What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 2025-02-03. Brimscombe agreed CRM, calls and helpdesk as the first batch, with billing held back. Siân Pritchard stressed that complaints answers must be right and that a single admin is a risk.
What happened: Callie Brennan agreed the first batch with Siân Pritchard and Nikhil Rao: CRM, call recorder and helpdesk, with the late-landing billing extract moved to a second batch. Nikhil will write the access list per source, and no credentials go by email.
Customer view: Siân treats complaints as the test case because of the regulator's response rules, and wants answers to show which records they came from. She also wants the test questions fixed in writing before the first refresh.
Commercial: Callie confirmed Enterprise at a hundred and fifteen thousand a year since 10 Jan 2025, and Siân said that matches what she was given. About six people are using it so far, so the licensed users are headroom.
Watch: Nikhil is the only admin, and a second admin was agreed in principle. The collections call-back question is left open because the source data is unproven.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Callie Brennan to send draft matching rules and the first part of the setup note by Thursday.
- Nikhil Rao to write the per-source access list by Wednesday.
- Siân Pritchard to name a second admin by the end of next week.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Nikhil Rao is the only admin, so absence or a move leaves nobody able to run the brain.
- Call recorder records match patchily to customers, and a wrong complaints answer would damage trust early.
- The collections call-back question is untested and could be overpromised.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Licensed users far exceed the roughly six active, leaving room to bring key accounts and collections teams on.
- A clean first refresh in complaints would build the value case for wider rollout.
Transcript
- Callie BrennanHello, can you hear me all right? I can see you both but I'm not sure my audio is coming through on your side.
- Siân PritchardAfternoon, Callie. Yes, loud and clear. Nikhil's just coming in, I can see him in the lobby.
- Nikhil RaoHere. Camera's off, the room's a mess. Audio fine?
- Callie BrennanPerfect. Afternoon both. Right, so, the plan for the next forty minutes or so. First, a quick look at where we are since the kickoff. Second, the access I need from your side before we switch on the refresh. Third, who owns what once I've handed over. And if there's time, the first questions you want the brain to answer, because Siân always has those ready.
- Siân PritchardI do, yes. Though I'd like the access piece first, to be honest. I don't want us talking about questions and then finding the plumbing isn't there.
- Callie BrennanThat's fine by me. Nikhil, do you want to open on that? Where have you got to?
- Nikhil RaoShort version. I've created a dedicated database inside our Snowflake account and a role for the brain. Nothing else has been granted to it yet. I checked the load history on the source side so I know which of our feeds finish before the morning and which don't.
- Callie BrennanThat's really helpful, thank you. And which don't?
- Nikhil RaoThe billing extract. It lands late on some nights. That's a schema change we made in the autumn and it's still a bit uneven. I'd not want it in the first batch.
- Callie BrennanOkay. Noted, and that maps cleanly onto how I'd order things anyway. Let me put it in the setup note so we don't lose it. So billing goes to a second batch. What's in the first?
- Siân PritchardCan I come in here? For me the first batch has to be the CRM, the call recorder and the helpdesk. Those are the three the key-account team and the complaints team live in. If I can show them one customer, one view of sites, contracts and conversations, that's the thing people will believe.
- Callie BrennanYes, I think that's right. CRM, calls and helpdesk first. Nikhil, any problem with that from the platform side?
- Nikhil RaoNot with the sources. Question is which role has access to what. Call recordings contain customer details. Collections calls especially. I'm not giving the brain a blanket read.
- Callie BrennanNo, and I wouldn't want you to. What I need from your side is a list of the objects or tables you're comfortable with, per source, written down. I never start a connector without written access, so even a short list in a shared document is fine.
- Nikhil RaoI'll write it. Not email though. I'm not putting credentials in an email thread, and I'm not sending anything that grants access that way either.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood, and agreed. The list is just the scope. The actual access we do through the grant in your Snowflake account and the secure route we set up at kickoff. Nothing sensitive travels by mail.
- Nikhil RaoGood.
- Siân PritchardCallie, while we're on scope, can I check something about the licence? We have the one hundred and eighty users on the order form. I've been telling people it's company-wide but I know we won't have a hundred and eighty people logging in on day one.
- Callie BrennanNo, and nobody expects that. The hundred and eighty is the licensed number, so it's headroom. Most customers start with a handful of people in the room, and you've got a handful, I think, from the early access you've been using.
- Siân PritchardAbout six at the moment, give or take. Mostly my team, Nikhil, and a couple from key accounts who've been very keen.
- Callie BrennanThat's a healthy start. What I'd suggest is that you don't roll out to everyone until the first refresh has landed and you've tested it with the key-account team. A bad first impression in complaints is hard to undo.
- Siân PritchardCompletely agree. Complaints is the one where I can't have a wrong answer. We've got the regulator's rules on how quickly we respond and what we have to show. If the brain says a customer rang about a bill and it missed the call, that's a deadline missed.
- Callie BrennanRight. So that tells me the call recorder connector needs the most care. Can I ask, are the recordings and the helpdesk tickets linked to the same customer identifier, or do we need to map them?
- Nikhil RaoNot the same. Helpdesk uses the contact. The CRM uses the account, and sites sit underneath that. The call recorder is matched on the phone number and an email if there is one. It's patchy.
- Siân PritchardPatchy is generous, Nikhil.
- Nikhil RaoI said what I said.
- Callie BrennanHa. Okay, so that's the main piece of mapping work then. Before we switch on the refresh I want a short list of the matching rules written down: account to site, account to contact, contact to call. I'll draft it from what I see in the sources and you two tell me where I'm wrong.
- Siân PritchardLovely. And what does the record say when two accounts are really the same business? We've got groups with several company names. A supplier to a group of garages, say, where each garage has its own account.
- Callie BrennanGood question, and I won't say it's fine until I've seen it. Can you send me two or three examples of groups like that, not the whole list? Then I can show you how the brain would roll them up and you can say whether that's how the key-account team thinks.
- Siân PritchardI can do that by Wednesday. I'll pick the awkward ones on purpose.
- Callie BrennanPlease do. The awkward ones are the useful ones.
- Nikhil RaoTiming question. When's the first refresh?
- Callie BrennanDepends on the access list and the matching rules. If I have the list by Wednesday and we agree the rules on Thursday, I'd aim to run the first load early next week, so the Monday night into Tuesday. Not on a Friday.
- Nikhil RaoGood. I don't change production on Fridays and I'd rather you didn't either.
- Callie BrennanNever would. It's also nicer to have the whole week to look at what landed.
- Siân PritchardCan I ask about what the first refresh will look like? When it's done, what will I actually see? I'd like to be able to tell my director something concrete.
- Callie BrennanYes. After the first refresh I'll give you a short note: which sources loaded, how many records came through per source, and anything that was skipped and why. Then we sit down and you ask the brain a few real questions, with Nikhil checking the answers against the source.
- Siân PritchardGood. Let's measure it before we claim it. I'd like to pick the questions beforehand so nobody can say we cherry-picked.
- Callie BrennanI like that. What would the questions be? Give me the kind of thing you'd want to ask.
- Siân PritchardThree kinds. For key accounts: which of our biggest business customers have had a complaint and a late payment in the same period. For collections: who's been promised a call back and hasn't had one. For complaints: the full history for a customer, every contact, every bill query, in date order, in one place.
- Callie BrennanThat's really clear, thank you. The first and third I'm confident about once the matching is done. The second depends on whether the call-back promise is actually recorded anywhere structured. Nikhil, is it?
- Nikhil RaoDepends. Sometimes it's a field in the CRM. Sometimes it's a note in free text. I'd have to look. I haven't tested that so I won't guess.
- Callie BrennanFair. I'll put it down as open, and I'll not promise it. If it's free text the brain can still read it, but I'd want to show you how well before I say it's reliable.
- Siân PritchardThat's the honest answer, thank you. I'd rather have it open than have somebody tell the collections team it works and then it doesn't.
- Callie BrennanAgreed. Now, one thing I do need to say clearly, and it's the contract side so just so we're all reading the same page. You're on Enterprise, a hundred and fifteen thousand a year, and it's been that since you signed on 10 Jan 2025. That includes the licence for the hundred and eighty users. Is that what you both have in your heads?
- Siân PritchardThat matches what I have. Graham signs off the money side, so I'd always check with him, but yes, that's the number I was given.
- Callie BrennanGood. Tom's your account owner and Daniel will be your customer success contact once I've handed over, so anything about the contract goes to Tom, and anything about adoption goes to Daniel.
- Nikhil RaoWho do I call when a load fails at three in the morning?
- Callie BrennanFair question. During onboarding, me. After that it's the support route, and as an Enterprise customer you've got the fastest response level we have, so you raise it as a high priority ticket and say it's a load failure. I'll put the exact steps into the handover note, so you're not relying on my memory.
- Nikhil RaoIn writing. Good.
- Siân PritchardCan we talk about admins? At the moment it's only Nikhil who really knows how it's all wired. If he's on leave, or he moves on, I don't want to be stuck.
- Nikhil RaoI'm not going anywhere. But no, she's right. One admin is a risk.
- Callie BrennanIt's one of the things I care about most, actually. I want to leave you able to run things alone, and not alone as in one person. So I'd suggest a second admin on your side. It doesn't have to be a senior person, just somebody who can see the connector status, re-run a load and read the setup note.
- Siân PritchardI could nominate someone from my team. I'd need them to have the right access though, so Nikhil, you'd have to say what that looks like.
- Nikhil RaoAdmin on the brain, not on Snowflake. Read on the load history. Nothing that changes roles. I'll define it.
- Callie BrennanPerfect. If you give me a name by the end of next week I'll include them in the walk-through, and I'd like them on the call when I hand over.
- Siân PritchardI'll find someone. I'll say it's a promotion, they don't have to know it's more work.
- Callie BrennanHa, I'll not tell them.
- Nikhil RaoBack to the matching rules for a second. If I give you the schema for the CRM and the helpdesk, do you need a sample of real data, or can you work from the structure?
- Callie BrennanStructure first. I don't need real customer data to draft the rules, and I'd rather not have it until the access is signed off. Once the first load runs inside your account, I can look at it there, under your role. It never has to leave.
- Nikhil RaoThat's how I'd want it. I'll export the schemas tomorrow.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Thank you. Siân, anything else on the scope for the first batch before I move on to the dates?
- Siân PritchardOne. The regulator side. We have to be able to show an auditor, or the regulator, how an answer was reached. If the brain tells a complaints handler something, I need to be able to say which records it came from.
- Callie BrennanYes. Answers carry the records they came from, so a handler can click back to the call or the ticket or the bill. I'll show you that in the first session so it's not just me saying it.
- Nikhil RaoAnd the documentation. If I'm asked how the data gets there, I need a page an auditor can follow. Not a slide.
- Callie BrennanThat's the setup note. Each connector gets a short section: what it reads, which role it uses, when it runs, what happens when it fails. I never hand over without it. You can tell me what's missing and I'll add it.
- Nikhil RaoGood. I'll review it properly. Don't send it Friday afternoon.
- Callie BrennanNoted. Thursday morning at the latest.
- Siân PritchardRight, so, dates. Can you read them back so I can write them down?
- Callie BrennanOf course. By Wednesday: Nikhil's written list of what the brain may read, per source, and Siân's examples of the awkward groups. Thursday: I send the draft matching rules and the first part of the setup note, and we agree the rules. Early next week, Monday night into Tuesday: first refresh. Then midweek, a session with the real questions. Does that sound right?
- Nikhil RaoWednesday for the list is fine. Billing stays out of the first batch.
- Siân PritchardFine for me. I'll also send you the questions in writing, as I said, so they're fixed before we run anything.
- Callie BrennanThat would be ideal. I'll keep them in the setup note as the test, and we can tick them off one by one.
- Siân PritchardLovely. Anything else you need from us, Callie, that you haven't asked for?
- Callie BrennanOnly one more thing, and it's more of a heads-up. Where the call recorder has more than one team's recordings, I'd like each team's visibility agreed up front, so collections can't see something that only complaints should. Can you think about that and tell me by Thursday too?
- Nikhil RaoThat's a role question. I'll draft it with Siân and give you the result.
- Siân PritchardYes. We'll sit down tomorrow. Thank you, Callie, that's a good catch.
- Callie BrennanGreat. I think that's us, then. Thanks both. Speak soon.
- Siân PritchardDiolch, Callie. Speak soon.
- Nikhil RaoCheers.