Brimscombe Energy / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Brimscombe Energy · 14 Aug 2026 12:45
Siân Pritchard says the question is value, not payment: about forty daily users against a hundred and eighty licences, and two high priority tickets in a month. She wants a measured case before the 10 Jan 2027 renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Siân Pritchard says the question is value, not payment: about forty daily users against a hundred and eighty licences, and two high priority tickets in a month. She wants a measured case before the 10 Jan 2027 renewal.
What happened: On 14 Aug 2026 Siân was direct that the team's experience is mixed. Usage has crept up but is about a fifth of the licence, and four tickets in a month included two high priority.
Customer view: Complaint deadlines are set by Ofgem, so a slow answer is a compliance problem for her. Finance pay on time and nothing is overdue.
Commercial: The Enterprise order form is £120k a year and the invoices match. The term runs to 9 Jan 2027, with renewal on 10 Jan 2027, and she must justify it to her budget holder.
Watch: Daniel will check first response times against the Enterprise service level and the 07:00 refresh for freshness credits. Admin cover is thin, with Siân and one other.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value case, ticket timings, adoption
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor to send Siân a note early the following week with timings for all four tickets and the 07:00 freshness check.
- Daniel Okafor to pull questions asked by team and month against last year, and who is asking.
- Siân Pritchard to ask IT what has changed since June and to nominate a third admin.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Siân cannot yet show a before and after, so the budget holder may see the renewal as poor value.
- Two high priority tickets touch Ofgem complaint deadlines and could hurt adoption if response times missed the Enterprise service level.
- Only two admins exist, and the evidence does not show who covers when Siân is away.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A working session with collections and its manager could widen active use within the Enterprise licence.
- The on-site training day add-on was raised, though Siân wants to see numbers first.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Siân, good afternoon. Thank you for making the time on a Friday, I know it's a funny slot straight after lunch. It looks like it's just the two of us today, is that right, or are you expecting anyone else to join?
Siân PritchardAfternoon, Daniel. Just me, yes. I did ask one of the team lead colleagues if they wanted to sit in but they're buried in a deadline. Can you hear me all right? I've had the headset on and off all morning.- Daniel OkaforLoud and clear. And I can see you, so that's a good sign. How's the week been? Is it still grey over there in Gloucester?
- Siân PritchardGrey and damp, yes. Properly August in Wales and England both. It's been a long week, if I'm honest, but let me start where I usually start, which is what the teams have been asking the brain, because that's the real test.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do. I always like hearing that part.
- Siân PritchardSo this week the key account people were asking about the sites and contracts behind a couple of the larger business customers, trying to see everything for one customer in one place. Collections were asking about bills and what had been said on the calls around them. And the complaints team were checking history before drafting replies. All the usual things. Which is good, that's what we bought it for. One customer, one view.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely to hear, and it's exactly the picture we hoped for when you first came on in January of last year. How is the team finding it, day to day? Not the headline, the texture of it.
- Siân PritchardMm. Mixed, Daniel. And that's partly why I wanted to use this call properly rather than just tick it off. Can I be direct?
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Please be as direct as you like. I'd much rather hear it from you now.
- Siân PritchardRight. So I've had a look at the usage on my side, the admin view. We're licensed for a hundred and eighty people and the number actually logging in and asking things, on an average day, sits at around forty. It has crept up a little on the last quarter, and I don't want to be unfair, that's the right direction. But it's still about a fifth of the people we're paying for. And I've got to be able to explain that.
- Daniel OkaforYes. I see the same number on our side. Around forty active, a touch up on the quarter before. I won't dress it up. It's steady and it's not where either of us would want it to be against the licence. Who is it that you have to explain it to, if you don't mind me asking?
- Siân PritchardThe budget holder, on our side. I never go around them on money, and quite right, so when the renewal comes up in the new year I want to be walking in with something I can measure, not something I believe. Let's measure it before we claim it. At the moment I can show a lot of anecdotes and I can't show a clean before and after.
- Daniel OkaforThat seems entirely fair to me. And just so we're on the same page about the shape of the contract: you're on Enterprise, the order form is a hundred and twenty thousand five hundred pounds a year, £120,500, and the invoices match that. The term runs to 9 Jan 2027, with the renewal falling on 10 Jan 2027.
- Siân PritchardYes, that's what I have as well. And nothing is overdue, before you say it. Finance have paid on time, every time. So this isn't about money, it's about whether it's worth it. I'd rather say that plainly than have you wondering.
- Daniel OkaforI appreciate that, and I agree, it's a value question rather than a payment question. Those are different conversations and I'd rather have the right one. Can I come back to the licence number in a moment? You said you had two things on your mind, and I think the other was the tickets.
- Siân PritchardThe tickets, yes. We've raised four in the last month or so, and two of those were marked high priority. Now, four isn't many for a company our size, but two high priority in a month is two more than I'd like. And one of them landed at a bad moment for us.
- Daniel OkaforMm. Go on.
- Siân PritchardWell, the complaints team work to deadlines that aren't ours. Ofgem sets them. If an answer is late going out, because the brain was slow or the data wasn't there, that isn't an inconvenience, that's a compliance problem. I never let a complaint deadline slip, and I don't want to be put in the position where a tool makes me. So when something high priority is open, I feel it in my stomach, Daniel. I'll be honest about that.
- Daniel OkaforYes. I understand, and I'm sorry that it's been that kind of month. Let me say what I can say with confidence, and then what I can't. The two high priority ones, I've looked at the timings and the first responses against the Enterprise service level, and I'd want to go through them with you properly rather than from memory on a call. Is that all right?
- Siân PritchardI'd prefer that, actually. What does the record say? That's what I want. Not a feeling from either side.
- Daniel OkaforExactly. So what I'll do is pull the timestamps for all four, when each was raised, when we first responded, when it was resolved, and put them in front of you in plain terms. Just to close the loop on both of the high priority ones. I'll come back to you by early next week with that.
- Siân PritchardEarly next week is fine. Thank you.
- Daniel OkaforAnd while I'm doing that, I'd like to look at whether the pattern is a one-off or whether it's a sign of something underneath, a source system that's changed or a connector that's not behaving. If it's the second, I'd rather we found it together than have it turn up in the middle of a complaint.
- Siân PritchardGood, that's helpful. Because one thing I can't tell from where I sit is whether the answers are stale. People say to me, oh, it didn't know about that, and I don't know if it's the question, the data, or them. So whatever you can show me on that, I'd welcome.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good distinction to draw, and it's one we should be able to answer. The nightly refresh is meant to be complete by seven in the morning on business days, and on Enterprise that's something you're credited for if it's missed, as well as availability. So I can check the refresh times against that for the last month and tell you straight.
- Siân PritchardRight, yes, I'd forgotten the freshness part was in there. Good. Put that in the same note, would you?
- Daniel OkaforI will. Same note, so you have one document and not three.
- Siân PritchardLovely. Now, the other thing. Back to the forty and the hundred and eighty. You said you'd come back to it.
- Daniel OkaforI did, and I haven't forgotten. So, my honest read. A gap like that usually isn't about the product failing. It's usually that certain teams have taken to it and others haven't had a reason to, or haven't had anyone sit with them. Do you have a sense of which teams the forty come from?
- Siân PritchardRoughly. Key accounts, definitely. Complaints, fairly well. Collections is patchier than I'd like, and there are others, commercial and customer service, where it's a handful of people at most. I've not cut it properly by team, which is a gap in my own homework, I'll admit.
- Daniel OkaforNo, I wouldn't call it a gap, it's a thing we can do for you. I can pull the questions asked by team and by month, and the same for the same months last year, so we can see the trajectory and not just the level. And I'd want to look at who is asking, too. If a large share of the questions comes from a very small number of people, that's worth knowing for different reasons.
- Siân PritchardKey person risk, yes. I had that thought too, and I didn't want to say it out loud. If it's mostly me and two or three others, that's a very different story to tell, and I'd sooner know.
- Daniel OkaforAnd you may be right to want to know. Though I'd add, you're a great advert for it, Siân. You've been talking about the brain at events, and people hear that.
- Siân PritchardI have, and that's exactly why I'm careful. I'm not going to stand on a stage and claim something I can't evidence. If the number's forty, I'll say it's forty and here's what we're doing about it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good line, honestly. Can I suggest what we might do about it? Tell me if it's too much.
- Siân PritchardGo on.
- Daniel OkaforI'd rather not do a big, general training session. People switch off. What tends to work is picking one or two teams where there's a clear job to be done, collections or the complaints drafting, say, and working through their real questions with them. On their own customers, on their own data. We can do that on a call, or if you wanted something in person, there is an on-site training day as an add-on, which we can talk about separately.
- Siân PritchardOn-site is worth thinking about, but I'm wary of spending anything before I've seen the numbers. Let's start with the calls. Could you do one with collections? They're the ones I'm least sure about, and their manager is open to it, I think.
- Daniel OkaforHappily. And the manager coming along is half of it. If someone senior in the team is seen asking it a question in front of everyone, that does more than anything I can say.
- Siân PritchardYes. That's true. I've seen it with key accounts, once the lead started using it in the weekly meeting, the others followed within a fortnight. Not a month, a fortnight.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is encouraging, because it means the product isn't the barrier. It's habit. And habit we can work on.
- Siân PritchardMm. Though I'd say the tickets don't help with habit. If somebody's had a bad experience with a slow answer on a Tuesday, they're not going to try it again on a Wednesday. They go back to the spreadsheet.
- Daniel OkaforI know. And I think that's the fair thing to say about the tickets, they're not just an operational matter, they're an adoption matter. Which is why I'd like to get to the bottom of those two before anything else.
- Siân PritchardGood. Then I think we're agreed on that.
- Daniel OkaforCan I ask you something a bit different? When you imagine walking into the renewal conversation in the new year, and it goes well, what are the two or three things you'd want to be able to say?
- Siân PritchardHm. That's a better question than I was expecting. Let me think.
- Daniel OkaforTake your time.
- Siân PritchardI think, one, that complaint responses are going out on time, and that we can show how long it takes to assemble the history for a complaint now, compared with before. That's the thing I care about most, and I don't have the before number, which is annoying. Two, that the key account team can see a customer's sites, contracts, calls and bills without asking three other departments. And three, that more people use it than do now, in the teams where it matters. Not all hundred and eighty. I don't need all hundred and eighty. But a number I can defend.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a very clear list. Can I read it back, just to be sure I've got it? Complaint turnaround with a before and after, the one-view for key accounts, and a defensible number of active people where it matters.
- Siân PritchardYes. That's it.
- Daniel OkaforThen here's my honest position on the first one. I can't give you the before number from our data, because we weren't there measuring how long people spent assembling things by hand. What we can do is measure what it looks like now, from the questions asked and the time to answer, and then you and your complaints lead can say from experience how long it used to take. Put the two side by side. It won't be perfect but it will be honest.
- Siân PritchardThat works for me. Honest and imperfect beats tidy and invented. I'd rather have it that way. And I can ask the complaints lead to put a rough figure on the old way, from their own memory and from a sample of cases.
- Daniel OkaforGood. That's the kind of thing that carries weight with a budget holder, too, because it comes from the people doing the work.
- Siân PritchardExactly. Now, can I ask you about the contract side, so I'm not caught out? What happens between now and January? I don't want surprises in either direction.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. So, the order form runs to 9 Jan 2027, and the renewal date is 10 Jan 2027. Ahead of that I send the formal renewal notice, which is part of my job as your CSM, and then we have the renewal conversation itself. I'd want us to have the usage and ticket picture settled well before that notice goes out, so that the notice isn't the first time anyone sees the numbers.
- Siân PritchardI like that. So the order of play is, you give me the ticket timings and the freshness check, then the usage by team, then we look at it together, and only then the formal notice.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly the order I'd choose. And I'd rather not guess at exact dates for the later steps when some of them depend on what we find. I'll commit to the first note early next week, and then I'll come back to you on the rest once I've seen it.
- Siân PritchardFair enough. I'd rather you didn't promise what you can't see yet.
- Daniel OkaforWell, it wouldn't be much of a promise then. Is there anything about the price or the terms that's worrying you, while we're on it? I don't want to leave a question hanging.
- Siân PritchardNot specifically. It's a hundred and twenty thousand five hundred a year and I know what it covers. If I'm uneasy, it's not about the number as such, it's about whether I can justify the number against what I can show. If I can show the value, the figure takes care of itself. If I can't, any figure looks too big.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a very sensible way to put it. And it's why I'd rather spend the next few weeks on the evidence than on anything commercial.
- Siân PritchardAgreed. Is there anything on your side that you wanted to raise? I've done a lot of the talking.
- Daniel OkaforA little. I wanted to ask about the connectors. Has anything changed on your side with the systems feeding the brain in recent weeks? A migration, a new version, someone changing a setting? Those are often what's behind a rough patch, and nobody means any harm.
- Siân PritchardHm. Not that I've been told, but I wouldn't necessarily be told. IT make changes and I hear about them afterwards, sometimes weeks afterwards. I could ask. Would it help if I got someone from IT on a short call with you?
- Daniel OkaforIt really would, if they have a few minutes. Even just a list of what's changed since June would let me line it up against the ticket times. I'm not trying to point at anyone, I just want to see whether the dates line up.
- Siân PritchardNo, I understand. I'll ask a colleague in IT this afternoon and come back to you. If they say yes, I'll send you a couple of times that suit them.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. Thank you. That would help a great deal.
- Siân PritchardCan I also ask about the admin side? We're a bit thin there, I think. Me, and one other person who does the admin when I'm out. If I'm away for a few weeks, which I'm planning to be at some point, is that enough?
- Daniel OkaforIt's a good thing to ask, and it's a thing I worry about for lots of customers. Two is workable, but it does mean that if one of you is out, the other is carrying it alone. I'd gently suggest we name a third person, perhaps someone from the data side who is comfortable with the connectors. It doesn't cost anything, and it protects you if people move on or take leave.
- Siân PritchardYes. Yes, I should do that. I've been putting it off. Let me think about who, and I'll let you know.
- Daniel OkaforNo rush on that one. It's more of a tidy-up than an emergency.
- Siân PritchardGood. I'll admit I feel slightly better having said all of this out loud. I'd been carrying it around for a week, wondering whether I was being unreasonable.
- Daniel OkaforYou're not being unreasonable at all. You're doing exactly what a careful owner of a platform like this should do: looking at the evidence and asking what it's worth. And I'd rather have a customer who asks me hard questions than one who goes quiet.
- Siân PritchardWell, I'll never go quiet, you know that. Right. Let me try to say back what I think we've agreed, because I'll need to tell my own people.
- Daniel OkaforPlease. Go ahead.
- Siân PritchardOne, you send me a note early next week with the timings on all four tickets, the two high priority ones in particular, and the freshness check against seven in the morning. Two, you pull questions asked by team and by month, this year against last, and who's asking. Three, I speak to IT about what's changed and about a call with you. Four, we set up a session with collections, with their manager in the room. And five, I think about a third admin.
- Daniel OkaforThat's all of it, and better organised than my own notes. I'd only add that I'll send you a couple of options for the collections session once I know when their manager is free. If you can give me a steer on that, it saves us a round of emails.
- Siân PritchardI'll ask them today. I'll say it's a working session on their own customers, not a presentation, and they'll be much happier.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly how I'd put it. And then once we've all seen the numbers, you and I can sit down and decide what to say to the budget holder. Not before, as you said. Measure it first.
- Siân PritchardMeasure it first. Yes. Thank you, Daniel. I know I came in with a long face but I think this has been useful.
- Daniel OkaforIt's been very useful for me. Honestly, just to close the loop, I'd rather hear all of this on a Friday afternoon than discover it in the autumn. You've been with us since 10 Jan 2025 and I want it to be a good second year as much as the first.
- Siân PritchardThat's kind of you. And it was a good first year, I should say. I haven't lost sight of that. The complaints work in particular was a real step forward, I just need to be able to prove it.
- Daniel OkaforThen let's go and prove it. Is there anything else you wanted to cover while we have the time? We've got a few minutes left.
- Siân PritchardOnly a small one. If I wanted to show the regulator-facing people how the history is assembled for a complaint, would you be able to give me a short walkthrough I could share internally? Nothing fancy. Just so the new starters know where to look.
- Daniel OkaforI can do that, and it's a good idea for new starters generally. I'll put together a short walkthrough using your own screens and share it with the note next week, or just after it, depending on how the timings go. I'd rather get the ticket answers to you first.
- Siân PritchardTicket answers first, absolutely. The walkthrough can follow.
- Daniel OkaforWonderful. Well, thank you again, Siân, for being so open about it. I'll send a short written summary of today after the call so that we both have the same list.
- Siân PritchardPlease do. And I'll send the IT times and the collections steer as soon as I have them. I'll try to do it before the end of the day, otherwise Monday.
- Daniel OkaforEither is fine. Have a good weekend. Do something that isn't a spreadsheet.
- Siân PritchardHa. I'll try. There's a garden that needs sorting before the rain comes in, so that's my afternoon plan, once I've got through the inbox. You have a good weekend too, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforThank you. Speak very soon. Best wishes.
- Siân PritchardDiolch, Daniel. Speak soon. Bye for now.
- Daniel OkaforBye, Siân.
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