Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Demo
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2024-12-18 09:45
Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem saw the account page, match review and chat on their own extract. Tariq's questions were on freshness, schema changes and security. £146,500 restated as total deal value. Decision aimed at 14 Feb 2025.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem saw the account page, match review and chat on their own extract. Tariq's questions were on freshness, schema changes and security. £146,500 restated as total deal value. Decision aimed at 14 Feb 2025.
What happened: Demo on 18 Dec 2024 run by Hannah Lowe on the customer's extract. Deepa saw one trade account with orders, disputes, calls and invoices, each line linked to its source.
Customer view: Tariq wanted the match review to fail honestly and confirmed he must own the mapping. Deepa liked that the brain flagged thin call data rather than giving a confident wrong answer.
Commercial: Lewis restated £146,500 plus VAT as the total deal, not an annual price, and promised a quote split into implementation and subscription. Tariq's Premium support question was left to the written quote.
Watch: Timing to 14 Feb 2025 depends on the security review running in parallel. Credit control and a regional director still need a demo, and Deepa wants to meet Amara Obi before signing.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise demo, security review
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Lewis Kerr to send the quote split into implementation and subscription, with the VAT position.
- Hannah Lowe to send the architecture diagram, questionnaire pack and screenshot before the end of that week.
- Tariq Saleem to send a larger extract and the IT questions after the break.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The 14 Feb 2025 decision depends on the IT security review running in parallel and starting early in January.
- The finance director, credit control and a regional director have not yet seen the account view.
- Premium support inclusion is unresolved and could cause quote ambiguity.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Dashboards builder and on-site training day were of interest to the regional directors and Deepa's team.
- Phased Enterprise rollout from key-account and credit control, then Midlands and North branches.
Transcript
Lewis Kerr NoneMorning, Deepa, morning Tariq. Can you both hear me all right?
Deepa Chauhan NoneMorning, Lewis. Yes, loud and clear. Tariq, you're on mute, I think.
Tariq Saleem NoneSorry, sorry. Morning all. Yes, I'm here. The laptop wanted an update right as I joined, so if I vanish that's why.
Hannah Lowe NoneMorning. Hannah here, I'll be doing the screen share in a bit. Lewis, you're driving the first few minutes?- Lewis Kerr NoneI am, yes. Thanks both for making the time, particularly this close to Christmas. Is it properly quiet at your end, or is the merchant trade still flat out?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOh, it never stops this week. Everyone wants their boilers and their pipework before the break, so the branches are busy and the phones are busy. Which is rather the point of today, to be honest.
- Lewis Kerr NoneRight. Well, let me confirm what I understand we're here for, and you correct me. You're looking at the Enterprise tier, you want to see it on your own data before anyone commits to anything, and the aim is to have a decision by the middle of February. Is that fair?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's fair. The one thing I need from this call is to see a single trade account, one customer, with the orders, the disputes, the calls and the invoices all in one place. If I can see that, I can take it to the regional directors.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's a good thing to anchor on. Before I share, can I ask what you each most need to know? Deepa has said the account view. Tariq, what's yours?
- Tariq Saleem NoneConnectors, mainly. Which connector feeds what, how often it loads, and what happens when a load fails. And the account matching between the branch system and the CRM, because that's where it goes wrong for us today. It's a mapping question nine times out of ten.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood. I'll show you the matching specifically, because it's the part people skip. The short answer is that it works, the longer answer is that it only works as well as the keys you give it, and I'll show you what I mean on your sample.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFine by me. I'd rather see it fail honestly than work on a tidy file.
- Hannah Lowe NoneUnderstood. The extract you sent over was not tidy, so you're in luck. Let me share my screen. Can you see it?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, I can see a search box and some sort of page tree on the left.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's it. So this is the brain, loaded with the extract you gave us, which is a handful of trade accounts across a few branches. Behind this there's nothing exotic. It sits in a Snowflake account, in your case it would be your own Snowflake account, and the pages, the chat and the search all read from that. Nothing is copied out to us.
- Tariq Saleem NoneSorry, just so I'm clear. In production, it's inside our Snowflake, not yours.
- Hannah Lowe NoneInside yours. We run in it, we don't hold a copy. I'll put that in writing for the security review as well, because it's the first thing your IT people will ask.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Carry on, sorry.
- Hannah Lowe NoneNo, that's the right question. So, Deepa, you asked for one account. I'll type the name of one of the sample accounts into the search. It's a plumbing contractor in the sample, and you'll see it brings back an account page rather than a list of rows.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich account, which branch? Sorry, that's my habit. Does it show me which branch the account trades through?
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt does. Here, at the top, the account, the branches it buys from, and the key-account manager attached to it. Underneath that, the orders from the branch system, then the open disputes, then the call summaries, and at the bottom the invoices from the accounting system. Same page, same account.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneRight. Scroll back up a second. Mm. So the disputes there, those came from where?
- Hannah Lowe NoneFrom the helpdesk in the sample, where your teams log a dispute against a trade account. Each one carries a source label, so you can click through to the original record. You asked earlier to see where a number comes from, and that's the answer: every line links back.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's exactly what I'd say to the regional directors. Show me where that number comes from. They don't trust a summary unless they can get back to the source.
- Lewis Kerr NoneTo put a number on how that plays out in practice, Deepa, once you're live the branch manager asks the brain the same question your credit controller asks, and they get the same answer from the same records. Nobody is working from a spreadsheet that was emailed round on Tuesday.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd be very happy with fewer spreadsheets. Let's just say that.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWe all would. Hannah, can credit control see this without needing the sales view, or the other way round? We have a rule that they need to be in the same meeting, and I'd like them looking at the same page in that meeting.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSame page, yes. What differs is permissions. In Enterprise you'd use single sign-on and the group sync, so access follows the groups you already keep. Credit control can see the invoice detail, a branch manager might only see the headline for accounts in their own branches. That's your decision, and it's configuration rather than a project.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood, because let's get credit control in the room on this. If they hear it from you rather than from me it lands better.
- Hannah Lowe NoneHappy to. I'd suggest a short session just for them once you've seen enough. Now, Tariq, let me get to the matching, because I've been avoiding it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGo on then.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo this is the match review. In your extract, the branch system has the trade account under one code, and the CRM has it under a name with a slightly different spelling and a different parent. The brain has flagged those as a probable match, but not a certain one. I'll open it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. That's a classic. Same business, but the CRM has the trading name and the branch system has the registered name. We've got some where it's the parent company in one and the site in the other.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight, and that's the point. I could have tuned this so everything matched and it would look lovely, but it would be wrong for you. What it does is propose, and then a person who knows the data confirms. That person would be you, and you'd be the one who owns the mapping.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. I don't want it silently merging two accounts. What happens when I confirm one? Does it remember?
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt remembers, and it keeps a log of who confirmed it and when, so if Deepa asks why two records were joined you can show her. And if you change a mapping later, the log keeps the old one.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'd want to be told, Tariq. Not blaming anyone, just so I'm never surprised by a change in the account view.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOf course. I wouldn't touch a mapping without telling you first.
- Hannah Lowe NoneWhich is a nice illustration of why the log exists. Let me move on to the chat, because I think that's what the branch managers will actually use. I'll ask it a plain question.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI'm typing: which trade accounts have an open dispute and an overdue invoice at the same time? And it's thinking. There. It gives me a short list, and under each one the reason it picked it, with links.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOh, that's the question. That is literally the question that credit control asks me every month and I have to ask three different people.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I check one thing? That list, is it live, or as of the last load?
- Hannah Lowe NoneAs of the last load, and good that you asked. The nightly refresh completes by seven in the morning on business days, and the page tells you when each source last loaded. If a connector failed overnight, you'd see the stale source marked, rather than an answer pretending to be current.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's the thing I wanted to hear. I'll check the load log is exposed to me as an admin, not just to you.
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt is. I'll show you the admin view in a moment. First, Deepa, one more of yours. Pick a question you'd really ask on a Monday.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneHmm. Let me think. Something like: for the accounts a key-account manager looks after, which have gone quiet on calls and orders this quarter, but still have an open invoice? Is that too much?
- Hannah Lowe NoneNot at all, though I'll be honest, it's a better demo if I say what it can and can't see. I'll type it as you said it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo it returns a couple of accounts and it tells me the call summaries are thin for one of them, so the quietness is partly an artefact of how few calls are recorded in the sample. That's the sort of caveat I'd rather it gave you than hid.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Right. I like that it says so. The regional directors would pounce on a confident answer that was wrong.
- Lewis Kerr NoneCan I come in on that? It's useful context for scope. The Enterprise tier is built for a company-wide rollout where you want all of that, the branch teams, the key-account teams and credit control, on the same layer. And with about a hundred and twenty branches, you'd want to think about who the first group is, rather than switching everyone on at once.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWe'd phase it. I'd start with key-account and credit control, then a pilot set of branches in the Midlands, then the North. I won't promise the regions anything before it exists.
- Lewis Kerr NoneSensible. And that's reflected in how the implementation gets planned, so you don't have to commit to the whole footprint on day one.
- Hannah Lowe NoneLet me show Tariq the admin side now. This is the connectors page. Each source is a row, with last load time, records indexed, and status. In the sample you've got the branch system, the CRM, the helpdesk, the accounting system and the call recorder.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhich connector is the slowest?
- Hannah Lowe NoneThe branch system, by some distance, because of the volume of order lines. I'm not going to guess at a production figure from a sample extract, so I'll note that as something I'll measure properly on the real load and put in writing.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood answer. I'd rather you didn't guess. What about when a source changes its schema? We upgrade the branch system now and again, and a column moves.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThen that connector will stop loading cleanly, and you'd see it as flat records indexed and a failure flag. That's usually the first sign of a broken source after a system change. We'd tell you to flag upgrades to us beforehand, and the connector gets adjusted. To be precise, it doesn't fix itself, but it does tell you quickly.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's honest. Fine. I can live with that.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneHannah, one for the security side, since Tariq will be asked. What's the answer on where the data is held and who can reach it?
- Hannah Lowe NoneThe short answer is that it stays in your Snowflake account, under your access controls, in your region. The longer answer is a security questionnaire, which is part of how Enterprise is sold, and I run those. If you send me your IT team's questions I'll answer each one in writing. Anything I'm not completely sure of, I'll check with our security lead before I reply, rather than give you an approximate answer.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's all I'd ask. Our IT lot will send over a long list.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSend it as it is. Right, let me do one more thing on the data, then I'll hand back. The dashboards builder, so Deepa can see what the regional directors would get.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneMm, go on.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo I've built a simple one from the sample: disputes by branch, with the value of open invoices alongside. You can filter by key-account manager. It's drawn straight from the same records as the chat, so the totals agree. If someone challenges a number you click the bar and you land on the underlying accounts.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat click-through is the bit. Yes. Right, I can see the regional directors using that in the monthly account-data review. Credit control would use it too.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWho builds these? Is that me, or can Deepa's people do it?
- Hannah Lowe NoneWhoever you give the builder permission to. It's point and click, so Deepa's team can do it, and you keep control of the sources underneath. We'd walk your people through it in training, and there's a day on site if you'd like one.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI think that's all I needed from the demo itself, honestly. Lewis, can we talk about how this would actually be bought? I'll need to take the shape of it to our finance director, and I never go round them on money.
- Lewis Kerr NoneOf course. Let me be careful and precise here, because I don't want to quote from memory. The deal as I have it open is Enterprise, and the all-in figure, with the one-off implementation included, is £146,500, plus VAT. To be clear, that's the total for the deal. It's not an annual price.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneRight. So that's the first year and the implementation together.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThat's the way to read it, yes. The implementation is a fixed fee, paid once, and the subscription is annual and in advance. I'll send you a proper quote today that separates the two lines, so your finance director can see the implementation on its own and the yearly subscription on its own, each with the VAT position.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat would help a lot. Because if it arrives as one number they'll ask which part comes back every year, and I'd be guessing.
- Lewis Kerr NoneExactly why I'd separate them. And on timing, you said the middle of February. I've got the fourteenth of February, 14 Feb 2025, noted as the date we're working towards. Is that still realistic from your side?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt's realistic if the security review runs in parallel and doesn't start after we've agreed everything. Tariq?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. If Hannah gets us the answers early in January, I can get IT through it. The week after the break is when I'll have the people I need.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThen I'd suggest I send the questionnaire pack and the architecture diagram before the end of this week, so it's on your desk when you're back, and we go through your questions together in the first couple of weeks of January.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat works for me. Diagram first, please. I'll mark it up.
- Lewis Kerr NoneDeepa, one thing I want to ask, and tell me if it's too early. Is there anyone else who needs to see a demo before your finance director is comfortable? I'd rather know now than find out in February.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCredit control, certainly. And I'd like one of the regional directors to see the account view, because they're the ones who'll have to tell the branches to use it. I'll find a slot after the new year.
- Lewis Kerr NoneGood. Then I'd suggest a shorter session built around the account page and that disputes-and-invoices question, and Hannah can run it. I'll hold a placeholder with you in the first week back.
- Hannah Lowe NoneHappy to. I'd use their own accounts for it, if you can get me a slightly bigger extract, ideally including a couple of the messy ones, as the messy ones are more convincing.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can do that. I'll check what I'm allowed to send out and get it to you. Same format as last time?
- Hannah Lowe NoneSame format is perfect. And please keep in the ones that didn't match, don't clean them first.
- Tariq Saleem NoneUnderstood. I wasn't going to tidy them, to be fair.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I ask one more about people, rather than systems? Who would we actually be working with after we sign? Because we'd be living with them for a good while.
- Lewis Kerr NoneFair question. I'd stay your point of contact on the commercial side through signature. After that, Amara Obi is the customer success manager and she'd look after adoption, the reviews and the renewal conversation. Hannah stays close through the connector design and the security work. I'll introduce Amara properly before we get to the order form.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. I'd like to meet her before we sign, not after.
- Lewis Kerr NoneNoted, I'll arrange that.
- Tariq Saleem NoneLast thing from me, and it's a small one. Premium support. Is that something that's in the price, or an extra?
- Lewis Kerr NoneI'd rather not answer that from memory, since it changes how the quote is built. What I can say is that with Enterprise it's part of the later version of the offering, and I'll state exactly what is and isn't included in the quote I send, line by line, so there's no ambiguity.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFair enough. Line by line is good.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI think we're about where I wanted to be. Hannah, thank you, that account page is what I'll describe. I may ask you for a screenshot I can put in front of the finance director, if that's allowed.
- Hannah Lowe NoneOf course, I'll send one from the sample with the source labels visible, since that's the part that matters. I'll include it with the diagram.
- Lewis Kerr NoneSo, to recap who sends what. I send the quote today, split into implementation and subscription, with the VAT position. Hannah sends the architecture diagram, the questionnaire pack and the screenshot before the end of the week. Tariq, you send the bigger extract and the IT questions after the break. Deepa, you find a slot for credit control and a regional director. Did I miss anything?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYou've got it all. And Amara, an introduction before we sign.
- Lewis Kerr NoneAnd Amara, yes. Thank you both. Kind regards, and have a good Christmas if I don't speak before.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers, all. Speak in January.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks, everyone. Thanks, Hannah. Bye for now.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThanks, all. Bye.
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