Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2025-05-07 09:45
Onboarding call on 7 May 2025 with Tariq Saleem. Connector order, account matching between branch system and CRM, SSO and admin cover were agreed. Tariq left with a plan and three actions for the week.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Onboarding call on 7 May 2025 with Tariq Saleem. Connector order, account matching between branch system and CRM, SSO and admin cover were agreed. Tariq left with a plan and three actions for the week.
What happened: Hamza Akhtar and Tariq agreed to land the CRM connector first, then the branch system, accounting, helpdesk and call recorder. Tariq described the main worry as account matching, where the branch system code is missing from some CRM records.
Customer view: Tariq cares most about the nightly refresh finishing by seven each business morning, because stale numbers lose branch managers' trust. He left the call reassured.
Commercial: This is Enterprise implementation work, with SSO and provisioning in scope and a training day mentioned as an add-on. Tariq said he would keep it in mind and see how the pilot lands first.
Watch: Tariq is the only admin and wants two by the end of next week. The account matching review list has no confirmed owner, and the CRM account code coverage was an unchecked estimate.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise onboarding and matching
Importance
neutral
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 to set up the Snowflake role and warehouse, confirm the review list owner and name a second admin.
- Hamza Akhtar to send the connector checklist and the account matching mapping sheet.
- Hamza to send the invite for next Wednesday at the same time and copy Amara.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Only one admin on the customer side, so a nightly failure has no cover until a second admin is named.
- Account matching depends on a CRM account code that Tariq thinks only some records hold, and the review list owner is unconfirmed.
- Branch managers will stop using the brain if the nightly refresh is late or stale.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- On-site training day add-on was raised and left open until the pilot lands.
- Rollout in waves from a pilot group to one region to all branches deepens use across the licensed users.
Transcript
Hamza Akhtar NoneMorning Tariq, can you hear me alright?
Tariq Saleem NoneMorning Hamza. Yes, loud and clear. Can you see me, or is it just a grey box?- Hamza Akhtar NoneGrey box for a second, there you are. Lovely. Sorry, I'm a minute or two behind myself, the last call overran.
- Tariq Saleem NoneNo problem at all. I've only just sat down. The train from the depot was a nightmare, half the Midlands seems to be under a rain cloud this morning.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneSame here in London, it's been drizzling since about six. Anyway, good to finally do the proper onboarding session. Amara said you've been getting on with things already.
- Tariq Saleem NoneA bit, yes. I like to open with the tickets, if that's all right, so we know where we stand. We've got one open. It's a how-to, really. Which connector? The CRM one. I couldn't see where to set the field scope after the first test load.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, I saw that come through. It's in the connector settings under the objects tab, you pick which objects and which fields the brain should index. I'd say that one is nearly closed on our side, support just want you to confirm it's working.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRight, I'll check the load log after this call and close it off. I did see the objects tab, I just didn't realise it applied per object rather than across the whole connector.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneIt trips everyone up the first time. Mm. So for today I thought we'd do four things. The order we switch connectors on, who owns what on your side, the account matching between the branch system and the CRM, and then single sign-on and user provisioning, because you're on Enterprise and that's a bigger piece than for most.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's about what I had. I'd add one more, which is what the branches actually see on day one. I don't want a hundred and twenty branch managers logging in to an empty screen.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneAgreed, we'll put that at the end so we don't run out of time on it. Shall we start with the connectors?
- Tariq Saleem NonePlease.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneSo the order form gives you up to twenty connectors on Enterprise. You won't use all of them in the first weeks, and I'd rather you didn't try. My suggestion is we land the CRM first, since you've already got a test load there, then the branch system, then the accounting system, the helpdesk and the call recorder. Email and the shared drive come after that.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhy the branch system second? I'd have said the accounting system, because credit control are the loudest team and they've been waiting longest.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneFair question. It's because the matching problem sits between the branch system and the CRM. If we get that wrong, everything we add after it inherits the mess. Accounting joins on the trade account, so it's much easier once that key is right.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOkay, that makes sense. That's a mapping question, and it's the one that worries me most, to be honest. Do you want me to describe how it looks today?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes please, go on.
- Tariq Saleem NoneSo every branch creates trade accounts in the branch system, and they do it by hand at the counter. The CRM gets a nightly feed, but the feed matches on trading name and postcode and not on anything stable. If a builder has two sites, or changes the way the name is typed, you end up with two CRM accounts. And the other way round, two different builders with near-identical trading names get merged into one. I'd rather have a short list of rules than a clever one.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, and I think you're right to want it simple. Is there any stable identifier in the branch system? An account number that survives a rename, something like that?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThere's an account code. It's issued once and never reused. The problem is the CRM doesn't hold it on every record, only on the ones that came through the newer feed. So perhaps seven in ten have it, if I'm honest, and I'd want to check that properly before I said a number out loud.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's fine, don't quote it. What I'd propose is that the brain treats the account code as the key wherever it exists, and falls back to name and delivery address only where it doesn't. Anything that falls back gets flagged in a review list rather than silently merged.
- Tariq Saleem NoneA review list I like. Who reads it?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's partly my question for you. In my experience it's someone who knows the accounts, not someone from IT. Often a key-account person or a credit controller.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThen it's going to be one of the credit control team leads, because they already chase the duplicates when invoices go to the wrong place. I'll ask. I won't commit anyone before I've spoken to them.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneNo, quite right. Let's call that owner to be confirmed, and I'll put it on the plan as yours to close.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFine. One thing I should say now so it doesn't surprise you. I won't change any mapping on the CRM side without telling my colleague who looks after the sales team's data. So if you suggest a rule that touches the CRM fields, it goes through her before it goes live.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's sensible, and it's how I'd want it. Everything we change in the brain is a view over your data, nothing is written back to the source unless you ask for it. So the only edits that touch the CRM are ones you choose to make.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. That's the bit people at the branches worry about, that someone's going to overwrite their notes.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneNot from our side. Right, access. Because the brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, the connectors read into tables there. I'll need a role and a warehouse that we can use, and I'd suggest a dedicated one so it's easy to see what the brain is costing you in compute.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can do that. Do you want it small to start?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneSmall is fine. The nightly refresh is the heavy part and it has to be finished by seven o'clock each business morning. If it's too slow we'll tell you and you can size it up.
- Tariq Saleem NoneSeven in the morning, right. That's what I really care about, to be honest. If a branch manager opens it at half past and the numbers are from last week, they stop trusting it and it doesn't come back.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneCompletely. And that's why I'd like you to have the load log view from day one, not just us. I'll show you where it lives, it's on the admin page. Do you want me to share my screen?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes please. Go ahead.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneOkay, can you see the admin page? This is your tenant. Left side, connectors. You've got the CRM there with the green tick from the test load, and the others are greyed out because they haven't been configured yet.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can see it. Go into the CRM one, would you? I want to see that objects tab again.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneHere. So accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities. Each one you can switch on and then choose the fields. You can see the records indexed count at the top, that's the number to watch. If it goes flat for several days and your sales team are still working, something's broken at the source.
- Tariq Saleem NoneFlat is the thing to look for. Got it. And that's per night, is it, the load history?
- Hamza Akhtar NonePer night, yes, with the start time, end time and what it loaded. Click on a night and you get the detail by object. That's your load log. Everyone asks for a spreadsheet of it and honestly this is better.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI won't argue. Fewer spreadsheets passed around by email is half of why I wanted this in the first place.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneHa. Yes, I got that from Lewis when we were scoping. Right, so let me stop sharing and we'll talk about people. Single sign-on first.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGo on. This is where I'll need someone from the identity side, I don't own that.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's the usual picture. For Enterprise you get single sign-on and automatic user provisioning and removal. What we need from your colleague in IT is the metadata for your identity provider, and agreement on which groups map to which roles in the brain. Admin, builder and reader are the three.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWho's an admin? Right now it's me, and that's one too few. If I'm off sick on a nightly failure there's nobody.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneI'd say two at least. You and one more, ideally someone who's comfortable in the CRM and not only in the data platform. Do you have a name in mind?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI think so, but I'd rather ask first. Let's say two admins by the end of next week.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood, I'll write it as a target and not a promise. And builders, those are the people who make dashboards. I'd start with a very small group, a couple from credit control and a couple from the key-account team.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat fits. I don't want fifty people building fifty versions of the same chart. Readers are the branch managers, then?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneReaders and askers. They can ask the brain questions in chat and search across everything, they just can't change the shared pages. You've got two hundred licensed users, so you've plenty of room, but I'd roll out in waves. A pilot group, then one region, then the rest.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWaves, yes. We've done that with the CRM before and it saved us. I'd say the pilot should be the branches nearest to Birmingham, so I can actually go and stand next to people.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneMakes complete sense. And if you do want us there for a training day at some point, that's an add-on we can talk through with Lewis, there's no need to decide now.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'll keep that in mind. Let's see how the pilot lands first.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneRight. Security review. Your security team will have questions, and as part of the implementation we support that, so anything they send, forward it to me and I'll help turn it round.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThey've got a questionnaire. It isn't started yet, but they do want to see how the data is held and where it sits. When I told them it's all in our own Snowflake account they were noticeably calmer.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's usually the reaction. The short answer is nothing leaves your account, and I can put that in writing in the format they like.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Then I'll forward the questionnaire once it lands. So, what do you need from me this week? I'd like to write it down properly.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThree things. One, the role and warehouse in Snowflake, with a service account for each connector, read-only on the source side. Two, confirmation of who reads the review list for account matching. Three, a name for the second admin.
- Tariq Saleem NoneRole and warehouse, review list owner, second admin. And you'll send me the service account list so I don't have to guess which permissions each one needs?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, I'll send a connector checklist today, it's one page per source. And a mapping sheet for the account matching with the rules we talked about, so your colleague can see it before anything changes.
- Tariq Saleem NonePerfect. I'd also like the first week of loads watched properly. If something fails at three in the morning, I'd like to know why before I'm asked.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneWe'll watch them on our side too for the first couple of weeks, and I'll message you if there's a miss, with the reason. No guessing at root causes, I'll check the log first and tell you what it shows.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's how I work too, so we'll get on. Last thing, can we agree a regular slot? Same time next Wednesday, perhaps, once I've done the Snowflake bits.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneNext Wednesday at the same time works for me. I'll send the invite and copy Amara so she's in the loop.
- Tariq Saleem NoneLovely. Thanks Hamza, this was genuinely useful. I came in a bit nervous about the matching and I'm leaving with a plan.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood, that's what it's for. Speak next week, Tariq. Enjoy the rain.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers, Tariq. Ha, I mean cheers, Hamza. Bye for now.
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