Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Kickoff
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Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2025-03-06 13:00
On 6 Mar 2025 the Enterprise kickoff agreed the connector order, read-only service accounts and a pilot group. Deepa Chauhan asked how to show value for £116k a year after the first month.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26On 6 Mar 2025 the Enterprise kickoff agreed the connector order, read-only service accounts and a pilot group. Deepa Chauhan asked how to show value for £116k a year after the first month.
What happened: Kickoff for an Enterprise customer whose order form was executed on 28 Feb 2025. The plan connects the CRM first, then the branch system, credit control, helpdesk, call recorder and email.
Customer view: Deepa Chauhan, Head of Commercial Systems, wants credit control to win first and the project owned by them. Gareth Pugh wants one named, revocable service account per source and single sign-on from the start.
Commercial: Deepa said the people who signed off £116k a year will want plain results. Daniel Okafor offered three first-month proof points and a value conversation well ahead of anything contractual.
Watch: Some older trade accounts carry a credit control code with no CRM reference, and Tariq Saleem owes the list.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise kickoff and value proof
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- Tariq Saleem sends written CRM access and the list of unmatched accounts by the Monday after the call.
- Deepa Chauhan names credit control and branch reviewers by the same Monday and checks the date of the next account-data review.
- Callie Brennan writes the setup note, the data-location paragraph for Gareth Pugh and a proposed sample of accounts.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The sponsor needs a plain-terms value case for the £116,500 a year she quoted, and the first month must show results.
- Older trade accounts without a CRM reference could delay the credit control view the champion most wants.
- The pilot group is small and knowledge sits with a few people, so the project could stay with a handful of experts.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Rolling out beyond the pilot group to the regions once the data is right, across the licensed Enterprise users.
- Single sign-on and provisioning from the start for the pilot group, as Gareth Pugh asked.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneHello, good afternoon everyone, and thank you all for making the time. Let me just check who's joined. Deepa, Tariq, I can see you both. Gareth, are you with us?
Gareth Pugh NoneYes, I'm here. Afternoon. Sorry, it took me a moment to get the audio working.
Deepa Chauhan NoneAfternoon, Daniel. We can hear you fine. Callie, I think you're on mute.
Callie Brennan NoneSorry, there we go. Afternoon all. Can you hear me properly?
Tariq Saleem NoneLoud and clear.- Daniel Okafor NoneLovely. Before Callie takes us through the plan, just a word from me. This is the point where it stops being a signature and starts being a working system, so thank you for getting the right people into one call. Deepa, how has the week been? I know you had the regional directors to deal with.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneBusy. The regional directors all wanted to know when they get to see something, so I've promised nothing and said soon. Which is why I've got one thing I need from today: a clear order of what goes live first, and who is doing what on our side.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's exactly what I've built the hour around. So, the plan for the next hour. First, a quick recap of what's been bought and what the brain looks like inside your Snowflake account. Second, the sources and the order we connect them. Third, what I need from your side, by person. Fourth, security and access, which Gareth will care about most. Then last, how we'll know the first refresh has landed cleanly. Does that work for everybody?
- Deepa Chauhan NonePerfect.
- Callie Brennan NoneGreat. So, the recap. You're on Enterprise, two hundred licensed users, the order form was executed on 28 February 2025 and the term runs to 27 Feb 2026. The idea, as Deepa put it in the sales conversations, is that a branch manager, a key-account manager and someone in credit control all look at the same trade account and see the orders, the disputes, the calls and the invoices together. Is that still the picture?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Which account, which branch, and then everything underneath it. Right now the key-account managers have one view, credit control has another, and the branches have a third in the branch system, and they argue about whose is right.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhich in practice means a spreadsheet gets emailed round on a Monday and by Wednesday it's wrong.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, and that maps cleanly onto what we do. One thing I want to be clear about early: the brain is built and run inside your own Snowflake account. Nothing is copied out to a BB-Demo environment. Gareth, I'll come to that properly in a minute, but I wanted it said first.
- Gareth Pugh NoneAppreciated. That was the thing that got it past my desk in the first place. I'll still want to see how the service accounts are set up, though.
- Callie Brennan NoneOf course. Written access first, always, before anything connects.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd just to close the loop on the sales side: Gareth, you'll have seen the security material from earlier in the process. If anything you hear today doesn't match it, say so and I'll get it corrected.
- Gareth Pugh NoneWill do. Nothing so far.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, sources. From the order form and our earlier conversations I have these groups: the CRM, the branch system for orders and stock, the credit control system for invoices and disputes, the helpdesk, the call recorder, and then email. Tariq, I'd like to go through those in the order you'd connect them, because you know where the awkward ones are.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRight. Which connector first? I'd start with the CRM. It's the one I know best, the account records are in the best shape, and I can check the load log myself. The branch system is the hard one. Account numbers there don't always match the CRM, so that's a mapping question, and I don't want to start it until we've agreed how the matching works.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd Tariq, you tell me before you change any mapping, yes? Not after.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAlways. You'll see it first.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's what I'd suggest too. CRM first, because it gives us the spine: the list of trade accounts. Then the branch system, once we've agreed the matching rules. Then credit control, because invoices and disputes are what the credit team will judge it on. Helpdesk, call recorder and email after that, once the core is settled.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I push on that? Credit control is the room I most want to win. If the first thing the credit team sees is an account with its invoices and a note of the last call, they will use it. If the first thing they see is branch stock levels, they won't.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's fair. Credit control doesn't have to wait for the branch system if the account match is on the CRM. The question is whether the invoice records carry the CRM account reference.
- Tariq Saleem NoneMostly. Not all. There's a group of older trade accounts where credit control uses its own account code. I'd have to check how many. I'd rather say I'll check the load log and the mapping table than guess.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's the right answer, thank you. Could you bring me a list of those accounts with no CRM reference? It doesn't need to be tidy.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can do that by Monday.
- Callie Brennan NoneBrilliant, that goes in the plan.
- Daniel Okafor NoneDeepa, how are you thinking of rolling out to people? Two hundred seats is a lot of colleagues, and I can see only a small group in the brain at the moment.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSmall group is right: me, Tariq, a couple of the key-account managers and someone from credit control. I'd like to keep it that way until the data's right. The regions get it after that, and I won't promise them a feature before it exists.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat sounds sensible. How is the team finding it so far, the ones who've had a look?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCurious, mostly. Poking at it to see if it breaks. But the question I keep coming back to is the same one: show me where that number comes from.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, that's the habit we want. Every answer links back to its source record. When the first refresh lands I'll walk Tariq through how to trace an answer back to a row. Now, last thing before security: handover. By the end of this I want Tariq able to run it without me. That means a setup note for every connector: what it reads, how often, where its log is, and what to do if it stops. I'll write them as I go and ask you to read each one back.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. I'd also like to know what a healthy load looks like, so I recognise it when I see it. Record counts, run time, what a normal night looks like.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. I'll record the first few nights as the baseline, and then a change in either is easy to spot.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd that goes somewhere the rest of the team can find it, not in someone's inbox.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAgreed. Shared folder, one page per connector.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's good for continuity as well. If people change on either side, the notes still stand.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, security and access. Gareth, what I need is, first, who will create the credentials for each source. Second, that they're read-only. And third, that they're in writing before I touch a connector. I won't start anything without written access.
- Gareth Pugh NoneRead-only is fine for everything we've discussed. My concern is sprawl. I don't want a dozen shared logins. One service account per source, named so I can see what it is, and I want to be able to switch each one off independently.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's how I'd want it too. One per source, named for its purpose, each revocable on its own. I'll put that in the setup note.
- Gareth Pugh NoneAnd where does the data sit at rest? Just so I say it correctly to my own director.
- Callie Brennan NoneIn your Snowflake account, under your own roles. BB-Demo's access is through a role you grant and can remove. If it helps, I'll write that as one paragraph for you to forward.
- Gareth Pugh NoneThat would help. Plain English, please.
- Callie Brennan NoneAlways.
- Gareth Pugh NoneAnd sign-in. We're on Enterprise, so single sign-on is part of it?
- Daniel Okafor NoneIt is. Single sign-on and the user provisioning side both come with Enterprise. Tariq, that'll be you and Gareth together on the identity side. I'd suggest we do it after the first refresh, so people are signing in to something worth seeing.
- Gareth Pugh NoneI'd rather do it earlier, to be honest. I don't love people having separate passwords even for a week.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. Then there's no harm in the small group being on single sign-on from the start. Callie, can you fit that in?
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, it's not heavy for a group that size. Tariq, Gareth, I'll need you both for about half an hour once the CRM connector is in. I'll send times.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFine by me.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo let me read back what I need from your side, because this is where kickoffs usually slip. One: written access for the CRM and its service account, from Tariq and Gareth, before we switch on the refresh. Two: the list of accounts without a CRM reference, from Tariq. Three: a named person in credit control who can tell me whether the invoice and dispute data look right. Four: a named person from the branches, same job. Deepa, can you pick those two?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCredit control, I'll ask the team lead this afternoon. For the branches I want someone who isn't going to tell me it's perfect. A branch manager with opinions.
- Callie Brennan NoneOpinions are exactly what I need.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'll give you names by Monday as well. And let's get credit control in the room for the first look, not just send them a report afterwards.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat would fit the monthly account-data review you chair, wouldn't it? Could the first refresh be an item on the next one?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt could. That's quite a neat idea, actually. Let me check the date and I'll come back to you.
- Daniel Okafor NoneLovely. Callie will tell me what we can honestly have ready by then, and I'll come back to you.
- Callie Brennan NoneWhich brings me to the first refresh. Before we switch it on I want three checks. Record counts line up with the source for the CRM. A sample of accounts that we agree in advance, say a dozen, match field by field. And the nightly run completes on its own without anyone pressing anything. Only then do we call it landed.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I choose the sample? I'd want a few of the awkward ones in there, not only the easy ones.
- Callie Brennan NonePlease. Half awkward, half easy.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneInclude a few with a long history of disputes. If it handles those, I'll believe the rest.
- Gareth Pugh NoneAnd what happens if a connector fails overnight? Who tells me?
- Callie Brennan NoneDuring implementation I'll see it in the morning and tell Tariq straight away. Afterwards, issues go through the helpdesk, and Enterprise has the fastest response tier. Daniel can say more on that.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes, we'd much rather you raised it than lived with it. And Tariq, if anything changes in a source system on your side, a new field or a migration, just tell us beforehand. That's the usual reason a connector goes quiet.
- Tariq Saleem NoneUnderstood. I'll flag it the moment anything changes in the branch system.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you, that's really helpful.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneBefore we finish, one sensitive thing. What we're paying is £116,500 a year, and the people who signed that off will want to hear in plain terms what it has done, not that it's connected.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSo what's a sensible thing I can tell them at the end of the first month?
- Daniel Okafor NoneA fair question. I'd say three things. The first refresh landed cleanly. The pilot group are asking real questions. And credit control have looked at an account with its invoices and calls together. If you can say those three, that's a good first month. And we'll sit down again well ahead of anything contractual, because I'd want that to be a conversation about value, not paperwork.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's fair.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I ask for something small? Could you show me, even empty, what an account page looks like, so I can picture it for the key-account managers?
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, one second, I'm sharing my screen. This is a test space with none of your data in it, so it's a shape, not an answer. Each trade account has a page: the account at the top, then orders, disputes, calls, emails and invoices in one timeline, and a chat box on the right where you ask in plain English.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSo the branch manager sees the same page as credit control.
- Callie Brennan NoneSame page, same facts. What each person is allowed to see is set by roles in Snowflake, so you can narrow it if, say, credit notes shouldn't be visible to the branches.
- Gareth Pugh NoneThat's one for us to decide, and I'd want it written down before the regions come on.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAgreed. That's a decision for the review, not for today.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAnd the search? Can I search by the branch system's account number?
- Callie Brennan NoneOnce the match is built, yes. That's why the mapping matters so much. If the number's on the page, you can search for it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThen my list of unmatched accounts is the first job. Fine.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich is a good place to leave the demo. Callie, shall we stop sharing?
- Callie Brennan NoneStopped. Back to faces.
- Callie Brennan NoneLet me recap who sends what, and then I'll stop talking. Tariq: the CRM access in writing and the list of unmatched accounts, by Monday. Gareth: how you want the service accounts named, and who is your contact for single sign-on. Deepa: names for credit control and the branches by Monday, and the date of the next account-data review. Me: the setup note, the one-paragraph description of where the data sits for Gareth, and a proposed sample of accounts for Tariq to adjust. Is there anything I've missed?
- Daniel Okafor NoneOnly that I'll send a short summary of today this afternoon and keep everything on one thread, so it's all in one place.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhen do we talk next? I don't want this to go quiet between now and the first refresh.
- Callie Brennan NoneI'd suggest a short check-in at the end of next week to go through the access and the unmatched list, then a longer one when the first refresh is ready. I'll send invites.
- Tariq Saleem NoneEnd of next week is fine for me.
- Gareth Pugh NoneSame, as long as it's not first thing on Friday.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll make it the afternoon. Anything else anyone wants to raise? Anything we've skipped?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOne thing. Please don't let it become a project that only the two of you and Tariq understand. I want credit control to feel it's theirs.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's the part I care about most, honestly. The people behind the logos. We'll keep it in their words, not ours.
- Gareth Pugh NoneThanks, both. That was clearer than I expected.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers all. I'll start on that list this afternoon.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThank you, that was more useful than I'd hoped. Speak next week.
- Callie Brennan NoneSpeak soon. Thanks, all.
- Daniel Okafor NoneBest wishes, everyone. Take care.
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