Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 18 Feb 2025 16:45
Marcus Bell reported about six active users against 40 Growth seats. Craig Ashwell expects finance to question the cost at the August renewal. They agreed a credit control session and a check on an overdue invoice.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Marcus Bell reported about six active users against 40 Growth seats. Craig Ashwell expects finance to question the cost at the August renewal. They agreed a credit control session and a check on an overdue invoice.
What happened: On the 18 Feb 2025 check-in Marcus showed about six active users in the last thirty days against 40 licensed seats. Credit control, the main reason for buying, had not been in for weeks after a reshuffle left no owner.
Customer view: Craig is frank that it is quiet because nobody is looking. A live query on the Reading project found a layout change with no variation recorded, which he said had paid for itself if chased.
Commercial: Craig expects finance to ask why they pay thirty-nine thousand six hundred a year for 40 seats. Marcus left price to Priya, the account owner named on the call.
Watch: The overdue invoice may be a BG-Demo billing slip, and Marcus will check before anyone writes. Procurement and contracts teams were raised but held back until credit control is working.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Adoption gap, credit control
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- Craig Ashwell to name the credit control owner and attendees by the end of the week.
- Marcus Bell to run a thirty minute session on live projects starting with the credit dashboard.
- Marcus Bell to check the overdue invoice with the billing team and report back.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only about six of 40 seats are active, which Craig's finance team is likely to question at renewal.
- Credit control has no named owner after the autumn reshuffle.
- An overdue invoice could colour the renewal if it is not resolved quickly.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Reading example shows a concrete value case Craig can take to finance.
- Procurement and contracts teams could use the brain once credit control is established.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello Craig, can you hear me all right?
Craig AshwellYeah, loud and clear. Afternoon. Sorry, I'm a minute behind, I've just come off site.- Marcus BellNo problem at all. Thanks for making the time at this end of the day. How was the site?
- Craig AshwellCold. It's a floor in the middle of a re-plan and the heating's off. Anyway. It's the reason I wanted to talk, actually, partly. Go on, you first.
- Marcus BellSure. I'll share my screen in a second and say what I want to cover. Basically I've pulled the numbers for the last quarter, I'd like to go through how the team's using the brain, and then we can talk about where you want to take it before the renewal in August. Does that work?
- Craig AshwellFine. Short sentences though, I've got about half an hour before I'm in the car.
- Marcus BellHa, understood. Right, you should be seeing the usage page now. Can you see that?
- Craig AshwellYep. Lots of grey.
- Marcus BellYeah. So that's sort of the point. You're licensed for forty users on Growth. Over the last thirty days the average number of people actually active is about six.
- Craig AshwellSix.
- Marcus BellAbout six. And it's a little down on the quarter before. Not a cliff, but it's going the wrong way, and it was never high to begin with, to be fair.
- Craig AshwellRight. Okay. I'm not going to pretend that surprises me, but forty seats and six people. That's not great, is it.
- Marcus BellIt's not what we sold you, no. I'd rather we looked at it honestly now than in the summer.
- Craig AshwellFair. Who are the six? Because I know who I'd guess.
- Marcus BellIt's mostly the project managers and you, and a couple from the commercial side. Quantity surveying, I think, from the names. Nobody from credit control has been in for weeks.
- Craig AshwellMm. That's the bit that annoys me. Credit control was the whole reason. I wanted them to see the client in one place. What's been signed, what's been varied, what's been invoiced. Where's the variation, that's what I keep asking.
- Marcus BellRight. Do you know why they've dropped off? Was there a change in the team, or is it more that it just didn't stick?
- Craig AshwellBit of both. We had a reshuffle in the autumn. The person who was meant to be driving it on that side moved across to another desk, and nobody picked it up. And they're busy, they're chasing valuations all day, they go back to their spreadsheets because they know where things are.
- Marcus BellThat's really common, honestly. The spreadsheet wins when nobody's asked to do it differently.
- Craig AshwellYeah, and that's on me. I should have been in their ear more.
- Marcus BellI wouldn't put it like that. You've got a business to run. Let me show you something else, though. This is the connectors page. All of your sources are still loading, the CRM, the call recorder, the accounting system, the helpdesk. So the data's there and it's current. Nothing's broken.
- Craig AshwellGood. That's something. So it's not that it's wrong, it's that nobody's asking it anything.
- Marcus BellPretty much. And the other thing I'd flag is tickets. There's been nothing raised in the last month, not one.
- Craig AshwellWell, that's good, surely.
- Marcus BellIt can be. When a lot of people are using it, no tickets means it's working. When it's six people, it can also just mean it's quiet. I'm not saying that's what it is, I'd just rather ask you than assume.
- Craig AshwellNo, it's quiet. Nobody's complaining because nobody's looking.
- Marcus BellOkay. Thanks for saying that straight.
- Craig AshwellLook, let me tell you what worries me, because it's the same thing. We've got a fit-out in Reading, landlord's side, and the client's asked for a change to the reception layout. Verbally. On site. Nobody's written it down. If that goes through without a variation, we eat it. And the whole point of buying this was that someone could ask, what has the client signed, and get an answer in a minute.
- Marcus BellYes. And that's exactly the sort of question the brain's built for. If the calls and the emails are in there, you can ask it what was agreed on that project and what's been recorded against it, and it'll pull it together from the call recorder and the mailbox and the CRM.
- Craig AshwellHave you got that on the screen? Could you do it now?
- Marcus BellI can try it live, if you give me the project name. Though I'd want to be careful, I don't want to put something on screen that's wrong.
- Craig AshwellSay it's the Reading one. Just call it the Reading reception project.
- Marcus BellOkay, typing that in. Right, so I've asked it what changes have been discussed with the client on that project and whether any variation has been recorded. Give it a moment.
- Craig AshwellCome on.
- Marcus BellSo it's found two calls and a thread. It's saying the layout change was mentioned on a call with the client's facilities contact, and that there's an email afterwards asking for a price. And it says it can't find a variation recorded against it.
- Craig AshwellThere it is. That's it. That's exactly what I'd have missed. So that's already paid for itself, if I chase it.
- Marcus BellWell, I'd say go and check it, but yes, that's the use. And that took what, thirty seconds?
- Craig AshwellWhich is the problem. I knew it could do that. I just didn't do it. And I'm the one who pushed for it.
- Marcus BellCan I make a suggestion, then? Not a big programme. Something small.
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellA short working session with credit control. Thirty minutes, on their own projects, not a generic demo. We pick three live clients and ask the brain the questions they'd normally spend an afternoon on. Then they see it's quicker than the spreadsheet. I'd also want the project managers there, because the variations are where the two sides meet.
- Craig AshwellMm. I like that. Who would run it, you?
- Marcus BellMe. Happy to jump on a call with them, or I can do it on a video call with you in the room, whichever's easier.
- Craig AshwellIn the room is better. They'll sit on their hands on a video call. I'll get them in a room and make them. When?
- Marcus BellI'd say within the next couple of weeks, so it's fresh. Could you get me names? Whoever you think should be in the room, and who's going to own it on the credit side now.
- Craig AshwellThat's the thing, I don't know yet who owns it now. I'll decide. I'll tell you by the end of the week.
- Marcus BellPerfect. That alone would help, honestly. When there's one named person on that side, usage tends to follow.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Now. There's one more thing I want to say, and then you can tell me about the other stuff. The renewal.
- Marcus BellGo for it.
- Craig AshwellI'm going to be asked. When it comes up in August, I'll be asked what we're paying and what we get. You're on thirty-nine thousand six hundred a year, it's in the order form, I looked. And if my finance team look at six people out of forty, they'll say, why are we paying for forty.
- Marcus BellYes. I understand. That's a fair question for them to ask, and I'd rather you had a good answer than a defensive one.
- Craig AshwellSo what's the good answer?
- Marcus BellWell, honestly, the good answer is usage. If by the summer there are more people asking more questions, and you can say, here's the variation we caught, here's the invoice we got out the door earlier, that's the case. I can help put that together. What I can't do is talk about the price side. That's with Priya, she's your account owner, and she'll come to you nearer the time.
- Craig AshwellSure. I'm not asking you to negotiate. I'm asking you what I tell my own people.
- Marcus BellRight. Then tell them it's forty licences, about six in use, and there's a plan to change that, with a date on it. That's honest, and it's better than silence.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Yeah. I can say that.
- Marcus BellWhile we're on commercial things, can I raise one thing? I can see there's an invoice showing as overdue on your account. Just the one.
- Craig AshwellRight. I don't deal with that. That's finance. I don't talk about cash without our finance team in the room, you know that. Is it a big problem?
- Marcus BellNo, not a problem, and it's not me chasing. I just don't want it to be a surprise. And I want to be fair, it might be on our side, a billing slip or a purchase order that didn't match. I'll ask our billing team to check it before anyone writes to you.
- Craig AshwellGood. Do that. And I'll mention it to our finance team, so they look from their end too. Between the two of you it'll get sorted.
- Marcus BellGreat. I'll let you know what I find, one way or the other.
- Craig AshwellRight. What else have you got on there? I can see you've got another tab.
- Marcus BellYeah, this is the dashboards page. You've built a couple of dashboards, not many. One for projects by client and one that looks like a credit view. Neither's been opened much recently.
- Craig AshwellThe credit one was meant to be their morning screen. Aged debt by client, next to what's been varied and what's signed.
- Marcus BellThat's a good idea, and I think it's right. It's just that nobody's been told it's their morning screen. So maybe that's the first thing for the working session. We open it with them, make sure it shows what they'd want, and then it's theirs.
- Craig AshwellYeah. Do that. If I can get them to open that before they open the spreadsheet, we're halfway.
- Marcus BellAgreed. And can I ask something a bit different? Are there other teams who'd benefit? You've got forty licences and the business is bigger than three teams, surely.
- Craig AshwellProcurement, perhaps. The buyers. They're always on the phone to suppliers about what's been ordered and what's turned up. And the contracts people, they'd like to see what we promised the client against what we've built.
- Marcus BellRight. Though I'd say hold that for now. I don't want to add more people to something that six use. Get credit control in properly first, then we look at who's next.
- Craig AshwellYou're talking me out of using the seats I've paid for.
- Marcus BellHa. A bit, yes. I just think a handful of people using it well is better than thirty people logging in once.
- Craig AshwellFair enough. I'd rather have the credit team using it every day. Okay. So the plan.
- Marcus BellRight, let me read it back so we both have it. One, you tell me by the end of the week who owns this on the credit control side, and who should be in the room. Two, I book a thirty minute session within a couple of weeks, on live projects, starting with that credit dashboard. Three, I check the overdue invoice with our billing team and tell you what I find. Four, I send you a short summary of the usage, and the Reading example, so you've got something to show your finance team.
- Craig AshwellYes. And five, I go and chase that variation on Reading before the client's forgotten what they asked for.
- Marcus BellFive, yes. Please do. Do you want me to send you what the brain pulled up, the two calls and the thread, so you've got the references?
- Craig AshwellPlease. Send it today if you can. I'll want it in front of me when I ring the client.
- Marcus BellWill do. I'll send it straight after this. Shall we also book thirty minutes in a month or so, just you and me, to see how it's going before the renewal conversation starts?
- Craig AshwellYes. Put it in. And put something in that's on a Tuesday if you can, I'm usually in the office.
- Marcus BellTuesday it is. I'll send an invite.
- Craig AshwellGood. Look, thanks. I came on here a bit grumpy and I'm less grumpy. It's still not good, six out of forty, but at least I know what to do about it.
- Marcus BellThat's all I wanted. Thanks for being straight with me, Craig. It makes it a lot easier.
- Craig AshwellRight, I'm off to the car. Speak soon.
- Marcus BellSpeak soon. Mind the heating on that floor. Bye.
- Craig AshwellCheers. Bye.
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