Ardenmore Pension Administration / BG-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Ardenmore Pension Administration · 4 Sep 2023 11:45
Kickoff for Ardenmore's Starter subscription. The data protection officer wants free-text notes out by default, the helpdesk connector is undecided, and Harjit Bains wants a careful, controlled message for the trustees.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Kickoff for Ardenmore's Starter subscription. The data protection officer wants free-text notes out by default, the helpdesk connector is undecided, and Harjit Bains wants a careful, controlled message for the trustees.
What happened: The 4 Sep 2023 kickoff covered the Starter order form signed on 30 Aug 2023, at £20k a year with fifteen users and up to four connectors. Callie Brennan led, with Daniel Okafor as the ongoing contact.
Customer view: Harjit Bains wants no surprises for the client when trustees ask what is in the system. Yasmin Chaudhry, Data Protection Officer, wants sensitive free-text notes out by default and one signed document listing fields and folders.
Commercial: Three connectors are settled and the fourth Starter slot, the helpdesk, is undecided because member queries do not all reach it. Harjit plans to begin with four or five users out of fifteen.
Watch: Nothing connects until Yasmin signs off the in and out list. The evidence does not show the helpdesk decision.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Kickoff and data protection
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Callie Brennan sends the scope template the same day and Sukhvinder Dhillon returns the draft on Friday morning.
- Yasmin Chaudhry signs off the in and out list before any connector is switched on.
- Daniel Okafor sends Harjit plain sentences for the trustees' pack and a suggested invite list.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The fourth Starter connector, the helpdesk, is undecided and Starter has a hard limit of four.
- The shared mailbox holds sensitive trustee and member correspondence, so scope must be signed off before anything connects.
- Harjit hoped to tell trustees about the brain within the week, and it cannot answer questions until the first refresh lands.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Careful handling of data protection builds trust with the Data Protection Officer and the trustees.
- Only four or five of the fifteen Starter users are planned at first, leaving room to widen use once value shows.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, can everyone hear me alright? Thank you all for making the time. I can see Harjit and Sukhvinder. Yasmin, are you with us yet?
Yasmin ChaudhryYes, I'm here, sorry. The link dropped me into the wrong waiting room for a minute.
Harjit BainsMorning, all. Well, nearly afternoon. I've got the trustee meeting coming up at the end of the week, so I'm a bit distracted, apologies in advance.- Daniel OkaforNo apologies needed, Harjit. How is the team finding the week so far? Busy, I imagine.
- Harjit BainsBusy, yes. Quarter end for a couple of the schemes. But this is the thing I'm most looking forward to, honestly.
Callie BrennanLovely. Thanks, Daniel. Hello, everyone, I'm Callie, I'll be running the implementation with you. Let me give you the plan for the next hour, and then we'll fill in the detail. First, a quick recap of what you've bought. Then the four connectors, who owns each one, and what I need from your side. Then data protection, because Yasmin has joined us and I'd rather we cover it early than late. And last, the dates.
Sukhvinder DhillonSounds good. I'm the one who'll be doing most of the hands-on bits, I think, so I'll take notes.- Callie BrennanPerfect, that's exactly what I hoped. So, recap. You signed the order form on Wednesday 30 August 2023. It's the Starter tier, £19,500 a year, fifteen users, and up to four connectors. The implementation is a fixed fee and runs for about four weeks, so we have a fair bit of runway but not a lot of slack.
- Harjit BainsFifteen users is plenty for us. It's the client relationship team, so it's mostly me and the managers who prepare for trustee meetings. Plus Sukhvinder for the systems side.
- Daniel OkaforAnd just to close the loop on that, Harjit, I'll come back to you by the end of next week with a suggested list of who gets an invite first, so you're not inviting all fifteen on day one.
- Harjit BainsYes, please. I'd rather start with four or five people who'll actually use it, and see what the trustees' questions look like.
- Callie BrennanThat's sensible. Right, connectors. Before we switch on the refresh, I want to be clear about one rule of mine: I don't start any connector until I have written access in my inbox. Not a verbal go-ahead, a written one. It protects you as much as it protects me.
- Yasmin ChaudhryThat's music to my ears, actually. Can I ask the obvious question, then? Where does our data physically sit? Members' details, I mean. I've read the paperwork but I'd like to hear it said.
- Callie BrennanOf course. The brain is built and run inside your own Snowflake account. Nothing is copied out to a BG-Demo store. We connect to your sources, the data lands in your environment, and the questions are answered from there.
- Yasmin ChaudhrySo we remain the controller and you're effectively working inside our walls.
- Daniel OkaforThat's how I'd put it, yes. And the paperwork you've seen reflects that. If anything in it reads differently to how Callie's just described it, tell us and we'll fix the paperwork, not the explanation.
- Yasmin ChaudhryGood. Then my main concern is scope. Member data is in the scheme records, and I don't want every free-text note about a member's circumstances swept up. Some of those notes are, well, sensitive.
- Harjit BainsShe's right, and I'd add that no surprises for the client is the whole point for me. If a trustee asks what's in the system, I need to be able to say exactly what.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood. So what I need from your side is a list of the fields and folders that are in scope, and, just as important, the ones that are out. Sukhvinder, would you be able to draft that, and Yasmin signs it off?
- Sukhvinder DhillonI can do that. I'd start from the field list in the client relationship system and mark each one in or out. The free-text notes would be out by default.
- Yasmin ChaudhryOut by default, yes. And if we want one in later, we ask, rather than the other way round.
- Callie BrennanThat maps cleanly onto how we work. Nothing comes in unless it's on the agreed list. I'll keep that list in the setup note so whoever picks this up after me can see it.
- Harjit BainsWhat do you mean, whoever picks this up after you?
- Callie BrennanAh, sorry, poor phrasing. I just mean that I write a handover note for every customer, so that you, or Sukhvinder, or Daniel could run things without me in the room. It's a habit, nothing more.
- Daniel OkaforI'll be your point of contact once the implementation settles, Harjit, so I'll be reading that note closely.
- Harjit BainsGood. I like a note. Right, so which connectors are we talking about?
- Callie BrennanFrom the scoping, my suggestion is this. One, the client relationship system, which holds your scheme and contact records. Two, the shared mailbox the client team uses for trustee correspondence. Three, the call recorder. Four, the helpdesk for member queries. That's the full four on Starter, and it's a hard limit, so I'd like to be sure those are the right four before we commit.
- Sukhvinder DhillonThe helpdesk is the one I'm unsure about. Member queries come in through a couple of routes and not all of them end up there.
- Harjit BainsThey don't. Some come by phone and are just logged in the scheme record by whoever picked up. So the scheme record is probably the more reliable place.
- Callie BrennanThen let's not decide the fourth today. I'd sooner start with the first three, get a clean first refresh, and you tell me after a week or so whether the helpdesk earns its place. Does that work?
- Harjit BainsYes. That's much more comfortable than guessing.
- Yasmin ChaudhryCan I ask about the mailbox? That one worries me most. Trustee correspondence, member complaints, it's all in there, along with a lot of internal chatter.
- Callie BrennanFair. We can scope a mailbox to specific folders or labels rather than the whole thing. So the question is whether the client team already files trustee emails somewhere separate.
- Harjit BainsThey do, by scheme. Each scheme has its own folder. I'd be comfortable with those and nothing else.
- Yasmin ChaudhryThen I'm comfortable too, provided the folder list is in the same document as the fields. One document, one signature.
- Callie BrennanOne document. I'll set up a template today and send it over, and Sukhvinder fills it in. What I'd like is the first draft back by Thursday, so I have time to check it before anything is connected.
- Sukhvinder DhillonThursday is tight but possible. Can I say Friday morning, to be safe?
- Callie BrennanFriday morning is fine. I'd rather have it right than early.
- Daniel OkaforJust to close the loop, then. Callie sends the template today, Sukhvinder returns the draft on Friday morning, Yasmin signs off, and nothing connects until that's done. Have I got that right?
- Yasmin ChaudhryThat's exactly what I wanted to hear.
- Harjit BainsCan I ask something slightly different? When do I actually get to ask it a question? Because I've got the trustee meeting at the end of the week and I'd love to say we're getting this.
- Callie BrennanHonestly, not by the end of this week. We have to get the first refresh to land before there's anything for it to answer from. I'd rather you told the trustees it's being set up properly than promise something that isn't there yet.
- Harjit BainsNo, that's fair. And actually that's a better message. Careful, controlled, nothing leaves our environment.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's right. And I can give you two or three plain sentences for the trustees' pack if it helps. I'll send them over tomorrow.
- Harjit BainsPlease do. Thank you, Daniel.
- Callie BrennanSo, the dates. Template today. Draft back Friday morning. Sign-off after that. Then, before we switch on the refresh, a short call with Sukhvinder to walk through the credentials. First refresh the week after. And then a proper onboarding session with the whole group, where we sit in the brain together and ask it real questions. That's Monday of the week after next, and I'll send the invite after this call.
- Sukhvinder DhillonThat works for me. I'll block the time.
- Harjit BainsAnd me. Thank you, Callie, this is the most organised kickoff I've been on.
- Callie BrennanHa, thank you. Right, any last questions before we finish? Yasmin, anything else on your side?
- Yasmin ChaudhryOnly that I'd like to see the setup note when it's written, not just hear that it exists.
- Callie BrennanOf course. You'll be on the copy list.
- Daniel OkaforThank you, everyone. We'll leave you to the rest of your day. Speak soon.
- Harjit BainsThanks all. Bye for now.
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