Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 2 Jan 2025 11:15
QBR on 2 Jan 2025. The Finance Director queried £40k for roughly four active users, a client list mismatch is eroding trust, and she will not sign a renewal without board evidence.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026QBR on 2 Jan 2025. The Finance Director queried £40k for roughly four active users, a client list mismatch is eroding trust, and she will not sign a renewal without board evidence.
What happened: Marcus Bell held the QBR on 2 Jan 2025 with Craig Ashwell, Valerie Okon and Sunil Kapoor. Valerie opened by asking about an invoice her side shows as overdue.
Customer view: Valerie questioned paying £40k for roughly four people. Sunil said project managers do not trust the brain because the client list does not tie to the ledger.
Commercial: Marcus proposed focusing on two uses, variations and credit control. Both depend on a clean client list and on connecting the signed instructions folder.
Watch: The call gave the term end as 22 Aug 2025. Valerie needs evidence in good time for the board, and the evidence does not show how the overdue invoice was resolved.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value challenge before renewal
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- Marcus Bell to take the overdue invoice to the accounts team and reply to Valerie in writing.
- Sunil Kapoor to send the mismatched client list with project codes and check whether the signed instructions folder can be connected.
- Marcus Bell to send the usage summary and call note by the end of the following week and book a thirty-minute follow-up.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Finance Director questions £39,600 a year against roughly four active users out of forty licensed.
- Project managers distrust the brain because some clients appear twice, so adoption may stay low.
- Renewal needs board approval and the evidence of value must be ready well ahead of the term end.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Connecting the signed instructions folder would make the variations question answerable on the Growth plan.
- A credit control test on three clients chosen by Valerie could give a concrete value case.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, everyone. Can you hear me alright? I've got Sunil showing, and Craig, I can see you, but you're on mute.
Craig AshwellSorry, sorry. Morning. Happy new year. Can you hear me now?- Marcus BellLoud and clear. Happy new year. Valerie, are you with us?
Valerie OkonGood morning. Yes. Before we start, can I ask about invoices? I have one on my list that your system shows as overdue and I'd like to understand it.- Marcus BellOf course. I've seen the same flag on our side, one invoice showing overdue. I don't want to guess at the detail, because billing sits with our accounts team and I'm not going to give you a half answer. Can I take it away and come back to you in writing?
- Valerie OkonPlease do. We'll pay on the agreed terms. I'll check it against our payment run this week, but I'm not going to give you a date until I've seen it.
- Marcus BellThat's completely fair. Thanks, Valerie. I'll flag it so it doesn't get chased from three directions.
- Craig AshwellCan we not get into cash on this call, actually? Valerie and I will pick that up separately. I want to talk about the projects.
- Marcus BellYes, understood. Let me share my screen and say what I'd like to cover, and then we'll get to what you want out of it. Can everyone see it? It's the usage summary.
Sunil KapoorI can see it. Slightly small. Fine, I'll squint.- Marcus BellI'll make it bigger. So, three things. One, how the brain's being used since we went live in the summer. Two, what's working and what isn't. Three, what you'd want to have in place before the renewal conversation later in the year. Happy to jump around.
- Craig AshwellGo on, then. Start with the number you're worried about, because I can tell there's one.
- Marcus BellRight. I've pulled the numbers, and it's active users. Over the last month it's about four people on average. You've got forty licensed. And it's come down a touch compared with the quarter before.
- Craig AshwellFour. Out of forty.
- Marcus BellAbout four, yes. I do want to say December is always quiet, with people on leave and sites shutting down. So I wouldn't read too much into the dip on its own. It's the level that I'd want to talk about.
- Valerie OkonSo we're paying thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds a year, that's £39,600, for roughly four people to log in.
- Marcus BellI hear that. I'm not going to argue the commercials with you, that's Priya's side and she'll want to have that conversation properly. What I can do is show you what's actually being asked and by whom, so you can judge the value for yourselves.
- Valerie OkonThat's all I'm asking for. What are we getting for it.
- Craig AshwellHang on. Before you do that. Sunil, why aren't the project managers in there? We bought it so they'd see the client and the variations in one place.
- Sunil KapoorHonestly? I think they don't trust it yet. I should say that's partly on me. When I first looked there was a discrepancy, the client list in the brain doesn't tie to the ledger in a few places. Same client appears under two names, one from the project side and one from commercial.
- Craig AshwellSo they open it, see a client twice, and go back to their spreadsheets.
- Sunil KapoorMore or less. I'd rather not overstate it. It's a handful of clients, not the whole list. But a project manager only needs to see it wrong once.
- Marcus BellThat's really useful, Sunil, and honestly it's the sort of thing that tells me more than the usage chart does. Is that on the source systems, do you think, or how we've mapped them?
- Sunil KapoorSource. The project system has the client entered a different way from the finance system. The brain is faithfully showing both. I'll reconcile it, I just hadn't got round to it before the break.
- Marcus BellOkay. So that's one for the list. Could you send me the clients that don't match, and I'll see whether we can map them to a single record on our side so you're not editing by hand in two places?
- Sunil KapoorYes. I'll put it together as a short list. Which project code goes with which client, so nobody has to guess.
- Craig AshwellGood. Because here's what I actually care about. Where's the variation? What has the client signed? I want to open one screen on a job and see the instruction, the variation, whether it's agreed, and whether it's been invoiced. That's the whole reason I pushed for this.
- Marcus BellRight. And that's a good test, so let me try it live. Give me a project that's on your mind.
- Craig AshwellThe retail one in Reading. The landlord keeps changing the layout and we keep absorbing it.
- Marcus BellOkay. I'll ask it plainly. Show me the variations raised on the Reading retail fit-out and whether there's a signed instruction for each. Give it a moment.
- Marcus BellSo it's come back with the emails and the call notes where changes were discussed, and a list of the variations that exist in the commercial system. But, and I'll be straight with you, it can't tell me which ones the client has actually signed, because that sign-off isn't in anything it's connected to.
- Craig AshwellOf course it isn't. People agree it on site, then someone emails, maybe. That's exactly the problem. Nothing's recorded until it's too late.
- Sunil KapoorThe signed instruction lives in a shared folder. It isn't one of the connected sources. Which is my doing, again. I didn't think it would matter.
- Marcus BellNot at all, that's fair, we've got to know what to point it at. That's actually a concrete thing we can try. If the folder with the signed instructions is something we can connect, the question Craig just asked becomes answerable.
- Valerie OkonAnd would that help with what's outstanding by client? Because that is the question I ask every Monday, and I'm still building it by hand.
- Marcus BellThat's the other half of it. Invoices, the calls and emails about the client, and the variations, side by side. In principle yes. I don't want to promise it's neat, because it depends on the client list being clean first. Which takes us back to Sunil's point.
- Valerie OkonThen the client list is the first job.
- Sunil KapoorAgreed. Clean list first, then the folder.
- Craig AshwellFine. But I'll be honest, Marcus, I need people using it. I can't stand up in front of the board and say it's brilliant when four people open it. Let's get paid for what we've built, and right now the tool isn't helping me do that.
- Marcus BellI understand, and I'm not going to dress it up. The usage is lower than it should be for forty licences, and I'd rather say that to you now than have you find it out in the summer. What I'd suggest is we stop trying to get everyone on, and pick two things the brain does properly for you and make them stick.
- Craig AshwellWhich two?
- Marcus BellFrom what you've said this morning, one is variations, once the signed instructions are connected. The other is credit control, Valerie's team looking at a client with their projects, calls and invoices together before they chase. Does that sound right, Valerie?
- Valerie OkonIt does. Though I'd want to see it work on a real client before I tell my team to rely on it. They're careful, and they won't use something that gives them a wrong figure.
- Marcus BellQuite right. So we'd test it on a few clients you pick, and you tell me if the numbers stand up against the ledger.
- Sunil KapoorI can do that. I'll check each one against the ledger before anyone else sees it.
- Marcus BellThat would be ideal. Now, one more thing I'd flag, and it's good news of a sort. There have been no support tickets this past month. Nothing broken, no connector problems.
- Sunil KapoorThe connectors just run. I haven't had to touch them.
- Marcus BellGood. Although I'll be honest, silence can mean it's working or it can mean nobody's looking. In your case I think it's a bit of both.
- Craig AshwellHa. That's fair. Probably both.
- Valerie OkonMarcus, can I ask about the contract? When does it come up, and what do I need to decide, and by when?
- Marcus BellThe term runs to 22 Aug 2025, and it renews on 23 Aug 2025. I'll be in touch well ahead of that, with the formal notice, and Priya will pick up the commercial conversation with you. Nothing needs deciding today. I'd just rather we spent the next few months making sure there's something real to point at.
- Valerie OkonI won't sign anything new without the board, so I'd need the evidence in good time.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. That's exactly why I'd like to start now, not in July.
- Craig AshwellRight. Let's summarise before I have to go. Who's doing what?
- Marcus BellGood idea. I'll send the usage summary and a note of this call by the end of next week. I'll also take the overdue invoice to our accounts team and come back to Valerie in writing. Sunil, you send me the list of clients that don't match, with project codes.
- Sunil KapoorYes. And I'll find out whether the signed instructions folder can be connected, and who owns it.
- Valerie OkonI'll look at the invoice against our payment run, and choose three clients for the credit control test.
- Craig AshwellAnd I'll get two of my project managers to sit down with Sunil and Marcus. If they see it work on the Reading job, the rest will follow. Maybe.
- Marcus BellHappy to do that. Shall we book thirty minutes in a few weeks to see where we've got to? I'd rather keep this short and regular than save it all up for the next review.
- Valerie OkonThat's acceptable. Thank you, Marcus.
- Craig AshwellFine. Right, I'm late for site. Thanks all. Speak soon.
- Sunil KapoorThanks, everyone. I'll get that list over.
- Marcus BellCheers, all. Thanks for being straight with me. Speak soon.
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