Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 1 Oct 2025 16:30
Craig Ashwell said just over six daily users out of forty Growth seats does not justify the price. He will ask hard questions at the August renewal unless he gets a provable result for his board.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Craig Ashwell said just over six daily users out of forty Growth seats does not justify the price. He will ask hard questions at the August renewal unless he gets a provable result for his board.
What happened: QBR on 1 Oct 2025, hosted by Marcus Bell with Craig Ashwell and Sunil Kapoor. Priya Raman joined for the contract part. Average daily active users were just over six against forty licensed Growth seats, barely moved on the quarter before.
Customer view: Craig said this is not what he was sold and that he cannot yet prove to his board that the brain shows a client in the round. Sunil said the data is sound and the gap is working habits, with credit control barely using it.
Commercial: Craig said the contract is up in August and he will ask hard questions about paying forty-four thousand a year. Priya put the term end at 22 Aug 2026 and proposed proving value first.
Watch: One invoice shows as overdue and Craig will raise it with his finance team. The evidence does not show the reason.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value case 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 and Sunil Kapoor to run a live session with credit control the following week.
- Sunil Kapoor to send Craig and Marcus a reconciled seat list by the end of that week.
- Priya Raman to regroup with Craig in a few weeks once clear wins are in front of him.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Craig will question the forty-four thousand a year Growth price at the August renewal if usage looks the same.
- Just over six daily active users against forty seats leaves the value unproven to his board.
- An overdue invoice is open and its cause is not known.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Credit control could use the brain to spot variations agreed but not invoiced.
- Retentions and unsigned valuations could sit on one page, joined on project code, without a new connector.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello, can you hear me all right? I've got a bit of an echo on my side.
Sunil KapoorYes, clear here. Afternoon, Marcus.
Craig AshwellAfternoon. Sorry, I'm in the car park, I'll be inside in a minute. Don't wait on me.- Marcus BellNo problem at all. Sunil, how's your week been? Anything exciting on the reporting side?
- Sunil KapoorQuiet, mostly. Month-end reconciliations, so the usual. I found a client list mismatch on Monday, but I've sorted it. That's why I'm slightly behind on everything else.
- Marcus BellHa, I know that feeling. Right, Craig, are you in?
- Craig AshwellI'm in. Door's shut. Go on.
- Marcus BellGreat. I'll share my screen in a second. What I want to cover today is three things. Usage over the last quarter, the connectors and how they're running, and then what you actually want out of the brain for the next six months. Happy to go off-piste if something matters more.
- Craig AshwellFine. Let's start with usage, because that's what's been bothering me.
- Marcus BellOkay. Yeah. I've pulled the numbers. Can you see the dashboard?
- Sunil KapoorYes, I can see it.
- Marcus BellSo, you've got forty licensed users on Growth. Over the last thirty days, the average number of people active on a given day is just over six. And that's pretty much where it was the quarter before. It's barely moved, maybe a point down.
- Craig AshwellJust over six. Out of forty.
- Marcus BellOut of forty, yes. I'd rather be straight about it than dress it up.
- Craig AshwellNo, good. That's not what I was sold, to be honest. I brought this in so project, commercial and credit control are looking at the same client. Where's the variation? What has the client signed? And I'm asking the same questions I was asking last year, just in different spreadsheets.
- Sunil KapoorCan I say something on that, Craig? I don't think it's the data. The records are loading. The numbers I check against the ledger tie up. It's more that people haven't changed how they work.
- Craig AshwellWhich is my point. Forty seats, and six people using it.
- Marcus BellMm. Can I ask who the six tend to be? Sunil, you'll know better than me.
- Sunil KapoorMostly the commercial team and me. A couple from the project side when they have a valuation coming up. Credit control, honestly, have barely got into it. They've got their own routine and it works for them, so there's no pull.
- Craig AshwellAnd that's the team I most want in there. They chase the money. If they could see a variation that's agreed but not invoiced, we'd get paid faster. Simple as that.
- Marcus BellThat makes sense. And that's a good use for it, actually. Chasing is one thing, but seeing that a variation was agreed on a call or an email and never made it to an invoice, that's what the brain is built to surface.
- Craig AshwellThen why aren't we doing it?
- Marcus BellFair question. I think partly that's on us. We did the training with the commercial team in the first weeks and I don't believe we ever sat down properly with credit control. I'd have to check my notes, but I don't think we did.
- Sunil KapoorWe didn't. I'd have remembered. They were on a month-end close that week and it slid.
- Craig AshwellRight. So it slid, and nobody picked it up again.
- Marcus BellYeah. I'm not going to argue with that.
- Craig AshwellOkay. I'm not having a go. I'm just saying, I'm a commercial man. If I can't see what it's worth, I start asking what we're paying for it.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. And that's a reasonable thing to ask. Look, before we get to that, let me show you the connectors, because I want to make sure the foundations are fine. Sunil, jump in.
- Marcus BellSo the project system, the commercial system, the accounting system, the call recorder and your email are all green. Records indexed are climbing slowly, which is what you'd expect from a business your size. No broken sources that I can see.
- Sunil KapoorThat matches what I see. Nightly refresh has been landing before seven every morning, and I check on Mondays in particular. I'd say it's been a quiet quarter from a technical point of view.
- Marcus BellAnd no tickets in the last month, from you or anyone else. Zero. Which I'd normally read as good news.
- Craig AshwellBut in this case it just means nobody's touching it.
- Marcus BellIt might mean that, yeah. A quiet queue and a quiet user base tend to go together. I'd rather we knew that than assumed.
- Sunil KapoorCan I add one thing? I'm not sure how many of the forty seats are actually assigned to people who are still here or who need one. I'd want to clean that list before we judge the number.
- Craig AshwellDo that. Send me a list of who has a seat and who's logged in this quarter. By name.
- Sunil KapoorI'll reconcile it and send it to you and Marcus. Give me till the end of the week.
- Marcus BellPerfect. And I can send you the usage by team, so the split is in front of you rather than my description of it.
- Craig AshwellRight. Now the other thing. And I'm not sure this is for this call, but I'll say it anyway. I've been told there's an invoice showing as overdue on your side.
- Marcus BellYes, there's one showing as overdue on the account. I saw it when I prepared for today. I don't handle billing, so I don't want to speculate about the reason.
- Craig AshwellThat's one for our finance team. I don't talk cash without them in the room. But I'll flag it to them today so it doesn't sit.
- Sunil KapoorI can look at the purchase ledger as well. If it's a case of a PO number or a mismatch, I can usually see that quickly.
- Marcus BellThat'd be helpful. If it turns out something on our invoice is wrong, I'll make sure the right person at BG-Demo picks it up the same day.
- Craig AshwellFine. Let's leave it there. Back to value.
- Marcus BellOkay. So here's what I'd suggest. Rather than a general push to get everybody logging in, let's pick two or three questions that matter to you and build the habit around those. You mentioned variations agreed but not invoiced. What else?
- Craig AshwellRetentions. Which clients are holding money back and for how long. And projects where we've done the work and the valuation hasn't been signed off. Those two. If I could see them on one page, I'd be happy.
- Sunil KapoorThe retention data's in the accounting system and the signed-off status is in the project system. They'd need to join on the project code. Which, to be fair, we've done for the client list already.
- Marcus BellRight, so it's possible without any new connector. I'd want to check how clean the project codes are before I promise a page. Sunil, could we look at that together next week?
- Sunil KapoorYes. Which project code format are you thinking? Some of the older ones are different from the new ones.
- Marcus BellWhatever you've got. Show me the messiest ones and we'll see.
- Craig AshwellLet me be clear about where I am. I'm not unhappy with the people. You've been decent. I'm unhappy because I stood up in front of the board and said this would let us see a client in the round, and so far I can't prove it.
- Marcus BellThat's useful to hear, thank you. So the goal for the next few months is that you can prove it. A couple of real examples where the brain caught something that would otherwise have been missed.
- Craig AshwellExactly that. One example I can put in front of the family. I don't need forty people. I need a result.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. Shall we book half an hour with credit control, you, Sunil and me, to go through those two questions on your own data? I'd rather do it live than send a document.
- Craig AshwellYes. Do it. Next week, and I'll make sure they turn up.
- Marcus BellBrilliant. Now, I asked Priya to dial in for the last part because it touches on the contract, and you'd want her to hear it from you directly. Priya, are you there?
Priya RamanI'm here, sorry, I was stuck on another call. Afternoon, both. To keep momentum I'll keep this short, and Craig, thanks for being straight with us.- Craig AshwellPriya. Good. You'll have heard some of it, I suppose.
- Priya RamanEnough of it, yes. Forty seats, a handful of users, and you want something you can show the board. That's fair, and I'd rather we fix it than talk around it.
- Craig AshwellThe contract's up in the summer. August. I'm telling you now so it's not a surprise. If this is the same picture then, I'll be asking hard questions about paying forty-four thousand a year.
- Priya RamanUnderstood, and thank you for saying it early. You're on Growth at forty-four thousand, and the term runs to 22 Aug 2026. There's plenty of time, which is exactly why I'd want us to spend the next few months proving the value before we sit down about anything commercial.
- Craig AshwellThat's all I'm asking.
- Marcus BellAnd I'd keep the price conversation with Priya, so I'm going to stay on the usage side. My job is to get you to the point where you can say whether it's worth it, with evidence.
- Priya RamanRight. So plan is, Marcus and Sunil do the credit control session next week, Sunil sends the seat list, and we regroup in a few weeks. If we can get a couple of clear wins in front of Craig by then, that changes the renewal conversation completely.
- Craig AshwellFine. And I'll talk to our finance people about that invoice today. Sunil, copy me on what you find in the ledger.
- Sunil KapoorWill do. I'll send it to you both once I've reconciled it.
- Marcus BellGreat. Anything else before I let you go? Sunil, any connector worries I haven't covered?
- Sunil KapoorNo, nothing. Just that seat list.
- Marcus BellOkay. I'll send a short note with the actions today. Thanks, everyone. Speak soon.
- Priya RamanThanks all. Best of luck with the car park, Craig.
- Craig AshwellHa. Cheers. Speak next week.
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