Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 30 Sep 2024 10:00
Craig Ashwell asked what 40 licences were buying when only a couple of people log in. Sunil Kapoor found the client lists do not tie across systems. The new project code was chosen as master and IT and finance approvals were set.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell asked what 40 licences were buying when only a couple of people log in. Sunil Kapoor found the client lists do not tie across systems. The new project code was chosen as master and IT and finance approvals were set.
What happened: Craig opened with low usage: himself, Sunil Kapoor and perhaps one other. Callie Brennan welcomed the client-list mismatch Sunil had found as the right place to start.
Customer view: Craig wants something he can point at by the end of next month, built on the variations question. He also wants dates, and said anything going through IT takes a month.
Commercial: The Growth plan has eight connectors and 40 users. The project, commercial and finance connectors come first; the mailboxes and call recorder, which hold the emails and calls behind variations, follow.
Watch: Written read-only approvals from IT and finance gate everything. Callie also flagged two overdue invoices; Craig said finance handles that, not him.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Low usage, client mapping
Importance
complaint
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- Sunil Kapoor to send the client sample sheet and secure IT and finance read-only approvals by Wednesday.
- Callie Brennan to send the access checklist that afternoon and the dated connector plan the next day.
- Craig Ashwell to name the people for the first session by Friday.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only a couple of people are logging in, and Craig Ashwell questions what the 40 licences are paying for.
- Connector start depends on written read-only approvals from IT and finance, and Craig expects IT requests to take a month.
- Two invoices flagged as overdue sit with the customer's finance team and were not discussed in detail.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The variations question, instructed but not signed with invoices chased, is a clear value case across the project, commercial and finance connectors.
- Sunil Kapoor as admin and a small first group from commercial and credit control could build real usage.
Transcript
Callie BrennanMorning both. Can you hear me alright?
Craig AshwellLoud and clear. Sunil, I think you're on mute.
Sunil KapoorSorry, that's me. Morning. Is that better?- Callie BrennanMuch better, thanks. Right, thank you both for making time. Craig, you said you've a site visit later?
- Craig AshwellYeah, over to central London after lunch. I'll need to be off by half eleven, so let's keep it moving.
- Callie BrennanEasily done. So, the plan for the next forty-odd minutes. First, where we are with access to the connectors. Then who owns what on your side. Then what the first refresh will look like, and what I need from you before we switch it on. And I'll put a date against every step, so nobody's chasing anyone. Does that work?
- Craig AshwellFine. But I'll say my worry first, because it's been bothering me. We brought this in so the project, commercial and credit teams see each client together. A few weeks in, I'm not sure anyone's using it.
- Callie BrennanNo, that's fair, and I'd rather you said it now. What are you seeing?
- Craig AshwellMe, Sunil, maybe one other person logging in. Forty licences, and a couple of people on it. What are we paying for?
- Sunil KapoorCan I add something? Before the call I compared the client list in the project system with the commercial system. They don't tie. The same client turns up under two names in places, and a few have a different parent depending on where you look. I'll reconcile it, but I don't want to do that by hand if the brain's meant to answer it.
- Callie BrennanRight, and honestly that's the best thing you could have opened with. That's the mapping piece, and it's where I'd want to spend most of today. Before we switch on the refresh, I'd rather the client keys were agreed than have the brain faithfully index two versions of the same client.
- Sunil KapoorAgreed. Which project code do you want as the anchor? We have the old numbering and the new one, and the commercial system only really knows the new one.
- Callie BrennanMm. What I need from your side is a decision on which one is the master. If the commercial system only knows the new one, I'd lean that way, but I haven't seen the field, so I'm not going to tell you it maps cleanly until I've checked. Could you send me a sample, a handful of clients you know are wrong?
- Sunil KapoorI can do that today. I'll put them in a sheet with both names and both codes.
- Craig AshwellAnd the variations? That's the one I care about. Where's the variation? We do the work, the client hasn't signed it, and six months later we're arguing over a valuation.
- Callie BrennanYes, I've got that written down as the headline use case. Variations sit in the commercial system, the emails are in your mailboxes, and the calls come from the call recorder. The idea is you ask one question, which variations are instructed but not signed, and the brain reads across all three.
- Craig AshwellRight. And that works? Today?
- Callie BrennanNot today, no. Today the project and commercial connectors are the ones that matter. The mailboxes and the call recorder come after. I'd rather we got a clean first refresh on a couple of sources than a messy one on all of them.
- Craig AshwellHow long?
- Callie BrennanGrowth has eight connectors in the plan. My honest read is the first two are live inside a couple of weeks, if the credentials arrive on time. The rest follow in the order we agree today.
- Sunil KapoorCredentials, yes. That's partly why I wanted to raise it. For the project system I need a colleague in IT to approve read-only access. I've asked, but it's been sitting.
- Callie BrennanWhich is exactly the thing I can't move without. I never start a connector without written access, so even a short email from IT saying read-only is approved will do. Could you get that by end of Wednesday?
- Sunil KapoorI'll chase it this morning. And I'll email you after the call, bullet points: what's been requested, who's approved, who hasn't.
- Craig AshwellDon't let this drift, Callie. Every time something goes through IT it takes a month.
- Callie BrennanThat's why I want the dates written down. If Wednesday slips, I'll tell you on Thursday, not three weeks later.
- Callie BrennanLet me share my screen. Can you see the plan?
- Craig AshwellYep.
- Callie BrennanOkay. So top of the list is the project system, then the commercial system, then the finance system, because that's where your ledger lives and Sunil's going to want to tie everything back to it. After that the mailboxes and the call recorder, and last the credit-control team's own records.
- Sunil KapoorI'd move finance up. If I can't see invoices next to projects, I can't tick anything off. It doesn't tie to the ledger otherwise, and then I'm back to building reports the brain should be answering.
- Callie BrennanFair. Then it's three sources before the first refresh, read-only on all of them. Let me change that. There. Who owns the finance side apart from you?
- Sunil KapoorOur finance team owns it, I just report from it. I'd need a named person there to approve the access.
- Callie BrennanThen that's the second approval, same Wednesday, if we can. Craig, can you nudge them, or is that better coming from Sunil?
- Craig AshwellSunil asks, I'll back him up. Tell them it's me asking if they push back.
- Sunil KapoorThanks. That'll help.
- Craig AshwellCan I ask something that isn't technical?
- Callie BrennanOf course.
- Craig AshwellThe brain sits in our Snowflake account, yes? So it's ours. Our client data isn't going off somewhere.
- Callie BrennanYes. It's built and run inside your own Snowflake account, so Sunil will see everything that gets created there. That's also why I want him as the admin at handover, so he can run it on his own without ringing me.
- Sunil KapoorI think the Snowflake side is sorted on our end. I'll confirm in the email so it's written down.
- Callie BrennanLovely. One more admin thing and I'll be quick, because it isn't my area. Two invoices are showing as overdue on our side. I'm only mentioning it so it doesn't land as a surprise later.
- Craig AshwellThat's finance, not me. I don't talk cash without our finance team in the room. Send it to Sunil and I'll mention it to them today.
- Sunil KapoorI'll forward it on. If you can send me the invoice references, I'll check them against the ledger first.
- Callie BrennanI'll ask our finance team to send them over to you directly. Thanks, both, I know it's an awkward one.
- Craig AshwellNot awkward. Just not for this call.
- Callie BrennanOkay, back to Craig's point on usage. Forty licences and a couple of people on it. Once the first refresh lands, I want a short session with the commercial and credit-control teams, on their own data, not a demo set. Who would you put in that room?
- Craig AshwellMy commercial managers, and someone from credit control. I'll pick the people. Not all forty at once, they'll switch off.
- Callie BrennanAgreed. Better a handful who ask real questions than forty who log in once. And I'd like the first questions to be theirs: the project that worries them most, the client they're waiting on.
- Craig AshwellFine. I'll start. Which clients have a variation instructed and nothing signed. And which of those have an invoice we're chasing.
- Sunil KapoorThat second part only works if the finance connector is in. Another reason to have it in the first batch.
- Callie BrennanYes, that's what I'd call a good test of the whole thing. If the brain answers that and Sunil can tie it to the ledger, you've got the value case in one question.
- Craig AshwellI need something I can point at, Callie. By the end of next month. Otherwise I'm explaining to the family why we're paying for something nobody opens.
- Callie BrennanThat's reasonable, and it's achievable if the access lands this week. By the end of next month you should be able to ask that question and see an answer next to the ledger. I won't promise more than that until I've seen the data.
- Sunil KapoorAnd if it doesn't tie, I'll say so. I won't sign off a number I can't reconcile.
- Callie BrennanI'd expect nothing less, Sunil. That's the point of having you as admin.
- Callie BrennanRight, let me go through the first refresh, so there's no surprise. Before we switch it on, I load the sources in the agreed order, check the field mapping with Sunil, and look at a sample of records against the ledger. Then the refresh runs overnight and the first results are in the morning.
- Sunil KapoorWhat happens to records that don't match? Do they get dropped, or flagged?
- Callie BrennanFlagged. I'd never drop them quietly. You'd get a list of the clients that don't resolve, and you decide which name wins. That's a nice job for you rather than a hidden one inside the system.
- Sunil KapoorGood. Which project code does the list use, the old or the new?
- Callie BrennanWhichever you pick as master. Which is why I'm being a bit of a stuck record on that decision.
- Craig AshwellNew one. Pick the new one. The old one's going to die anyway.
- Sunil KapoorThen new one, with the old one kept as a lookup so the historic jobs still resolve. I'll put that in the sheet.
- Callie BrennanThat's perfect, that maps cleanly. I'll note it down as decided.
- Craig AshwellSorry, I had to take that. Where were we?
- Callie BrennanNo problem. We'd just settled the new project code as master. Sunil was going to send the sample sheet.
- Sunil KapoorYes, today. I'll also list the three or four clients that cause the most trouble, since those are the ones that will show up in Craig's question.
- Craig AshwellNot the ones I'll name on a call like this, mind. I'll send them separately.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood. You send them how you like. I only need the names to test against.
- Callie BrennanOne thing I want to be straight about. Because only a couple of people have been in so far, there's very little for the brain to learn from usage. It's early. I'd treat today as day one of the real onboarding, not as a sign of anything.
- Craig AshwellHm. I'd have liked that said five weeks ago.
- Callie BrennanThat's fair, and the access side of that is on all of us. What I can do is make the next few weeks short and dated, so you can see movement.
- Sunil KapoorIt's not been wasted. We've had time to find the client list problem. I'd sooner we found it now than after loading everything.
- Craig AshwellYeah, alright. Fair.
- Callie BrennanLast bit then, handover. I write a setup note after each connector goes live: what's connected, what's mapped to what, and what to check if it stops loading. The aim is Sunil can run it without me.
- Sunil KapoorGood. I'd also like a one-page list of what refreshes when, so I know what I'm looking at when I check the ledger in the morning.
- Callie BrennanYes, that goes in the note. Nightly refresh, ready by seven in the morning on business days, so you'll see yesterday's position first thing.
- Craig AshwellSeven's fine. I'm in by then.
- Callie BrennanOkay, let me read back who's doing what, and tell me if I've got it wrong. Sunil: the sample sheet today, the Snowflake confirmation in your email, and both approvals, IT and finance, by end of Wednesday.
- Sunil KapoorYes. And the invoice references when I get them, so I can check the ledger.
- Callie BrennanGot it. Craig: back Sunil up with finance, pass on the overdue invoices today, and name the people for the first session by Friday.
- Craig AshwellFriday, yes. I'll have the names by then. Three from commercial and one from credit control, probably.
- Callie BrennanLovely. And me: a written access checklist to both of you this afternoon, the plan with dates against each connector by tomorrow, and the project connector as soon as the approval is in. I'll tell you straight if anything slips.
- Craig AshwellThat's what I wanted. Dates. Thank you.
- Sunil KapoorThanks, Callie. I'll get that email out within the hour.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Anything else before we stop? Anything I've missed?
- Craig AshwellNo. Just get it moving.
- Sunil KapoorNothing from me.
- Callie BrennanRight. Safe trip over to London, Craig. Speak soon, both.
- Craig AshwellCheers. Bye.
- Sunil KapoorBye.
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