Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2025-04-11 11:00
Onboarding call with Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem. Connector order, a match table and a small first wave were agreed. Deepa needs a date for the regional directors; Laura owes one early the following week.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Onboarding call with Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem. Connector order, a match table and a small first wave were agreed. Deepa needs a date for the regional directors; Laura owes one early the following week.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon took Deepa and Tariq through the connector order: CRM, branch system, accounting, helpdesk, call recorder last. Tariq explained a mapping change behind a failed first overnight branch load and agreed to record such changes in writing.
Customer view: Deepa wants a date she can give the regional directors, not a feature list. She would rather have an honest date than a quick one.
Commercial: Merriott Lyle is on Enterprise with two hundred licensed users, and SSO, SCIM and security review support were confirmed as included. A small first wave and agreed roles protect early adoption, which is where the value will show.
Watch: Laura owes Deepa a date early the following week, after checking the plan with Amara. Unmatched accounts go to Deepa's monthly review and need working through.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Onboarding connector plan
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
neutral
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Laura Penhaligon to give Deepa a realistic date for matched accounts early the following week, after checking with Amara.
- Laura to send the connector plan, owners table and draft role rules by the end of the day or Monday morning at the latest.
- Tariq Saleem to send the branch system field list and a name for the finance credentials.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Unmatched accounts between the branch system and the CRM could undermine trust if the first users see half-matched records.
- Deepa has no date yet for the regional directors, so expectations in the regions are open.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Enterprise has two hundred licensed users and the first wave is only a handful, so there is large seat headroom as the rollout widens.
- SSO, SCIM and security review support are included and wanted by the customer's IT team.
Transcript
Laura Penhaligon NoneHello, can you hear me all right? I've got you both on the screen but I'm not sure my sound is behaving.
Deepa Chauhan NoneLoud and clear, Laura. Morning. Tariq, you're on mute, I think.
Tariq Saleem NoneSorry, morning both. Yes, that's better. I was on the other call until two minutes ago, so I'm still switching over.- Laura Penhaligon NoneNo rush at all. Good Friday so far? Anything planned for the weekend, or is it all just catching up?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCatching up, mostly. It's been raining across the Midlands all week, so the branch managers have been ringing in about deliveries and I've been the one fielding it. But it's Friday, so, you know.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, the builders' merchants must feel that more than most. Well, shall we make a start? Today is the onboarding call, so what I'd like is to leave with the order we're connecting things in and a name against each one. Does that suit?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt does. Can I say the one thing I need from this call first?
- Laura Penhaligon NonePlease.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI need to be able to tell the regional directors, in plain words, when a branch manager will be able to open one trade account and see the orders, the disputes, the calls and the invoices together. Not a feature list. A date, roughly, and who is responsible for getting there.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's fair, and I think we can get you most of the way to that today. Tariq, did you want to go through the tickets first? I know that's usually where you start.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes, if that's okay, it'll take a minute. There are two open. One is a how-to, it's about who can see which accounts, and I think that's more of a permissions question than a fault. The other one I marked high priority, because the first overnight load from the branch system didn't complete.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, I've looked at that one this morning. The re-run did complete, and what held it up was the account reference field not being mapped the way the loader expected. Would you agree with that from your side?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'll check the load log before I say that. I don't want to guess. But the timing fits, the second run was after I'd changed the reference field. So it is a mapping question, not a connectivity one, as far as I can see.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich field did you change, Tariq? Just so I know. I don't want the account codes the branches use to shift under them without anyone saying.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFair. It was the branch system's account code, we were passing it with the leading branch prefix and the loader wanted it without. I haven't touched anything in the CRM itself. I should have told you before I did it, and I'll write it up so there's a record.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks. That's all I wanted. It isn't a blame thing, I just like to know what changed.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's exactly the kind of record we want, actually. I'll put it in the implementation notes too, so we have one place for every mapping decision. Okay, can I share my screen? I've got the connector plan open.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGo ahead.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneCan you see it? It's a simple table. Down the left, the sources. Across, who owns the source at Merriott Lyle, who is the technical contact, and what we need from you before we connect it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, I can see it. The text is a bit small but I can follow.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI'll send it over afterwards so you don't have to squint. So, the way I'd suggest ordering it: the CRM first, because everything else hangs off the account record. Then the branch system, which we've already begun. Then the accounting system for invoices and balances, then the helpdesk, then the call recorder last.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhy the call recorder last? Out of curiosity.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneMostly because it's the one where the matching is least certain. Calls come in with a person's name and an email address, and they only become useful once the account matching underneath is solid. If we do it early we just get a lot of calls attached to nothing.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRight, that makes sense. That's a mapping question again, really. People ring from a mobile and the CRM has them under the branch landline.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich is half my life, to be honest. Which account, which branch, and who is it actually, that's the conversation I have every month with credit control.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, and that's where I'd like to spend a bit of time today. Account matching. Tariq, can you describe how an account looks in the branch system versus the CRM today?
- Tariq Saleem NoneSure. In the branch system, an account is a code plus a branch, so the same builder can have an account at several branches. In the CRM we've tried to have one company record with the branches underneath. Most of them line up. The ones that don't are usually where a firm has been trading under a limited company name at one branch and a trading name at another.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAnd how many of those, roughly? Not an exact count.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd rather not give you a number off the top of my head. I'll run the match and check the load log, then I can say properly. It's a minority, but it's the minority people complain about.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt's the same few hundred names that come up in every review. The big regional contractors, mainly.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay. What I'd propose is a match table that sits alongside the load. Tariq, you own it. Anything the brain can't match confidently goes onto a list rather than being guessed at, and the list goes to Deepa's monthly review.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI like that. It turns it into something we work through together, with credit control in the room, rather than a thing that's quietly wrong.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAnd no one on the branch side gets told their data's bad. It's just unmatched.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneExactly that wording. Unmatched, not wrong.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, let me scroll down. This is the part about people. You're licensed for two hundred users on Enterprise, and I know that's the whole of the key-account, branch and credit-control teams eventually. What I'd normally recommend is not switching on two hundred people in one go.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNo, I wouldn't want that either. If the first thing a branch manager sees is a half-matched account, we've lost them.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAgreed. So a first wave. Who would you put in it?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThree groups, really. A handful of key-account managers who already live in the CRM. Two or three people from credit control, because they're the ones chasing disputes. And a few branch managers I trust to tell me honestly if it's useless.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's a good first wave. Small enough that we can sit with them and see what questions they actually ask.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOn access, can I raise single sign-on now? Because my colleague in IT will want to know early. Enterprise includes it, doesn't it, along with the user provisioning?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIt does, SSO and SCIM both. And the security review support is part of the Enterprise implementation, so I'll ask for your IT contact's questionnaire up front rather than at the end. That usually saves a fortnight.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. I'll introduce you to them next week. They're careful, so expect questions about where the data lives.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat one's easy, it all sits inside your own Snowflake account. I'll put that in the first paragraph of whatever I send them.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I ask something about that? When we say it's in our Snowflake account, does that mean the branches can't see anything they shouldn't? Because the regional directors will ask me within about five minutes.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGood question, and I'd rather answer it properly than quickly. Access follows the roles you set up, so a branch manager sees what their role allows. We'd want to agree those roles with you and Tariq before the second wave, not after.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOkay. Then that's something I'll bring to the data review so the regions have signed off the principle. Show me where that rule is written down, when it is.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI'll draft it and you can mark it up. Not me deciding for you.
- Tariq Saleem NoneLaura, one practical thing on the accounting system connector. Our finance team will want to give read-only access and nothing else. Is that enough?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRead-only is all we need. Invoices, balances, payment status. We never write back.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Then it's a question of which person in finance sets up the credentials. I'll ask, and I'll come back to you with a name.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd I'll have a word with credit control before then. They'll be the heaviest users of that connector, so they should be involved from the start. Let's get credit control in the room for the next review, properly.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat would help a lot. Could I join it, even just for the first twenty minutes? I'd like to hear how the review actually runs.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOf course. It's the best way to see what people really ask, honestly.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay. Before we finish, let me pull it together, and you correct me. One: the CRM and the branch system are the first two connectors. Tariq owns both on your side, and the load log is where we both look when something doesn't arrive.
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. And I'll tell Deepa before I change any mapping, in writing, so it's not only in my head.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneTwo: a match table, owned by Tariq, with an unmatched list that goes to Deepa's monthly review. Three: a first wave of users, three groups, small. Four: roles agreed before the second wave. Five: IT's security questions come to me early.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd six, which is mine. A date I can give the regional directors.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes. I don't want to promise a date I haven't checked against the plan, so give me till early next week. I'll come back with a view on when the first wave could realistically see matched accounts, and I'll go through it with Amara first, since she'll be looking after the account once we're live.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's fine. I'd rather have an honest date than a quick one. I'll say that to the regions as well.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'll send you the field list from the branch system today, Laura, so you've got it before you do the plan. And the name for the finance credentials once I have it.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect. And I'll send the connector plan, the owners table and the draft role rules, by the end of the day if I can, Monday morning at the latest.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneLovely. Lewis mentioned you'd be thorough, and that's been true so far. Thanks, both.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's kind. Thank you, Deepa, thank you, Tariq. Have a good weekend, and I hope the rain eases off.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers, Laura. Cheers, Deepa. Speak soon.
Callsmade from