Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 13 May 2024 15:30
Discovery call on 13 May 2024. Craig and Valerie want unrecorded site variations and client history visible across three teams. Growth was pencilled with implementation included, but any purchase needs board approval.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Discovery call on 13 May 2024. Craig and Valerie want unrecorded site variations and client history visible across three teams. Growth was pencilled with implementation included, but any purchase needs board approval.
What happened: Priya Raman ran a discovery call on 13 May 2024 with Craig Ashwell and Valerie Okon. The problem is unrecorded site variations and cash, spread across mailboxes, spreadsheets and the accounting system.
Customer view: Craig wants variations recorded before work is done and a view of client history before pitching. Valerie wants valuations paid on time and cannot sign anything new without the board.
Commercial: Priya pencilled the Growth tier at about fifty-one thousand six hundred pounds including implementation, the total for the deal and not the annual subscription. Valerie will check whether the company has a Snowflake account and tell Priya the board dates.
Watch: Only one client's data will be shared until the board has seen it. The 9 Aug 2024 target depends on board dates Valerie would not promise.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Variations and cash visibility
Importance
neutral
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- Priya Raman to send a short list of what to share and a note splitting implementation from subscription.
- Valerie Okon to check for a Snowflake account, arrange IT attendance and give the board meeting dates.
- Craig Ashwell to supply a sample of the landlord project so the demo can be loaded.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Nothing new can be signed without board approval, and Valerie would not commit to a board date.
- The company may not have a Snowflake account, which would add setup to the plan.
- Variations that exist only in someone's head cannot be found by the brain, and some spreadsheets sit on laptops.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Growth tier fits several teams: project, commercial and credit control.
- A demo on the landlord job and one client's accounts could show variations and invoices side by side.
Transcript
Priya RamanHello, hello. Can you hear me alright, Craig?
Craig AshwellLoud and clear. Valerie's just dialling in, she's finishing something.- Priya RamanNo problem at all, happy to wait a minute. How's your Monday been?
- Craig AshwellBusy. Rained all morning, which does not help a fit-out when the delivery bay is outside. But we're getting there.
Valerie OkonSorry. Good afternoon. Can you both hear me?- Priya RamanGood afternoon, Valerie, yes, perfectly. Thanks for making the time, both of you. I know it's a long slot, forty-five minutes.
- Valerie OkonBefore we start, can I ask how you invoice? Is it all up front, or is the implementation separate from the subscription?
- Priya RamanHa, straight in. Fair question, and I'll come to it properly. Short version: there's a one-off fixed fee for the implementation, then an annual subscription, billed in advance. Quarterly if that suits you better. Thirty-day terms. But let me do a quick recap first, if that's alright, so we're all starting from the same place.
- Valerie OkonPlease.
- Priya RamanSo, Craig and I spoke a couple of weeks ago, and where we got to is this. You're a fit-out contractor, offices and retail, landlords and corporate tenants, London and the Thames Valley. You've got project teams, a commercial team and credit control, and each of them sees the client through a different window. Today is about understanding that properly. Then, if it makes sense, we show you the brain on your own data, and we're aiming to have something agreed by Friday 9 August 2024. That's the shape. Does that sound right?
- Craig AshwellThat's right. Can I start with the one that's keeping me awake?
- Priya RamanPlease, go on.
- Craig AshwellWe've got a floor of offices for a landlord client. Big job. The client's representative has asked for three changes on site since we started. Verbal, mostly, one by email. Where's the variation? I couldn't tell you, standing here, which ones are signed. The site manager knows. The quantity surveyor knows. I don't, and I'm the commercial director.
- Priya RamanRight. And where would you look to find out?
- Craig AshwellHa. Mailboxes. Three mailboxes, minimum. A spreadsheet the surveyor keeps. Call notes, if somebody wrote them up. And then what has the client signed? Nobody can say without a day of digging.
- Valerie OkonAnd what we have not signed, we do not get paid for. That is my concern. When will that be paid? I cannot answer that if the variation is unrecorded.
- Craig AshwellShe's right. Work done, no paper, then it's a conversation at the end of the job and the client's a bit cooler by then.
- Priya RamanMm. That's a very common pattern, actually. The work moves faster than the paperwork. Valerie, from your side, what does it look like? What's outstanding by client, how do you get that view today?
- Valerie OkonFrom the accounting system. Invoices, valuations, retentions. It is accurate for what has been raised. It tells me nothing about what ought to have been raised. And it tells me nothing about whether the client is unhappy. Credit control chase on the date. They do not know the project.
- Craig AshwellWhich is the bit I hate. We chase a client on an invoice and the project team are mid-argument with the same client about a defect. Same client, two conversations, nobody talking to each other.
- Priya RamanYeah. Right. So that's really the heart of it. Let me say how the brain tackles that, and then I want to dig into your systems. Is that okay?
- Craig AshwellGo.
- Priya RamanB-Glass is one layer over your CRM, your calls, emails, tickets, finance data, whatever you connect. It's built and run inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your control. Then anyone can ask it a question in plain English. Something like, show me everything about this client: open variations, last three conversations, what's invoiced, what's overdue. And it answers from your own records, with the source next to it.
- Valerie OkonInside our Snowflake account. Do we have one?
- Priya RamanThat's the question I was going to ask you.
- Craig AshwellI honestly don't know. Valerie?
- Valerie OkonI would not assume so. A colleague in IT would know. I will ask.
- Priya RamanPerfect, no worry either way. If it's a new account, that just becomes part of the plan. Marcus Bell, who'd be your customer success manager after go-live, has done that setup a good few times.
- Craig AshwellSo what would it actually read? Our CRM, yes. Our mailboxes, I suppose?
- Priya RamanYes. Now let me ask the other way round, because it'll tell me what to scope. What do your teams use day to day? Roughly, don't need the product names. Where does a variation live, where does a call note live?
- Craig AshwellRight. So. The CRM holds the clients and the bids. Not very well, mind. Salespeople fill it in when they feel like it. The project teams don't touch it. They use a project spreadsheet per job and email. The surveyor has his own workbook for valuations. Then the accounting system for invoices.
- Valerie OkonAnd call recordings, we do not really have. People ring clients from their mobiles.
- Priya RamanOkay. So honestly, your main sources are the CRM, the mailboxes, the accounting system, and then documents. Are the spreadsheets sitting in a shared drive, or on people's laptops?
- Craig AshwellMostly the shared drive. Mostly. Some are on laptops, I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
- Priya RamanThat's fine, that's normal. The laptop ones are a conversation about habit, not technology. We'd start with what's shared.
- Valerie OkonMay I ask about the cost now? I would rather know the order of magnitude before we spend more of your time.
- Priya RamanOf course, and thank you, that's a sensible way to do it. Based on what I've heard, the tier that fits is Growth. Several teams, forty users, eight connectors, the dashboards builder, and a review with us every quarter. Where we've pencilled it is around fifty-one thousand six hundred all-in, implementation included. That's the total for the deal, not the annual subscription on its own. I'd want to firm it up once we've counted connectors and users.
- Valerie OkonFifty-one thousand six hundred, including implementation.
- Priya RamanIncluding the one-off implementation, yes. I'll put the split in writing so it's clean for you.
- Valerie OkonThank you. I will say now, I cannot sign anything new without the board. And the board will ask what the business gets back.
- Priya RamanCompletely understood. That's exactly why I'd like to build the case with you, in your own words, rather than with a slide of mine. So, what would you want the board to hear? If it worked, what's different in a year?
- Craig AshwellVariations recorded before the work is done. Every one. That's number one. Let's get paid for what we've built.
- Valerie OkonValuations paid on time. Retentions released when they should be, and not a month after because nobody remembered the date.
- Craig AshwellAnd clients coming back. The next fit-out. If a client's had a bad time on the last job, I want to know before I go in to pitch the next one, not after.
- Priya RamanThat last one's interesting. How do you know today?
- Craig AshwellI don't. I ask around. Somebody says, oh, they were a pain. Or they say nothing and I find out in the meeting.
- Priya RamanMm. So that's a view across projects, calls, and invoices for one client, together. It's what Craig described a minute ago. I think that's the thread.
- Valerie OkonHow many people would use it? I assume not everyone.
- Craig AshwellCommercial, project managers, surveyors, credit control. Directors. I'd say, what, thirty? A bit more with site managers?
- Valerie OkonI would not guess. We will count properly.
- Priya RamanThat would be great. Growth covers forty, and if it creeps over there's an add-on for extra users, so it isn't a cliff. Craig, you said site managers. Would they be asking questions from a phone, in a cabin?
- Craig AshwellHonestly, probably not at first. They'd be told things by the project managers. If it worked, perhaps later.
- Priya RamanFine. Start with the office people, add as it earns its place.
- Valerie OkonCan I ask about data quality? What happens if our spreadsheets are, frankly, a mess?
- Priya RamanHonest answer: it reads what's there. If a variation is only ever in someone's head, the brain can't find it. But if it's in an email, or in a note, or on a drawing revision, it can pull that out and put it next to the invoice. A lot of what you're describing is written down somewhere, just in six places.
- Craig AshwellSix is generous.
- Priya RamanHa. Okay. And it refreshes overnight, so every morning what you ask is as of the night before, on business days.
- Valerie OkonOvernight is sufficient. I do not need it by the minute.
- Craig AshwellWhat about the clients' own data? Some of these landlords are touchy about who sees their documents. Contracts, drawings.
- Priya RamanGood one. It's in your own account, you control who sees what, and the brain respects the permissions of the sources where we can map them. I'd want to go through that in more detail, ideally with whoever looks after IT for you, so you're comfortable on exactly what's connected.
- Valerie OkonYes. That conversation should include the person who manages our systems. I will arrange it.
- Priya RamanLovely. Thank you.
- Craig AshwellSorry, just checking one thing. Right. Go on.
- Priya RamanNo, you're fine. Right, so what I'd suggest for the demo is we don't use a made-up client. We take one real project, anonymised if you like, and one real client with a bit of history, and we load them. Then you see your own variations and invoices sitting side by side. That's the moment people tend to go, oh. Does that appeal?
- Craig AshwellYes. Use the landlord job. The one I opened with. It's the messiest and it's the one I care about.
- Valerie OkonAnd I would want to see the same client from the accounts side. Invoiced, paid, outstanding.
- Priya RamanDone. So I need a few things from you both. Craig, a sample of that project: the variation emails, the spreadsheet, whatever you're comfortable sharing. Valerie, an export of what's outstanding by client, just for that client to start with.
- Valerie OkonOne client only. I will not send anything wider than that until the board has seen it.
- Priya RamanPerfect, one client is all I need. And happy to make this easy: I'll send a short list after this call of exactly what to send and where to put it.
- Craig AshwellGood. Short list. I like a short list.
- Priya RamanTiming, then. I'd love to get the demo in the diary for a couple of weeks from now, so the data has time to load. Then proposal after that, then your board, and we're back to getting this over the line by Friday 9 August 2024. Is that realistic from your side, Valerie, given the board?
- Valerie OkonThe board meets on its own schedule. I cannot promise a date I cannot keep. I will tell you when I know the next meeting.
- Priya RamanThat's all I'm asking. If you can let me know the meeting dates, I'll work backwards from them.
- Valerie OkonI will.
- Craig AshwellCan I add one thing? Something we've not covered.
- Priya RamanPlease.
- Craig AshwellWho runs it afterwards? We're a contractor. We're not a technology company. I don't want to hire somebody to look after a data thing.
- Priya RamanNo, and you shouldn't need to. We run the implementation, it's eight weeks for Growth, and then it's a normal subscription. Marcus would check in with you every quarter on usage and value. You'd want one person on your side as the owner, someone who knows the business, but it's a few hours a month, not a role.
- Craig AshwellThat I can live with. Probably me, to begin with.
- Valerie OkonOr someone who reports to you. You are on site.
- Craig AshwellFair. Let's see.
- Priya RamanRight, I think that's a good place to land. So, to summarise. You've told me the problem is variations and cash, seen across three teams that don't share a view. I'll send the short list and a note on the numbers. Valerie checks Snowflake and the board dates. Craig picks the landlord project. Does that cover it?
- Craig AshwellThat covers it.
- Valerie OkonYes. Thank you, Priya.
- Priya RamanThank you both, really helpful. Speak soon. Best, Priya.
- Craig AshwellCheers. Bye.
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