Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2025-04-03 13:15
Onboarding call with Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem. First wave of three connectors agreed with owners. A short branch load worries Deepa. She confirmed the Enterprise price of £116k a year, and a single admin remains a risk.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Onboarding call with Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem. First wave of three connectors agreed with owners. A short branch load worries Deepa. She confirmed the Enterprise price of £116k a year, and a single admin remains a risk.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon agreed a first wave of the CRM, branch system and accounting system, with an owner on the customer side for each. A second wave of helpdesk, call recorder and Microsoft 365 mailboxes follows once the first is stable.
Customer view: Deepa said a number branch managers know is wrong kills adoption, and the weekend ticket on flat records indexed bothers her more than she lets on. Tariq asked for a load-volume alert, with the threshold set after two weeks of data.
Commercial: Deepa checked what was bought, and Laura confirmed £116k a year as the order form has it. Users will be switched on in waves as data loads reliably.
Watch: Admin is Tariq and Deepa, with no second technical admin named. Accounting system read access depends on finance approval.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Connector ownership and data freshness
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Tariq to send the load log and the list of affected branches.
- Laura to send the finance one-pager, the security pack and the access checklist the same day.
- Deepa to speak to credit control about logging disputes in the CRM.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Flat records indexed for some branches could put stale balances in front of credit control.
- A single admin is a key-person risk until a second is named.
- Accounting system access depends on finance approving a read-only request.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A second wave of helpdesk, call recorder and Microsoft 365 connectors follows the first wave.
- Logging disputes in the CRM would let the brain pick them up without a new connector.
- Waves of users across head office, key accounts, credit control and branches can follow the data.
Transcript
Laura Penhaligon NoneHello, hello. Can you both hear me okay?
Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, loud and clear. Afternoon, Laura.
Tariq Saleem NoneAfternoon. Sorry, give me a second, I'm just moving rooms. The meeting room here has the better screen.- Laura Penhaligon NoneNo rush at all. How's the week been? It's been properly grey down here, we've had every kind of weather before lunch.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSame in Birmingham. Sunshine at nine, hail by half ten. I've more or less given up on the umbrella.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRight, I'm in. Can you see my screen? No, that's the wrong window. One moment.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's fine, we'll get to screens in a bit. Shall we make a start? I've got three things for today: where the connectors are, who owns what on your side, and what the next couple of weeks look like.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's good. The one thing I need from today, if I'm honest, is a name against every connector. Last time everything was 'the team', and I'd like a person, so when a branch manager asks me I can say who.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneCompletely fair, and that's what we'll build together. Tariq, I think you wanted to open with the tickets?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, the open ones first. We've got three in from the last few weeks. Two are small, how-to questions about search filters, and those have been answered, I just haven't closed them off my side. The third is the one marked high priority, and that's the branch system load.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, the one from the weekend. I saw that come through.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's the one. The nightly load finished, but the records indexed for some branches look flat against the week before. I don't want to guess at the cause. I'll check the load log properly and come back to you with what it says.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneSensible. From what I can see on our side the connector ran clean, no errors, it just received fewer rows than usual. So that fits with what you're describing. If you can send me the log, I'll line it up with ours.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWill do this afternoon.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I ask, which account, which branch? Because if it's a whole region, I need to know whether credit control are looking at stale balances before the next review.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFair question. I can't say yet whether it's a region or a handful of branches. That's exactly what the log will tell me. I'll give you the list of branches by tomorrow.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThank you. And let's not make it a blame thing. If a branch file is short, there's usually a reason, and it's rarely the branch.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAgreed. It's more likely a schedule or an export setting than anybody doing anything wrong.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneMm. And just so you know, the brain says plainly when a source is behind. Anybody asking a question about those branches will see that the data is from the previous good load, so nobody is misled by it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's useful to know, I'll tell the regional directors that. Okay, so, connectors.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes. I'll share my screen. Can you see the plan? It's a bit busy, sorry. Basically the Enterprise plan has room for twenty connectors, and we are not going to use all of them in the first weeks. I'd rather we get a few loading every night, reliably, than lots loading some nights.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, please. Which connector first?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneMy suggestion for the first wave is three: the CRM, the branch system and the accounting system. That gives you accounts, orders and invoices side by side. Then a second wave for the helpdesk, the call recorder and the Microsoft 365 mailboxes, so calls and emails sit against the same trade account.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd disputes? Because that's what credit control keep asking me. Where does a dispute go?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's the awkward one. Disputes are partly in the CRM and partly in spreadsheets that get passed round by email. That's the thing I most want gone, honestly.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay. Then the honest answer is that the CRM part comes in with the first wave, and the spreadsheets are a conversation. If credit control are willing to log disputes in the CRM from a set date, the brain will pick them up from there with no extra connector.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI think they'd be willing, but I'd want to ask them rather than tell them. Let's get credit control in the room for that one.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect. I'll put it on the list as an open decision, with you as the owner, Deepa.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Put me down. Go on.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneSo for each connector I need three things: an owner on your side, someone who can grant access, and someone who looks at it when it breaks. Often that's the same person, sometimes it isn't. Let's take the CRM. Tariq, that's you?
- Tariq Saleem NoneOwner and access, yes, that's me. Deepa is the business owner. If a field changes meaning, it's her call, and I'd not change a mapping without telling her.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich is how I like it. Put both of us down.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay, both. Branch system?
- Tariq Saleem NoneAccess is mine, because I wire up the extracts. But the people who really understand it are a colleague in IT who runs the system and the branch operations team. I'd say the IT colleague is the one who looks at it when it breaks.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneCan I have a name for that person? I'll leave it as a role in the plan for now, but I'll need a person for the kickoff of the second phase.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'll find out whether they're happy to be named and send it over.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneLovely. Accounting system?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's the finance team. I don't own it and I'd not go around them on it. Tariq, you'd need to ask the finance systems person for read access.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, I have asked, informally. I'd rather do it properly with a request that says what the brain reads and what it doesn't write. Laura, have you got a one-pager on that?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI have, I'll send it today. It says it's read-only, it lists the objects we read, and it says everything stays inside your Snowflake account. Finance usually like the last bit best.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThey will. That's the question I always get first.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOkay, so far: CRM, branch system, accounting system. Is there anything in the first wave that could slip?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneHonestly, the accounting system is the one most likely to, because it depends on somebody else's approval. The CRM should be quick. The branch system is the one with the most mapping work, so it's the one I'd put the most attention on.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, that's a mapping question. Can I show you what I mean? I'll share my screen again, give me a moment.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePlease do.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRight, so this is an extract from the branch system on the left and the account list from the CRM on the right. You can see the branch account code here, and in the CRM it's stored in this field. Most of them match one for one. But there are trade accounts which are held at more than one branch, with the same name and slightly different codes.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich is exactly the thing I want fixed. One version of each trade account. A plumbing firm that buys from three of our branches should be one account with three branches under it, not three accounts.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes. And that's something we can help with, but I want to be careful about what the brain does and doesn't do. It won't merge records in your CRM. What it can do is match on its own side, so when someone asks about a customer they get the combined picture, with the original records still intact underneath.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's what I'd hoped. I don't want the brain changing the source. If it gets it wrong, I need to be able to see why.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYou'll see the rule that matched each pair. We start strict: exact account code first, then the trading name together with the address fields. Anything that doesn't match cleanly goes on a review list, and it's a human who decides.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneShow me where that number comes from, though. When the brain says a customer has a certain balance across branches, I want to be able to click through to each branch's invoice.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYou can. Each answer carries its sources, so you'd see the invoices, which system they came from and when that system was last loaded. I'll show you on your own data when the first wave is in.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Next question: who maintains the match rules afterwards? Because branches open and close, and accounts get renamed.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's you, with Deepa signing off changes that alter meaning. We'll set it up so you have an admin view, and I'll walk you through it. It doesn't need a lot of time once the first clean-up is done.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'd like the review list to go to the monthly account-data review as well. That's the meeting I chair with credit control and the regional directors. If there's a list of accounts that don't match, that's the right place to argue about them.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's a really good use of it. I'll make the list exportable so you can put it in front of them without anyone needing a login to see it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd want to check that against our own rules on sharing, but I think a list of account names is fine.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, and I'll check with Tariq before it goes anywhere. Right. Users. Do we need to do that today?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI'd like to at least open it, because it affects the order of everything else. You've got two hundred licensed users, which is the whole company-wide idea. But in practice you won't turn on two hundred people at once, and you probably don't want to.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNo. I'd start with head office and the key-account managers. Then credit control. Then the branches, a few at a time, once I'm sure what I'm giving them.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd I'm not going to promise the regions something that doesn't exist yet. If a branch manager asks for a dashboard I can't deliver, I'd rather say not yet.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's wise, and it's easier on you. So let's say waves of users follow waves of data: when the data for a team is loading reliably, then we switch that team on.
- Tariq Saleem NoneSign-in. Are we using single sign-on from the start? Because it's part of the Enterprise plan and I'd rather not create local accounts and then unpick them.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, I'd do it from the start. Single sign-on and SCIM are both included. SCIM means that when someone joins or leaves in your directory, their access follows automatically. Who looks after your identity provider?
- Tariq Saleem NoneA colleague in IT. I'll get them on the next call, because I'd only be guessing at how our groups are set up and I don't like guessing.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect, that's the right call. If they can bring a list of the groups they'd use for the first wave, that makes it a ten-minute job rather than a long one.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd the security side? Our IT director will want to see something before we go beyond the first few people.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's covered. The implementation includes help with your security review, so I'll send the standard pack, and if your team have their own questionnaire we'll answer it. The main thing in your favour is that the brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your environment.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. That's the sentence that got us through the first conversation. I'd still like the pack.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI'll send it with the finance one-pager, so you've got both together.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I come back to freshness? Because the ticket this weekend bothers me a bit more than I'm letting on. When we go to branch managers, the thing that kills it is a number they know is wrong.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes. And I'd rather you said that now. The nightly refresh is meant to be complete by seven in the morning on business days. If a source is late or short, I want us to know before the branch managers do.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan we get an alert for that? A message to me when a connector loads fewer records than it normally would?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneWe can set up a check on the load, yes. I'll need to agree with you what 'fewer than normal' means, because a bank holiday week is quieter. I'd suggest we run it for two weeks, look at the pattern, then set the threshold.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat makes sense. I'd rather set it from what we've seen than from a guess.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. Okay, I think I've got what I came for on connectors. Do you want me to read back what I've written?
- Laura Penhaligon NonePlease, that'd be really helpful.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThree connectors first: CRM, branch system, accounting system. Tariq and I own the CRM. Tariq owns access to the branch system, with a colleague in IT looking after it when it breaks. Finance own the accounting system and Tariq asks them for read access with Laura's one-pager. Disputes are an open decision and I take it to credit control. Have I missed any?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's exactly it. That's better than my notes.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOne more. The second wave. The helpdesk and the call recorder are both run by the customer service team, not by me. I'll need to introduce Laura to them.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, please. I'd like to do that once the first wave is stable, so we're not asking people for things while you're still waiting on us. Say two weeks from now?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat feels right. I'd rather it came after we've shown credit control something real.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThen let me describe what 'something real' is, because I think it's worth agreeing. By the end of the first wave you should be able to pick a trade account and see its orders from the branch system, its CRM notes and its invoices in one answer, with the sources underneath.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOrders, notes, invoices. And one account, not three.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, with the caveat that some accounts will still be on the review list. We won't hide them.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd prefer that, to be honest. A list I can see is better than an answer I can't trust.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGood. Now, the people side. For go-live I'd like a short training session for the key-account managers, and a different one for credit control, because they'll ask different questions.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Key-account managers want to know what's happening with a customer before a visit. Credit control want to know whether to chase, and what's disputed. Don't mix them. They'll talk across each other.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneUnderstood. I'll draft two outlines and you can tell me what's wrong with them. I'll use your own accounts in the examples, so it doesn't feel like a generic demo.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWill we be able to pick which accounts? Because I'd want to avoid anything commercially sensitive, anything a key-account manager would not want a colleague seeing in a training session.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood point. Let me choose a short list, and I'll run it past the key-account managers' lead first.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat'd be ideal. I'll send you the outline and a blank list to fill in.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I ask something about the commercial side? Not to reopen anything, I just want to be able to say it clearly. We're on the Enterprise plan, for the year, at one hundred and sixteen and a half thousand, and the implementation is the work we're doing now. Is that right?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat matches the order form as I have it: £116,500 a year. For anything about the commercial terms, Lewis is your account owner and he's the one to ask, and Amara Obi will be your customer success manager once we're live. I can pass any question on.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's all I need. I just wanted to say the right thing when someone asks me what we bought.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOne technical thing, if there's time. Records indexed. When I look at the admin page, it shows a total per connector. Does that number go up if the extract has the same record twice?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNo, it counts distinct records, so a repeat doesn't inflate it. But I'd want to confirm that against your branch system specifically before I promise it, because it depends on which field is the key. Can you note it as a question and I'll come back to you?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, noted. That's a mapping question, so it goes on the same list.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich reminds me. When do we expect to see the first load? So I know what to tell people.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIf the CRM access comes through this week, I'd hope to have the CRM loading by the end of next week. Then the branch system the week after, subject to what we find in your log. I'd rather give you a range and hit it than a date and miss it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'll take a range. I'll tell people 'the first accounts in the coming weeks' and not name a day.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'll try to get the CRM access sorted today, so that's not what holds us up.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneBrilliant. I'll send you the access checklist straight after this call, so you can tick it off.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIs there anything you need from me that isn't a decision? I don't want to be the bottleneck.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneTwo things. A short list of accounts for the training examples, and a quick word with credit control about disputes. Everything else I can take from Tariq.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneDone and done. I'll speak to them this week.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCould I raise one thing about the monthly review? If the brain is going to be in that meeting, I'd like us to agree who has the admin view and who doesn't. Not everyone in that room needs it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAgreed. Admin is you and me for now, and a deputy for when you're away. Everyone else is a user.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay, I'll set it up that way. One more thing on that, if I may. Having a single admin is a risk if that person leaves or is off for a while. A second admin is easy to add, and I'd recommend you do.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's fair. I'll think about who. It should be someone technical, who knows the data.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd someone who's not me, ideally. I'm not hands on enough.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneHa, understood. Right, I think we've covered what I'd hoped. Shall I recap the actions?
- Tariq Saleem NonePlease. I'll write them down.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneFrom me: the finance one-pager and the security pack today, the access checklist today, two training outlines next week, and an answer on the records-indexed question once I've looked at your branch system key. From Tariq: the load log and the list of affected branches, CRM access, a request to finance for read access, and a name for the IT colleague. From Deepa: a word with credit control about disputes, and a short list of accounts for training.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's right. I'd add one: a name for a second admin, which I'll take with Tariq.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAdded. When shall we speak again? I'd suggest same time next week, and I'll bring Amara along so she can say hello properly.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat works for me. Tariq?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, fine. I'll have the log by then, and with luck the IT colleague can join for the last bit.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneLovely. Thanks both, this was really useful. Speak next week.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks, Laura. Thanks, Tariq. Bye for now.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers, both. Bye.
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