Harrowden Foods / BB-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Harrowden Foods: documents · 2026-01-07 12:00
Kickoff with Gemma Holt. The aim is early warning on service-level complaints by retailer. Her worry is that people drift back to spreadsheets, and her commercial director will judge the value at renewal.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Kickoff with Gemma Holt. The aim is early warning on service-level complaints by retailer. Her worry is that people drift back to spreadsheets, and her commercial director will judge the value at renewal.
What happened: Hamza Akhtar and Amara Obi agreed the connector order (CRM, helpdesk, orders), the Snowflake access list and a wave rollout of the forty Growth seats. Gemma named a second admin.
Customer view: Gemma bought the brain so account managers hear about service-level complaints before the retailer rings. She asked for a service-level dashboard by retailer and said the customer service lead builds it by hand every week.
Commercial: Gemma said her commercial director will be asked what the brain is worth when it comes round to paying again. He needs a retailer view he cannot get elsewhere.
Watch: Gemma fears adoption fading after a fortnight, as with the last tool they bought. She asked to hear about falling usage early rather than at renewal.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Kickoff and adoption risk
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Hamza Akhtar sends the Snowflake access list and CRM user requirements the same afternoon.
- Gemma Holt sends the sample order file, the retailer list as it appears in each system, and tells IT and planning about the change rule.
- Amara Obi sends the summary within the hour and the diary invite for the first review.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Gemma fears usage fades after a fortnight because nobody owns the tool, as with the last thing Harrowden Foods bought.
- The commercial director will judge the brain's worth at renewal and is not yet a user.
- Source systems may change upstream and quietly stop loading.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Build the service-level view by retailer with the customer service lead using the Growth dashboards builder.
- Show the commercial director a retailer view of complaints next to orders to make the value case early.
- Forty seats should cover both teams, with a few spare for later growth.
Transcript
Hamza Akhtar NoneHi Gemma, hi Amara. Can you both hear me? New headset, so tell me if I sound like I'm in a tin.
Amara Obi NoneYou sound fine. Hello, Gemma.
Gemma Holt NoneHi both. Sorry, I'm eating at my desk, I'll go on mute when I'm chewing. It's been a day already and it's only just gone twelve.- Hamza Akhtar NoneEat, eat. Nothing in the first ten minutes needs you at your best.
- Amara Obi NoneHow did the rest of Monday go after we spoke, Gemma? Did anything come up?
- Gemma Holt NoneYes, actually. I told the customer service lead what we're doing and she's keen. She couldn't make today, she's covering the phones, but she wrote me a list of how they categorise tickets. Hold on, let me find it. Right. Late deliveries, short-dated product on arrival, missing items, and the service-level complaints. That last one is the one she cares about.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's really useful, thank you. Those will map to fields on the tickets, so we can build the connector around them. Why that last one in particular?
- Gemma Holt NoneBecause the retailers watch it closely. If a supermarket thinks we're missing our service level, I want the account manager to know before the retailer rings, not after. That's the whole reason we bought this, if I'm honest.
- Amara Obi NoneWhich is why I'd start there. If the first thing you can show your commercial director is complaints sitting next to orders for one retailer, that's your case made.
- Gemma Holt NoneYes. Exactly that.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneOkay, and IT? Did you find the right person?
- Gemma Holt NoneI did. A colleague in IT looks after the Snowflake account. He said he can sort the database and the role later this week, he just needs to know exactly what you want. I told him you'd send a list. He wasn't free for today, he's in meetings back to back.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneFine, I'll send it this afternoon. In short it's a database for the brain, a role with rights over that database only, a small warehouse for the compute, and a user for the connectors. Nothing leaves your account. Everything is built and runs inside it.
- Gemma Holt NoneHe'll like that last bit. He's wary of anything that sends data out.
- Amara Obi NoneIt's the point of how we do it. The data stays in your Snowflake, you own it, and if you ever stopped using us it's all still yours.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneRight. Let me share my screen and put the connector order up, so we're all looking at the same thing. One moment. Can you see it?
- Gemma Holt NoneYes. CRM, then helpdesk, then orders. That's what we said on Monday.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneIt is. Nothing's changed, I just wanted it written down. So the CRM goes first. For that I need a read-only user in your CRM, and someone who can tell me which fields are trustworthy. Not all of them will be.
- Gemma Holt NoneHa. That'll be me, and I'll tell you honestly, half of them aren't. Sales put things in for their own reasons.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's fine, that's useful to know. We'll leave the doubtful ones out of the brain at first and bring them in once they're cleaned up. Better a smaller set that's right than a bigger one that's wrong.
- Gemma Holt NoneI'd go with that. The account managers will lose faith the first time it tells them something daft.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's a good rule for the whole programme, actually. Trust first, coverage second.
- Gemma Holt NoneCan I ask about timing? How often does it update? Because if customer service look at it at eight in the morning, what are they seeing?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThe nightly refresh is complete by seven each morning on business days. So at eight they're seeing everything up to the end of the previous day. It isn't live. If they need to know what's happening this minute, they'd still look in the helpdesk. The brain is for the picture across the lot.
- Gemma Holt NoneThat's fine. That's more than enough. They don't need minute by minute, they need to see what happened yesterday and what's been building up.
- Gemma Holt NoneAnd the order system. I spoke to the person in planning. He says he can do a nightly export to a file, a spreadsheet basically, from each site. He wasn't sure about anything cleverer than that.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's absolutely fine to start with. A file each night from each site, dropped somewhere we can both reach, and we load it. We can look at something more direct later if it turns out to be worth it. Does he know what columns are in it?
- Gemma Holt NoneHe's going to send me a sample. I'll forward it straight on.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGreat. If I can see a sample, I can tell you in a day whether there are surprises.
- Amara Obi NoneGemma, can we talk about people for a minute? The users. You've got forty seats, and the way I'd like to do it is in waves, so that the people who come on first have someone to ask and a good first experience, rather than everyone arriving at once.
- Gemma Holt NoneThat makes sense. Account managers first, they're the keenest. One for each supermarket, plus me.
- Amara Obi NoneAnd then customer service.
- Gemma Holt NoneAnd then customer service, yes. I'll count them properly and come back to you. I don't want to guess and then be wrong.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's all I need. Forty should cover both teams and leave a few spare. If we get to the point where you're near the limit, I'll tell you early. Who else should have access, do you think, further down the line?
- Gemma Holt NoneOur commercial director would like to see it. He won't use it every day. But I'd want him to see the retailer view, because he's the one who'll be asked what it's worth when it comes round to paying for it again.
- Amara Obi NoneThen let's make sure he sees something he can't get anywhere else. That's what the review is for.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneAnd while we're on it, the dashboards builder is part of Growth. So once the data's in, the service-level view by retailer is something we can build with you, rather than you waiting for us to hand it over. It could be the first thing the customer service lead looks at in the morning.
- Gemma Holt NoneOh, I like that. A service-level one by retailer would be the first thing I'd ask for. Can she have a go at building her own?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneShe can. We'll show her in training. It's more like arranging a page than coding anything.
- Gemma Holt NoneBrilliant. She'll be thrilled. She currently builds that by hand every week and hates it.
- Amara Obi NoneCan I check one thing about who's admin? On Monday you said you wanted someone alongside you. Is the customer service lead still the person?
- Gemma Holt NoneYes. I asked her and she said yes before I'd finished the sentence. She's the second admin.
- Amara Obi NoneThen that's two, which is where I want us. I'll note it down. If one of you is away, the other one can add users and look after the connectors.
- Gemma Holt NoneGood. What happens if something stops loading? Who do I tell?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneDuring the build, me. Straight to me, don't wait for a ticket. After that, the helpdesk, and Amara will see it as well. The thing to watch for is a source that quietly stops loading after someone changes a system at your end. If anyone in IT changes the order export, tell us first and we'll adjust.
- Gemma Holt NoneI'll tell the planning chap that. And IT. I'll put it in an email so it's written down somewhere.
- Amara Obi NoneThat would be a big help. A lot of these programmes go quiet because nobody realised something upstream had changed.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneOkay, I'm going to run through the access list line by line now, so you can pass it to IT as is. Give me a few minutes, I'll talk it through.
- Gemma Holt NoneRight, that's all clear. Honestly clearer than I expected. I'll forward it exactly as you send it.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood. If IT have questions, they can email me directly, they don't have to go through you.
- Gemma Holt NoneThat'd save me a lot. Thank you.
- Amara Obi NoneOne more from me, and then I'll leave you both to it. Gemma, is there anything you're worried about that we haven't covered? Not necessarily today's agenda. Anything.
- Gemma Holt NoneMm. Honestly? That people will be keen for a fortnight and then drift back to spreadsheets. That's what happened with the last thing we bought. It's not that the thing was bad, it's that nobody was responsible for it.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's exactly why I asked, and thank you for saying it. That's what the reviews are for, and the second admin. If I see questions going down, I'll tell you. I'd rather have an awkward conversation in the first couple of months than a nice quiet one that ends in nobody using it.
- Gemma Holt NoneI'd take the awkward conversation. Better that than finding out at renewal.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneOkay. Let me read back the actions, because I always forget one. Me: the Snowflake list this afternoon, and the CRM user requirements. You: send the sample order file when you get it, the list of retailers as they appear in each system, and the ticket categories, which you've done. Amara: summary and the diary invite for the first review.
- Gemma Holt NoneAnd I'll tell IT about the change rule. Yes. That's all of it.
- Amara Obi NoneI'll get that summary out within the hour. Thanks both, this was a good one.
- Gemma Holt NoneThanks, both. Speak soon.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneBye, Gemma. Cheers, Amara.
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