Carnmoor Fleet Leasing / BB-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Carnmoor Fleet Leasing · 2025-12-08 15:15
Kickoff for the Growth build on 8 Dec 2025. Gemma Thorne wants one agreed client picture and expects to be asked at year end whether it was worth it. Single sign-on is not on Growth. Kofi Asamoah is the only admin.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Kickoff for the Growth build on 8 Dec 2025. Gemma Thorne wants one agreed client picture and expects to be asked at year end whether it was worth it. Single sign-on is not on Growth. Kofi Asamoah is the only admin.
What happened: Kickoff held on 8 Dec 2025 with Gemma Thorne, Kofi Asamoah and Darren Holloway. Amara Obi confirmed the contract was signed on 2 Dec 2025 and runs to 1 Dec 2026.
Customer view: Gemma wants account managers to stop rebuilding client reviews by hand and expects to be asked whether the year was worth it. Darren Holloway wants nothing surprising on data and access.
Commercial: Darren was told single sign-on and automated provisioning are Enterprise features, and accepted a manual leaver step. That is a possible upgrade conversation later, not a request today.
Watch: Kofi has no cover as admin and the helpdesk tags are inconsistent. Both could slow the build and weaken the value case.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Growth kickoff and value test
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Hamza Akhtar sends the Snowflake roles and objects list with Darren copied, plus a sample access export.
- Kofi Asamoah names a second admin by the end of the build.
- Amara Obi sets the weekly Tuesday check-in and diarises the first quarterly review.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Kofi Asamoah is the only named admin and has no cover until a second admin is named.
- Growth has no single sign-on, so leavers rely on a manual step in the customer's own process.
- Helpdesk categories are tagged inconsistently, so early answers on that source may be unreliable.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Darren Holloway's access concerns could open an Enterprise conversation for single sign-on and provisioning later.
- Gemma Thorne's review-preparation time baseline gives a value measure to show at renewal.
Transcript
Amara Obi NoneHello, can everyone hear me all right? I can see Gemma. Kofi, you're on mute, I think.
Kofi Asamoah NoneSorry, yes. Afternoon all. I had to find a room, the open-plan floor is a nightmare on a Monday.
Gemma Thorne NoneAfternoon, Amara. Darren's just coming, he's finishing something with the network team. Two minutes.- Amara Obi NoneNo problem at all. While we wait, Hamza, you're here too, good.
Hamza Akhtar NoneAfternoon, everyone. Hamza. Can you all see my camera or is it just a grey box? Right, it's fine, ignore me.
Darren Holloway NoneSorry, sorry. Darren. IT security. I've got about fifty minutes before I'm dragged off again, so I'll try to be useful.- Gemma Thorne NoneGood, that's everyone. Thanks for making the time. I've got a client review for one of our bigger corporate fleets coming up and honestly that's why I wanted this to happen quickly.
- Amara Obi NoneLovely. Let me introduce myself properly, because we haven't all met. I'm Amara, I'm the customer success manager, so after the build I'm the person who looks after how you actually use the brain. I joined BB-Demo in October, so I'm fairly new myself, and I'll say now that I wasn't part of the sales conversations. I've read everything, though, and Sophie has handed over cleanly.
- Amara Obi NoneBefore we get into the plan, can I ask each of you what good looks like by, say, the end of the first quarter? Not the full vision, just what would make you think this was worth doing.
- Gemma Thorne NoneI'll go first. Good for me is that when an account manager sits down to prepare a client review, they don't spend two days rebuilding the picture. Fleet size, open queries from the service desk, invoices, what's going to remarketing. All in one place and everyone telling the same story.
- Gemma Thorne NoneAt the moment the service desk say one thing, the account manager has a spreadsheet that says another, and then the client says a third. Which client, which fleet, what did the client actually see? That's the question I want to answer without a meeting.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's very clear. Kofi?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneMine's more boring. One client list that matches the leasing system, and loads that finish every night without me checking. If I can stop maintaining three versions of the same client list I'll be happy.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneNot boring at all, that's most of the job. The client list is where we'll start, actually.
- Darren Holloway NoneFrom my side, good is that nothing surprising happens. I want to know where the data sits, who can see what, and that I'm not the last person to hear about a new connection. Then I'm content.
- Amara Obi NoneFair. And that's a nice one to start on, so Hamza, do you want to take the architecture bit?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneSure. So, the important thing for Darren first: the brain is built and runs inside your own Snowflake account. We don't pull your data out to a place of ours and keep a copy. Your data stays where it is, and the brain sits on top of it. Access to it is governed by the roles in your Snowflake, plus the users you add to the brain itself.
- Darren Holloway NoneRight. And who owns the Snowflake account? Is that Kofi's team or is it a platform thing?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneIt's a shared one. Platform own the account itself, I have a role in it for the MI work. I'd need to ask them for what we need to create. Which, to be honest, I'd rather do once, properly, than three times.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneAgreed. So what I'll do is send a short list of what we need: a role for the build, a warehouse, a database or schema to work in. Darren, you'd be copied, so you can see exactly what's being asked for before anyone grants it.
- Darren Holloway NoneGood. Please word it as permissions, not as a wish. If it says something like full access, it'll bounce straight back.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneUnderstood. Specific roles, specific objects.
- Amara Obi NoneCan I pull us to the shape of the whole thing? You're on Growth, so that's several teams, up to forty users and eight connectors, with the dashboards builder and a quarterly review with me. The implementation runs about eight weeks. The contract itself was signed on 2 Dec 2025, it's forty-one thousand eight hundred a year, and it runs to 1 Dec 2026. So we've got a clear year to show this is paying its way.
- Gemma Thorne NoneYes, and I'll be honest, I'll be asked at the end of that year whether it was worth it, so I'd like us to agree what we'll measure up front.
- Amara Obi NoneGood. Here's what I'd suggest. We keep it simple: how many questions your people are asking the brain, who's asking them, and which sources are actually loading. Then something of your own that's about value, not usage. Gemma, you've effectively described it. Time to prepare a client review.
- Gemma Thorne NoneYes, I can baseline that. I'll ask two of the account managers how long a review pack takes them now. Roughly. They'll hate me but it's useful.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneThey'll say a day and it'll be two.
- Gemma Thorne NoneWhich is why I'm asking, Kofi.
- Amara Obi NoneHa. Right. Let's go to the sources, because that's where the eight come from. Kofi, I know you've got a list. Can you talk us through it, and Hamza will tell you where the awkward ones are?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneYes. Okay, so in priority order, as I see it. First is the leasing system, which is the master for contracts, vehicles and drivers. Everything else hangs off that. Second is the CRM, which the corporate account managers use for the client relationship, contacts and notes. Third is the helpdesk the driver service desk works in. Fourth is the accounting system, for invoicing.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneThen there's a second tier. Email, some shared documents the account managers keep their client plans in, and the call recording the service desk uses. And there's a remarketing spreadsheet, which I don't love, but it's real.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's a good list, and a spreadsheet is fine, we've loaded worse. Can I ask which source is the one everyone trusts when two disagree?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneThe leasing system. Always. If the CRM says a client has a hundred vehicles and the leasing system says something different, the leasing system wins.
- Gemma Thorne NoneMostly. There are clients who've been renamed after a merger where the CRM is more current than the leasing system, and the service desk knows them by the old name. That's half my problem.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneThat's a mapping question, not a bug. The client has two names, we need one key. I can build a cross-reference table, it's just a job.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's exactly the kind of thing I'd want to do in the first fortnight. Get one client key that every source maps to, before we load anything clever. Otherwise the brain will cheerfully give you two answers for one client and both will sound confident.
- Gemma Thorne NoneWhich would be worse than what we have now, frankly.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes. It really would.
- Amara Obi NoneKofi, one thing before we go on. You'd be the admin, as you've been named. Is there anyone who can cover for you if you're away, or on holiday, or just off sick?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneNot really. There's an analyst in my team who could, with a bit of training. I hadn't thought about it formally.
- Amara Obi NoneI'd suggest you do. A second admin is the single best protection for a new account. If one person holds every mapping in their head and they're away when a load fails, you lose a week. Let's put a name down by the end of the build.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneFair. I'll ask. Gemma, are you happy with that?
- Gemma Thorne NoneYes. Just tell me if you're changing a mapping, don't surprise me. I'd rather know before a client does.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneAlways. I'll tell you before, not after.
- Darren Holloway NoneCan I come in on access, then? Because forty users is a lot of people to give a front door to. How do they log in?
- Amara Obi NoneOn Growth, users have their own logins to the brain. Single sign-on and the automated user provisioning come with Enterprise, so that's not part of what you have today. I'd rather say that plainly than have you assume it.
- Darren Holloway NoneRight. That isn't what I wanted to hear, but I'd rather know now. Is there a way to deal with leavers? Because without single sign-on, that's where it goes wrong. Someone leaves, their account lingers.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThere's an admin screen where Kofi can disable a user, and there's an access list you can export. So the practical answer is a leaver step in your own process. When HR or IT closes someone's account, one line in the checklist says remove from the brain. It's manual, I won't pretend otherwise.
- Darren Holloway NoneManual is fine if it's written down and someone reviews it. I'd want a quarterly check of the user list against the joiners and leavers report. Can I have that export format in advance so I can see if it's usable?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes. I'll send a sample with the access list column names. Nothing real in it, obviously.
- Amara Obi NoneAnd Darren, who else should have access, from your side? Not as a user. As a reviewer. I'd like you to be able to see what's connected without having to ask Kofi each time.
- Darren Holloway NoneI'd like that, yes. Read-only, if it exists.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneIt does. I'll set you up as a viewer on the admin side.
- Gemma Thorne NoneCan I ask something slightly different? The driver data. Names, addresses, licence details for the drivers on client fleets. Is that all going into the brain? Because I'm wary. The corporate clients would have views.
- Darren Holloway NoneYes, I was going to ask. It's personal data and some of it is quite sensitive. Licence points and so on.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood question, and the answer is: only what you choose to load. When we configure each connector we pick the tables and fields. If the brain doesn't need licence details to answer a question about fleet and invoices, we don't bring them in. We can start narrow and widen later. It's much easier than the other way round.
- Darren Holloway NoneI'd start narrow. Names and the vehicle they're assigned, maybe. Nothing about licence checks, nothing about incidents, until we've thought about it.
- Gemma Thorne NoneThat's fine for the service desk. They need to know who's calling about which car. They don't need the rest.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneI'll mark the fields up. I can do a column list for the leasing system by Friday, with a yes or no on each, and you two can argue about the maybes.
- Darren Holloway NoneSend it to me first, then Gemma. I'll mark what I'd resist and you'll have a view of the real conversation.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneFine. Cheers.
- Amara Obi NoneHamza, can you go through the sequence of the build? I think people would like to see where their own bit falls.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneOf course. So in rough weeks. The first fortnight is groundwork: the Snowflake roles, the client key, the field lists we've just been talking about. Nothing flashy. The first connector, which I'd suggest is the leasing system, goes live at the end of that, and we check the numbers against something Kofi already trusts.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThen the CRM and the helpdesk in the next few weeks, because those are what Gemma's teams will actually notice. The accounting system after that. The second tier, email, documents, recordings, in the back half, once the core is stable. Then dashboards and training, and the last week is the handover and a proper check that the nightly refresh is finishing when it should.
- Gemma Thorne NoneAnd when do my account managers see anything? Because if it's six weeks of nothing, they'll have given up.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneFair. Once the leasing system and CRM are both in, so that's a few weeks, we can do a small pilot. Two or three account managers, one or two clients each, and see if the answers match what they know. I'd rather they find the gaps than we do.
- Gemma Thorne NoneI'll choose them. I want sceptics, not fans. Fans will tell me it's brilliant.
- Amara Obi NoneLove that. Sceptics tell you what's broken.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneOne question on the nightly load. When does it run? Because our leasing system does its own overnight batch and I don't want us reading half-finished data.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood one, that's exactly the thing. The refresh is meant to be complete by 07:00 your local time on business days. What we do is schedule our load after your batch finishes, not on a fixed clock. So you need to tell me when yours normally ends, and how much variation there is.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneI'll check last night's, and the few before. I think it's usually done well before five but there's one day a month, month end, where it overruns.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneMonth end is the one that bites. Can you get me a couple of months of finish times, if the batch logs hold them?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneThey do. I'll pull them.
- Amara Obi NoneLet me do users, because that's my area. You've got forty licensed. Gemma, who are you picturing? Roughly.
- Gemma Thorne NoneCorporate account managers, the service desk team leaders, a couple of people in remarketing, Kofi and his team. And me. I'd say thirty, to start. The service desk agents themselves, I'm not sure. They've got a lot of screens already.
- Amara Obi NoneLet's not give everyone a login for the sake of it. Start with the people who'll ask real questions in the first month, and add as you see demand. Forty is the number you're licensed for, and a handful of unused seats in the first weeks isn't a problem.
- Amara Obi NoneWhat I will do, and I'll be straightforward about this, is look at who's actually asking questions after the first few weeks and tell you. If a handful of people are doing everything, that's a risk and I'll say so, rather than wait for a review.
- Gemma Thorne NoneGood. I'd rather have that early. And I'll nominate someone from the service desk who's good with people, a sort of local champion, so it isn't just me beating a drum.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneIf it's Priya, she'll be good. Sorry, I shouldn't name people.
- Gemma Thorne NoneIt's fine, I'm thinking of someone else anyway. We'll sort it offline.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneCan I go back to Darren for a second? There's the security review side. You're on Growth so there isn't a formal security review as part of it, but I'm very happy to answer a questionnaire or sit with you for an hour on how it's put together.
- Darren Holloway NoneI'll send a short list. Not a forty-page thing, I promise. Where the data is, how credentials are stored, who at BB-Demo can see anything in our account, and how you'd tell us if something went wrong.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneReasonable questions, all of them. I'll answer them in writing so you've got a record, rather than only on a call.
- Darren Holloway NoneThanks. That's what I'd prefer. If it's written it can go in the file.
- Amara Obi NoneAnd on the service side, since you asked how you'd be told. If there's a problem with the brain, you raise a ticket and on Growth the first response target for a priority one is one business hour. Availability is 99.5% in the contract. I'd rather you knew the numbers than took my word.
- Darren Holloway NoneGood, that's what I wanted to hear. Specific.
- Gemma Thorne NoneCan I ask about dashboards? Because the builder was part of what we bought, and the account managers always want a chart. I want them to start from one agreed picture of a client, not build their own forty.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, and that's a very sensible worry. What tends to work is that we build a small number of shared ones with you, a client overview, an open queries view, an invoice and arrears view, and then people can build their own on top once they've seen the shared ones. We can also lock down who can publish, so the shared ones stay shared.
- Gemma Thorne NoneLock down, please. I'm one of the people who would end up with forty.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneShe's right. It'll be forty.
- Gemma Thorne NoneThank you, Kofi.
- Amara Obi NoneOkay, let me do the rhythm of how we work together, because it's what I'm responsible for. During the build, Hamza's your day to day. I'd like a short weekly check-in, thirty minutes, the same slot, so there's always a place to raise things. I'll join the first few and then step back unless something needs me.
- Gemma Thorne NoneThirty minutes is right. Anything longer and it turns into a meeting about the meeting. Could it be mornings, though? Afternoons I'm usually with clients.
- Amara Obi NoneMornings are fine. Let's say early in the week and I'll send the invite today. Hamza?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneTuesday mornings suit me. Monday I'm normally tidying up from the week before.
- Gemma Thorne NoneTuesday, then. Kofi, you can make Tuesdays?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneYes. Not if it's before nine, but otherwise fine.
- Amara Obi NoneNot before nine. Noted. And after go-live, Growth includes a quarterly review with me, so we'll sit down and I'll bring the numbers: questions asked, who's asking, which connectors are loading, anything that's gone quiet. Here's what the numbers say, then what to do about it.
- Gemma Thorne NoneGood. I like a review that starts from the figures.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneCan I raise one practical thing before we finish? The helpdesk. There's an old category structure that nobody uses properly, so queries are tagged inconsistently. If we load that as it is, the brain will be learning from rubbish tags.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's useful to know now. It doesn't stop us loading it, but I wouldn't want the early answers to depend on those tags. We can lean more on the text of the query and the client key. Can you send me a sample of the categories as they stand?
- Kofi Asamoah NoneI'll export a month's worth. It'll be messy.
- Gemma Thorne NoneWhich is partly my fault, I'll own that. The service desk uses what works in the moment. Let's get the service desk in on this, once Hamza has seen it, and agree five or six categories that mean something.
- Amara Obi NoneThat's a really good use of the pilot, actually. You find the data you don't trust before a client does.
- Darren Holloway NoneJust before I have to go. Where do we log changes to what's connected? If a new source gets added in month four, who approves it?
- Amara Obi NoneI'd suggest this. Any new connector or any widening of fields gets a short note from Kofi to you, Darren, and Gemma, and nothing goes live until you've both said yes. Hamza and I will keep our own record of what's connected and we can send it to you each quarter.
- Darren Holloway NoneThat works. Thank you. I'll drop off, I'm sorry, I've got a call. Send me the roles list and I'll turn it round quickly.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThis week. Thanks, Darren.
- Gemma Thorne NoneThanks, Darren.
- Amara Obi NoneRight, that's most of it. Let's just land the actions, because there were a few. Hamza, you'll send the Snowflake roles and objects list to Kofi, with Darren copied, and the sample access export. This week?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, by Wednesday. I'll also send a one-page connector checklist, so Kofi can see what I'll need for each source, and the answers to Darren's questions once he's sent them.
- Amara Obi NoneKofi, you'll pull the column list for the leasing system, the batch finish times, a month of helpdesk categories. And put a name forward for a second admin.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneColumn list by Friday, the rest early next week. Second admin I'll raise with my manager. I'll tell you who.
- Amara Obi NoneGemma, you've got the baseline for how long a review pack takes, the pilot account managers, and the local champion on the service desk.
- Gemma Thorne NoneYes. Three things. And I'll flag to the account managers that something's coming so it doesn't land cold. Can I ask, is there a short note I can send them? Two lines, no jargon.
- Amara Obi NoneI'll draft it and send it over today, you edit it to sound like you. Then I'll send the Tuesday invite, and I'll get the first quarterly review in the diary, so it's not a surprise in the summer.
- Gemma Thorne NonePerfect. I think that's the first time a kickoff has finished with everyone knowing what they're doing.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGive it a week.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneHa. Yes.
- Amara Obi NoneAnything anyone wants to add that we haven't covered? Gemma, anything on your mind for the review you mentioned at the start?
- Gemma Thorne NoneIt's for a fleet we've had a long time and they're a bit unhappy about invoice queries taking too long. I won't be able to use the brain for that one, it won't be live. But it's the kind I want to be able to prepare in an hour next time. So that's my test.
- Amara Obi NoneThen that's our test as well. Thank you all. Speak on Tuesday.
- Gemma Thorne NoneThanks, everyone. Bye.
- Kofi Asamoah NoneCheers. Bye.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneBye, all.
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