Delancey Haig / BB-Demo – Check In
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Delancey Haig: documents · 2026-02-09 15:30
Kwame Asante, the CTO, is weighing renewal against an in-house build or a hybrid and wants a side-by-side comparison before the Growth renewal. Saskia Mendes described adoption as mixed.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Kwame Asante, the CTO, is weighing renewal against an in-house build or a hybrid and wants a side-by-side comparison before the Growth renewal. Saskia Mendes described adoption as mixed.
What happened: Kwame Asante set out an options paper on the brain: renew as it is, build in-house on the firm's own warehouse, or a hybrid. He asked for the architecture, the security documents and the connector picture.
Customer view: Kwame wants a comparison on what directors really do and treats continuity as a requirement. Saskia Mendes said the directors need what the brain does, but many of the 40 seats are barely touched.
Commercial: Growth is £44,000 a year with the term running to 2 Jul 2026 and renewal on 3 Jul 2026. Kwame asked whether the price moves at renewal and whether a hybrid with fewer seats or teams is a conversation BB-Demo would have.
Watch: Daniel Okafor owes the security documents by the end of the week and the renewal terms by the end of next week. The call does not show what the paper concluded.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Build versus buy review
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- Daniel Okafor sends the architecture diagram, security documentation and data-flow note by the end of the week.
- Daniel sends the renewal terms next to the signed order form, with a connector view, by the end of next week.
- Priya Raman sets a catch-up after Kwame's paper, and Saskia Mendes nominates two directors for the saved-questions session.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- An in-house client data layer or a hybrid is being costed against the Growth renewal on 3 Jul 2026.
- Many of the 40 seats are barely used and questions are concentrated in a handful of people.
- Kwame will not accept security claims without his team reading the documents first.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Saved questions per role, built with two directors and Kwame's team, could ground the comparison in real behaviour.
- A hybrid for a defined set of teams would keep part of the subscription if the full renewal is not chosen.
- Refresher training for the newer directors could lift adoption before the renewal.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneGood afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your time. Let me just check who's joined. I can see Saskia, and Kwame, and Priya's here with me. Is that everybody?
Saskia Mendes NoneHi Daniel, hi all. Yes, that's us. Sorry, I'm in a meeting room that smells of toast, someone's microwaved something terrible in the kitchen next door. Can you hear me alright?- Daniel Okafor NonePerfectly clear. Kwame, I think you're on mute, or at least I can't hear you.
Kwame Asante NoneSorry, yes, there. Can you hear me now? Good afternoon.- Daniel Okafor NoneThere you are. Lovely. Priya, over to you for a quick recap, then we'll get going.
Priya Raman NoneThanks, Daniel. Just so we're all level: you're on Growth at forty-four thousand a year, forty seats, and the term runs to 2 Jul 2026 with renewal on 3 Jul 2026. So we're getting on for five months out. Today is a check-in, nothing heavy, and to keep momentum I'd like us to leave with a clear next date in the diary. Happy to make this easy for everybody.- Saskia Mendes NoneCan I just start with a quick story from this week? One of the account directors was walking into a client review on Thursday, and she'd had a look in the brain first. It showed a contractor-invoice dispute that nobody had mentioned to her, three weeks old, sitting on that client's record. She raised it herself in the room, before the client did. That's the whole point, really. The directors need this.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's exactly the sort of thing we hoped for. Did the client take it well?
- Saskia Mendes NoneBetter than they would have done if we'd been caught out. They said thank you, actually, which doesn't happen often in recruitment.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa. No, I can imagine. Kwame, I think you wanted to start with the architecture side?
- Kwame Asante NoneYes please. Before we go any further, could someone put the architecture diagram up? Where does the data live, what sits in the warehouse and what sits outside it? I'd like to see it rather than have it described.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. Give me a second to share my screen. Right, can you see that? So this is the one we agreed at go-live. The brain runs inside your own Snowflake account. Your CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder and your finance data are the connectors on the left, they land in your account, and the index and the answers are built there too. Nothing is copied out to us. The nightly refresh is done by 07:00 on business days.
- Kwame Asante NoneMm. And the model that answers the questions, where does that run? Because that's the part I care about. Where does the data live when the question is being answered?
- Daniel Okafor NoneFair question. The answering happens against data in your account, so the data stays where it is. I'd rather not paraphrase the detail of the model arrangements from memory, so I'll send you the security documentation and the data-flow note after the call, and your team can read them directly.
- Kwame Asante NoneYes, please do. I don't take a vendor's word on security, nothing personal, it's just how I work. My people will read the documents and then we'll ask what we need to ask.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's completely reasonable, and we'd expect nothing less. Just to close the loop, I'll come back to you with those by the end of the week.
- Daniel Okafor NoneCan I ask the usual one, though? How is the team finding it, Saskia, day to day?
- Saskia Mendes NoneHonestly? Mixed. The directors who use it swear by it, but not everyone's in there every week, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. A good few of the forty seats are barely touched, and a couple of the newer directors still ask my team to pull things for them instead.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you, that's helpful to hear straight, and it matches what we see. Across a month there's a dozen or so people active, a touch down on last quarter, and the questions are concentrated in a handful of people. No tickets at all last month, which is good news on the technical side, but it can also mean things are quiet.
- Saskia Mendes NoneQuiet is fair. I'd rather it was busy. That's partly on me, I haven't run the refresher sessions I said I would.
- Priya Raman NoneWhich we can help with. Daniel can do a training session for the newer directors, and if we can get that booked soon, that helps the picture before the summer.
- Kwame Asante NoneCan I come in there? Because it leads into why I wanted this call. I've been reviewing every system the firm pays for, it's what I do, and the brain is one of them. I've written an options paper, and I'd like to walk you through it so nobody is surprised.
- Daniel Okafor NonePlease do. We'd much rather hear it from you directly.
- Kwame Asante NoneSo, three options. One, renew the brain as it is. Two, build an in-house client data layer on our own warehouse, with a general-purpose AI assistant on top for the directors to ask questions of. Three, a hybrid, where we keep the brain for a defined set of teams while we build. The case for the second is control. My team can do that. We own the data model, we own the tooling, and we run a small number of platforms rather than a growing list.
- Kwame Asante NoneThe question I put at the top of the paper is the build-versus-buy case. What does it cost to build and run, against forty-four thousand a year plus the time we'd spend on the brain? I don't have the answer yet, and I won't decide without one on paper.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you for laying it out so clearly. Can I check I've understood? The in-house route would be a layer your team builds on your warehouse, joining the same sources the brain connects to today, with the assistant answering over the top.
- Kwame Asante NoneThat's right. Same sources: the CRM, the helpdesk, finance, the call recorder. Nothing exotic.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd the brain would be reviewed against that, before the renewal?
- Kwame Asante NoneYes. I want a proper comparison, side by side, on what the directors really do. Not a feature list. We'll review the brain against the in-house option and then I'll make a recommendation.
- Priya Raman NoneThat's fair, and we're comfortable with a comparison. If we can get it done in good time before the renewal, it keeps everybody calm. Can I ask what a good comparison looks like for you? What would you want to see the brain do that an assistant on a warehouse can't?
- Kwame Asante NoneHonestly, I don't know that there's anything it can't do in principle. A general-purpose assistant over clean tables is capable. The question is how much of the cleaning, joining and keeping-fresh my team ends up owning. That's the real cost.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich is a good way to frame it, and I'd say that's where the brain earns its keep or doesn't. The connectors, the refresh every night, someone noticing when a source changes and the records stop loading. I won't tell you it's impossible to build. I'd just want you to have the full picture of what's involved on both sides.
- Kwame Asante NoneThat's all I'm asking for.
- Saskia Mendes NoneCan I say something, Kwame? And I'm not trying to pre-empt your paper. The directors need this. Not this particular product necessarily, but what it does. A single view of each client: vacancies, placements, invoices, complaints, in one place, before they walk into a review. If the in-house version gives them that, fine. But it has to be there before the current one goes, not eventually.
- Kwame Asante NoneThat's a fair point, and it's in the paper. Continuity is a criterion. I'd put it as a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- Saskia Mendes NoneGood. And can we make it simpler for the directors, whichever way it goes? Because at the moment they have to know what to ask. Half the problem is the blank box.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's something we can work on regardless, actually. We've seen the same elsewhere: people do better with a few saved questions per role than with an open prompt. We could build those with the directors.
- Saskia Mendes NoneYes, that's exactly what I'd want. What did the client actually say, what's open, what's overdue. Three or four questions and they're done.
- Kwame Asante NoneI'd want to see those too. If they're the questions that matter, they belong in the comparison.
- Priya Raman NoneThen let's do exactly that. Daniel, could we set up the saved questions with a couple of directors, with Kwame's team sitting in? Then the comparison is on real behaviour.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI like that. I'd want to make sure it's not a burden on the directors' time, so I'd suggest an hour at most, and I'll check with Saskia on who's best placed.
- Saskia Mendes NoneTwo directors, I'd say. One who loves it and one who's sceptical. That's more honest.
- Kwame Asante NoneI'd welcome the sceptic.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI think that's wise. And Kwame, can I ask about timing? Not to put pressure on, just so we plan sensibly. When does the paper go to a decision?
- Kwame Asante NoneI'll be straight, I haven't fixed that. I want the documents read and the comparison done first. It's before the renewal, obviously, because I don't want to be deciding in the last week.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood. I won't guess at dates that aren't mine. On our side, the renewal notice is something I'll send in good time, so nothing arrives as a surprise. It isn't a signal of anything, I just want you to know it's coming.
- Kwame Asante NoneNoted.
- Priya Raman NoneCan I just raise the practical bit, Kwame, since you mentioned cost? You'll want the renewal numbers in the paper as option one. Daniel, can we make sure that's written down clearly, what renewal looks like?
- Kwame Asante NoneYes, I'd like that. Does the price move at renewal? I don't want to guess in the paper.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThere is a newer price book, and I don't want to quote a figure from memory on a call, that wouldn't be fair to you. I'll set out the renewal terms in writing, with your current contract next to it, so the paper has the real number. I'll come back to you by the end of next week.
- Kwame Asante NoneThank you. That's what I need. The contract as signed, as well, not the proposal.
- Priya Raman NoneOf course. The signed order form is the thing that counts, and we'll send that across alongside the terms.
- Kwame Asante NoneAnd the connectors. Which are live and which does anyone actually use? If I'm costing an in-house build I need to know how many sources we're really talking about, not the number on the order form.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a good distinction. I'll pull what's configured, what's loading, and which ones the questions actually touch. I'd expect a couple are barely used, and that's useful for you either way.
- Saskia Mendes NoneFinance and the CRM are the ones my directors live in. The call recorder, less so.
- Kwame Asante NoneOne more thing on the options. If we went hybrid, what would that look like on your side? Fewer seats, fewer teams? I'm not asking for a quote, I'm asking whether it's even a conversation you'd have.
- Priya Raman NoneAlways a conversation we'd have. We'd want to understand the shape of it, which teams, what you'd keep, and then see what makes sense. I wouldn't want to promise anything on a call, but we're happy to make that easy to explore.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd from the adoption side, a smaller group using it well is better than forty seats barely touched, so I'd rather have that honest conversation than a bigger number on paper.
- Saskia Mendes NoneI'd agree with that. Don't tell my directors I said so.
- Daniel Okafor NoneHa, your secret's safe.
- Kwame Asante NoneRight. I think I've said what I came to say. I'll send the paper once I've a draft that my team have challenged. Please don't treat it as a decision. It's the options.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood, and thank you for the openness. Let me play back the next steps, just to close the loop. Is that alright?
- Kwame Asante NonePlease.
- Daniel Okafor NoneFrom us: I send the architecture diagram, the security documentation and the data-flow note by the end of this week. Then the renewal terms next to the signed order form by the end of next week, along with a view of which connectors are live and in use. Does that sound right?
- Kwame Asante NoneYes. From me, the draft paper to you once it's been through my team, and a named person from my side to take the security review.
- Saskia Mendes NoneAnd from me, two directors for the saved-questions session, one keen, one sceptical, and I'll get the refresher sessions on the calendar. I've been putting it off.
- Priya Raman NoneAnd I'll set a short catch-up for after Kwame's paper so we're not drifting. To keep momentum, if we can get that in the diary before the end of the month, great.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll look after the invite. Anything else anyone wants to raise?
- Saskia Mendes NoneOnly that the directors need this, so whatever the paper says, let's make sure nobody loses the thing they use on a Thursday morning.
- Kwame Asante NoneUnderstood. Continuity is in there.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThank you all. That's been a really useful conversation. Speak soon.
- Saskia Mendes NoneThanks, all. Bye.
- Priya Raman NoneThanks everyone, bye for now.
- Kwame Asante NoneThank you. Goodbye.
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