Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Qbr
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 2026-05-12 16:45
QBR on 12 May 2026 with the CFO present: sixty of two hundred seats in use, no tickets, loads on time. Malcolm Ridgway wants a return stated for the board and asked whether he pays for two hundred seats next year.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26QBR on 12 May 2026 with the CFO present: sixty of two hundred seats in use, no tickets, loads on time. Malcolm Ridgway wants a return stated for the board and asked whether he pays for two hundred seats next year.
What happened: Malcolm Ridgway, Chief Financial Officer, joined the QBR and pressed for a return rather than features. Daniel Okafor put active users at about sixty of two hundred, a small dip on the previous quarter.
Customer view: Deepa Chauhan listed three gains: one view of each trade account, credit control and sales in one meeting, and a monthly review that starts from the brain. Malcolm called them good but not numbers.
Commercial: Lewis Kerr confirmed £128k matches the order form and invoices, and said the contract was signed under the earlier price book. He would send the renewal figure in writing, ex VAT, and did not rule out fewer seats.
Watch: The renewal falls on 28 Feb 2027, with notice about 90 days ahead. The value note and usage breakdown need to land before that conversation.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Seat value at renewal
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- Lewis Kerr sends a short renewal note, ex VAT, and a full renewal paper once the usage breakdown is in.
- Daniel Okafor drafts the usage and one-page value note with Deepa after Tariq Saleem checks the user list against CRM roles.
- Deepa Chauhan brings credit control and regional directors to the account-data review to agree who should use the brain.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The CFO sees about sixty active users against two hundred licensed and may seek fewer seats at renewal.
- The renewal moves to the current price book, and the customer has asked for the figure in writing.
- The value case so far is qualitative, and the CFO says it is not numbers.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Bringing the regional directors and branch managers into the brain could justify the seats and add teams.
- A frank one-page value note with stated bases could build trust with finance before the renewal paper.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneHello, good afternoon all. Thank you for making the time, I know a quarter to five on a Tuesday is nobody's favourite slot. Let me just check who has joined. Deepa, Tariq, I can see you both. Malcolm, are you with us?
Malcolm Ridgway NoneI'm here. Audio all right?- Daniel Okafor NoneClear as anything. And Lewis is on from our side as well.
Lewis Kerr NoneAfternoon, everyone. Yes, can hear you all fine.- Malcolm Ridgway NoneWhat has changed since the last one?
- Daniel Okafor NoneFair question, Malcolm, and it's more or less the agenda. Usage has moved a little, the support queue is quiet, and the renewal is on the horizon, so I'd like to say a word about that. But Deepa, I think you wanted to open.
Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. The one thing I need from today is a clear view of how the brain is being used across credit control and the key-account managers, so I can take it to the account-data review. Everything else is a bonus.- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's helpful, thank you. Then let me frame it that way. Just to close the loop on last time, we said we'd look at who is asking questions and where the gaps are. Tariq, you normally start with the tickets, shall I let you?
Tariq Saleem NoneThanks. Open tickets: there are none. Nothing raised in the last month, nothing high priority, nothing waiting on either side. I checked the load log this morning as well, and the nightly loads have all completed before the start of the working day.- Daniel Okafor NoneGood, and thank you for checking the log yourself. Any connector you're nervous about? I always ask, because a quiet queue can hide a source that has stopped loading.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhich connector, is the first thing I'd ask myself, and no, none of them. Records are still coming in from the branch system and the CRM. The only thing on my list is account matching between the two, and that's a mapping question, not a fault. I'd tell Deepa before I changed anything.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich is how we like it. He's already told me what he's looking at, so nothing is going to move under the branches without warning.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's exactly the right way round. So on to usage. You have two hundred licensed users on the Enterprise contract. Over the last thirty days the average number of people actually active has been about sixty.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneSixty of two hundred.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes. Just under a third of the seats. And it's a small dip on the previous quarter, a few per cent, not a collapse.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneA few per cent of what? Give me the base.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf the active users, Malcolm. So the quarter before, the average was a few people higher than sixty. I'm being deliberately loose because I don't want to over-read a small movement, and I'd rather give you the proper breakdown in writing than guess in the call.
- Malcolm Ridgway NonePut it in writing, then. And the dip. What does that do to debtor days?
- Daniel Okafor NoneI can't draw that line for you from usage alone, and I wouldn't try. What I can say is that usage is the lagging measure. What your people tell us leads. Deepa, what are you hearing?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneMm. Honestly, a bit of both. Where credit control and the key-account managers sit down with the same account page, it works. They stop arguing about whose spreadsheet is right. Where the branch managers haven't got into the habit, it drifts.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd is it the same branches each time, do you think?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich account, which branch, is what I'd want to know before I say. I don't want this to turn into a conversation about who is not logging in. I'd rather see it by team and by region and then decide what to do about it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll build exactly that. Usage by team, by region, and who is asking the questions. One thing I'd flag is that when a small group asks a large share of the questions, that's a key-person risk, and I'd like to see how concentrated it is here before we say anything about it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can cross-check the user list against the CRM roles if that helps. Some of the two hundred will be people who were licensed at the start and never needed it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat would help a great deal, Tariq. It tells us whether the gap is people who haven't started or people who've stopped, and those are quite different problems.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneCan I come at this from the other end. I signed this in February two thousand and twenty-five. Twenty-eighth. I need to be able to say to the board what we get for it. Not features. A return.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. And I'd rather answer that than take you through a screen. Deepa, you've sponsored this since the start. In your own words, what has changed for the business?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThree things, really. One version of each trade account, so the branch, the key-account manager and credit control are looking at the same orders, disputes and invoices. Second, credit control and sales are in the same meeting, which they weren't before. Third, the monthly review now starts from the brain, not from whatever someone exported on Friday.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneThose are good. They're also not numbers.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNo, and I'm not going to pretend they are. Show me where that number comes from is my own rule. Which is why I think we need something written that links the use of the brain to the accounts on stop and the disputes that got resolved. Then you can judge it.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneWho writes it?
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll draft it with Deepa, one page, with the base figures stated and what we can and can't attribute to the brain. You'll see where the evidence runs out. I'd rather you trust a modest page than doubt a big one.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGood. And I want the cost of that set against it. And the cost of that is?
- Lewis Kerr NoneIf I can come in, Malcolm. Just to put a number on it. The contracted annual value is £127,500, and that's what the order form says and what has been invoiced. The two agree, and I can see nothing overdue on the account.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneThat's right. We pay on time. That isn't the question.
- Lewis Kerr NoneNo, understood. I'm only saying there's no billing noise on our side to get in the way of the value conversation.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich brings me to the renewal. The contract runs to 27 February 2027, with renewal on 28 February 2027. We'd normally give you formal notice about ninety days ahead, but I'd rather we start talking well before that so nothing arrives as a surprise.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneNinety days. Noted. What will the number be?
- Lewis Kerr NoneI don't quote from memory, Malcolm, and I'd rather not give you a figure I then have to correct. What I can say is that your contract was signed under the earlier price book, and at renewal the current price book applies. I'll send the figure over in writing, ex VAT, with the position stated.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneWhen?
- Lewis Kerr NoneI'll send that over today, a short note on the mechanics, and a full renewal paper once Daniel's usage breakdown is in, so the two sit together.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneTwo hundred seats, sixty in use. Do I pay for two hundred next year?
- Lewis Kerr NoneThat's the right question, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I'm not here to push you to more, the usage doesn't support it. What I'd want to do is look at the real pattern first, then say what the right size is, co-termed to your renewal. It may be that the answer is to bring more teams in rather than to change the number.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneOr fewer seats.
- Lewis Kerr NoneOr fewer, if that's what the evidence says. I'd rather have that conversation in the autumn than in the last month.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I add something, because I'd hate for this to sound like the seats are the problem. Some of the two hundred are the regional directors and branch managers we always meant to bring in over time. If I get them using it, that's the case for the seats. If I can't, Malcolm is entitled to ask.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneI am. Politely.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAlways politely. So let me propose something. I'll take the usage breakdown to the account-data review, and let's get credit control in the room, along with a couple of the regional directors, and agree who should be using this and for what.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd be glad to join that if it's useful. How is the team finding it, day to day, Tariq? You see the admin side more than anyone.
- Tariq Saleem NoneQuietly, to be honest. No tickets is partly because it's stable and partly because people have settled. The questions I get are mostly about matching and who can see what. If I had one request, it would be a clearer view of which accounts have no match between the branch system and the CRM, so I'm not hunting.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a reasonable ask and I'll look at what we can give you. I won't promise a date for it today, because it isn't mine to promise, but I'll come back to you by the end of next week with a straight answer.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's fine. Thanks.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneRight. Let me say back what I think I'm getting. Usage by team and region. A one-page value note with the bases stated. The renewal figure in writing, ex VAT. Anything else?
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's it, and I'd add Tariq's check of the user list against the CRM roles, because it feeds the first one. Lewis sends the renewal note today, I send the usage and value pages once Tariq's check is in, and Deepa brings credit control and the regions together.
- Lewis Kerr NoneAnd I'll keep the renewal paper separate from anything about adding seats, so nobody thinks the two are being bundled.
- Malcolm Ridgway NoneGood. I'll read the schedule when it comes.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd expect nothing less. Thank you all, genuinely, for the time and for being straight with us. Speak soon.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks, all. Speak soon.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers, everyone.
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