson NoneHonestly, the thing that worries me most is access approval taking longer than expected, because everything waits behind it. It's not a criticism, it's just where projects like this lose time. If it can be fast-tracked, I'd do it.
- Declan Furlong NoneI will not shorten a review to save time. But I will be quick if the request is clear and complete. The one-page request you described will help. Please make sure it is accurate.
- Ollie Pearson NoneIt will be, and I'll send it today so you've got the longest possible runway.
- Elena Novak NoneI will add one concern, which is more about adoption. In the first weeks, the people in customer service will be busy with their normal work. If the pilot is seen as extra work, it will not succeed. I would like Niamh to help us position it as a way of saving effort.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat is fair, and I'll speak to the heads of both teams this week. I'd want to give them a concrete example from their own day. What is the question they most often can't answer?
- Ollie Pearson NoneThat would be a very good thing to bring to the first working session. If you can collect three or four real questions from each team, I'll build the first set of examples around them. Then it's their questions, not ours.
- Niamh Costello NoneI'll do that. I'll ask them to write down the questions they had to chase someone for last month. They'll have plenty.
- Declan Furlong NoneMight I ask one more thing about the question history? When people ask questions, are the questions and the answers retained, and who can see them?
- Ollie Pearson NoneThey're retained inside your Snowflake account, and visibility follows your own permissions, so it's something you configure rather than something we decide. There's an admin view for named administrators. I'd suggest we agree who the administrators are in the first session, and keep the list small.
- Declan Furlong NoneA small list is what I would want. I will propose names.
- Elena Novak NoneI will add it to the actions: administrator names from Declan, for the first working session.
- Niamh Costello NoneLet me ask how we will know it's working. You said at the start that we'd return to the outcome at each checkpoint. What will we actually look at?
- Elena Novak NoneI would propose we look at three things, kept deliberately modest. Whether the connectors are loading and the data is fresh. Whether the pilot users are asking questions, and which ones. And whether the answers are trusted, which we will ask them directly. I will bring the first figures to the checkpoint, not before, because there is little to show in the first days.
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's sensible. I'm wary of dashboards of numbers in week one. Though I'd like to see who is asking the questions. If it's one person asking everything, that tells me something.
- Elena Novak NoneIt does, and I watch for it. If one person is asking a large share, that is a risk for you, because the value depends on one individual. We will spread the use deliberately.
- Niamh Costello NoneGood. I'm happy with that.
- Ollie Pearson NoneIf it's alright, I'll take a few minutes to go through the access request in outline, so you can tell me whether anything looks wrong before I write it up. It'll save a round trip.
- Declan Furlong NonePlease. That is a good use of the time.
- Ollie Pearson NoneSo. One database, which you name according to your convention. Within it, a schema for raw loaded data and a schema for what the brain builds. A warehouse sized small, and you can cap it. A role for the service account with read access only to what you choose to expose, and write access only to its own schemas. And network restrictions if your policy requires them.
- Declan Furlong NoneNetwork restrictions will be required. I would want the addresses you connect from stated precisely.
- Ollie Pearson NoneYes. I'll include them in the request, and I'll tell you if they ever change before they change. I'd put that under the same notice commitment as sub-processors, if that's acceptable.
- Declan Furlong NoneIt is acceptable and sensible. Please do it that way.
- Niamh Costello NoneYou've lost me a little, but I'm happy that you two have the same picture. Declan, you'll tell me if it isn't right?
- Declan Furlong NoneI will. You will hear it from me first.
- Niamh Costello NoneWhich is what I like about it.
- Elena Novak NoneMay I ask a question for the project record? Is there anything in the next weeks on your side that we should plan around? Audits, reorganisations, freezes on change?
- Declan Furlong NoneThere is a supervisory exercise coming up that will take part of my team's time. I cannot give details on this call, but I would expect approvals to be slower in the period around it. I will tell you the dates when I can, in writing.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you. I will plan with that in mind. Ollie, that is a reason to send the access request today and not wait.
- Ollie Pearson NoneAgreed. It's going today. I'll keep it short enough to approve quickly.
- Niamh Costello NoneOn my side, there's a change freeze on the CRM before year end that I should flag. It's usual, and it would affect when we could add fields. I'll find out the dates.
- Ollie Pearson NoneThat's helpful. If we can avoid needing new fields, it won't matter. We read what's there. But I'll want to know the dates, because we might want to ask for one or two changes before it starts.
- Niamh Costello NoneI'll send them with the names.
- Elena Novak NoneTo confirm, then, from Niamh: three names, the CRM change freeze dates and a set of real questions from each team. From Declan: a security contact for approvals, administrator names, and the supervisory exercise timing when possible. Is that right?
- Niamh Costello NoneThat's right. The questions will take me a little longer, perhaps by the first working session.
- Declan Furlong NoneCorrect, with the proviso that the timing is when I am permitted to say.
- Elena Novak NoneUnderstood. And from our side: the written actions today, the invitations today, the access request today from Ollie, and the dated plan by the end of this week. I will also send the incident path contacts by role, for the register of information.
- Ollie Pearson NoneYes. And I'll write up what I said about the refresh and the freshness indicator, so it's in writing for Declan to verify, as he said.
- Declan Furlong NoneI appreciate it. That is the way I would prefer to proceed.
- Niamh Costello NoneOne last thing from me, and it's less about the project. I want to say that the way you handled the review, and especially the difficult month, is a large part of why I was comfortable proceeding. You told us early, and you didn't dress it up. I'd like that to be the pattern, because there'll be difficult days again.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you, Niamh. I will make sure that it is the pattern. If something is wrong, you will hear it from us early, and in writing.
- Ollie Pearson NoneSame from me. If I'm going to miss a date, you'll know before the date.
- Declan Furlong NoneI would add only that I will hold you to it. That is not unfriendliness.
- Ollie Pearson NoneIt's how I'd want it.
- Niamh Costello NoneRight. I think we have what we need. Anything else, Elena?
- Elena Novak NoneOnly that the next contact is the invitation for the first working session, and the written summary today. If anything in the summary is wrong, please reply and I will correct it. I would rather it be right.
- Niamh Costello NoneWe will. Thank you, everyone. That was a good start.
- Declan Furlong NoneThank you. I will look for the access request.
- Ollie Pearson NoneIt'll be with you within the hour. Thanks all, speak soon.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you. Have a good afternoon. Goodbye.
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