What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Quarterly review on the Growth subscription: about eleven of 40 licensed users active, more than double the previous quarter. The COO wants exit, governance and cost answers in writing before the 3 Feb 2027 renewal.
What happened: Elena Novak ran the review with Katrin Vogelsang, Jonas Albrecht and Matthias Ebner. Nine numbered actions were read back, each with an owner.
Customer view: Katrin said the merchant teams now work from the same facts and called the renewal a paperwork question. Matthias will decide only after information security and procurement have seen the written material.
Commercial: The Growth subscription is fifty thousand pounds, matching the order form and the invoices, with no overdue invoices. The contract ends 2 Feb 2027 and renews 3 Feb 2027, with terms to come from Matteo Ricci in writing.
Watch: Katrin is still the largest single asker of questions and Jonas is the only admin. A schema change on the customer side broke a load without warning.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Elena Novak to ask Matteo Ricci to send the renewal terms with total cost in one view ahead of the customer's autumn budget round.
- Elena Novak to send Matthias Ebner a checked note on exit, data location, access and escalation contacts.
- Katrin Vogelsang to name the onboarding team lead and propose two training dates by the end of the following week.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Matthias will not sign until information security and procurement have seen written exit, data and cost material, and the renewal terms are still to come.
- Value rests on a small group: Katrin is the largest single asker and Jonas is the only admin.
- Source schema changes are announced by agreement, not by a written rule, and one broke a load.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- About eleven of 40 licensed users are active, so the onboarding team and a chargebacks and disputes team could widen use on Growth.
- A disputes source may need a connector add-on in blocks of five, which Matthias wants priced before the team commits.
- A one page value summary with sourced facts would support the autumn budget round.
Transcript
- Elena Novak NoneGood afternoon, Katrin. Can you hear me properly? I have changed headset since last time.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneGood afternoon, Elena. Yes, loud and clear. Much better than the last call, to be precise.
- Elena Novak NoneGood, I will take that as a compliment to the headset. Jonas, Matthias, are you with us?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneHere. Camera is off, the room is full of cables. Sorry.
- Matthias Ebner NoneGood afternoon. I am here, but I have to leave at the hour mark, I think. Let me say now what I need from this call, so that nobody wastes time.
- Elena Novak NonePlease do.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThe decision I need to prepare is the renewal, which falls due in February next year. I do not need the detail of usage. I need to know that the service is governed, that we have an exit plan, and that the cost is predictable. Katrin and Jonas can carry the rest.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you, Matthias, that is very clear. To confirm, then, I will keep the renewal part near the front. As agreed in my email on Friday, the agenda has four points. One, usage and adoption this quarter. Two, the support tickets and what we learned from them. Three, your plans for more teams on the brain. Four, the renewal and the paperwork you need for the outsourcing register. Is that acceptable?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneIt is acceptable. I have also written it down on my side, so we can compare the minutes afterwards. Let us agree the next step at the end of each point, not only at the end of the call.
- Elena Novak NoneVery good, I will do it that way. Let me share my screen. Can you see the usage page?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneYes. Slightly small. Ah, now better.
- Elena Novak NoneSo, adoption. Since you went live in February, you have been on the Growth tier with forty licensed users. Over the last thirty days, the average number of active users is about eleven. And compared with the previous quarter, that is more than double. The number of people actually asking questions has grown very strongly.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneWhat is the source for that, Elena? When you say active, how is it counted?
- Elena Novak NoneA fair question. An active user is someone who has used the brain at least once in the period, counted from the usage log inside your own Snowflake account. So Jonas can check the same figure directly. I will put the definition in the written follow-up.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneI checked the load history and the usage views last week. Numbers match what Elena says. Nothing odd.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneGood. Then I can say it in our internal review without a footnote. Please continue.
- Elena Novak NoneNow, the shape of it. The growth is mostly your merchant account managers. They come in, they search a merchant, and they see the contacts, the open tickets and the payments history in one place. Merchant risk is the second group. Katrin, from your side, how does it feel?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneHonestly, better than I promised the board. Before, an account manager prepared for a merchant review by asking three different people for three different exports. Now, they ask the brain. And what I like, to be precise, is that risk and account management now look at the same page and the same facts. We still disagree sometimes, but at least not about the facts.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is exactly the goal, and it is good to hear it in your words.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThere is one example I can give. Two weeks ago, a retailer asked us why their payouts were held. The account manager had the answer in the call itself. Before, it would have been an email and two days.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThat is helpful. Katrin, did the merchant remark on it?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneNot in so many words. But the escalation did not come, and that is the best compliment in our business.
- Matthias Ebner NoneAgreed. Please continue, Elena.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you. One more observation on usage, and I want to be honest about it. You have forty licences and about eleven people active. That means there is a lot of room. It is not a problem, it is headroom. But it also means the value so far rests on a fairly small group, and I would like us to widen that group on purpose, rather than hope.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneI agree. And I know who is missing. The second merchant operations team, the one that handles onboarding of new merchants, has barely started. That was my fault, we had the audit season and I could not release the time.
- Elena Novak NoneUnderstood. Would a short training session for that team help? I can run it from Amsterdam, in German or English, whichever the team prefers.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneBoth, probably. The lead speaks English well, but half the team will be more relaxed in German. Do you speak German, Elena?
- Elena Novak NoneA little, enough to be polite and to be understood, not enough for a training. I will bring the material in German and present in English, and your lead can help where needed. Is that fair?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThat works. Let us agree the next step: I will name the team lead and propose two dates by the end of next week.
- Elena Novak NoneNoted. I will put it in the actions. And I will make sure that the training uses your own merchant data, as the training on sample data is never convincing.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneBefore it happens, I need to know which role the new users get. Which role has access to which schema. I do not want twenty people with the admin role because it was convenient.
- Elena Novak NoneOf course. The brain's own roles map to your Snowflake roles. You, as the admin, decide the mapping. I will send you the role matrix as it is today, and you can mark the changes you want.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneGood. In writing, please. I do not grant anything from a call.
- Elena Novak NoneIn writing, as always.
- Matthias Ebner NoneElena, a question on this. When there are more users, does the cost change? I need to know whether forty is a hard number.
- Elena Novak NoneGood that you ask. On Growth, forty users are included, and you are far below it. If you ever approach the limit, additional users can be added in blocks of ten. But that is not your situation today, and I would not expect it this year.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThank you. Please put that sentence in the follow-up as well. I do not accept undocumented promises, forgive me, it is not personal.
- Elena Novak NoneIt is not taken personally, and I will put it in. Shall we move to the tickets?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneYes, please. Jonas, this one is yours, I think.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneTwo tickets in the last thirty days. One was a how-to, a small question about the search filters, answered the same day. The other was the high priority one. A schema change on our side in one of the source systems. A column was renamed, the load did not pick it up. That is a schema change, and I should have told you before I made it. My mistake, not yours.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you for being so open about it, Jonas. For the record, support responded inside the time that your tier promises for a priority one, and the data was loaded again the same day. Is that also your recollection?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneYes. Response was quick. Reload clean. I checked the counts before and after.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneWhat is the source for the counts? I ask because I will have to describe this incident to our compliance colleagues.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneThe load history in Snowflake, and the ticket timeline. I can export both. Two files, one page each.
- Katrin Vogelsang NonePlease do that. And Elena, could your side add a short written note, with the dates?
- Elena Novak NoneYes. I will make sure that the note has the timeline from the ticket, and I will send it to you and to Jonas. To confirm, you will receive it before the end of the week.
- Matthias Ebner NoneMay I ask one thing about that. How is this governed? If a source system changes its structure, who is responsible for telling whom?
- Elena Novak NoneA very good question. Today, it is by agreement and not by a written rule. Your team owns the source systems, so a structural change should be announced by your team to us, before it happens, ideally through a ticket. We then check the connector in advance. I think it would be sensible to write that down as a short change procedure.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneI will draft it. Half a page. I do not like procedures with ten pages.
- Matthias Ebner NoneHalf a page is what I can read. Thank you, Jonas.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneLet us agree: Jonas drafts the change procedure, Elena reviews it from the BB-Demo side, and we put it in the supplier file.
- Elena Novak NoneAgreed. I would suggest two weeks for the draft, but Jonas, you tell me what is realistic.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneTwo weeks is fine. Not on a Friday.
- Elena Novak NoneI will not ask for a Friday. Now, before we go to the renewal, a word on freshness, since Matthias asked about predictability. The nightly refresh is promised to be complete by seven in the morning your time on business days, and during this period it was.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneConfirm. Except the day of the schema change. That one is on me.
- Elena Novak NoneYes, and that day is explained by the change you described, so I would not count it against the service.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneFine. May I raise the third point, then, the new teams? I think it connects.
- Elena Novak NonePlease.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneBesides the onboarding team, there is a request from the people who handle chargebacks and disputes. They saw the merchant view in a demo I gave to the department heads, and they asked why they do not have it. I said it was a question of capacity and of data. They need the dispute records, and those sit in a system that is not connected today.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is interesting, and it is the kind of widening that makes the brain more useful, since disputes are exactly where merchant risk and account management meet. Jonas, how difficult is that system to reach?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneI do not know yet. I have not tested it. I do not answer questions I have not tested. Give me a few days to look at what it exposes.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is the right answer. Let me say what I can say without testing. Your Growth subscription includes a number of connectors, and if a new source fits inside that number there is no commercial change. If it does not fit, there is an add-on in blocks of five. I will check how many you use today and confirm it to you in writing, with the number.
- Matthias Ebner NoneElena, I would like to avoid a surprise. If there is an add-on, I would like to know the price before the team falls in love with the idea.
- Elena Novak NoneFully understood. I will not let it go further without a figure in your hands. I will ask my colleague Matteo Ricci, who is the account owner for the commercial side, to send you the price for the add-on, should it be needed, together with the renewal letter.
- Matthias Ebner NoneGood. Please ensure Matteo includes the total cost in one view. Subscription, add-on, anything else.
- Elena Novak NoneI will make sure that this is requested. And to confirm what you pay today: your annual subscription is fifty thousand pounds, £50k, that is what the order form says, and it is also what has been invoiced. There are no overdue invoices on your account.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThat matches my record. Our finance team has paid on time. And the contract runs until 2 Feb 2027, correct?
- Elena Novak NoneCorrect, the contract ends on 2 Feb 2027, and the renewal date is 3 Feb 2027, one year after you started on 3 Feb 2026.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThank you. Now, my questions, since I must leave soon. First, what is the exit plan? If we decided in two years to stop, what happens to the data and to the work built on it?
- Elena Novak NoneThis is, I think, one of the strengths of the design. The brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, and the data stays in your EU region. So there is no copy at BB-Demo that you would need to retrieve. If you leave, you switch off our access and the layers we built remain in your account, in your tables and under your roles. What you would lose is the service on top, not the data.
- Matthias Ebner NonePlease send me exactly this in writing, in a form that I can attach to the outsourcing register. Not a sales message. A statement on exit, data location and access.
- Elena Novak NoneYes. I will prepare it as a short factual note: where the data sits, who has access, what happens at the end of the contract. I will have our colleagues check it before it reaches you, so that it is correct and not only friendly.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneAnd for the auditor, if possible, with the source of every statement. A reference to the order form, or to the security documentation.
- Elena Novak NoneOf course. Every statement will have its source named.
- Matthias Ebner NoneSecond question. How is the service governed on your side? Who is my contact if something fails, and who decides?
- Elena Novak NoneOn the service side, you raise a ticket and the support team responds within the time that your tier states. For anything beyond that, I am your named contact for customer success from Amsterdam, and Matteo Ricci for the commercial matters. If something is serious, you may call me directly. I will answer, or I will call back the same day.
- Matthias Ebner NoneGood. Put the two names and the escalation steps in the same note.
- Elena Novak NoneI will. So the note will have three parts: exit, data and access, and the contacts with escalation. Is there anything else you would like in it?
- Matthias Ebner NoneThird and last. Predictable cost. I will plan the budget with fifty thousand for the subscription. Can I assume that the amount is the same on 3 Feb 2027, or is there a change to expect?
- Elena Novak NoneI want to be careful here, Matthias, since I do not want to promise something that is not mine to promise. Your order form sets the price for the current term. For the renewal, the commercial terms will come from Matteo Ricci, in writing, and I will ask him to send them to you well ahead of the notice period. I would rather you wait a few days for a correct answer than receive a quick one that I have to correct.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThat is acceptable. A careful answer is better than a convenient one. Please ask him to send it in good time. I need it before our budget round in the autumn.
- Elena Novak NoneNoted. I will write to Matteo today and put your budget round as the reason.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneMatthias, if I may, one remark for you before you leave. In my view the renewal is not a question for us. The team uses it, the merchants notice it, and the numbers show it. The questions are about the paperwork, and Elena has taken them.
- Matthias Ebner NoneThank you, Katrin. I take that as your recommendation. I will wait for the written material and then decide with information security and procurement, as always. I do not sign before both have seen it.
- Elena Novak NoneUnderstood, and that is the right order. If the security team has questions, I can join a call with them, or answer in writing, whichever they prefer.
- Matthias Ebner NoneIn writing first. Thank you all. Elena, Katrin, Jonas, good afternoon. I will drop off now.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you, Matthias. Good afternoon.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneHe is easier than he sounds, you know. He read your last follow-up twice. I saw the printout.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is good to know. Then I will keep the written style.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneHe printed it. Of course he did.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneJonas, be kind. Now, with Matthias gone, let me use the remaining time for the practical things. Elena, I would like to see how the questions are distributed. You said once that I should be careful if one person asks too many of them.
- Elena Novak NoneYes, thank you for remembering. Let me show you. This is the split of questions by person over the last quarter. You can see that you, Katrin, are still the largest single group, but it is no longer the majority, and that is a healthy change. Three account managers are now close behind you.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneHm. Yes, I see it. I would prefer to be lower still. If I am on leave, the brain should not go quiet.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is the right way to think about it, and it is the reason I suggested the training for the onboarding team. A wider group also protects the investment, in case one person changes role or is absent.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneSame for admin. One admin is a risk. Me. I am the admin. If I am hit by a tram, nobody can change the roles.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneFrankfurt has trams, Jonas. We take this seriously.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneThat is why I mention it.
- Elena Novak NoneIt is a fair point, and a practical one. Would you like to nominate a second admin? I can include the second person in the role discussion, and in the documentation, so that two people can answer for the configuration.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneYes. One of my engineers. I will name her in the email with the role matrix. Not on this call, I want the name in writing, with the role.
- Elena Novak NoneGood. Then that is a fourth action. Let me read the list of what we have so far, and please correct me. One. Katrin names the lead of the onboarding team and proposes two training dates by the end of next week. Two. Jonas drafts the half page change procedure within two weeks, and I review it. Three. I send the role matrix, and Jonas answers with the changes and the name of a second admin. Four. Jonas tests the dispute system and tells us what it exposes.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneCorrect so far. Please also add the exports of the load history, for the compliance note.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneFive. I export the two files. Tomorrow.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you. Six. I send the written note on the incident timeline, by the end of the week. Seven. I confirm in writing the number of connectors you use against what your plan includes. Eight. The exit, data and access note for Matthias, checked internally before it is sent. Nine. I ask Matteo Ricci to send the renewal terms, with the total cost in one view, ahead of your budget round.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThat is a long list. But every item has an owner, which is the main thing. Minutes from my side will carry the same numbering, so we can tick them off.
- Elena Novak NoneThat would be very helpful. I will send mine the same day, and we can compare.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneNow, a different topic, if we have time. We are at about half the call, so there is time. I want to talk about what we can show the auditor. Not the incident, the general picture of how the brain is used for merchant decisions.
- Elena Novak NonePlease, tell me what the auditor asked for, as far as you know today.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneNothing formal yet. But last year they asked how we ensure that a merchant's risk rating and the account manager's view are consistent. Before, my answer was a process document. This year I would like the answer to be: look, this is the page, these are the sources, this is who looked at it and when.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is a reasonable ambition. Let me be careful about what the brain can show and what it cannot. It shows which sources an answer came from, and it shows the questions that were asked, by whom and when, as far as the usage log records it. It does not decide the rating, and it should not be described to the auditor as doing so.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneOf course. Evidence, not judgement. That is how I would say it.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneWho sees the question log? Which role? I would not want every user to read what colleagues asked about a merchant.
- Elena Novak NoneGood point, Jonas, and again it is for you to decide as the admin. By default, it is visible to admins. I will include it in the role matrix, so it is explicit.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneGood. Explicit is good.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneI would like a short demonstration of that log for me, perhaps in the training session, or separately. A session for the auditors' questions only, thirty minutes at most.
- Elena Novak NoneI can do that. Let me propose it as a separate session, after the onboarding training, so that we do not mix two audiences. I will suggest a time in the minutes, and you can move it.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneFine. Next question, and this one is a little personal. Elena, you are new since last winter. How do you see us compared with your other EU accounts? Do not be polite.
- Elena Novak NoneI will be honest, though I will remain polite, I cannot help it. You are one of the accounts where I feel the adoption is going in the right direction without me pushing it. What I would like to see is the same engagement beyond your own team, and the written rules, such as the change procedure, so that the good habits do not depend on three people. In that sense you are in a very good position.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThank you. That is useful, and I believe it. Three people, yes. We have to fix it.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneFour with the second admin.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneFour, correct, Jonas. Always the engineer.
- Elena Novak NonePerhaps I can add something practical on the subject of value, since Matthias will need to defend the cost in the autumn. Would it help if I prepared a one page summary of what the brain has done for you this half year? Usage growth, the questions asked, the number of teams, the merchants where it was used in a review. Facts only, each with its source.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneYes, very much. It would help me too. But the examples must come from us. Can I give you two or three real cases, with the names removed?
- Elena Novak NoneYes, please, anonymised is better. I will not describe any case that you have not given me, and I will let you check the text before it goes to Matthias.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThat is the right order. I will send you the cases by Thursday. Is that realistic for you?
- Elena Novak NoneThursday for your cases, then I will write the summary and return it to you a few days afterwards. I should say that I would prefer to check the exact date with our colleagues who prepare the usage extracts before I name it. I will confirm it in the minutes.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThat is agreeable. Let us not name a date that nobody has checked.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneOne more technical thing, if I may. The nightly refresh. I would like a heads up if it will run late for any reason, like maintenance. Last time I found out by looking at the logs.
- Elena Novak NoneUnderstood. Planned maintenance should be announced to you in advance, and I will check with the platform team that your admin address is on the list for those notices. If it is not, I will have it added and tell you.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneUse the team address, not mine. Mine will be on holiday sometimes.
- Elena Novak NoneThe team address, noted. That is another item, ten, if you are counting.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneWe are counting. It is the minutes after all.
- Elena Novak NoneKatrin, you mentioned earlier the second team handling disputes. Do you want that to wait until Jonas has tested the source, or shall I prepare something in parallel, such as a short description of what the team would see?
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneIn parallel, please. If I can show the chargebacks team a mock page with merchant fields, they will tell me quickly what is missing. I would rather learn that before Jonas spends a week on the connection.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneReasonable. I would not spend a week anyway. A day to look, then I tell you.
- Elena Novak NoneThen I will prepare the mock page with the merchant fields we already hold, and mark clearly which fields would depend on the new source. I will not show them as if they were live.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneGood, that is the honest way. Otherwise somebody will expect it tomorrow.
- Elena Novak NoneExactly. May I ask a last question on my own agenda? Is there anything in the service that irritated you this quarter, which we have not mentioned? Small things count.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneSmall thing. The search sometimes returns the same merchant twice, under two spellings. It is a data issue in our own systems, I know, but the brain makes it visible, which is almost a benefit. Still, people ask me why.
- Elena Novak NoneThat is useful, and I think it is partly a compliment to the brain, as you say. Would you accept that I note it as a request, and that Jonas and I look at whether the merchant names can be matched in the brain's layer, or whether the fix belongs in your source?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneSource, probably. But send me three examples and I will look. I do not want to hide a data problem in the brain. Then it comes back later.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneI will send the examples with the minutes. Three, as you say.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you both. I think we have covered the agenda, and a little more. Let me summarise the position in two sentences, so that the minutes are simple. Usage has more than doubled against the previous quarter and the value is visible to your teams. The open points are the written notes for Matthias, the wider rollout, the change procedure and the renewal terms, which come from Matteo Ricci in good time.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneI agree with that summary. I would add: the second admin, please, as it is an item that protects us.
- Elena Novak NoneYes, it is in. So the minutes will go out today, with the numbered actions, the owners, and where a date was agreed, the date. Where I need to check with a colleague, it will say so.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneGood. Let us agree the next step formally: I send the names and the training dates, and you send the minutes and the role matrix. Is the next review still planned for the usual rhythm, one a quarter?
- Elena Novak NoneYes, Growth includes a review every quarter, so the next one will be in the autumn, before your budget round. I will send a proposal for the date with the minutes, and it will fall before the renewal notice period, so that nothing is decided in a hurry.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneThat is sensible. Anything else, Jonas?
- Jonas Albrecht NoneNo. Exports tomorrow. Procedure in two weeks. Not on a Friday.
- Elena Novak NoneI have written it exactly like that. Not on a Friday.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneWe finish early, then. That never happens. Thank you, Elena, the call was well prepared. And thank you for the honesty on the incident, it is appreciated.
- Elena Novak NoneThank you, Katrin, and thank you Jonas. It is a pleasure to work with a team that tells me what broke and what it did about it. I will write to you today. Kind regards, and have a good rest of the afternoon.
- Katrin Vogelsang NoneYou too. Goodbye, Elena.
- Jonas Albrecht NoneBye.