Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 10 Sep 2024 11:30
Kickoff for Calderbrook's Growth brain. Helen Marsden wants every board figure traceable to its source; Paul Rigby's test is unique job references. Calls are held back until the data protection officer is comfortable.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Kickoff for Calderbrook's Growth brain. Helen Marsden wants every board figure traceable to its source; Paul Rigby's test is unique job references. Calls are held back until the data protection officer is comfortable.
What happened: Callie Brennan walked through connector order, access needs and the first refresh. Helen reordered complaints above calls because the board pushes hardest on that figure.
Customer view: Helen said a previous tool gave numbers that looked right with nobody able to say why. She wants to defend every number and to be able to say what the brain is worth to her director.
Commercial: Daniel Okafor confirmed Growth with forty licensed users and an order form of forty-four thousand a year. Helen expects fewer users at first, with more if the board sees value.
Watch: Paul runs repairs reporting and is the day-to-day admin named on the call. The evidence does not show a second admin, and IT and finance contacts are still unnamed.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Growth kickoff, traceable figures
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- Daniel Okafor sends the data protection officer note to Helen by Thursday.
- Paul Rigby confirms the IT contact by Wednesday and sends housing system and complaints access by Friday.
- Callie Brennan runs the first refresh by the end of the following week and reviews it with Paul the morning after.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Helen needs to show what the brain is worth to her director, so the first quarterly review must build a value case.
- The first refresh may not reconcile to the board pack figures or give unique job references, which would erode confidence.
- Paul Rigby is the named day-to-day admin and the IT contact for the Snowflake database and role is still unknown.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only four of eight Growth connectors are planned first, leaving room for deeper adoption.
- Forty licensed users against a small starting group gives headroom as housing operations and the board see the brain.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, hello. Can you hear me all right? I can see Helen. Paul, I think you're on mute, or it might just be me.
Paul RigbyAye, here. Sorry. Had the wrong headset on.
Helen MarsdenMorning, both. Good to see you, Daniel.- Daniel OkaforAnd you, Helen. Thank you both for making the time. I know it's a busy week with the board papers going out. Callie's just joining, I think. Ah, there she is.
Callie BrennanMorning, everyone, sorry, my previous call overran by a minute. Can everyone hear me? Lovely. Right, thanks, Daniel.- Callie BrennanSo, the plan for the next hour. First, a quick round of who's who and what each of us wants out of the first few weeks. Second, I'll walk through the sources we'll connect and in what order. Third, what I need from your side is access and a named person for each source. And last, how we'll know the first refresh has landed cleanly, and who does what by Friday. Does that work?
- Helen MarsdenThat works. Can I start with the discrepancy I'm chasing, if that's all right? It'll make the rest of it make sense.
- Callie BrennanPlease. That's exactly what I'd like to hear.
- Helen MarsdenSo the repairs section of the board pack, the completed jobs figure, doesn't reconcile to what the housing management system gives us when we run it ourselves. And the complaints section is the same, the number of open complaints depends on who you ask. The board will ask, every quarter, and at the moment I can't show them the source. That's why we're here. One picture, one set of numbers, and I can point to where each one came from.
- Daniel OkaforThat's very clear, thank you. And it's what we talked about at the start, isn't it, the board-ready picture across tenants, repairs, complaints and arrears.
- Helen MarsdenYes. About twenty-one thousand homes, and every one of them shows up somewhere in those four areas. I want them joined up.
- Callie BrennanGood. And Paul, you're the admin on the brain day to day, is that right? Tell me a bit about what you run today.
- Paul RigbyI do the repairs reporting. Used to be a repairs scheduler, so I know the jobs. I pull the export every morning, tidy it, and build what the team looks at before stand-up. Takes me best part of an hour. Sometimes more.
- Callie BrennanRight, and what goes wrong in that hour?
- Paul RigbyDuplicate lines, mostly. Same job ref twice in the export, different status. I strip them by hand. I want each job counted once. That's it, really.
- Callie BrennanOkay. I'll note that as a test for the first refresh. Job reference should be unique in what lands, and where it isn't, we want to see why before we switch on the refresh. Does that sound fair, Paul?
- Paul RigbyFair.
- Daniel OkaforJust to close the loop on commercial bits so nobody's wondering. You're on Growth, so forty licensed users, and the order form is for forty-four thousand a year. Tom Ashdown looked after the contract side, and I'm your point of contact from here on for how the team is finding it.
- Helen MarsdenForty users is more than we'll have to begin with. It'll be my team and a handful of people from housing operations. Perhaps more once the board sees it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good place to be. We'd rather you grew into the seats than ran out of them.
- Callie BrennanRight. Let me share my screen. Can you see the checklist? It's a plain table, source, owner, access, status. Growth gives you eight connectors, and I'd suggest we don't use them all in one go.
- Helen MarsdenMm. Can you make it a bit bigger? Thanks. Yes.
- Callie BrennanSo the first four I'd propose, in this order. One, the housing management system, which gives us tenancies, repairs jobs and arrears balances. Two, the helpdesk where repairs tickets and complaints are logged. Three, the call recorder, for tenant calls. Four, the rent arrears reporting you already produce. Does that match how you'd rank them?
- Helen MarsdenNearly. I'd put complaints above the calls. The calls are the interesting bit, but the complaints figure is the one the board really pushes on.
- Callie BrennanThat's useful. So housing system, then complaints, then repairs tickets, then calls, and arrears alongside the housing system since it comes from the same place. I'll reorder the sheet.
- Paul RigbyArrears isn't all from the housing system. Finance keep a separate sheet for the write-off adjustments.
- Callie BrennanOkay, good catch. Who owns that sheet?
- Paul RigbySomeone in our finance team. I'll find out who and put them on the checklist.
- Helen MarsdenIt's the rent accounting lead. I'll introduce you. They're sensible, they'll want to know what you're doing with it.
- Callie BrennanPerfect. I'm happy to explain it to them directly. Now, one thing I want to be firm about, because it saves everyone pain later. I don't start a connector without written access. So for each of these, what I need from your side is a named person, a service account or equivalent, and an email confirming what it can read. Not what it can write, just read.
- Paul RigbyRead only, aye. That's how I'd want it.
- Helen MarsdenCan I ask about the brain itself? Daniel, you said it runs in our Snowflake account.
- Daniel OkaforIt does. Everything lives inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your walls. Callie will need a colleague in your IT team to set up a database and a role for us, and then we work inside that.
- Helen MarsdenThat's the part I was worried about. IT will want to see it in writing. And our data protection officer will want to see the tenant calls in particular.
- Callie BrennanQuite right. Calls are the one I'd hold back until your data protection officer is comfortable. That's why I've put them fourth. We can run the other three without them.
- Helen MarsdenGood. I'd rather say we waited than say we rushed.
- Daniel OkaforHelen, would it help if I sent a short note you can pass to your data protection officer? Plain English, what's read, where it sits, who can see it.
- Helen MarsdenYes please. Short, though. They're reading a lot this month.
- Daniel OkaforShort. I'll come back to you by Thursday with it.
- Callie BrennanOkay. Next, mapping. This is the bit where I earn my keep. For each source I'll map the fields in the housing system to what the brain calls a tenancy, a repair, a complaint, an arrears balance. Where it maps cleanly, great. Where two fields look the same but aren't, I come back to you rather than guess.
- Helen MarsdenWhich is why I'd like to see the mapping on paper before it runs. Can you show me the source for each number?
- Callie BrennanYes. In the brain every answer carries its source, so you can click through to the record it came from. And I'll give you a mapping sheet per source, so you can tick it off before anything is switched on.
- Helen MarsdenGood. Because last time we looked at a tool like this, the numbers looked right and nobody could say why.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the thing we want to avoid. You should be able to defend every number in front of the board.
- Helen MarsdenThat's exactly the phrase, Daniel. Defend.
- Paul RigbyWhat about the refresh? When's it land? If I've got a dashboard it's no good at ten.
- Callie BrennanNightly. It's complete by seven in the morning on business days, so it's there before your stand-up. First one is the one we watch closely, though. I'd want to be on with you the morning after to look at it together.
- Paul RigbyRight. I can do that. Eight-ish?
- Callie BrennanEight is fine. We'll look at the repairs count first, because that's your test, and then the complaints figure for Helen.
- Helen MarsdenAnd if it doesn't reconcile?
- Callie BrennanThen we don't call it done. We trace it. Housing system figure, what landed, what the brain says, and where they part company. I won't hand over until that's explained, and I'll leave you a setup note so Paul can run it alone.
- Paul RigbyI'd like that. A setup note.
- Daniel OkaforWhile we're on handover, can I ask who else in the BI team might need a login early? Helen mentioned a handful from housing operations.
- Helen MarsdenTwo analysts in my team, the head of repairs and someone from the complaints team. I'd rather start small and let them ask the questions they actually have. Not a big launch.
- Daniel OkaforSensible. Small, then we see which questions people ask and build from there.
- Callie BrennanLet me put dates against this, as I like a date against every step. By Friday, Paul, I'd like the access for the housing system and the complaints source. Helen, the named person on finance and the note to your data protection officer, which Daniel is sending Thursday. And your IT colleague for the database and role. Who's that, do we know?
- Paul RigbyI'll ask. Probably the infrastructure lead, but I don't want to name them wrong.
- Callie BrennanNo problem. Just tell me by Wednesday and I'll write to them directly with exactly what we need.
- Helen MarsdenCallie, one more thing. The board pack sections. I'll send you the repairs and complaints pages with the figures I need to match. Then you've got the target.
- Callie BrennanThat's gold, thank you. That's the test I'll run against.
- Daniel OkaforAnd once it's live, I'll be in touch to see how the team is finding it. Growth includes quarterly reviews, so we'll sit down properly and look at what's being asked and whether it's earning its place.
- Helen MarsdenI'd welcome that. I need to be able to say what it's worth, to my director as much as the board.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. We'll build that picture together.
- Paul RigbyLast thing from me. Who do I ring if the refresh fails?
- Callie BrennanIn the first weeks, me. Directly, and I'll put my details in the setup note. Afterwards, the helpdesk, and Daniel keeps an eye on it behind the scenes.
- Daniel OkaforI do. And if something's sat there longer than you'd like, tell me, and I'll chase.
- Paul RigbyRight then.
- Callie BrennanSo, to recap. I send the checklist and the mapping sheets today. Paul sends access and the IT contact. Helen sends the board-pack pages and the finance introduction. Daniel sends the note for your data protection officer on Thursday. First refresh by the end of next week, and we look at it together the morning after.
- Helen MarsdenThat's clear. Thank you, both. I'm more comfortable than I was an hour ago.
- Daniel OkaforThat's good to hear. Thanks, everyone. Best wishes, and speak soon.
- Callie BrennanThanks, all. Speak soon.
- Paul RigbyCheers.
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