What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26QBR on 22 May 2025. Daily use nearly doubled over the quarter, the trust review went well, and the CFO wants a business case before any extra spend. Growth at £42k renews on 6 Jan 2026.
What happened: Marcus Bell ran the 22 May 2025 QBR with Aisha Bukhari, Graeme Charlton and Ryan Heslop. Daily users had nearly doubled over the quarter to under eight, against forty licensed on Growth.
Customer view: Aisha said the trust review went well, and Graeme called it part of the return. Ryan gets fewer one-off extract requests but still checks numbers himself.
Commercial: Lewis Kerr confirmed Growth at £42k a year, matching the signed order form and invoices, running to 5 Jan 2026 and renewing on 6 Jan 2026. He did not propose an upgrade, and Graeme wants a business case before any extra spend.
Watch: Graeme holds the budget and asked for evidence, not adjectives. Open items are a pre-renewal value session, the per-trust permissions question and an undecided finance connector.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to send dates for a value session before the renewal, avoiding the board meeting week.
- Lewis Kerr to send the renewal terms in writing ahead of 6 Jan 2026, plus a note on adding users.
- Marcus Bell to write up what is possible on per-trust permissions for Ryan Heslop.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Graeme Charlton wants a business case before any spend beyond the current Growth subscription.
- Only under eight of forty licensed users are active on an average day, so value must be shown through contract managers' own examples.
- Ryan Heslop still checks some numbers by hand because he does not trust them until verified.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Rising daily use across several contract managers supports the renewal value case.
- Growth connector headroom, if the finance system Ryan Heslop was asked about proves worth connecting.
- Extra users beyond forty would be quoted as an add-on, co-termed to the renewal, if use keeps growing.
Transcript
- Marcus Bell NoneHello, hello. Can everyone hear me? I'll just share my screen in a second.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneHello Marcus, yes, we can hear you. Ryan's just joining as well, I can see him in the lobby.
- Ryan Heslop NoneHi, sorry, got stuck on another call. Here now.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo problem. Good afternoon, Ryan. Graeme, are you with us?
- Graeme Charlton NoneI am. Good afternoon. I've got about an hour, so let's keep it simple. What has changed since last time?
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's a good place to start, and it's what I want to cover. Lewis from our side is here too, mainly for the commercial part at the end. So the plan is: usage first, then what people are asking the brain, then any support issues, then the contract and what's coming up. About an hour. Does that suit?
- Graeme Charlton NoneFine.
- Lewis Kerr NoneAfternoon all. Yes, happy to follow Marcus's order. I'll stay quiet until the end.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, I've pulled the numbers. Can you see my screen? It should be the usage summary.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneYes, I can see it.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. So the main thing. Over the last quarter the number of people using it on an average day has nearly doubled. We're at a bit under eight a day now. You're licensed for forty, so there's a lot of room, but the direction is clearly up, and it's across several people, not just one or two.
- Graeme Charlton NoneIs eight out of forty good or bad? I don't know what I'm looking at.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair question. I'd say it's early and healthy. Those aren't all the people with a login, that's the daily average, so the number who've used it at some point in the month is higher. What I look at is the trend, and the trend is steady growth. If it was flat or falling I'd be more worried.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneCan I add something, Graeme? The contract managers are the ones using it, and there are only so many of those. The rest of the forty were there so we could bring in operations and finance later, if it earns its place.
- Graeme Charlton NoneUnderstood. That's the part I'd want a business case for, before anything.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneOf course. Nothing is being proposed today.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, absolutely not. Let me move on to the questions. This is what I think shows the value most clearly. People are asking more questions each month, and a good share are about a specific trust: what's been referred, how long reports are taking, what's been invoiced.
- Ryan Heslop NoneThat matches what I see. I get fewer requests for one-off extracts now. Before, I'd get an email saying can you pull this together for a trust, and it was half a day. Not so many of those.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's really good to hear, Ryan. That's the whole idea, that you stop being the person who reconciles things by hand.
- Ryan Heslop NoneYeah, I mean, there are still odd ones. Some things I still do myself because I don't trust a number until I've checked it. But it's fewer.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneWhich is quite right. I'd rather you checked it.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnd if there's a number you don't trust, tell us, because usually it's a connector or a source that's behind. Speaking of which, Ryan, since you're the admin, shall I show you the connectors?
- Ryan Heslop NoneGo on.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo here's what's connected. Everything's loading, the records indexed are still going up, nothing's gone flat. There's no sign of a source going stale. You've got some headroom on connectors under Growth too, if you wanted to add another system later.
- Ryan Heslop NoneWe might. There's a system the finance team use that I've been asked about, but I don't know yet whether it's worth it. I'll check.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo rush. Just let me know and we'll look at whether it's one of the systems we connect to. I won't promise anything before I've checked.
- Graeme Charlton NoneWhich one is it, Ryan?
- Ryan Heslop NoneIt's the finance side. I'd have to ask them what they call it internally, honestly. I only know it by the nickname.
- Graeme Charlton NoneHm. Let's not add things until we know what it's for.
- Ryan Heslop NoneNo, agreed.
- Marcus Bell NoneFine by me. Let me do support quickly. There've been a couple of tickets in the last month, none high priority, both answered inside the response window for your tier. One was a how-to and one was about how a report was filtered. Nothing outstanding. Anything on your side that you didn't raise with us?
- Ryan Heslop NoneNo, I don't think so. Well. Actually, hang on. The nightly refresh. It's been there when we've come in each morning, hasn't it? I don't think I've noticed a morning it wasn't.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's what I see too. It's been completing before the start of the working day each time. If you ever come in and the data looks like yesterday's, raise it and we'll look straight away.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneMarcus, can I come back to the trust review? It went quite well, I should say. Natalie sent over the turnaround trend before it, and it meant I could say exactly where we were, month by month. They noticed that we'd seen the issue before they raised it.
- Graeme Charlton NoneWhich trust was this?
- Aisha Bukhari NoneThe one we discussed in the spring, Graeme. I'll give you the detail separately. The short version is that it was a better conversation than last year.
- Graeme Charlton NoneGood. That's the return, then. Or part of it.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneI'd say so. No surprises for the trust. That's what it's for.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's brilliant to hear, thank you. I'll pass that on to Natalie, she put time into it. Okay, shall I hand over to Lewis for the commercial piece? I'll stop sharing.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThanks Marcus. Right, the reason I wanted to be here is renewal, so there are no surprises later. To confirm what you're on: Growth, forty licensed users, £41,800 a year, and that matches the signed order form and what we've invoiced. It runs to 5 Jan 2026 and renews on 6 Jan 2026.
- Graeme Charlton NoneIs that within budget for next year? I mean, is it the same number or is there something coming?
- Lewis Kerr NoneGood question, and I don't want to quote from memory on anything for the renewal. What I'll say is I'll send you the renewal terms in writing well ahead of the date, with the figure and the VAT position set out, so you can put it through your budget properly. Nothing will change before then and nothing will be a surprise.
- Graeme Charlton NoneThank you. I like that. Let's keep it simple: you send it, we budget it.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThat's it. And on the other side, I'm not here to push you to buy more. You've got forty licences and you're using a fraction. The usage doesn't support an upgrade, and I wouldn't suggest one. If it grows in the way Marcus has shown, we'll revisit it, co-termed to your renewal so it's tidy.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneThat's reassuring, Lewis. What does the contract say about adding users part way through? In case it does grow faster than we expect.
- Lewis Kerr NoneYou're covered up to forty. Beyond that it would be an add-on and I'd quote it separately in writing. I'll send that over today, actually, as a note, so you've got the mechanism in front of you, not a figure. To put a number on it, I'd need to know how many and when.
- Graeme Charlton NoneNo numbers needed yet. I only want to know it exists.
- Lewis Kerr NoneUnderstood.
- Marcus Bell NoneCan I add one thing from the customer success side? Before the renewal I'd like us to get together again and look at the usage with the contract managers' own examples, so that when Graeme looks at the renewal he's got the value case already, not just numbers on a chart.
- Graeme Charlton NoneThat would help a lot. Evidence, not adjectives.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneI can help with that. I'll ask a couple of the managers to write down what they've done differently. Short, in their own words.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat would be ideal. Shall we book thirty minutes in the summer to go through it? I'll send some dates.
- Aisha Bukhari NoneYes please. Not the week of the board meeting, if Graeme's in it.
- Graeme Charlton NoneI'll be in it. Avoid that week.
- Marcus Bell NoneNoted, I'll work around the board. Ryan, anything else from you? Anything I haven't covered on admin or access?
- Ryan Heslop NoneJust the permissions question Aisha raised a while back, about seeing one trust without seeing the others. I'd like to understand what's possible. I'm not asking for it now, I just want to know before I tell anyone yes or no.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood. I'll find out properly and write it up for you rather than answer off the top of my head. I'd rather give you the right answer next week than a quick one today.
- Ryan Heslop NoneThat's fine.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. Let me recap, then. I'll send dates for a follow-up before the renewal, and I'll come back to Ryan on permissions. Lewis sends the renewal terms ahead of time, plus the note on adding users. Aisha gathers a few examples from the managers. And Ryan checks what the finance system is before we think about another connector. Have I missed anything?
- Aisha Bukhari NoneNo, I think that's all of it. Thank you, Marcus, and thanks Lewis.
- Graeme Charlton NoneThank you both. Good session. Goodbye.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThanks all. Kind regards. I'll send that over today.
- Ryan Heslop NoneCheers everyone.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, everyone. Speak soon.