Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – Renewal
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 16 Sep 2025 09:00
On the 16 Sep 2025 renewal call, Brackwell Freight agreed a flat £44k Growth renewal from 1 Dec 2025. Usage is thin, with six or seven people active against forty seats, and finance will ask about it.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On the 16 Sep 2025 renewal call, Brackwell Freight agreed a flat £44k Growth renewal from 1 Dec 2025. Usage is thin, with six or seven people active against forty seats, and finance will ask about it.
What happened: Marcus Bell, Tom Ashdown, Liam Doherty and Joanne Platt walked through usage and the renewal paperwork. Joanne joined only for the contract item.
Customer view: Liam accepts that questions come mostly from him and one analyst, and blames depot managers being busy. He does not want fewer seats, and the retail early-warning case is the value he points to.
Commercial: Tom confirmed the Growth renewal at £44k, annual in advance, with no change. Joanne needs a purchase order from Liam ahead of the invoice.
Watch: Joanne asked whether the customer is paying for forty seats and using a fraction. Liam expects that question again at sign-off and wants an uptick to show. A depot scanning-system connector was raised, with no date committed.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Renewal, low seat usage
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- Marcus Bell to offer a time for a thirty-minute depot session this week and send a short note of the call.
- Tom Ashdown to send the renewal order form in good time, with Liam Doherty raising the purchase order ahead of the invoice.
- Liam Doherty to send the names of the go-to people at each depot.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Finance has already questioned paying for forty seats with only six or seven people active.
- Questions come mostly from Liam and one analyst, so value depends on one person.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A depot scanning-system connector is possible on Growth, which allows eight connectors.
- Filling the unused seats with depot teams would support the renewal case.
Transcript
Tom AshdownMorning all. Can you hear me alright? I've got the little bars going up and down so I think I'm live.
Liam DohertyMorning Tom, loud and clear. Marcus, you're on mute, mate.
Marcus BellSorry, there we go. Morning everyone. Joanne, are you with us as well?
Joanne PlattGood morning. Yes, I'm here. I've joined from a meeting room because the open-plan floor is rather noisy at the moment, so apologies if there's an echo.- Tom AshdownNo echo from here. How's your week been, Liam? Still chasing depots?
- Liam DohertyAlways chasing depots. Trafford Park is lovely, the rest are, you know, a bit of a mixed bag. But it's Tuesday, so it's early days. Yours?
- Tom AshdownBusy, no drama. Lots of paperwork, which I'm terrible at, so Marcus is keeping me honest. Anyway, thanks for making the time. I know it's an early one.
- Marcus BellRight, I'll share my screen, if you can all see that. What I'd like to cover today is pretty simple. One, how the brain has actually been used over the last few months. Two, what you want from the next twelve months. And three, the renewal paperwork, so Joanne knows what's coming and when. Happy to flex that if there's something else.
- Liam DohertyThat's the list. Go on.
- Joanne PlattMay I just say at the outset, Marcus, that I'm here for the third item. I can confirm I'm happy to stay for the rest, but I won't have views on the usage.
- Marcus BellOf course, that's fine, Joanne. Stay as long as it's useful. We'll do the contract bit last and you can drop off after if you want.
- Tom AshdownJust to frame it. You came on with us on 1 Dec 2023, so you're coming up to two years. Contract runs to 30 Nov 2025 and the renewal date is 1 Dec 2025. So we've got a good bit of runway, but not loads. Better to talk now than in November.
- Liam DohertyYeah, makes sense. I'd rather not have a panic in the last fortnight.
- Marcus BellRight, so, usage. I've pulled the numbers. I'll be straight with you, it's a bit of a mixed picture. On the plus side, all the connectors you set up are still loading, the CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder, and the finance data. Nothing's gone stale, and records indexed are still climbing nicely.
- Liam DohertyGood. That's the bit I worry about, honestly. If the data goes quiet, nobody trusts it.
- Marcus BellAgreed, and it's healthy. The less good bit is people. You're licensed for forty users. Over the last month, on average, I'm seeing about six or seven people active on any given day. And that's a bit lower than the quarter before, a fifth or so lower.
- Liam DohertyMm. Yeah. I mean, I won't pretend I'm surprised.
- Tom AshdownIs that holiday, do you think? It's been summer. People are off.
- Liam DohertyPartly. Partly it's that a couple of the depot account managers were really keen at the start and then it kind of fell away when they got busy. The peak season's coming and they're doing a lot of firefighting. Nobody opens a new tool when the trucks are late.
- Marcus BellThat's fair, and it's not unusual. Who's still asking the questions? Because I can see it's concentrated.
- Liam DohertyMe. Mostly me. And one of the analysts in my team. I know, I know.
- Marcus BellNo, it's worth saying out loud. Because it means if you're away, or busy, the number of questions drops straight off. Which is not a criticism, it's just what the chart shows. I think the real value is when the depot managers ask their own questions and see their own accounts.
- Liam DohertyThat's exactly the point. One view, that's the point. I've said it to the depots a hundred times. Can we get the depots on it, properly?
- Tom AshdownThat's what I was going to pick up on, actually. You've got forty seats paid for and a handful of people in them. So there's room. You're not short of licences, you're short of habit.
- Liam DohertyShort of habit. Yeah. I'm going to nick that.
- Joanne PlattForgive me, I'm not close to this, but is that to say we are paying for forty and using a fraction? Because that's something I would expect to be asked about, upstairs, when the invoice comes round.
- Tom AshdownIt's a fair question, Joanne, and I'd rather it was asked now than in a budget meeting. The seats are there for the depot teams. The fix isn't fewer seats, it's getting more people using them. That's what we'd like to work on with Liam.
- Liam DohertyAnd I'd back that. I'm not looking to drop seats. I'd rather fill them.
- Joanne PlattUnderstood. I only ask so that I'm clear what I'm being asked to approve.
- Marcus BellTotally reasonable. So, shall we talk about how we fill them? Let me tell you what I'd suggest and then you tell me where it's daft.
- Liam DohertyGo for it.
- Marcus BellFirst, I'd run a short session with the depot account managers, thirty minutes, not a long training day. Show them the one thing that matters to them: an account, its delivery-exception tickets and the last few calls, side by side. Pick a real retail customer they know and show them what the brain says. Second, give each depot one or two named people who are the go-to person. And third, I'd send you a simple monthly usage note so you can see who's asking what.
- Liam DohertyLove that. The named person thing is good. If it's everybody's job it's nobody's job.
- Tom AshdownAnd the monthly note keeps us honest as well. If we're seeing the same six or seven names in three months' time, we'll know the session didn't land and we'll try something different.
- Liam DohertyFine by me. Can we do the first one before peak? Because after that nobody will give me ten minutes, never mind thirty.
- Marcus BellI think so. Let me check my diary and get something to you this week. I'll aim for early October if the depots can do it. I won't promise you a date until I've seen it, but that's the intention.
- Liam DohertyBrilliant.
- Tom AshdownCan I ask something a bit different, Liam? Forget the usage for a second. When you think about what the brain's done for you, what's the thing? If someone upstairs said, what do we get for this, what would you say?
- Liam DohertyHm. Fair. Honestly, the retail contract thing. Back in the spring we had one of the bigger retail customers, and the brain flagged that the delivery exceptions were piling up and the calls had got a bit tetchy. We rang them before they rang us. That's the whole thing. Seeing it before the customer calls.
- Tom AshdownThat's the one I'd put on a slide.
- Liam DohertyExactly, but it only works if the depots are feeding it and looking at it. It's one person catching it, which is me, and I can't be everywhere.
- Marcus BellWhich is why I keep coming back to the depots. The product is fine. It's who's in the room.
- Joanne PlattMay I ask whether there have been any issues with the service itself? I only mention it because I'd have expected to see some correspondence on my side if there were, service credits or similar, and there has been none.
- Marcus BellNo, nothing. No tickets in the last month at all, so nothing urgent, nothing outstanding, no credits. The nightly refresh has been landing on time. It's been quiet.
- Liam DohertyQuiet's good. Well, quiet's good unless it means nobody's using it. Which, ha, is partly where we are.
- Marcus BellThat's a fair read. No tickets can mean it's all running smoothly, and it can also mean not many people are in there poking around. I'd say it's a bit of both in your case. Which is why I want to move on the depots.
- Tom AshdownRight. Shall we do the contract bit? Joanne, I know you've been patient.
- Joanne PlattThank you, Tom. I do have the last invoice in front of me, with its reference, and I can confirm it was paid within terms. I would just like to understand what the renewal invoice will look like.
- Tom AshdownGreat, and thank you for always paying on time, by the way. Marcus, I'll keep this short. So you're on Growth, forty users, and the subscription is forty-four thousand a year. I'm going from the order form there and not from memory, so I'll confirm it in the paperwork, but I'm confident that's the number. And for this renewal there's no change to it. It's the same £44,000.
- Joanne PlattForty-four thousand, annually, same as the current term. Is it invoiced in advance?
- Tom AshdownAnnual in advance, yes, on the usual thirty-day terms. If you'd prefer quarterly, we can do that on request, so just say.
- Joanne PlattAnnual is fine. Annual suits us. I will want it against a purchase order, so I will ask Liam, or whoever it is by then, to raise one before the renewal date.
- Liam DohertyYep. I'll sort the purchase order. Just tell me when you need it by.
- Joanne PlattIdeally a couple of weeks ahead of the invoice, so that it matches when it arrives. I can't pay what I can't match.
- Tom AshdownThat's more than fair. We'll get the renewal order form to you in good time, and the invoice will quote the same figure, so there's nothing to chase. Marcus, anything from your side on the notice?
- Marcus BellYeah. The formal renewal notice goes out from me ahead of the date, so you'll get that in writing. Today's more of a heads-up. I'll send a short email after this with what we agreed so there's a record.
- Liam DohertyCan I ask one more thing before we wrap? About the connectors. We've got the four main sources in. There's a couple of other things I'd like in eventually, product usage from the depot scanning systems, say. Is that in scope with what we've got?
- Marcus BellOn Growth you've got eight connectors, so you've got room. I'd want to look at what the scanning system exposes before saying how quickly it could go in, and I won't commit to a date on that until we've looked. Shall we book thirty minutes in a few weeks to scope it?
- Liam DohertyYes please. Let's do the depot session first, then that.
- Tom AshdownSensible order. Get people using what's already there, then add more.
- Joanne PlattBefore I leave, so I have it correct. The renewal is forty-four thousand pounds annually, same as now, the term begins 1 Dec 2025, and the current contract ends 30 Nov 2025. I will expect the order form and then an invoice, and I will need a purchase order from Liam before then.
- Tom AshdownSpot on, Joanne. That's exactly it. Leave that with me.
- Joanne PlattThank you. In that case I'll drop off. Kind regards, all.
- Liam DohertyCheers, Joanne.
- Marcus BellThanks, Joanne.
- Tom AshdownRight, Liam, a bit off the cuff, now she's gone. Is there anything about the renewal that's bothering you? Anything somebody upstairs might raise that I should know about?
- Liam DohertyNot bothering me. I think it'll go through. The only question I'd expect is the usage one, the one Joanne just asked. So if I can show a bit of an uptick by the time it goes to sign-off, it's an easy conversation. If not, it's a harder one.
- Marcus BellThen that's the target. Get the depot session done, get the named people in place, and I'll send you the numbers a few weeks before the date so you've got something to put in front of them.
- Liam DohertyPerfect. That's useful. I'd rather walk in with the data than a feeling.
- Tom AshdownSounds like a plan. So, to recap. Marcus sends over a time for the depot session this week, and a short note of today. I send the renewal order form in good time. Liam sorts the purchase order. Anything I've missed?
- Liam DohertyI don't think so. Oh, I'll send you the names of the depot people. The ones who should be the go-to person for each site.
- Marcus BellBrilliant, that'd be a big help. Then I can tailor the session to them rather than do it generically.
- Tom AshdownRight, I'll let you get on. Thanks both. Good chat.
- Liam DohertyThanks lads. Cheers.
- Marcus BellThanks, Liam. Speak soon.
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