Corstorphine Building Society / BB-Demo – Demo
Callcompleted
Corstorphine Building Society: documents · 2026-03-31 13:30
The demo met Morag's need for one view of each broker firm, but Struan said the society has no Snowflake account. A supplier risk route and a soft timeline follow. Enterprise at £155k all-in was restated.
What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26The demo met Morag's need for one view of each broker firm, but Struan said the society has no Snowflake account. A supplier risk route and a soft timeline follow. Enterprise at £155k all-in was restated.
What happened: Hannah showed a broker page, a slipping-brokers query and a regional dashboard on a sample extract. Morag and Elspeth both found the product useful.
Customer view: Struan said the society has never bought Snowflake and much of its platform is on premises. He called the account a project before the project, needing procurement, a security review and likely a data protection impact assessment.
Commercial: Tom restated the Enterprise deal at £155k all-in, implementation included. Morag wants it split into implementation and yearly parts, and wants the Snowflake question settled before taking a number to her executive.
Watch: The end of September target was called soft. Struan needs a couple of weeks to frame his questions, and the board may query adding a platform.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Snowflake prerequisite blocks timeline
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Tom Ashdown to send a recap note and a proposal breakdown, split into implementation and yearly parts, once Struan has his answers.
- Hannah Lowe to send the architecture write-up covering a first set-up without Snowflake, by the end of the week.
- Hannah Lowe to confirm what sample data is held and delete it after the write-up is sent.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The society has no Snowflake account, so the brain has nowhere to run until one is procured and reviewed.
- Supplier risk, security review and a data protection impact assessment make the end of September target soft.
- The board may question adding a new platform to host member and broker data.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Morag wants one view of each broker firm and found the demo useful, which supports Enterprise.
- Elspeth asked to join the next call and her team would value an on-site training day add-on.
Transcript
Tom Ashdown NoneHello, hello. Can you hear me alright, Morag? I've got a bit of an echo on my side.
Morag Cowie NoneAye, loud and clear. Good afternoon, Tom. Sorry, I'm just getting Struan into the room, he's wrestling with the meeting link.- Tom Ashdown NoneNo drama, we've got a few minutes. How's your week been? Anything exciting on the broker front?
- Morag Cowie NoneWell, the broker story of the week is that one of our bigger firms in Fife went quiet on us. Three weeks with hardly a case submitted, and nobody on my team noticed until a business development manager mentioned it in passing at the Monday catch-up. Which is rather the point of why we're here.
- Tom Ashdown NoneHa, well, that's a good way into it. I'll not oversell, but that's exactly the sort of thing we want to show you today.
Struan Mackay NoneHello, sorry, I'm here. Struan. Can you see me? No, the camera's off. Hang on.- Morag Cowie NoneHe's fine, Tom, he doesn't like being on camera. Struan runs our data platform, so he's the one who'll tell you what we can and can't do.
- Tom Ashdown NoneBrilliant, good to have you, Struan. And I've brought Hannah, who's our solutions engineer. She'll do most of the driving today, I'll just talk too much at the start and the end.
Hannah Lowe NoneHello, everyone. Before I share anything, can I ask what you most need to know by the end of this call? I'd rather point the demo at that than walk you through every page.- Morag Cowie NoneRight. For me it's simple. Which brokers are slipping, and can my business development managers see the full picture of a firm before they pick up the phone. Not just submissions, but what member services has heard about that firm as well.
- Morag Cowie NoneElspeth's team gets the complaints and the queries, and at the moment I only hear about those if somebody remembers to tell me. Let's not overcomplicate it. One view of each broker firm.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's clear, thank you. And Struan, from your side?
- Struan Mackay NoneHonestly, I want to understand where the data goes and who can see it. We're regulated by the PRA and the FCA, so anything that copies member or broker data out of our estate is going to need a lot of scrutiny. I'd rather hear that early.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood, that's the right question to start with, and I'll come back to it properly once you've seen the product. The short answer is that nothing is copied out to us. The longer answer is that the brain is built and run inside your own Snowflake account. I'll put that in writing afterwards, in detail.
- Struan Mackay NoneMm. Okay. Hold that thought, because I think I know where that leads. Carry on with the demo, though, I'd like to see the thing.
- Hannah Lowe NoneOf course. I'm sharing my screen now. What you're looking at is a sample of broker data that Morag's team sent over last week, a small extract of broker firms with their submission history, a handful of case notes and some service queries. It's a sample, so please don't judge the volumes.
- Morag Cowie NoneAye, that's the cut Struan's colleague prepared. It's about as much as we were comfortable sending.
- Hannah Lowe NoneWhich is entirely reasonable. So, first thing, I've made a page for one firm. Here's the firm, here's the timeline of cases submitted, and underneath you've got the notes and queries pulled together. Everything on this page is assembled from those sources, and each line links back to where it came from.
Elspeth Haldane NoneSorry, I'm late, I've just come out of a members' meeting. Elspeth, from member services. Have I missed much?- Tom Ashdown NoneNot a thing, Elspeth, we've only just started. Hannah's showing the broker page now.
- Hannah Lowe NoneWelcome. Elspeth, I'll go back over the last bit. This is one broker firm, and you can see the cases submitted by month. Here, you can see it drop away. And right beside it, there's a query that came through member services around the same time, about a delay on a mortgage offer.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneOh, that's interesting. So that's one of ours, the delay. We'd have logged that and dealt with the member, but I'd never have thought to tell distribution which firm it came through.
- Morag Cowie NoneWhich is precisely it. I'd have been ringing that firm asking why they'd gone cold, when really they might be cross with us.
- Hannah Lowe NoneTo be precise, the brain isn't telling you why. It's putting the two facts next to each other so a person can ask the question. But you can also just ask it. Let me type something.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI'll ask: which broker firms have submitted fewer cases this quarter than last, and have any of them had a service query in that time. Give it a moment.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThere we are. It gives a short list, with the firms, the change in submissions, and the queries linked underneath. And if I click through on any line, I get to the underlying records.
- Morag Cowie NoneRight, that's the list I'd want on a Monday morning. And can the business development managers get at that themselves, or does it need somebody technical?
- Hannah Lowe NoneThey'd ask it themselves, in ordinary language, like I just did. Someone technical sets up the sources once. After that it's the questions that matter.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneWhat about the other way round? If one of my team is on the phone to a member and the mortgage came through a broker, can they see how that firm's been getting on?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes, same page, different person asking. You'd decide who sees what, so if you didn't want member services seeing certain notes, that's a permissions decision rather than a product limit. I'll show you how roles work in a minute.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCan I just jump in? Elspeth, is that a worry for you, or just a curiosity?
- Elspeth Haldane NoneA bit of both, honestly. Our members come first, so I'd want to be very sure we weren't putting anything about a member in front of someone who has no reason to see it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's the right instinct, and I wouldn't want you to take my word for it on a call. Let me show you the roles page, and then we'll put the detail in writing for your risk team.
- Hannah Lowe NoneHere. You can see the groups, and what each group can read. The broker pages can be open to distribution and restricted for member detail, or the other way round. It's a setting, not a rebuild.
- Morag Cowie NoneMm. That's helpful. Struan, anything jumping out at you so far?
- Struan Mackay NoneYes, and it's not a product thing, it's a us thing. Can I say it now, or do you want to finish the walkthrough?
- Tom Ashdown NoneGo on, say it now. Better we know.
- Struan Mackay NoneRight. You said it runs inside our Snowflake account. We don't have a Snowflake account. We've never bought one. Our data platform is a different set of tools entirely, and a lot of it is on premises still. So I'm not sure how this would sit, or whether there's a version that doesn't need that.
- Morag Cowie NoneOh. I didn't know that, Struan. I assumed you'd have one.
- Struan Mackay NoneNo. To be fair, nobody's asked me till today.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, that's fair enough, and that's on us for not asking it earlier. I'll not pretend it's nothing, Struan. It's how we're built. Hannah, you'll say it better than me.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThanks, Tom. The short answer is that you would need a Snowflake account first. The longer answer is that the brain lives in your account, which is why you keep control of the data, and so there has to be an account for it to live in. We don't run a shared copy on our side.
- Struan Mackay NoneRight. So that's a project before the project. Procurement, a security review of Snowflake itself, probably a data protection impact assessment. That's not quick here.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI think that's realistic, and I'd rather you heard it from me now than found it in month three. Some customers set up the account as part of the implementation, with us helping on the design. Others have it in place beforehand. I wouldn't want to guess which suits you.
- Struan Mackay NoneWhat does it involve on our side, roughly? Not the cost, just the effort. Who'd need to be in the room?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYour platform side, which is you, someone from information security, and whoever owns supplier risk. I'd want to check the exact list before I commit to it, so let me write that up properly rather than say it off the cuff.
- Morag Cowie NoneAnd I'll say this, I'm not skipping the supplier risk process. If that's the route, it goes through the proper door. I'd rather it took longer and was done right.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, completely. And Morag, on timing, we've got you pencilled for the end of September in our own planning, but that was before today. Let's treat that as soft until Struan's had a think.
- Morag Cowie NoneAye, I'd not hold anyone to a date yet. I can't promise one I can't keep.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneCan I ask something slightly daft? If we did have to set up this account, would the data have to go into it, or could it just stay where it is and be looked at?
- Hannah Lowe NoneNot daft at all. The sources are connected, and the relevant records are indexed into the brain inside your account. So some data does land there, in a controlled way, and you decide which sources and which fields. Struan, you'll have views on that.
- Struan Mackay NoneI do, and they're mostly worry. But go on, show me the connector side, because that I can judge.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight. This is the connector list for the sample. Your case system export, the service query log and the notes. Each one shows when it last loaded and how many records came in. If one stops loading, you'd see it flat here, and we'd get an alert.
- Struan Mackay NoneAnd refresh? How often does it update?
- Hannah Lowe NoneOvernight, and on a business day it's complete by seven in the morning your time. That's the same on every tier. The order form can say something different, but that's the standard.
- Morag Cowie NoneThat'd do us. The business development managers all start their day looking at what came in overnight anyway.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCan I just say where this sits commercially, so nobody's guessing? We've been looking at Enterprise for you, because of the single sign-on and the regulated side of things. I'll confirm the exact numbers in writing, I'm not going to quote from memory, but the deal we've been carrying is one hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds all-in, implementation included.
- Morag Cowie NoneThank you for saying it plainly. I'd want to see that broken down before it goes near my executive. And I'd want the Snowflake bit sorted before I took a number anywhere.
- Tom Ashdown NoneLeave that with me. I'll send a breakdown with the proposal, but I'll not send it until Struan's had his answers, otherwise it's just paper.
- Struan Mackay NoneI appreciate that. It would be a bit pointless otherwise.
- Hannah Lowe NoneShall I finish the walkthrough? There's one more piece that Morag asked about, which is the view across a whole region of broker firms rather than one at a time.
- Morag Cowie NonePlease. That's the one I'd put in front of the board.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo this is a dashboard built on the same sample. Submissions by broker firm, grouped by area, with the queries overlaid. Dashboards are on the higher tiers, and your own team would build and change them, so it's your picture rather than ours.
- Morag Cowie NoneWhich brokers are slipping. There it is. Right. Can that go on a schedule, so it lands on a Monday?
- Hannah Lowe NoneYou can ask it each Monday, and I'll check exactly what scheduling looks like on the tier you'd be on before I promise it. I'll put that in the follow-up.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneAnd from my side, could I see which firms generate the most queries from members? Not to blame anyone, just to know where we're spending time.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes, same data, different question. Let me ask it now.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo there's the ranking from the sample, with the usual caveat that it's a small extract. One firm stands out, and you can open it and see the notes behind it.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneOh, I know that one. Right. That's useful. That's genuinely useful.
- Tom Ashdown NoneStruan, you've been quiet, in a good way I hope. Where's your head at?
- Struan Mackay NoneSplit. The product does what Morag wants, I can see that. But I've got two problems that aren't about the product. One's the account. The other is that we're a mutual, and our board will want to know why we're adding a new platform to host member and broker data when we've spent years trying to simplify.
- Morag Cowie NoneThat's fair, Struan, and it's my job to make the case, not yours. But I'll need your help on the architecture bit so I don't say anything daft.
- Struan Mackay NoneAye, I'll help. I'd just want to be sure we're not committing before we've looked at it properly.
- Hannah Lowe NoneWhich seems right to me. Here's what I'd suggest. I'll write up how the brain runs inside a customer's Snowflake account, what gets stored, what doesn't, and what a first set-up looks like when the customer hasn't got one. Struan, you can take that to your security and risk people without me in the room.
- Struan Mackay NoneThat would be good. Include the access model, who at BB-Demo can see what, if anyone.
- Hannah Lowe NoneYes. And to be precise, I'll state it as it is rather than as it sounds best. If there's a question I'm not certain of, I'll check with our security lead and say so.
- Struan Mackay NoneGood. That's what I'd want.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneCan I ask about training? If we went ahead, my team aren't technical. Would they be learning something new, or is it more like asking a colleague?
- Hannah Lowe NoneMore like asking a colleague. The first week people usually ask rather clumsy questions, and then they get the hang of it. We run training sessions during onboarding, and there's an on-site day as an add-on if you'd prefer people in a room.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneI think my team would like a room. They're not shy, but they like a person to ask.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNoted, and I'll make sure that's in the proposal as an option rather than a given.
- Morag Cowie NoneTom, can I ask you plainly? If Struan says we can't get a Snowflake account sorted this year, are we wasting your time?
- Tom Ashdown NoneNot at all. I'd rather you told me that than nodded along. If it's next year, it's next year, and we'll keep in touch. I've got customers I've been talking to for a long time before anything happened. Long relationships, that's the bit I like.
- Morag Cowie NoneGood. Because I'd rather do this properly than quickly.
- Struan Mackay NoneOne practical thing. Does the sample we sent need to be kept, or deleted? I'd like that confirmed, as we're quite strict on it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood catch. I'll confirm in writing what we hold and for how long, and if you'd like it removed after the call, say so and I'll arrange it and tell you when it's done.
- Struan Mackay NonePlease delete it once you've sent the write-up. That's cleanest.
- Hannah Lowe NoneUnderstood. I'll do that and confirm.
- Elspeth Haldane NoneI need to dash, I'm afraid, I've got a member visit at the top of the hour. Thank you, this was properly useful. Morag, I'd like to be in the next one.
- Morag Cowie NoneOf course. Thanks, Elspeth.
- Tom Ashdown NoneThanks, Elspeth, speak soon.
- Tom Ashdown NoneRight, so with the time we've got left, can we agree who's sending what? I'll start. I'll send a short note today, summing up what we covered and the questions you raised. Then Hannah sends the architecture write-up, hopefully by the end of this week, though Hannah, tell me if that's daft.
- Hannah Lowe NoneEnd of the week is fine for the first version. If I need to check anything with our security lead, I'll flag it rather than hold the whole thing back.
- Morag Cowie NoneAnd I'll take it to Struan and our supplier risk people, and we'll come back to you when we've worked out what the Snowflake question means for us. I'm not going to promise a date. Let's not overcomplicate it.
- Struan Mackay NoneI'll need a couple of weeks to even work out the right questions. Is that all right?
- Tom Ashdown NoneAbsolutely fine. Let's get something in the diary for then, a short catch-up, nothing grand. I'll put it in for a couple of weeks from now and we can move it if it needs moving.
- Morag Cowie NoneThat works. And Tom, the breakdown of the numbers, when it comes, keep it simple. I'd like to see what's the implementation and what's the yearly bit, separately.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWill do. That's how I'd want it too. One fifty-five is the all-in number, so I'll split it out properly and confirm it in writing.
- Morag Cowie NoneGrand. Anything else from anyone?
- Struan Mackay NoneOnly that I'm glad I said it. I was sat here thinking, do I say it now, or let her finish.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSaying it now saved everyone a few weeks, so thank you. I'd much rather the practical question came up on a demo than at order form stage.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCheers, all. Morag, Struan, thanks for the time, and Hannah, cracking demo. Speak soon.
- Morag Cowie NoneThanks, everyone. Speak soon.
- Struan Mackay NoneCheers. Bye now.
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