Carnmoor Fleet Leasing / BG-Demo – Exec Sponsor
Callcompleted
Carnmoor Fleet Leasing · 18 Aug 2026 10:45
Carnmoor accepted that about seven of forty Growth users are active. BG-Demo proposed Starter at £22k against £42k now. Finance Director Ian Prendergast will decide on written paper at renewal, not on the call.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Carnmoor accepted that about seven of forty Growth users are active. BG-Demo proposed Starter at £22k against £42k now. Finance Director Ian Prendergast will decide on written paper at renewal, not on the call.
What happened: Sofia Marchetti opened by naming the gap between forty licensed users and about seven active. Sophie Ling proposed Starter, and the renewal figure in BG-Demo's system was given as £22k.
Customer view: Gemma Thorne said she would probably not want Growth at forty and could fill fifteen seats with the right people. Ian said he is not agreeing a price on a call and wants it written down with the base and exclusions.
Commercial: The current contract ends on 1 Dec 2026 and BG-Demo aims to settle paper around 22 Sep 2026. Simon Achterberg, in post only a few months, will write an options paper comparing leaving it as it is, Starter, and not renewing.
Watch: Remarketing is lost in practice on Starter, and the four-connector limit is hard. Not renewing is an option in the CIO's paper.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Right-sizing Growth to Starter
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Amara Obi sends usage summary with per-connector view and a deployment, access and exit note by the end of the following week.
- Sophie Ling sends the written Starter proposal to Ian and Gemma, copying Simon, ahead of 22 Sep 2026.
- Gemma Thorne sends Amara the list of fifteen names after checking with Ian.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The CIO's options paper includes not renewing, and he is new in post and will need longer than BG-Demo would like.
- Moving from Growth to Starter cuts the contract to about half of the £41,800 now paid.
- Remarketing falls away in practice and a fifth connector would need an add-on or a higher tier.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A written Starter proposal that is candid may build trust with the Finance Director.
- Users or connectors can be added back later if remarketing makes a business case.
- A measured value case, using questions asked per review, could support the renewal.
Transcript
Sophie LingMorning, everyone. Can you all hear me alright?
Gemma ThorneLoud and clear. Morning. Simon's just joining, I think, I can see him in the lobby.
Amara ObiIan, I can see you but you're on mute.
Ian PrendergastApologies. Morning. Is that better?- Amara ObiPerfect, thanks.
Simon AchterbergGood morning, all. Sorry, I was finishing something else. Before we begin, is there an architecture diagram you can put up? I'd like to see where this sits in our target architecture.
Sofia MarchettiGood morning, Simon, and yes, we have one. Amara, can you share the one-pager? And Simon, if I can, let me say something first, because I know why this call was set up.- Simon AchterbergPlease.
- Sofia MarchettiLet's be clear about what happened. You bought Growth, for forty users, on the basis that several teams would use the brain. About seven people are using it day to day, and that is down by just under a third on the previous quarter. That is not what you paid for, and I would rather we said so openly than waited for the renewal paperwork to say it for us.
- Ian PrendergastThank you. That is rather more candid than most supplier calls.
- Sofia MarchettiI own that. Here is what we will do: we will walk through what is actually being used, and then we will put a proposal on the table that fits it. Nothing is decided today.
- Amara ObiDiagram's up. So, it's quite simple. BG-Demo runs inside your own Snowflake account. The connectors pull from your CRM, the service desk, the phone system and the mailbox into that account, and the brain sits on top. Nothing leaves your Snowflake.
- Simon AchterbergSo it is not a separate platform with its own copy of the data.
- Amara ObiCorrect. It's your account, your data, your access rules. We run the layer, you hold the data.
- Simon AchterbergGood. I have been asked to simplify the estate. One platform, not five. So my question is whether this is a sixth thing to support or a view over the thing we already have.
- Sofia MarchettiIt's a view over what you already have, and I would not pretend otherwise. If your direction is a single data platform, this is closer to a tenant on it than a competitor to it.
- Simon AchterbergMm. And who supports it at 2am?
- Sofia MarchettiFair. Support is through our helpdesk under the terms in your order form. You have had no tickets in the last month, and nothing urgent. I would not claim a named engineer at 2am, that is a separate add-on and it is not part of what you have today.
- Simon AchterbergUnderstood. I would rather you said that than the other thing.
- Ian PrendergastCan I ask the question I always ask? What has changed since the order form? Because I signed Growth, and I read it line by line, and I recall the rationale being several teams and a good deal of use.
- Gemma ThorneI can take part of that, Ian. The rationale was client services, the service desk and remarketing seeing the same picture of a client's fleet. Client services and the service desk have taken to it. Remarketing, honestly, hasn't.
- Ian PrendergastSo two of three.
- Gemma ThorneTwo of three, yes. And within those two, it's really a handful of people. Which is why I asked Amara to look at what we'd need if we were realistic about it.
- Amara ObiHere's what the numbers say. About seven active users on average over the last month. Out of forty licensed. The questions being asked are concentrated in client services, with the service desk next. The connectors people actually rely on are the CRM, the service desk, the phone system and the mailbox. The others we set up are barely touched.
- Ian PrendergastBarely touched meaning what? Unused or just quiet?
- Amara ObiLoading, but nobody querying them. I can send you the per-connector view afterwards so you can see it yourself.
- Ian PrendergastPlease do. I will want it before I take a view on anything.
- Sophie LingCan I come in here? Because this is where I'd rather be straightforward too. Our proposal is that Carnmoor keeps the client-level brain for client services and the driver service desk, but on Starter rather than Growth.
- Simon AchterbergDescribe Starter for me. What do I lose?
- Sophie LingStarter is one team scale. Fifteen named users and four connectors. So that's the CRM, the service desk, the phone system and the mailbox, which are the four Amara just listed. You keep pages, chat and search. You lose the dashboards builder and the quarterly reviews move to a six-monthly check-in.
- Gemma ThorneAnd we'd lose remarketing, in practice.
- Sophie LingIn practice, yes, unless you add users or connectors back later. That door stays open.
- Ian PrendergastRight. Show me the figure. We are currently at £41,800 a year, contracted and invoiced. What does the Starter renewal come to?
- Sophie LingThe renewal as it sits in our system is £22,000. That's the Starter list. I'd want to be careful here: I'm giving you the number as it stands, and the formal paper comes after this call.
- Ian PrendergastSo about half of what we pay now.
- Sophie LingAbout half, yes.
- Ian PrendergastI'll be plain. I'm not agreeing a price on a call, and I am not renewing anything on autopilot. Even a reduction I want to see written down, with the base, and with what is excluded.
- Sofia MarchettiThat's exactly right, and we wouldn't ask you to. We will send it in writing, with what's included, what falls away and what the terms are.
- Ian PrendergastGood. And the current term runs to 1 Dec 2026, so there is time, but not unlimited time.
- Sophie LingCorrect. The contract ends on 1 Dec 2026, and we have the renewal date on our side as 2 Dec 2026. Our aim is to have the paper settled well before that, around 22 Sep 2026.
- Simon AchterbergI will need a little longer than I'd like on my side. I don't take platform decisions without a written options paper, and I have only been in post a few months.
- Sofia MarchettiOf course. What would you want from us for that paper?
- Simon AchterbergThree things. How it is deployed in our Snowflake account, who has access to what, and what the exit looks like if we stop. I also don't take a roadmap as a commitment, so tell me what exists today.
- Amara ObiNoted. I'll pull together deployment, access and exit, and keep it to what exists today. Anything that's roadmap I'll label as such, and you can ignore it.
- Simon AchterbergThank you. That is the right way round.
- Gemma ThorneCan I show you what we actually use it for? Because I think the numbers undersell it a bit. Not the headcount, the headcount is what it is. But what it does for a review.
- Sofia MarchettiPlease. That's the most useful thing we could see.
- Gemma ThorneSharing now. Can you see it?
- Ian PrendergastI can.
- Gemma ThorneSo this is how Priti Varma prepares a client review. She's one of our corporate account managers. Before, she'd spend most of a day pulling the CRM notes, the service desk contacts, the call history and the invoices into one document. Now she starts here.
- Gemma ThorneShe picks the client, and then the fleet. That's the which client, which fleet question. Then she asks it plain questions. What has this client contacted the service desk about this quarter? What did they ask us on the phone?
- Simon AchterbergAnd the answer comes from the underlying sources, not from a summary somebody typed.
- Gemma ThorneExactly. And it links back to the source, so if Priti says something to a client, she can show where it came from. That matters because the service desk and the account manager tell the same story now. What did the client actually see, that's the thing I care about.
- Ian PrendergastWhat does that save, in time? Per review?
- Gemma ThorneI'd rather not give you a number I can't defend, Ian. Priti says it's the difference between most of a day and a morning. I've watched her do it, and I believe her. I haven't measured it formally.
- Ian PrendergastThat is a better answer than a made-up one. Could it be measured?
- Amara ObiQuestions asked per review is something I can show. Time saved you'd have to log on your side for a few reviews. I can help you set that up if you want it as part of the case.
- Ian PrendergastI might. Let me see the paper first.
- Gemma ThorneCan I show the service desk side? It's quick.
- Sofia MarchettiGo on.
- Gemma ThorneSo the desk takes a call from a driver. Previously, they'd see the driver, the vehicle, perhaps the contract. Now they can see what the account manager has agreed with the client's fleet manager, so they're not contradicting it. It's the thing that stops a driver being told one thing by us and another by the account manager.
- Simon AchterbergThat is a legitimate use. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. My concern is cost and supportability, not whether it works.
- Gemma ThorneI know. And I'd rather we were honest. If I'm paying for forty seats and using seven, that's not defensible. Fifteen named users, I can fill with proper people. I'd put the account managers who run reviews and the service desk leads on it.
- Amara ObiWho else should have access? That's my question for you, Gemma. Because fifteen is a soft limit, but I'd rather it was the right fifteen than a rough guess.
- Gemma ThorneLet me do a list. The account managers who actually run reviews, the service desk leads, a couple of people in client onboarding maybe. I'll send you names, and I'll check with Ian before anything is final.
- Ian PrendergastGood. That's how it should go.
- Simon AchterbergGemma, a direct question, and I mean it kindly. If the price were the same, would you want Growth?
- Gemma ThorneHonestly? Probably not at forty. I'd want the dashboards, because it'd be nice, but I haven't built one in months. I'd rather be right-sized and have a credible story for Ian than carry seats I don't use.
- Sofia MarchettiI want to say that's a sensible position, and it's the kind of conversation we should be having more often. Better a smaller contract that is used than a large one that isn't.
- Ian PrendergastI'd go further. From a supplier I'd trust, a smaller contract is a good sign. It tells me you are not selling me seats.
- Sophie LingAppreciated. And to be clear on one thing, because I don't want it to land later as a surprise. Moving to Starter means the quarterly reviews become a six-monthly check-in. Amara will still be your point of contact, but the rhythm changes.
- Amara ObiWhich, for the record, I'd be happy to keep a bit more regular informally for the first few months. Let's get the next check-in in the diary now, so it doesn't drift.
- Ian PrendergastIs that something I can rely on in writing, or a kindness?
- Sofia MarchettiA kindness, Ian, and I would not want you to count on it as a contract term. The contract term is the check-in. I won't promise something the paper does not provide.
- Ian PrendergastThank you. That's the answer I wanted.
- Simon AchterbergOne more architectural point. If we go down to four connectors, is there a risk that something we need ends up outside it? A fifth source, say.
- Amara ObiFour is a hard limit on Starter. If you needed a fifth, the options are more connectors as an add-on, or a higher tier. I would not squeeze one in. Better you know now that the line is there.
- Gemma ThorneFor client services, the four are enough. I've checked with the service desk. If remarketing wants in later, that's a separate conversation with Ian.
- Ian PrendergastA separate conversation with a business case attached.
- Gemma ThorneObviously. I wouldn't do it any other way.
- Simon AchterbergThen my view for now is this. I am not opposed. I would like the options paper to compare three things: leaving the brain as it is, moving to Starter, and not renewing. I will write it, and I will want your inputs to be factual.
- Sofia MarchettiThat's fair and we will make sure it is. And Simon, I'd rather you wrote it with all three honestly set out than with ours looking better than it deserves.
- Simon AchterbergThat is the intention.
- Ian PrendergastCan I ask what happens to the data, if we step down? The fleets we've loaded, the history.
- Amara ObiIt stays in your Snowflake account. What changes is what the brain is indexing and for how many connectors. The four you keep carry on as they are. The ones we switch off stop refreshing, but nothing is deleted from your account unless you ask us to.
- Ian PrendergastGood. Put that in writing as well.
- Amara ObiWill do.
- Sofia MarchettiLet me pull the next steps together, because I think we're close to it. Tell me if I've got any wrong.
- Sofia MarchettiAmara sends Ian and Simon the usage summary, with the per-connector view, and a short note on deployment, access and exit, with roadmap items clearly labelled.
- Amara ObiBy the end of next week, if that works.
- Simon AchterbergThat works.
- Sofia MarchettiSophie sends the written proposal for Starter, with what is included, what falls away and the terms. Ian, you'll have it line by line.
- Sophie LingYes. I'll send it to you and Gemma, and copy Simon, so the options paper has it to hand.
- Ian PrendergastFine. I'll take a view at renewal, not before.
- Gemma ThorneAnd I send Amara the list of fifteen names, with the service desk leads and the account managers, and I'll run it past Ian first.
- Sofia MarchettiAnd Simon writes the options paper, with our inputs as factual as we can make them. Did I miss anything?
- Ian PrendergastOnly that I'd like the whole picture before I sit down with the board, not in pieces.
- Sofia MarchettiUnderstood. Then we'll make sure it all lands together, in good time before 22 Sep 2026.
- Simon AchterbergThank you, all. This was more useful than I expected. I will send the diagram back marked up if I have comments.
- Gemma ThorneThanks, everyone. Honestly, thank you for not just trying to hold the number.
- Sofia MarchettiThat would not have been fair to you. Speak soon, all.
- Amara ObiThanks, all. Talk soon. I'll get that next check-in in the diary this afternoon.
- Ian PrendergastGood morning.
- Sophie LingCheers, everyone. Bye.
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