Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Qbr
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution: documents · 2025-11-06 13:15
First QBR with CFO Malcolm Ridgway present. He challenged paying for two hundred licences with just over sixty active, and asked whether the price will move. Deepa Chauhan gave credit control as the value story; Amara Obi promised terms in writing.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26First QBR with CFO Malcolm Ridgway present. He challenged paying for two hundred licences with just over sixty active, and asked whether the price will move. Deepa Chauhan gave credit control as the value story; Amara Obi promised terms in writing.
What happened: Amara reported just over sixty active users against two hundred licensed, up by about a third on last quarter. Malcolm asked why he pays for two hundred, and Deepa explained a staged rollout starting with head office, key accounts and credit control.
Customer view: Malcolm summed it up as working where switched on and not elsewhere. Deepa said arguments over whose version of an account is right have mostly gone from the monthly review.
Commercial: The order form and invoices match at £116k a year, the contract runs to 27 Feb 2026 and the renewal date is 28 Feb 2026. Malcolm asked if the price will move and Amara declined to guess, promising written terms.
Watch: Malcolm wants counted evidence, so credit control will keep a three-column tally for a month. He asked for the freshness commitment in writing.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
CFO value challenge
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Amara Obi to send the freshness and response-time wording, plus renewal dates and terms, by the end of next week.
- Deepa Chauhan to have credit control keep a tally of stops reviewed, stops lifted and disputes found before the call, for a month.
- Amara Obi to find where SSO stands with IT, send a one-page note and send QBR invite options.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The CFO questions paying for two hundred licences when just over sixty users are active.
- Whether the price will move at renewal is unanswered, and Malcolm said it was not the answer he wanted.
- Branch-side adoption is thin and SSO status across the wider group is not yet known.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A before-and-after value case from credit control's tally can go to the board ahead of the renewal conversation.
- The branch wave, starting with regional directors and high-dispute branches, would use more of the Enterprise seats.
- Enterprise SSO and SCIM can ease the branch rollout once its status is confirmed.
Transcript
Amara Obi NoneHello, can you hear me all right? I've got you on screen but I'm not sure my sound is behaving.
Deepa Chauhan NoneLoud and clear. Good afternoon, Amara.- Amara Obi NoneGood afternoon, Deepa. Is Malcolm joining us?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneHe is, he's just finishing something with the auditors' query. He said five minutes, which in finance means ten. Shall we start and he'll drop in?
- Amara Obi NoneYes, let's do that. Before we get into it, I should introduce myself properly, because we've only swapped a couple of emails. I'm Amara, I'm the Customer Success Manager for Merriott Lyle, and I picked the account up last month. So I'm new to you, and you've had a few different faces on our side. I'd rather say that straight out than pretend I've been here all along.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAppreciated. It has been a bit of a revolving door, if I'm honest, but Lewis has been steady on the commercial side, so we haven't felt lost.
- Amara Obi NoneGood, Lewis is still your account owner and I'll keep him close on anything contractual. Right. The one thing I want from today is to hear what good looks like for you this quarter, and then I'll show you what the numbers say. Does that work?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt does. And the one thing I need from this call is a way to show Malcolm that this is earning its place, because he's going to ask. He always asks.
- Amara Obi NoneFair enough. Then I'll make sure that's what we finish on.
Malcolm Ridgway NoneAfternoon both. Sorry about that. What's changed since the last one?- Deepa Chauhan NoneHello Malcolm. Amara's just introducing herself, she's the new CSM. We've only just started.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneRight. Welcome, Amara. Carry on, I'll catch up.
- Amara Obi NoneThank you, Malcolm. So, Malcolm, to answer your question directly, the biggest change is usage. Let me share the chart. Can you see it?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, I can see it.
- Amara Obi NoneHere's what the numbers say. Over the last thirty days the average number of active users is just over sixty. Last quarter it was well below that. So that's up by about a third quarter on quarter, and the line is still going the right way, it's not a spike.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneSixty out of how many?
- Amara Obi NoneOut of two hundred licensed users. So you've got a lot of headroom, which is good news and a question at the same time.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneA third of the licences in use. Why am I paying for two hundred?
- Amara Obi NoneThat's a fair challenge, and I'd rather you asked it. You bought Enterprise so that branch teams, key-account managers and credit control could all work from the same view of a trade account. The licences are there for the full rollout. Adoption is on its way there, but it isn't there yet, and that's the bit I'd like us to work on together.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIf I can come in. The rollout has been deliberately staged. We started with head office, key accounts and credit control, because that's where the disputes and the stop decisions live. The branch managers are the next wave. Some of the growth you're seeing is credit control starting to use it every day.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneIs that right? Credit control are in there daily?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneMost of the team, yes. Which is the part I'd like you to hear properly, because it's what changed.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGo on.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneBefore, when someone in credit control was deciding whether to put an account on stop, they looked at the ledger. They had the invoices and the ageing. They didn't see that the branch had an open dispute on a delivery, or that the buyer had rung the key-account manager twice last week. So we'd stop an account that was actually about to pay, or we'd leave one running that was about to go bad.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneI know the stories. What does that do to debtor days?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'm not going to give you a number I can't stand behind. What I can tell you is that in the monthly account-data review, the argument about whose version of the account is right has mostly gone. We start from one record. Show me where that number comes from, and the answer is on the screen, with the call and the dispute next to it.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneMostly gone. Not entirely.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNot entirely. A couple of regions still bring spreadsheets. I'm working on them.
- Amara Obi NoneCan I add something there, because it links to the usage chart. Who else should have access? When I look at who's actually logging in, it's concentrated. Head office and credit control are strong. The branch side is thin. If the regional directors are still bringing spreadsheets, I'd guess it's partly because their branch managers aren't in yet.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's exactly it. Which account, which branch, that's the question they ask, and they can't ask it of the brain if they haven't got a login.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneSo the thing I've paid for is working where we've switched it on, and not switched on elsewhere.
- Amara Obi NoneYes. That's a fair summary, and I'd rather give you that than a rosier one.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGood. Because I'll tell you what I tell every supplier, I want the question I asked answered. Next. Support. Any trouble?
- Amara Obi NoneQuiet, in a healthy way. Four tickets in the last thirty days, none of them high priority. Let me read you the mix. Mostly how-to questions from new users, and one about a source that needed a re-check after a change on your side. All handled within the Enterprise response times, and nothing is sitting open.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneAnd the nightly refresh. Is the data fresh when credit control come in at the start of the day?
- Amara Obi NoneIt's committed to be complete by seven in the morning your time on business days, and on Enterprise that's something you're credited for if it's missed. I have no breaches on the account in this period. If your team ever sees yesterday's data at nine, I want to hear it from you first, not find it on a chart.
- Malcolm Ridgway NonePut that in writing, the freshness commitment, so I can point to it.
- Amara Obi NoneI'll pull the wording straight from your order form and send it with the summary. I'd rather quote the signed document than my memory of it.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneSensible.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I raise the single sign-on point while we're on contract things? A few of the branch managers are going to find another password a hurdle.
- Amara Obi NoneRight, so Enterprise includes SSO and SCIM, so people can come in with their normal company login and be added and removed automatically as they join and leave. If it isn't switched on for the wider group yet, that's an obvious first step before the branch wave. I'll find out where it stands with your IT team rather than guess, and come back to you.
- Deepa Chauhan NonePlease do. Our IT lead will want a short note on what we need to do at our end, in plain words.
- Amara Obi NoneDone. Plain words, one page.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneLet me ask the cost question, then. And the cost of that is?
- Amara Obi NoneSo the contract is one hundred and sixteen thousand five hundred pounds a year, that's £116,500, on the order form, and that is what's been invoiced. The two match. There are no overdue invoices on the account, so from our side it's clean.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneIt matches what I've paid. Good. And what happens in February?
- Amara Obi NoneYour contract runs to 27 Feb 2026 and the renewal date is 28 Feb 2026. I'm the one who owns the renewal conversation, so you'll get the formal notice from me ahead of time, ninety days before the end, and I'd like us to have been through a proper value discussion well before that, not just a letter.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneWill the price move?
- Amara Obi NoneI don't want to guess at that on a call. I'll confirm the renewal terms in writing, from the order form, so you have the facts rather than my recollection. Lewis will be in that note as well, because commercial terms are his.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGood answer. Not the one I wanted, but a good one.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneMalcolm, can I say something on the value side, because I think what Amara's chart doesn't show is the thing credit control told me last week.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGo on.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOne of the team said she used to spend the first hour of Monday pulling an account together from three places before she could ring the customer. Now she asks the brain, reads the summary, and rings. She said it out loud in the review. That's not a number, I know, but that's an hour of a credit controller's week, across the whole team.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneAn hour a week per head is a number, you just haven't counted it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThen let's count it.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's useful to me too. If we can get a before and after on that, plus the stop decisions that were reversed after a dispute showed up, that's a value case you can take to the board rather than a usage chart. I can help structure it, but the facts have to come from your team.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneI'd want the base. Percentages without the base are decoration.
- Amara Obi NoneAgreed. Counts and the period they cover, no bare percentages.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI can get credit control to keep a simple tally for the next month. Stops reviewed, stops lifted, disputes found before the call. Three columns.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneThree columns I can live with.
- Amara Obi NoneBrilliant. Let me capture where we've landed so nobody leaves with a different version. One, usage is up by about a third on last quarter, with just over sixty active users against two hundred licensed, and the growth is mostly head office and credit control.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes.
- Amara Obi NoneTwo, the branch wave is the next step, and for that I'll check where single sign-on stands and send your IT lead a short note. Three, credit control keeps a three-column tally for a month, so we can put a value case in front of you before the renewal conversation. Four, I'll send the freshness and response-time wording from the order form, plus the renewal dates and terms in writing.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneWhen?
- Amara Obi NoneBy the end of next week.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneFine. I'll hold you to it, nicely.
- Amara Obi NonePlease do. One last thing, Deepa, who else should have access? If you can send me a list of the branch managers and regional directors you want in first, I can work out the order with your IT lead so it isn't a big bang.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'll start with the regional directors and the branches that have the most disputes. Let's get credit control in the room with them, so they see it together rather than me demonstrating it on my own.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's the best way. I'll join if it helps. And let's get the next QBR in the diary now, so it doesn't drift. I'll send an invite with a couple of options.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneNot a features meeting, though. I'd want the tally and the renewal terms.
- Amara Obi NoneUnderstood. Tally, terms and usage, nothing more.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks, Amara. This was more useful than I expected, and I say that kindly.
- Amara Obi NoneI'll take it. Thank you both. Speak soon.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneThank you. Goodbye.
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