What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026First onboarding call with Ffion Rees, the admin. Agreed three core sources (helpdesk, CRM, usage data), written access requests, and a Growth rollout starting with Ffion alone. Salesforce access is the likely delay.
What happened: Callie Brennan agreed the connector order and an access checklist with Ffion Rees. Helpdesk and usage data go first, the CRM follows.
Customer view: Ffion wants ticket history, renewal dates and product usage per operator in one place, replacing a spreadsheet she rebuilds every Monday. She says the renewals workload is why they bought.
Commercial: Penmaen is licensed for forty users on Growth. Adoption depends on Ffion trusting the first refresh before customer success managers are invited, so an early credible result matters for the renewal case.
Watch: The Zendesk token was blocked because the owner is on leave, and the Salesforce integration user may take longer. Operator names may not match between helpdesk and account table.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Ffion Rees emails her data team and IT, copying Callie Brennan, to request access in writing.
- Callie Brennan sends the setup checklist the same day and compares operator names once she has read access.
- Callie Brennan and Ffion meet again on Thursday at lunchtime to review the first refresh.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Salesforce integration user may take longer, delaying renewal data in the brain.
- Operator names may not match between the helpdesk and the account table, which could undermine trust in early answers.
- Customer success managers are described as allergic to new tools and may write it off if the first view is half built.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Rolling out to the customer success managers on Growth, which includes forty users, would deepen adoption.
- A first useful question about tickets before renewal gives a clear success test.
Transcript
- Callie BrennanHi Ffion, can you hear me alright?
- Ffion ReesYes, hi Callie. Sorry, give me a second, my headset has decided to reconnect itself. Right, that's better.
- Callie BrennanNo problem at all. Good afternoon, by the way. How's the week treating you?
- Ffion ReesBusy. We've got a run of renewals coming up with a few of our leisure operators, so everyone's got their head down. Not complaining, though. It's actually why we bought this.
- Callie BrennanWhich is a nice way into the plan. So here's the next forty-five minutes. First, I want to agree which sources we connect and in what order. Second, what I need from your side is access for each of them, in writing, before we switch on the refresh. Third, we talk about who owns what once it's live. Does that work?
- Ffion ReesThat works. I should say I'm the admin on our side, so most of it lands with me, but I'll need to pull in someone from IT for a couple of the permissions.
- Callie BrennanThat's fine, and it's quite normal. Let's start with what you told Tom you wanted out of it. Remind me, in your own words.
- Ffion ReesSo customer success wants to be able to ask, per operator, what's their ticket history, when do they renew, and are they actually using our product. At the moment that's three different places and a spreadsheet I rebuild every Monday. It's miserable, honestly.
- Callie BrennanRight. So three sources at the core: the helpdesk, your CRM for renewals, and the product usage data. Is the usage data already sitting in a warehouse, or is it somewhere else?
- Ffion ReesIt's in Snowflake, our data team loads it. Daily, I think. There's a table of events and a table of accounts. I don't know the exact names off the top of my head.
- Callie BrennanThat's helpful, because the brain runs inside your Snowflake account anyway, so that one is the easy one. I'll need someone from your data team to give us read access to those two tables. Could you ask them?
- Ffion ReesYes. I'll ask this week. Do you want it as an email or a ticket or what?
- Callie BrennanEmail is perfect. Just copy me and put the table names in it so there's a written record. I don't start any connector without written access, that's my one rule.
- Ffion ReesFair enough. Understood.
- Callie BrennanNow the helpdesk. I saw there was a ticket from you a little while ago about permissions on the Zendesk side. Did that get sorted?
- Ffion ReesSort of. That was me trying to create an API token and not having the right role. Our Zendesk owner is on leave, so it's been sitting. I marked it high priority because I was impatient, sorry.
- Callie BrennanDon't apologise, that's what the ticket's for. So the blocker is somebody with an admin role on Zendesk generating a token, or giving you the role. Is there a deputy?
- Ffion ReesThere's a colleague in IT who might be able to. I'll chase today. Mm, actually I'll walk over, it's quicker.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Then the CRM. Which one are you on?
- Ffion ReesSalesforce. And before you ask, yes, renewal dates live there, but they're not always up to date. The sales team update them when they remember.
- Callie BrennanGood to know, and we'll note it. The brain will show what the CRM says, and we can flag where it disagrees with the contract documents later. For now, I need a read-only integration user and a connected app, or if that's too heavy, a report export on a schedule. Which is easier for you?
- Ffion ReesIntegration user, I think. We did one for another tool last year. I'd have to ask who set it up, though.
- Callie BrennanOkay. Let me put that down. So, checklist. Snowflake read access, from your data team. Zendesk token, from IT. Salesforce integration user, from whoever built the last one. Yes?
- Ffion ReesYes. And I'll be honest, the Salesforce one might take longer.
- Callie BrennanThat's all right. We'll sequence it so the helpdesk and the usage data go first. That gets you ticket and usage views per operator, and the renewals follow.
- Ffion ReesThat would already be a big improvement.
- Callie BrennanGood. Let me share my screen, because I want to show you the mapping sheet. Bear with me. Can you see it?
- Ffion ReesYes, I can see a grid with a lot of rows.
- Callie BrennanThat's it. Left column is the field in your source, middle is where it lands in the brain, right is a note. The thing I want you to think about is the word operator. In your helpdesk, how do you know which ticket belongs to which leisure operator?
- Ffion ReesHmm. There's an organisation field on the requester. It's mostly right. Some of the older tickets are under the individual's email instead, so it depends who raised it.
- Callie BrennanRight, that's a classic. So the join between a ticket and an operator is the thing to get right. Does the account table in Snowflake have the operator name, and is it spelled the same way as in the helpdesk?
- Ffion ReesNot sure. I can check. Probably not exactly the same. Someone will have put a full stop or a Ltd in.
- Callie BrennanExactly the sort of thing. I won't say it's fine until I've checked it. So that's an action for me too, once I have read access. I'll compare the names and send you a list of the ones that don't match.
- Ffion ReesOh, that would be great. I'd rather see that than find out three weeks in.
- Callie BrennanSame. Now users. You're licensed for forty, on Growth. Who do you want in first?
- Ffion ReesInitially just me, honestly, and then the customer success managers once I trust it. I don't want them seeing something half built and deciding it's rubbish.
- Callie BrennanSensible. I'd keep it to you until the first refresh has landed and we've both looked at it. Then we invite the managers in one go with a short walkthrough. I can do that session.
- Ffion ReesYes please. They're a bit allergic to new tools.
- Callie BrennanHa. Then we'll make the first question they ask something they care about. Something like which operators had the most tickets before their renewal. That's your kind of question, isn't it?
- Ffion ReesThat's exactly it. That and who's gone quiet.
- Callie BrennanGood, I'll write that down as the test for whether the setup's working. Right, so, who sends what. You email your data team and IT, copy me. I send you the setup checklist today, and a name comparison once I have access. We speak again next week to look at the first refresh. Does Thursday suit?
- Ffion ReesThursday's fine. Lunchtime is better for me than the afternoon.
- Callie BrennanLunchtime it is. Anything else you want to raise before I let you go?
- Ffion ReesNo, I think that's it. Thanks, this has been really clear.
- Callie BrennanLovely. Speak Thursday. Thanks, Ffion, bye for now.
- Ffion ReesBye, Callie.