What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Demo on Delancey Haig's own data. Saskia Mendes and Jess Ferrand found it useful, but Saskia needs a money-and-time case for sign-off. £53,800 quoted as Growth deal value, signature target 19 Jun 2024.
What happened: Hannah Lowe ran the demo on Delancey Haig's own extracts. Jess Ferrand tested it on a technology client and Saskia Mendes saw the director view.
Customer view: Saskia wants directors to catch contractor invoice disputes earlier. Jess wants one place to see what a client has said, been billed and complained about.
Commercial: Priya Raman quoted £53,800 for Growth, implementation included, as deal value and not an annual figure. Saskia must justify it to the sign-off group in money and time.
Watch: A first-term discount was left open, with no written offer yet. Saskia wants to meet Daniel Okafor before signing and needs security answers for IT.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Priya Raman to send the proposal splitting implementation from subscription, with the Growth service levels, by the end of that week.
- Hannah Lowe to send the architecture diagram, connector plan and written answer on permissions.
- Priya Raman to arrange an intro with Daniel Okafor before the proposal discussion.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Sign-off sits with people Saskia has yet to brief, and they want the case in money and time, not features.
- The brain cannot see what is not in a connected source, such as the client change Jess only heard about on a call.
- Directors may not adopt it unless it is quicker than what they do now.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Jess is the heaviest user in waiting and could pull other directors in.
- Growth has room beyond the first three connectors, with email and the call recorder to follow.
- Saskia accepted a second admin, and extra users or connectors are available as add-ons later.
Transcript
- Priya Raman NoneMorning all, can you hear me alright? I'm on the laptop speakers, so shout if it sounds tinny.
- Hannah Lowe NoneClear here. Morning, Priya. Morning, Saskia.
- Saskia Mendes NoneMorning! Right, I've got a story before we start, because it's relevant. A client rang me on Friday about a contractor invoice, and it turned out the account director had no idea there was a dispute open. It had been sitting there for two weeks. So, you know, the directors need this.
- Priya Raman NoneHa, well, that's the perfect way in. Let me do a quick recap so we're all on the same page. Saskia and I spoke a few weeks back, we agreed the shape of what you're after, and today is the demo on your own data. Hannah's driving. The plan is that by the end of the hour you can tell us whether it does what the directors need, and then, if we can get this over the line by 19 June 2024, we keep momentum and you're live in good time. Happy to make this easy.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. And Jess is joining us, she's the one who'll actually live in it.
- Jess Ferrand NoneSorry, sorry, I'm here. Just come out of another meeting. I've got a review with one of my technology clients this afternoon, so honestly I'm looking at this through that lens. Is that okay?
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's exactly the lens I'd want. Before I share anything, what do you most need to know by the end of this? Because I can go wide or I can go deep, and I'd rather go where it's useful.
- Jess Ferrand NoneWhether I can walk into a review and know what the client has said, what they've been billed and what they've complained about. Without opening five tabs.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd for me, the same thing but across all the directors. Plus catching the contractor invoice disputes early. That's the thing that keeps biting us.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight. Then that's the order I'll go in. One thing to say first, so it doesn't surprise anyone later: the brain is built and runs inside your own Snowflake account. So what you're about to see is your data, sitting where your data already sits, not a copy that we hold somewhere else.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat'll matter to our IT people. Keep saying that.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI'll put it in writing as well. Okay, sharing now. Can you see a page with a search box?
- Jess Ferrand NoneYep. Bit small. Oh, that's better.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo, the short answer to how this works is that it reads from the systems you've connected, your CRM, your accounting system, the helpdesk where complaints land, and it indexes them into one layer you can ask questions of. The longer answer is that each source has its own connector, and each connector refreshes overnight, so in the morning you're looking at yesterday's picture.
- Jess Ferrand NoneIs this up to date, though? That's my first question, always. I've been burnt before by tools that say they're live and then it's last week's numbers.
- Hannah Lowe NoneFair, and I'll be precise about it. It's a nightly refresh, not real time. There's a timestamp on every source, so you can see when it last loaded. I'll show you where.
- Hannah Lowe NoneHere. See the small label under each record? That's the last refresh for that source. If a connector fails, that label stops moving, and that's how you'd spot it.
- Jess Ferrand NoneOkay. I like that it tells me. Most things just look confident.
- Priya Raman NoneHannah, can I jump in? Just to say, this is the sample environment we loaded from the extracts Saskia's team sent over, so it's your real shapes, vacancies, placements, invoices, complaints.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, and I'll admit I was nervous about the extract. It was a bit scruffy.
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt was scruffy, honestly, but that's useful. It means what you see is realistic. We had to match a couple of client names that were spelled two different ways, and I'll show you where that bit up.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCan you just pull up the client I mentioned? The technology one, the one I'm meeting this afternoon.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGo on, tell me how you'd ask for it, and I'll type it as you say it.
- Jess Ferrand NoneJust, what's going on with them. Open vacancies, recent placements, anything outstanding on invoices, any complaints.
- Hannah Lowe NoneOkay, it's thinking. Give it a few seconds. There. So, you get a summary at the top, and underneath it shows its sources, so every line points back to a record.
- Jess Ferrand NoneOh, that's, yeah. That's what I'd normally spend twenty minutes assembling. It's got the open vacancies and the placements from last quarter. Wait, scroll down. Is that an invoice query?
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt is. A contractor invoice that the client has questioned. It's picked up the note from the helpdesk and linked it to the invoice in the accounting system, which is the join you've been doing by hand.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's the one. That is literally the Friday story. What did the client actually say, though? Does it show their words?
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt does. If I open the source, you get the original message. So the summary gives you the gist and the record gives you the exact wording, and you can check the one against the other.
- Jess Ferrand NoneI used it this morning, well, I used the thing you gave us access to, and it was quicker than what I do now. I mean it. But I want to know what it gets wrong.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood, because I'd rather tell you. It's only as good as the sources. If someone logs a complaint in a free-text note and never tags the client, the brain may not link it. We saw that with a couple of your records. It surfaced them as unmatched, and I'd suggest a short tidy-up on your side early on.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhich is fine. Better to see it than not.
- Priya Raman NoneAnd we'd build that clean-up into the first weeks, so it's not left with you.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay. Can we see the director view? Not one client, the whole list.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes. This is the dashboards builder, which comes with the Growth tier. I'll build a quick one live so you see how much effort it takes.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo I'm picking the client list, then adding open invoice disputes and complaints in the last month. Now I'll group by account director. Give it a moment.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight, so that's every director with their clients and what's open. Can we make it simpler, though? Could it just show me the ones with something wrong?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes, add a filter. Open disputes greater than zero, and it drops the rest. There.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOh. That's a short list. That's good, a short list is good. That's what I'd send round on a Monday.
- Jess Ferrand NoneI'd want mine on my phone, honestly. Quick messages, quick look, then into the meeting.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThe pages work in a browser on a phone, and you can ask in plain English from there. I won't oversell it, it's a browser, not a dedicated app. But for a quick look before a review it holds up.
- Jess Ferrand NoneFine by me. As long as it doesn't take me through a manual.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThere's no manual you need to read. You ask it things. The training session is optional, and I'll put in the plan that nobody has to wait for it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay, a harder one. Say a placement was made and the contractor timesheet is late and the client's holding payment. Can it tell me that's about to become a dispute?
- Hannah Lowe NoneTo be precise, it won't predict a dispute for you. What it can do is show you the combination: placement live, timesheet outstanding, invoice unpaid past terms, and a complaint or a query on the same client. You decide it's a dispute. But you see the pattern a week earlier than you do now.
- Saskia Mendes NoneA week earlier is worth it. Honestly, a week earlier is the whole thing.
- Priya Raman NoneCan I just flag, Saskia, that's the kind of use I'd want us to capture in the business case. So when it goes upstairs you can say what it earns its keep on.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, I'll need that. I'll have to take this to the people who sign it off, and they'll want it in terms of money and time. Not features.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCan I try something? Let me ask it for a client I know has had a bad quarter. I know what the answer should be, so I can test it.
- Hannah Lowe NonePlease do. That's the best test. Type it, I'll stay out of your way.
- Jess Ferrand NoneOkay. It said they've had two complaints and a late payment, which is right. But it hasn't mentioned that they cut a requirement last month. I know that because the client asked me straight out about it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight, and that's a good catch. Where did you hear about it?
- Jess Ferrand NoneOn a call. It's not written down anywhere really, I think I put it in an email.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThen the answer is it can't know what isn't in a connected source. If that email is in a mailbox we connect, it would find it. If it's only in your head, it won't. That's one reason the email connector is worth having alongside the CRM.
- Jess Ferrand NoneHm. Fair. That's honest, at least.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIt's also a nudge for the directors to log things. Which they should be doing anyway.
- Priya Raman NoneSorry, I'll just add, that's an adoption point and your customer success manager would help with that once you're live.
- Hannah Lowe NoneLet me show you the admin side next, because someone on your side will own it. This is where you see connectors, what's configured, whether each one loaded, and how many records came in.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd that would be me, or someone in my team. We'd need a named admin. Can there be two?
- Hannah Lowe NoneTwo is sensible, and I'd push for it. If you have one admin and they go on holiday or leave, you've got a blind spot. Two means the connectors don't go quiet unnoticed.
- Saskia Mendes NoneNoted. Never lets a question go more than a day, so I'd be the one. But yes, a second.
- Jess Ferrand NoneHow many connectors would we start with? Because I don't want to wait for everything before I can use it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneStart with the ones that answer your first question. The CRM, the accounting system and the helpdesk. That gets you the client picture. Email and the call recorder can follow. Growth has room for more than that, so you're not squeezed.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay. That sounds like a phased thing. Which suits us, honestly.
- Priya Raman NoneYes, and I'd keep the first phase tight so there's a visible win early, to keep momentum.
- Hannah Lowe NoneLet me show one more thing, search across everything. If I type a contractor's name, it shows every mention. Placements, invoices, a note, an email.
- Jess Ferrand NoneThat's handy. That's actually the thing I'd use day to day. Search then click.
- Saskia Mendes NoneCan I ask about permissions? Not every director should see every client. Some of the finance placements are sensitive.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes. The short answer is you can restrict what people see. The longer answer is that it follows access in the underlying setup, so it's worth us sitting down with whoever looks after access on your side and mapping it. I won't promise anything on a call that I'd want to check. I'll put it in writing.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. I'd rather have the careful answer.
- Jess Ferrand NoneHannah, can you do the invoice thing again, but for contractors rather than clients? Which contractors are being queried?
- Hannah Lowe NoneSure. Let me ask it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThere we go. It's grouped by client and then the contractor. Three of these look like the same underlying issue. A rate that was changed after the placement started.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOh, I know that one. That's the thing we keep fixing one by one. So if I could see the pattern, I could fix it once.
- Hannah Lowe NoneExactly. That's the sort of question that's hard when the facts live in three places.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's a good moment to talk through commercials, if everyone's happy. Then we can come back to questions.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGo on.
- Priya Raman NoneSo we're looking at the Growth tier, because you've several teams and the dashboards builder and the quarterly reviews are what you'd want. The total on the table is £53,800, and that's all in, implementation included. It's the deal value, so not an annual subscription figure on its own. I'll split it out properly in the proposal so your finance team can see the one-off and the recurring part separately.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay. That's clearer than I expected. So the fifty-three eight isn't what we pay every year.
- Priya Raman NoneCorrect. Once the implementation's done, the subscription carries on at the recurring part. I'll show that in black and white.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. Because the first thing they'll ask me is what it costs next year.
- Jess Ferrand NoneIs there a discount? I'm not saying we need one, I'm just curious.
- Priya Raman NoneThere's some room on the first term, but I'd only put it in writing with a date attached, so it's a proper offer rather than a vague one. Let's see how the rest of today goes and I'll come back with it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneFine. That's fair.
- Hannah Lowe NoneCan I add something on the implementation side, since that's the part that worries people? We'd configure the connectors, check the data against what you know to be true, and train the people who'll use it. You'd have a named person from our side through it.
- Saskia Mendes NoneIs that Daniel? I think Priya mentioned him.
- Priya Raman NoneDaniel Okafor, yes, he's the customer success manager. He'd be with you once it's signed and through the quarterly reviews.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. I'd like to meet him before we sign, if that's possible.
- Priya Raman NoneEasily done. I'll set up a short intro.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCan I go back to freshness for a second? You said it refreshes overnight. What time is it done by, roughly? Because if I'm in at half seven I want it to be ready.
- Hannah Lowe NoneTo be precise, it's designed to be complete by 07:00 on business days. So by half seven it should be there. If it's not, the refresh label will show it and that's something you raise with us.
- Jess Ferrand NoneOkay. Good. Seven. I can work with seven.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd if it's late, what happens? Who do I ring?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYou raise a ticket, and there's a response time depending on tier. I'll put the exact service levels for Growth in the proposal pack so you're not relying on my memory.
- Saskia Mendes NonePerfect. Okay, I think I'm largely there on the product. I'm more worried about whether my team will actually use it.
- Jess Ferrand NoneThey will if it's quicker than what they do now. That's all it takes. I'll use it. The others will follow me if I keep saying it's quicker.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhich is why you're the one I wanted on the call. Heaviest user in waiting.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's a useful point for the rollout. Start with Jess and a couple of other directors, let them find what's missing, and then widen. Adoption sticks when people see a colleague use it in a real review.
- Priya Raman NoneAnd that dovetails with the timeline. If we agree the proposal in the next few weeks, we're comfortably inside the date.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhat's the date again?
- Priya Raman NoneWe've pencilled 19 Jun 2024 as the target to have it signed. It's a target, not a deadline from our side, but it's a sensible one.
- Saskia Mendes NoneOkay. That gives me time to get the sign-off. I'll need the security answers for IT as well.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSend me the questionnaire, or whatever they want filled in, and I'll answer it properly. If there's anything I'm not certain of, I'll check it rather than guess. I'd rather it be right first time.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThat's all I ask. I'll ask them today.
- Jess Ferrand NoneOne more demo thing, if there's time. Can it do a timeline for a client? Like, a sequence of what happened and when?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes. I'll ask for it as a timeline, and you can see it in date order.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo that's the last six months. Placement, invoice, query, resolution, the lot. You could read that out in a review.
- Jess Ferrand NoneThat's, yeah, that's exactly what I'd want. I'd take a screenshot of that. Though I'd want to check the first entry, it's dated a bit early.
- Hannah Lowe NoneOpen the source and check. If the record date is wrong, it's wrong at source, and that's worth knowing.
- Jess Ferrand NoneAh, it was a data entry thing. Fine. Source is wrong, brain is right to its source.
- Saskia Mendes NoneWhich is the correct behaviour, honestly. I'd be more worried if it hid it.
- Priya Raman NoneRight. Shall we use the last bit for questions, and then agree who sends what?
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes. My questions are mostly commercial and process now. How long from signature to something Jess can actually use?
- Hannah Lowe NoneA matter of weeks, not months. The first connectors come up fast, and the longer part is the checking, because I want you to trust it. I'll give a proper plan with dates in the proposal.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd if we want more users later?
- Priya Raman NoneThere are add-ons for extra users and extra connectors, and an upgrade path if you outgrow the tier. No need to decide now. I'd rather you start in the right place.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. I don't want to buy room I don't need.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCan I ask a last cheeky one? Can it write the review brief for me? Just a first draft I can edit.
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt can draft a summary from the facts it holds. Read it before you use it, same as you would with a junior's note. But as a starting point it saves you the assembly.
- Jess Ferrand NoneThat's all I need. I don't want it to be clever, I want it to be quick.
- Saskia Mendes NoneRight. I think I've got what I need. Priya, what's the shape of next steps?
- Priya Raman NoneI'll send the proposal with the split between implementation and subscription, and the Growth service levels, by the end of the week. Hannah, you're sending the architecture diagram and the connector plan?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes. The diagram, the connector list in order, and the written answer on permissions. I'll also pull the unmatched records from today's sample into a short list so your team can see what a tidy-up involves.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd from me, the security questionnaire from IT, and a view on who the second admin would be. And I'll start talking to the people who sign this off.
- Priya Raman NoneBrilliant. And I'll get that intro with Daniel in the diary. Would a call before the proposal discussion work, or after?
- Saskia Mendes NoneBefore. I'd like him in the room when I take it upstairs.
- Priya Raman NoneDone. I'll find a slot next week.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCan I keep access to the sample? I'd like to try it before the review properly, and again afterwards.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes, I'll leave it open for you. Tell me if anything looks off and I'll look at it.
- Jess Ferrand NoneWill do. I'll tell you straight, I always do.
- Saskia Mendes NoneShe does. Okay. Thank you both, that was genuinely useful. Better than I thought it would be, and I had high expectations.
- Priya Raman NoneThanks, Saskia, that's lovely to hear. Speak next week, and Jess, good luck this afternoon.
- Jess Ferrand NoneCheers. Right, off I go, bye.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThanks, everyone. Bye.
- Priya Raman NoneSorry, still on the line. Recording off in a second, bye.