Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting · 10 Sep 2025 11:30
Callum Reid is happy with the 07:00 refresh and cites a ten-minute win for a capacity provider. He flags newer underwriters not using it and distrust of claims dates, and says renewal sits above him.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Callum Reid is happy with the 07:00 refresh and cites a ten-minute win for a capacity provider. He flags newer underwriters not using it and distrust of claims dates, and says renewal sits above him.
What happened: Daniel Okafor reported the refresh on time every business day, no tickets and a modest dip in active users. Callum Reid blamed leave and binder renewals, and confirmed two leads still use it daily.
Customer view: A capacity provider's open-bordereaux query that once took a day was answered by a lead in about ten minutes. Claims ticket dates and CRM dates do not always match, so some staff go back to the spreadsheet.
Commercial: Daniel proposed a value case at the next quarterly review. He said the contract runs to 30 Jun 2026 with renewal on 1 Jul 2026, and Callum asked that nothing commercial be sent to him.
Watch: Usage depends on Callum and two leads. The evidence does not show who signs the renewal.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
usage, trust, renewal value case
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- Callum to send two or three examples of mismatched claims dates, and Daniel to trace them and give a time.
- Daniel to send a note and session slots by the end of the week, scheduled after the bordereaux are out.
- Daniel to offer options for a quarterly review value case before the end of the year.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Questions come mainly from Callum and two leads, so a shared absence would quieten the brain quickly.
- Claims ticket dates and CRM dates do not match, which erodes trust and sends some staff back to spreadsheets.
- The renewal sits above Callum and the evidence does not show who will decide it.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A session for newer underwriters, including incoming cargo hires, could build the habit and show how to build a dashboard.
- A value case at the next quarterly review, built from real capacity provider requests, supports the renewal conversation.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Callum, thanks very much for making the time. Just checking who's joined – I think it's only the two of us today?
Callum ReidJust us. Can you hear me alright? I'm on the laptop speakers, the headset's gone walkabout.- Daniel OkaforLoud and clear. Mind you, I can hear a lot of keyboard.
- Callum ReidHa, that's the bordereaux. Everything goes out today, so apologies if I'm half watching the inbox.
- Daniel OkaforNot at all, I'll keep it tight. Is there anything you want out of today before I start?
- Callum ReidYes. What I need is short. One, are the dashboards right at 07:00, every day. Two, a line on usage I can give upstairs without being asked ten questions after. That's it. Everything else is nice to have.
- Daniel OkaforThat's very fair, thank you. Just to close the loop on the first one – the nightly refresh has finished ahead of 07:00 on every business day since we last spoke. I went through the log this morning to be sure.
- Callum ReidGood. That's the one that matters.
- Daniel OkaforThen usage, which I wanted to raise gently. Active users have dipped a little this quarter compared with the last one. Nothing dramatic, and I'd rather ask you than guess at the reason. How is the team finding it?
- Callum ReidRight. Honestly, I think that's people being out. Late summer, half the floor's on leave, and the marine cargo lot have been heads-down on binder renewals. They're not going into anything they don't have to. It's not that they've gone off it.
- Daniel OkaforMm, that makes sense. And is it the same people as before, just quieter? Or are some people not coming in at all?
- Callum ReidBit of both. Two of my leads still ask it something most days. A couple of the newer underwriters I don't think have really got into the habit. They ask me instead, which is rather the problem.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is a habit worth catching early. And tell me if this is unfair, but a good share of the questions come from you and those two leads. That's lovely for the value, but if you were all away in the same fortnight it would go very quiet very quickly.
- Callum ReidFair. I'm the bottleneck, I know. So what would you do about it – and by when?
- Daniel OkaforA short session with the newer underwriters, half an hour or so, built around questions they'd actually get from a capacity provider rather than a tour of the menus. I'll come back to you by the end of the week with a couple of slots, and you tell me which one suits.
- Callum ReidFine. Make it after the bordereaux are out, not the week of. And keep it practical. If it's a slide deck they'll be on their phones in two minutes.
- Daniel OkaforNo slides, I promise. Their own submissions and their own queries. Honestly I'd rather they broke something a bit.
- Callum ReidHa. Right. Good.
- Daniel OkaforOn the support side it's been a quiet month. No tickets at all, which I'd normally take as a good sign, but I like to check it's not silence because people have stopped bothering.
- Callum ReidNo, nothing's broken. If something were off at seven I'd be on to you before I'd made a coffee. It's a capacity-provider question for me – if the numbers are wrong at the syndicate end I look daft, and I don't enjoy that.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. So the picture I'd take away is reliable, quiet, and a bit lower on use for reasons that sound understandable. Would you say that's fair?
- Callum ReidYes. Can I say that upstairs? I don't want to oversell it.
- Daniel OkaforYou can, and I'll put it in a short note so you've got it in writing. Nothing in it you couldn't defend if somebody pushed.
- Daniel OkaforWhile I've got you, let me share my screen for a second, because I think the picture is more useful than my summary. Can you see it?
- Callum ReidGive me a second, it's being slow. Yes, got it. That's the usage page.
- Daniel OkaforThat's it. So what you're looking at is questions asked, week by week, over the quarter. You can see the shape – it climbs, there's a flat patch in the middle that I'd guess is the leave you mentioned, and it's picked up a little again at the end.
- Callum ReidHm. That flat patch lines up with the bank holiday, now you say so. And the fortnight the cargo team were all out of the office on renewals.
- Daniel OkaforAnd on the records side, everything's still loading. Your sources are all feeding in, nothing's gone flat, so what it's answering from is current. That's the bit I'd worry about if I saw it stall, and I don't.
- Callum ReidGood. Because that would be the end of it for my people. A tool that's out of date is worse than a spreadsheet – at least the spreadsheet tells you when it was last touched.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a very fair way of putting it, and I'll use it if I may.
- Callum ReidUse it.
- Daniel OkaforTell me what's actually been landing with the capacity providers, since that's what I'd want to measure it against.
- Callum ReidLet me tell you what came in last week. One of the capacity providers wanted to know how many bordereaux queries were still open against a particular binder, and how long they'd been sitting. That used to be a day of my team's time. One of the leads had it in about ten minutes.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what it was built for – submissions, queries and claims tickets in one view rather than three. Did the capacity provider take the answer, or did they come back?
- Callum ReidOne follow-up, which we also answered the same morning. That's the win, to be fair. What I'm less sure about is the claims side. The tickets show up, but I don't think the team trusts them yet.
- Daniel OkaforTrusts them – in what way?
- Callum ReidDates. The claims ticket dates and what's in the CRM don't always line up. An underwriter sees that, shrugs and goes back to the spreadsheet. I'm not saying the brain's wrong. I'm saying they don't know which one's right, and neither do I without checking.
- Daniel OkaforThat's really useful, and I'd like to understand it before I say anything clever. Could you send me two or three examples where they didn't match? Just the references, and I'll look at where each date is coming from.
- Callum ReidCan do. I'll get a couple from the team today or tomorrow. Short list.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. I'll come back to you once I've traced them. I won't give you a date until I've seen what's behind it, if that's all right.
- Callum ReidIt's fine, but I'll want a time. 'We're looking into it' doesn't help me when I'm on the phone to a syndicate.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. Once I've seen the examples you'll get a time from me, not a 'looking into it'.
- Callum ReidGood. Thanks.
- Daniel OkaforOne more thing on cadence. Growth comes with a quarterly review, and I think the next one is the right place to put a proper value case together – questions asked, time saved on the oversight requests, that sort of thing – so you've got something concrete for the capacity providers and for upstairs.
- Callum ReidWhat does that look like? I don't want homework.
- Daniel OkaforVery little from you. I'd pull the numbers from the brain itself, and I'd ask you for three or four of the real requests you've had, the ones that would have taken a day before. You'd just tell me whether the story's right.
- Callum ReidThose I can give you. The binder one from last week for a start. There was another, from a different capacity provider, about claims referrals, that took about the same.
- Daniel OkaforThen we're most of the way there already. I'll put options for that review in the note, though I'd want to check diaries on my side first, so I'll offer you choices rather than a single day.
- Callum ReidThat's fine. Before the end of the year, if you can. I'd rather have it in hand before the next round of oversight meetings.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Is that every quarter that they meet, or is it more ad hoc?
- Callum ReidMore or less every quarter, and then ad hoc when something goes wrong, which is when the questions actually matter.
- Daniel OkaforOn seats, you've got forty licensed, and you're using something like a quarter of them day to day. I'd call that headroom rather than a problem, and there's no pressure from our side. I mention it because if the newer underwriters do come on properly you've got room without changing anything.
- Callum ReidGood. I'm not changing anything. Not this year.
- Daniel OkaforHas anyone built any dashboards lately? Growth includes the builder, and it's usually where a team starts to make the thing its own.
- Callum ReidOne of the leads put together a cargo view a while back. The rest of us just use what's there. I'd not thought of building our own, to be honest. Is it hard?
- Daniel OkaforNot at all, which is why I'd put it in that session. If the newer people leave knowing how to build one view for their own book, they'll come back to it, I think.
- Callum ReidRight. Put it on the list. Keep the list short, mind.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Last thing, so it's on your radar rather than a surprise. The contract runs to 30 Jun 2026 and the renewal falls on 1 Jul 2026. Nothing for you to do now. I'll raise it properly well ahead, and I'd want whoever signs it in the room when we do.
- Callum ReidThat's not mine to talk about, that sits above me. Bring me in for how we use it and I'll make sure the right person's there. Don't send me anything on the commercial side.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. I'll keep the two conversations apart.
- Callum ReidActually, one thing for the session: a couple of new underwriters are joining the cargo team shortly, so you'll want it pitched for people starting from scratch.
- Daniel OkaforThat's really helpful, thank you. I'll pitch it for someone who's never opened it. It could be good to have them in from their first week.
- Callum ReidRight. That's what I needed. Dashboards right, a line for upstairs, a session booked, examples over to you.
- Daniel OkaforExactly that. I'll send the note and the slots by the end of the week, and I'll wait for your examples. Thank you, Callum – enjoy what's left of the week.
- Callum ReidCheers, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Daniel OkaforBye for now.
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