Delancey Haig / BB-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Delancey Haig: documents · 2024-04-15 14:15
On the 15 Apr 2024 discovery call, Delancey Haig described directors walking into client reviews blind and slow contractor invoice disputes. The CFO accepts the problem but not the answer, and wants payback within the year.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26On the 15 Apr 2024 discovery call, Delancey Haig described directors walking into client reviews blind and slow contractor invoice disputes. The CFO accepts the problem but not the answer, and wants payback within the year.
What happened: Saskia Mendes opened with a director who was caught out by a client complaint she had not seen. Priya Raman explained the brain and scoped a Growth deal with a fixed-fee implementation.
Customer view: Rupert Lasker's test is that it pays for itself within the year and does not add suppliers. He asked why the data team could not build a view in Snowflake.
Commercial: The deal figure is £54k, which Priya stressed is the whole deal including implementation, not the annual subscription. Rupert asked about discounts and said he would not react to a number on a first call.
Watch: Saskia agreed to count open disputes and surprised reviews as a baseline. The evidence does not show the demo or the outcome, and the decision target was Wednesday 19 June 2024.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Discovery, Growth tier scoping
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Priya Raman to send a recap splitting the £53,800 deal into one-off and recurring lines.
- Saskia Mendes to send the systems to connect first, a named data contact and the baseline counts.
- Priya Raman to set up the demo on Delancey Haig's own data ahead of Wednesday 19 June 2024.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The CFO has not agreed the brain is the answer and may favour a build by the in-house data team on Snowflake.
- The CFO requires payback within the year and fewer suppliers, so the value case must be shown in numbers.
- No named data owner exists yet to approve access, which could slow a Growth implementation.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A Growth subscription for the client directors, who all ask about the same clients across several systems.
- A baseline count of open disputes and surprised reviews gives a measurable value case.
Transcript
Priya Raman NoneHello, hello. Can you hear me all right? I've got the little green bar moving on my side.
Saskia Mendes NoneLoud and clear. Afternoon, Priya. Rupert's just dialling in, he's in the other room finishing something.- Priya Raman NoneNo problem at all, we'll give him a minute. How's your Monday been?
- Saskia Mendes NoneHonestly, mad. Okay, so I have to tell you what happened this morning, because it's basically why I wanted this call. One of our client-account directors went into a review with a client first thing, and she had no idea that the client had raised a complaint with us about a contractor invoice the week before. Nobody had told her. The complaint was sitting in the helpdesk, the invoice was in the accounting system, and she's looking at the CRM thinking everything's lovely.
- Priya Raman NoneOh no. And the client brought it up themselves?
- Saskia Mendes NoneWithin about five minutes. She was gracious about it, but the directors need this sort of thing in front of them before they walk in, not after.
Rupert Lasker NoneHello, sorry, I'm here. Apologies. Can everyone hear me? Good. Before we start, how long is this going to take? I've got a hard stop later.- Priya Raman NoneRupert, hi, lovely to have you. We've got the full forty-three minutes booked, but I'll keep it tight and we can finish early if we get what we need. Is that fair?
- Rupert Lasker NoneThat's fair. Go on.
- Priya Raman NoneSo, quick recap of where we are, just so we're all level. Saskia and I spoke a couple of weeks ago, and that's what got us here. This is the discovery call, so my aim today is to understand how you work now, where it hurts, and whether the brain is even the right answer. Then the next step would be a demo on your own data. And the date we've pencilled in as a target for a decision is Wednesday 19 June 2024, but that's only a target, to keep momentum. Nobody's signing anything today.
- Rupert Lasker NoneGood. Because I never commit at a first meeting. Remind me what the brain actually is, in plain words.
- Priya Raman NonePlain words. It's one layer that sits over your CRM, your calls, your emails, your tickets, your finance data, and you ask it questions in ordinary English. It's built and runs inside your own Snowflake account, so your data doesn't leave your walls. Instead of someone opening five systems and stitching it together by hand, they ask once.
- Rupert Lasker NoneDo we have a Snowflake account?
- Saskia Mendes NoneWe do. The data team set it up last year, it's mostly reporting at the moment.
- Rupert Lasker NoneMostly reporting that I don't see very often.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhich is partly the point, Rupert.
- Priya Raman NoneHa, well, that's a good place to start actually. Saskia, can you walk me through what a director does today before a client review? Step by step, as if I'd never seen your business.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight. So we place technology and finance people, contract and permanent. A director looks after a handful of clients. Before a review she wants to know what vacancies the client has open, who we've placed there, what's been invoiced, what's been paid or disputed, and whether anyone has complained. That's four or five places. Vacancies and placements are in the CRM. Contractor timesheets and invoices are in the accounting system. Complaints come through the helpdesk, and some come by email straight to the director, which nobody else ever sees.
- Priya Raman NoneAnd how long does that take her? Roughly.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIf she does it properly, most of a morning. In practice they don't do it properly. They ask someone in my team to pull it together, or they wing it. Which is how we got this morning.
- Rupert Lasker NoneWhat did that morning cost us? Do we know?
- Saskia Mendes NoneNot in pounds, no. The client's still with us. But what did the client actually say? She said, and I'm quoting the director, she said it felt like we didn't talk to ourselves.
- Rupert Lasker NoneHm. That's a nice line. It's not a number, though.
- Priya Raman NoneNo, fair, and we'll get to numbers. Can I stay on the contractor invoices for a second, because you mentioned disputes? What's the typical shape of one?
- Saskia Mendes NoneUsually it's timesheet versus invoice. The contractor says they worked a certain number of days, the client's approved something slightly different, and we've invoiced a third thing. By the time it reaches me it's been going round for three weeks and everybody's cross.
- Priya Raman NoneAnd where would you want to catch that? Early, presumably.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAs early as possible. The moment an invoice and a timesheet disagree, I want a flag. And ideally the director for that client sees it the same day.
- Priya Raman NoneOkay. That's very clear, thank you. Rupert, can I ask what your side of that looks like?
- Rupert Lasker NoneMy side is simpler. Margins are thin in this business. Every disputed invoice that drags on is cash I'm waiting for, and every hour somebody spends reconciling is an hour not spent placing people. I look at cost per placement. If a tool doesn't move that, or at least pay for itself inside a year, I'm not interested.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's helpful, and I'd rather you said it now than at proposal stage. So the test is: pays for itself within the year.
- Rupert Lasker NoneWithin the year. And fewer suppliers, ideally. I've got too many logins to pay for as it is. So I'll ask the awkward one: what are we actually using? Of everything we already own, what's switched on and what's shelfware?
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's partly mine to answer, and honestly, the CRM is used well by recruiters and badly by everyone else. The helpdesk is used by my team and almost nobody senior opens it. The accounting system is finance only.
- Rupert Lasker NoneSo the information exists. It's just in the wrong hands.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIn the right hands, one at a time. Nobody has it together.
- Rupert Lasker NoneCan we do this ourselves? We have a data team, we have Snowflake. Why not have them build a view?
- Priya Raman NoneYou absolutely could, and I'd be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise. Plenty of firms start there. What I'd say is, ask your data team two things. How long does it take them to keep a connection to each system working when one of those systems changes? And who's going to maintain the part where a director types a question and gets an answer, not a dashboard? That second bit is where homemade builds tend to stall.
- Rupert Lasker NoneThey'd say it's a quarter's work.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThey'd say a quarter and it'd be two. They said a quarter for the reporting.
- Rupert Lasker NoneMm. Fair point.
- Priya Raman NoneI'm not saying don't. Let's get a demo in front of you on your own data, and then you've got something real to put next to a quarter of your team's time.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhich is what I'd like, to be honest. Can I describe what I'd want it to do? Not the technology, just the Monday morning.
- Priya Raman NonePlease, do.
- Saskia Mendes NoneA director opens it and says, give me everything on this client. Open vacancies, who we've placed, what's outstanding, any complaint in the last quarter, and anything that looks off. One page. If she can ask a follow-up in her own words, even better. And I want my team to stop being the human glue.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's exactly the use we see for Growth, where several teams, in your case the directors, are all asking about the same clients. Which brings me onto the commercial side, if that's all right, Rupert, since you'll want it early.
- Rupert Lasker NonePlease. Remind me of the annual cost, and keep it honest.
- Priya Raman NoneHonest, yes. So at this stage the shape is Growth, with the implementation done as a fixed fee, not time and materials. The figure on the deal at the moment is £53,800. I want to be careful what that is: that's the whole deal value, implementation included. It isn't the annual subscription on its own, and I'd rather give you the split in writing than guess it on a call.
- Rupert Lasker NoneSo fifty-three eight all-in, and then what recurs after that?
- Priya Raman NoneThe subscription recurs, annually, in advance. I'll send you the breakdown so the one-off and the recurring are separate lines. You'll want to see exactly that.
- Rupert Lasker NoneI will. And discounts? Don't tell me you can't discuss them.
- Priya Raman NoneThere's some room on a first term, and I'd be happy to make this easy. But I'd only put it in writing with a deadline attached, so let's see how the demo lands first.
- Rupert Lasker NoneOf course you would. Right. I'm not going to react to a number on a first call. How long to get it live, once decided?
- Priya Raman NoneThe best part of two months for a Growth implementation, connector by connector. The CRM and the accounting system would be first, then the helpdesk and the call recorder, with your data team involved at the start so the Snowflake side is clean.
- Saskia Mendes NoneMy worry there is who on our side owns it. I'd say me for the business side, but I'd need someone from data who can say yes to access.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's the right worry. In the demo prep I'll ask for a named person from data. And our CSM, Daniel Okafor, would pick up onboarding with you, so you wouldn't be left on your own with it.
- Rupert Lasker NoneAnd what do I see at the end of year one that tells me it earned its keep? Not a dashboard. A result.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI'd say disputes caught earlier and directors not blindsided. We could count both. Disputes open more than a few weeks, and reviews where something surprised the director.
- Rupert Lasker NoneCount them now, then. Before it starts. Otherwise we can't tell later.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. Yes, I can do that. Roughly, from the helpdesk and from finance.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's honestly the best thing anyone's said on this call, a baseline before we start. It also makes the value case for you in plain numbers, not mine.
- Rupert Lasker NoneHm. Well. Don't get excited.
- Priya Raman NoneNever. Okay, before we wrap, let me say back what I've heard, and shout if I've got it wrong. The pain is that a director can't see a client whole before a review: vacancies and placements in one place, invoices in another, complaints in a third. Contractor invoice disputes run too long because nobody spots the mismatch early. Rupert's test is that it pays for itself within the year and doesn't add supplier clutter, and you'd rather it was simple. Right?
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's it. Can we make it simpler? Which is basically my whole job.
- Rupert Lasker NoneOne correction. I haven't agreed it's the answer. I've agreed the problem is real.
- Priya Raman NoneUnderstood, and noted that way. So next steps. I'll send a short recap today with the deal split into one-off and recurring lines. Saskia, could you send me which systems you'd want connected first, and a name from your data team? Then I'll set up the demo on your own data, ideally in the next couple of weeks, which keeps us comfortably ahead of Wednesday 19 June 2024.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI'll send the list tomorrow. And the baseline counts as soon as I can get them out of the helpdesk.
- Rupert Lasker NoneFine. Send me the figures. I'll look at them properly then.
- Priya Raman NoneWill do. Thanks both, genuinely. Speak soon.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThanks, Priya. Bye, Rupert.
- Rupert Lasker NoneBye.
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