Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – QBR
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Brackwell Freight Ltd · 2 Oct 2024 10:00
Quarterly review with Liam Doherty. Active users are up to a bit over six a month against fifteen licensed, usage is spreading beyond Liam, and a clear value story exists. The ask for more users and two connectors is with Tom and the finance director, undecided.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Quarterly review with Liam Doherty. Active users are up to a bit over six a month against fifteen licensed, usage is spreading beyond Liam, and a clear value story exists. The ask for more users and two connectors is with Tom and the finance director, undecided.
What happened: Marcus Bell walked Liam through usage, one ticket and the commercial position. Active users rose from nearly four to a bit over six a month, depots now give about a third of activity, and all four connectors are still loading.
Customer view: Liam gave a concrete value case, spotting an at-risk retail contract and ringing the retailer first. Depot managers are mixed but positive; the main complaint is that they want it for everyone in their team.
Commercial: Liam wants more users and two connectors (accounting system and SharePoint). Tom has sent options, Liam is going through them with the finance director, and nothing is decided. The contract runs to the end of November.
Watch: Starter has no dashboards builder, so the depot dashboard ask points to Growth. Liam also wants connector commitments in the order form, and asked whether access can be restricted for commercially sensitive retailers; Marcus owes an answer.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage growth, expansion options
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Liam sends three dates for the depot sessions and the names of the admins.
- Marcus answers the access question by the end of the week and sends the usage summary and team split chart.
- Liam and Tom continue on the options before the contract ends in November, with a short call booked for the end of October.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A depot usage dip is possible over peak from November, and the habit still leans on Liam and his team.
- No named admins yet, and Liam has an open question on access for commercially sensitive retailers.
- Liam wants connector go-live commitments in writing, and Marcus could not promise a date.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- More users and two further connectors are under discussion, and the dashboards ask points to Growth.
- Planning and scheduling staff outside the team are asking about it, a natural case for several teams.
Transcript
Liam DohertyMorning, Marcus. Am I early or are you late?
Marcus BellBit of both, I think. Morning, Liam. Sorry, I was finishing an email I'd promised someone yesterday. Can you hear me alright?- Liam DohertyFine, yeah. Wet Wednesday in Manchester, I take it?
- Marcus BellNaturally. I've got the heating on in the first week of October, which feels wrong, but there you go. How's the depot? All lorries and puddles?
- Liam DohertyLorries and puddles, and everyone's already muttering about peak. Let's get on with it, I've got a finance catch-up later so I'm all yours for the best part of an hour.
- Marcus BellPerfect. I'll share my screen and say what I'd like to cover. How the last quarter went, usage mainly, then the ticket you raised, then where we've got to on the things we talked about last month, and then the next few months. Does that work?
- Liam DohertyLove that. Go.
- Marcus BellSo, the headline. On average, a bit over six people a month are now actually active in the brain. Last time we spoke it was nearly four. So that's a proper jump, up by well over a third on the quarter before. I've pulled the numbers and honestly it's the best I've seen from you.
- Liam DohertyThat's the sessions. We did a few of the depots in the last couple of weeks of September, and some of the account managers have just started opening it themselves, which is the bit I actually care about.
- Marcus BellI could see it in the logs. There's a little step up the week after each session. And I noticed you swapped some of the dormant seats across, like we talked about.
- Liam DohertyYeah, did it myself, took about two minutes. Not a drama.
- Marcus BellGood. And that's the thing, because of the fifteen licensed users you're now using most of them for real, which is a different picture from last month. So the seat limit's going to start to matter, and I'll come to that.
- Liam DohertyYep.
- Marcus BellQuestions asked is the other one I watch. It's up month on month and, more interesting, it's not all you. You're still the biggest asker, but there are depot people in there now, and one of them is asking nearly as much as you.
- Liam DohertyWhich one? No, don't tell me, let me guess. It's the one at Trafford Park who keeps pestering me for more access.
- Marcus BellI'll not name names on a recording, but you're not far off.
- Liam DohertyHa. Right.
- Marcus BellIt matters, because last time we talked about how much of it hung on you. It's spreading out now, which is healthier. If you're off for a week, somebody else knows where things are.
- Liam DohertyHonestly, that's a relief. I didn't love being the single point of failure. One view, that's the point, and now it's more than one pair of eyes on it.
- Marcus BellExactly. Okay, the ticket. You raised one in the last month and marked it high priority. I've had a look and it was dealt with, but I wanted to hear it from you rather than just read the timestamps. How did it feel from your side?
- Liam DohertyIt was fine. I chased it once, well, twice, because I don't leave things sitting, and it got sorted. Quicker the second time. Nothing's come back since, so I'm not worried.
- Marcus BellGood. I'm not going to pretend I know every detail of what happened inside the ticket, but if something similar happens, tell me and I'll make sure it gets looked at straight away. Is there anything still hanging off it?
- Liam DohertyNo, clean. Honestly, one ticket in a month for the number of people on it now, I'd call that quiet.
- Marcus BellAgreed. And on the money side there's nothing overdue, invoices are all paid up, so I've got nothing to chase you for. Which is always a nice thing to say at a review.
- Liam DohertyHa. Our finance team would be thrilled to hear that.
- Marcus BellRight. Let me show you records indexed, because that's the one I check for the quiet failures. All four connectors are still climbing. Nothing flat, nothing that's stopped loading. So the brain is up to date with what your people are doing.
- Liam DohertyGood. Is it still doing the overnight refresh by early morning? The managers look at it before they're out on the yard.
- Marcus BellDone by 07:00 on business days, every tier. If it ever isn't, say so and I'll look at it that day.
- Liam DohertyBrilliant.
- Marcus BellOkay. Before we get onto the commercial stuff, I wanted to ask about value, because I can show you graphs all day but you're the one who knows whether it's actually earning its keep. What's it done for you this quarter that you couldn't have done before?
- Liam DohertyOkay, so, good one. There's a retailer, I'll not name them, where the delivery exceptions had been creeping up for a few weeks. On their own, each one's nothing. A late pallet, a damaged carton. But side by side with the last couple of calls, and an email from their ops person that was a bit sharp, you could see it was heading somewhere.
- Marcus BellMm.
- Liam DohertySo I got the depot manager and the account manager in a room, we looked at it on one page, and we rang them before they rang us. That's the whole reason we bought it. Seeing an at-risk retail contract before the customer calls. And it actually worked, which I still find a bit surprising.
- Marcus BellThat's the best example I've heard from any of my accounts this year, and I'm not just saying that. Would you be happy for me to put that in a short note for Tom, with the names taken out? It helps him make the case to whoever signs things off on your side.
- Liam DohertyYeah, go for it. I'll even give you a couple of lines in my own words. I told our finance director about it last week, so he's heard the story already.
- Marcus BellPerfect. That helps. Now, what are the depot managers actually saying? Not what you'd like them to say, but the honest version.
- Liam DohertyMixed, honestly, but in a good way. Two of them love it. One said it's the first time she's seen the tickets and the calls without having to ask three different people. A couple are still sceptical, but they're the ones who were sceptical of the spreadsheets too. The main complaint is they want it for everyone in their team, not just the manager.
- Marcus BellWhich brings us neatly to users. So, fifteen licensed, and you've now got most of them in use. The soft limit means nobody's locked out if you go a little over, but if you want every account manager at every depot, that's well beyond what Starter's designed for.
- Liam DohertyYeah. That's what we talked about last month. It's the same ask, really. More users, and the two connectors.
- Marcus BellRight, and I did pass that to Tom, with the usage summary and your retailer example. I'm not the person to talk numbers, so I'll leave that to him. Has he been in touch?
- Liam DohertyHe has. We had a chat, he's sent over some options, and I'm going through them with our finance director. Nothing's decided yet. I don't want to say more than that.
- Marcus BellThat's absolutely fine, and it's the right place for it. The only thing I'd say from my side is the practical bit. The renewal's at the start of December, the contract runs to the end of November, so if anything's changing it's tidier to have it sorted before then. But that's a pace you and Tom set, not me.
- Liam DohertyNo, understood. Our finance director's keen to do it once, not twice. He doesn't like paperwork.
- Marcus BellWho does? Okay. What I can do is help you work out what you'd actually use. Let me show you something. This is the connectors page. These four are the ones you've got. You asked for the accounting system and SharePoint. Are those still the two?
- Liam DohertyStill the two. Xero, mainly, so we can see late payers next to the delivery complaints. And SharePoint for the retailer service agreements.
- Marcus BellGood. And you want to feed those into dashboards, wasn't that the idea? The standing view for each depot manager.
- Liam DohertyThat's the dream. A page each, their contracts on it, they open it first thing. I've been banging on about it for ages. Would it actually be useful with only the existing four, or is it a waste without the other two?
- Marcus BellThe dashboards builder only comes with Growth, so it's not something I can switch on for you today on Starter. What you do have is the search and pages and chat, and the filter by source I showed you before. For the depots, a saved search for a retailer's exceptions gets you a good chunk of the way.
- Liam DohertyOh, I've been using that one. The filter, yeah. I put it in the one-pager you made and the depot guys liked it. It's a small thing, but it's what they asked about first.
- Marcus BellGlad it helped. I'll tell you what's worth knowing. The thing that makes the brain stick isn't the clever features, it's when one person in a depot builds a habit and the others copy. So I'd keep doing what you're doing: one depot at a time, on a real account.
- Liam DohertyThat's the plan. Which brings me to the thing I wanted to ask, actually. Peak. From November everybody's heads down and I can't get an hour with any of them. So whatever we're doing, it's got to happen in October.
- Marcus BellOkay, that's useful. Then let's plan it backwards. Which depots have you not done yet?
- Liam DohertyThree still to do. Two of them are quite small, so I could probably do them together over a lunch. The third's the big one, and that's where the most retail accounts sit, so I'd like you in the room for that one.
- Marcus BellHappy to jump on a call, or in person if it's the big one. I'm in the Manchester office, so it's not a trek. Give me dates and I'll hold the time.
- Liam DohertyI'll sort the diary this week. I'll send you three options.
- Marcus BellGreat. And while we're on people, can I ask the awkward one? If you were off for a couple of weeks, who runs this? Who does the admin, who answers the how-to questions?
- Liam DohertyFair. A couple of my team could do the admin. They've done the user swaps and they know where the settings are. I'd like to formalise it, put a name down. Can I do that with you?
- Marcus BellYes, please. I'd like to know who the admins are, because if something goes wrong with a connector, I want to be talking to somebody who can actually look at it. Send me the names and I'll update our side.
- Liam DohertyWill do. I'll add it to my list. I've got a list. I've always got a list.
- Marcus BellI'd noticed. Let me show you one more chart, which is how usage splits by team. It's good news. Head office is steady, and the depots have gone from a trickle to about a third of the activity.
- Liam DohertyThat's more than I'd have guessed. Can I have that chart? I'll put it in front of our finance director.
- Marcus BellI'll export it and send it with the summary. And I'll make sure it's got the date range on it so nobody asks which month it is.
- Liam DohertyPerfect.
- Marcus BellRight, so what are the risks? I'd say there are two, and neither's a drama. One is peak. If the depots go quiet in November and the new habit doesn't have time to set, you might see usage dip in December, and that's not a sign of anything wrong, just the calendar. The other is the one we've already spoken about, that it still leans on you and your team.
- Liam DohertyAgree on both. For peak, I'm going to ask each depot manager to pick one person who owns it for the team. A champion, I think you lot call it.
- Marcus BellWe do, yes. And that's a good idea, because it's easier to coach one person per depot than every account manager. I can run a short walkthrough for just those people.
- Liam DohertyYeah, I like that. A little group of six. One per depot. Call it the depot champions.
- Marcus BellI love that. It also gives you a ready-made group for when the new connectors come in, if that's the route you take. They'd be the first to try the finance view.
- Liam DohertyRight. And that's where I wanted to ask about timing for the connectors, if we go ahead. Last month you said you couldn't promise a date.
- Marcus BellStill can't, I'm afraid, and I'd rather be honest than say something that falls over. If it does go ahead, the order form would carry a live-within commitment for each connector, so you'd have it in writing. That's Tom's job to put in front of you. I'm just the person who'll make sure it's adopted once it's there.
- Liam DohertyFine. That's fair. I've been burnt on that elsewhere, so I want it in the paperwork.
- Marcus BellTotally reasonable.
- Liam DohertyOkay, different question, not a big one. When I get the depot managers on, do they see everything? Like, can any account manager see every retailer?
- Marcus BellGood question, and I don't want to answer it loosely. How access is set up depends on what's connected and how your own systems control it. I'd want to check that properly with the team rather than guess on a call. Can I come back to you by the end of the week?
- Liam DohertyYeah, no problem. It's just that a couple of the retailers have a commercial sensitivity thing, and I'd rather know before the depot guys are poking around.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. I've noted that. It's a sensible thing to ask before the rollout, not after.
- Liam DohertyGood.
- Marcus BellLet me look at my list. I think we've done usage, the ticket, value, the commercial position, risks. Is there anything about the service, the support, the people at BG-Demo, that you want to say? This is a review, it's your chance.
- Liam DohertyHonestly, no. You've been good. Quick when I've needed it. I don't have to chase much, which for me is the real test.
- Marcus BellThanks, that's kind of you. I'd still say there's a gap on my side, which is I should have shown you the filter in the first month. I'll be better at that. I'm trying to get a proper first-month checklist together for smaller accounts.
- Liam DohertyThat's not a gap, that's me not asking. Anyway, it's all been useful.
- Marcus BellOkay, so next. A word on what the next quarter looks like. Starter has a check-in every six months. If things change and you move up, you'd go to quarterly reviews. If not, we'd be back here in the spring, but I wouldn't wait that long. Let's have a quick call in a few weeks, after you've done the other depots, just to see where the numbers have got to.
- Liam DohertyYeah. Do that. Before peak, so I can tell you what's worked.
- Marcus BellPerfect. Shall we book half an hour for the end of October?
- Liam DohertyYeah. I'll check, but yes, probably. I'm trying not to say too much into a recording about which depot's my biggest headache, but I'll tell you on that one.
- Marcus BellHa, I'll hold you to that. Can I check one thing on the people side? Is there anyone new on your team, or anyone who's moved? I like to keep our contact list right.
- Liam DohertyNo, same crew. No one new, no one gone. Someone from finance may sit in on a call at some point, since they're going through the options, but that's it.
- Marcus BellFine. If they want to join anything, just add them. It's easier to explain the usage numbers to them directly than to pass it on second-hand.
- Liam DohertyGood shout.
- Marcus BellI do have one last thing, which is a heads-up rather than anything bad. The renewal paperwork goes out from our side in the usual way, and I'll sort that with Tom so it's not two separate sets of emails. I'll keep it simple.
- Liam DohertyLove that. Our finance director hates it when he gets three emails about the same thing.
- Marcus BellOne thread, one set of attachments. Promise.
- Liam DohertyYou're a good man.
- Marcus BellRight, so while I've got you, let me go through what happens from here, and you can correct me if I've got anything wrong. From me, a short summary after this call with the usage numbers, the team split chart and the retailer example, anonymised. I'll also come back to you on the access question by the end of the week.
- Liam DohertyYep.
- Marcus BellFrom you, the three dates for the depot sessions, the names of the admins on your side, and a couple of lines in your own words on the retailer story. And you'll carry on with Tom on the options, and let me know if there's anything you need from me to help with that.
- Liam DohertyThat's it. And I'll tell the depot managers about the champions idea at the next ops meeting.
- Marcus BellBrilliant. We've got time left, so is there anything else you want to dig into? Even if it's a bit random.
- Liam DohertyActually, yes. Something small. The brain answers a question and sometimes it quotes a call or a ticket. Can the depot managers click through to the original? Because a couple of them don't trust the summary without seeing what was actually said.
- Marcus BellYes, they can. Every answer shows where it came from, so you can open the source. Let me show you. I'll ask it something about a retailer. See, here, these links at the bottom are the sources. Click that and you're in the original call or ticket.
- Liam DohertyOh nice. That'll go down well with the sceptics. They'll want to see the receipts.
- Marcus BellThat's a good way to put it. If you tell them nothing's taken on trust, that tends to go down well. And if the source is wrong, that tells you something about the data, which is useful too.
- Liam DohertyRight. That's going in the sessions as well. Receipts.
- Marcus BellI'll add it to the one-pager. That's two things on it now. Filtering and sources. It's turning into a proper little guide.
- Liam DohertyI'll print it and stick it on the wall at the depot. They like a poster.
- Marcus BellHa, I'll make it A4-friendly then. Anything else?
- Liam DohertyI don't think so. Oh, wait. One. Next year. Not now, just so it's on the table. Once depots are in, are there other parts of the business that'd benefit? I'm thinking of the people who do planning, the ones who schedule vehicles. They're always asking me what's going on with the retailer.
- Marcus BellThat's a natural next step and I wouldn't rule it out. Starter is built for one team, so a wider group is exactly what Growth is for. But I'd get the depots embedded first, and have the numbers in front of you, before you spread it any further. Otherwise you're asking more people to learn something that hasn't stuck yet.
- Liam DohertyYeah. That's fair. Walk before run.
- Marcus BellExactly. But it's a good sign that people outside the team are asking about it. That's pull, not push.
- Liam DohertyI like that. Pull, not push. I'll nick that.
- Marcus BellGo for it. Right, I think I've kept you long enough. I've got everything I need. If anything comes up before the end of October, message me, don't wait for the call.
- Liam DohertyWill do. And thanks for pulling all this together. It's easy to forget how much is in there until someone shows you the numbers.
- Marcus BellThat's the job. And thank you for being straight with me. It makes it much easier to be useful.
- Liam DohertyHa. Go and get a cup of tea, you sound like you need one.
- Marcus BellI do, actually. It's been a long morning already. Anyway. Speak soon, Liam.
- Liam DohertyCheers, Marcus. Bye for now.
- Marcus BellThanks, Liam. Bye.
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