Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 20 Feb 2025 10:45
Helen reported the arrears gap resolved and usage up to around eleven daily users on 40 licences. She wants a defensible value note for her director before the 2 Sep 2025 renewal, and a pilot for housing officers.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Helen reported the arrears gap resolved and usage up to around eleven daily users on 40 licences. She wants a defensible value note for her director before the 2 Sep 2025 renewal, and a pilot for housing officers.
What happened: Helen confirmed the arrears gap was a payment dating difference, now resolved and documented. Active users average around eleven a day against 40 licences, led by repairs.
Customer view: She said the brain is genuinely working and the board chair found the pack easier to follow. Her director asks whether it is worth what is paid and whether it changed a decision.
Commercial: The renewal on 2 Sep 2025 was raised early, and housing officers want a pilot patch. The complaints log spreadsheet is not yet connected and is her priority source.
Watch: The value note must hold figures Helen can defend. Whether the source trail can be exported for the board pack is unconfirmed.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value note and renewal preparation
Importance
praise
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 to send one email with a one-page value note and a connector list with last loads.
- Daniel Okafor to confirm whether the source trail can be exported by the end of the following week.
- Daniel Okafor to propose short training options and quarterly review dates, none on a Monday.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Her director questions whether the subscription is worth what is paid.
- The complaints log sits in one person's spreadsheet and is not connected.
- Exporting the source trail for the board pack is unconfirmed.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Housing officers want the brain, starting with a pilot patch and short training.
- Connecting the complaints log fits within the connector allowance under Growth.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Helen, can you hear me all right? Thank you for making the time this morning.
Helen MarsdenMorning, Daniel. Yes, you're coming through fine. Sorry, I'm just closing down a set of board papers on this side, give me one second.- Daniel OkaforNo rush at all. Just to check who has joined, is it just the two of us today, or is anyone from your team coming along?
- Helen MarsdenJust me. The team are heads down on the quarter pack, so I said I'd carry this one.
- Daniel OkaforThat's absolutely fine. And how was your week? I remember you had the tenant satisfaction survey results coming in.
- Helen MarsdenOh, you remembered. Yes, they landed on Tuesday and the answers were better than we feared, which is not something I say often. Busy, though. Always busy.
- Daniel OkaforGood, I'm glad it went the right way. Shall we get into it? I'd like to hear how things are going, look at how the team has been using the brain, and then just close the loop on anything outstanding.
- Helen MarsdenYes. Can I start with the thing I was chasing, actually? It's the arrears figure in the rent section of the board pack. Last month it didn't reconcile with the housing management system, and the board will ask, so I wanted that nailed down before I said anything else.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Please, go ahead. Did you get to the bottom of it?
- Helen MarsdenWe did, and I want to be clear it's resolved, because I know it's a check-in and you'll want to hear good news. It was a timing difference. The housing system dated some payments by the day they were allocated, and our extract was using the day they were received. So the brain was right about what it had, it was just counting a different day.
- Daniel OkaforRight, that makes sense. And how did you find that out? Was it something your team spotted, or did the brain help?
- Helen MarsdenThe brain helped, honestly. I asked it for the source of the figure and it showed me which records had gone into the total and where they came from. That is the thing I always say. Can you show me the source? And it could. Before, I'd have spent half a day with a spreadsheet and two colleagues.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely to hear, and it's the kind of thing I like to pass back to the wider team here, because it's exactly what it was built for. Mm. So you're comfortable with the reconciliation now?
- Helen MarsdenComfortable, yes. The numbers in the pack now match the housing system to the pound, and I've written the definition down so the next person doesn't trip over it. I put it in the notes under the arrears section.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Well done. Do you mind if I share that approach with a couple of other housing customers, without naming you, of course?
- Helen MarsdenWithout naming us, that's fine. I'd rather the board didn't hear we'd had a wobble, even a resolved one.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood entirely. Right. Let me bring up the usage picture, and tell me if anything looks different from how it feels on your side. I'll share my screen. Can you see it?
- Helen MarsdenNot yet. Ah, there. Yes, I can see it. It's a bit small, hold on, let me zoom.
- Daniel OkaforTake your time. So what I'm looking at is the last quarter against the one before. Your average active users are up by nearly half. You're averaging around eleven people a day in the brain now, and you have forty licensed users on the Growth plan, so there's a good deal of headroom.
- Helen MarsdenEleven. That sounds about right. It was a handful when we started. It's the repairs team that have come on, mostly. They were sceptical, if I'm honest.
- Daniel OkaforSay a bit more on that, if you don't mind. What changed their minds?
- Helen MarsdenIt was the repairs backlog. One of the supervisors asked it which repairs had been reopened more than once, by patch, and got an answer in the time it took to make a tea. Before that she'd have emailed me and waited. She told the others, and then they all wanted a go.
- Daniel OkaforThat is such a typical story, and it's a good one. People trust it when a colleague they respect uses it first. Are the questions mostly coming from your team, or from the operational side now?
- Helen MarsdenIt's shifting. Probably half and half. My team still ask the harder ones, the cross-system joins, tenant calls with repairs tickets and complaints. But the operational managers ask the day to day ones themselves, which is what I wanted, because it takes the load off us.
- Daniel OkaforYes, and that's a good sign for the account, because it means it doesn't hang on one or two people. I always keep an eye on that. If one person is asking most of the questions, it's a risk, and it doesn't look like that here.
- Helen MarsdenWell, I do ask a lot of them. Though I take your point.
- Daniel OkaforYou do, you do. But you're not the only one, which is the point. Okay. On the support side, I can see one ticket in the last month and nothing marked as high priority. Does that match your memory?
- Helen MarsdenOne. That was the dashboard that wouldn't load for a colleague, wasn't it? It was sorted the same day, I think. Yes. It was a permissions thing, not a fault.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the one. Just to close the loop on it, the response was well inside what you'd expect on your plan, and it's marked as closed. I don't want to assume it was closed to your satisfaction, though. Was it?
- Helen MarsdenIt was. Quick and polite. No complaints at all.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Now, nightly refresh. Are the figures there when your people sit down in the morning? That's the other one people tend to notice before they say anything.
- Helen MarsdenYes. I'd tell you if not. We have the arrears figures by the time the team are at their desks, and that's what the board pack needs, because I'm often pulling it first thing.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. Then, let me ask a slightly bigger question. We're coming up to the end of the first year, which seems to have gone very quickly. When you think back to why you brought the brain in, how close are you to that board-ready picture?
- Helen MarsdenCloser than I expected, if I'm honest. Let me think how to put this. The original idea was that I'd stop having to stitch together tenant calls, repairs, complaints and arrears by hand for the board. And mostly I don't now. The picture is joined up. What I still do by hand is the commentary, and I don't think that should change.
- Daniel OkaforNo, I'd agree. The judgement should stay with you. The brain just gets you to the point where you're writing commentary rather than collecting numbers.
- Helen MarsdenExactly that. And the board have noticed, in a way. The chair said the pack was easier to follow. She didn't say it was because of the brain, but I knew.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good place to be. And is there something that's still missing? Something you wish it did, or a source that isn't connected that's causing you pain?
- Helen MarsdenMm. There's the complaints log. At the moment some of it sits in a spreadsheet that one of the team keeps, and it's not in the brain. I'd love to see complaints trended against repairs by area, properly, not as a one-off.
- Daniel OkaforRight. That's useful. So that's a source that isn't connected yet. Is the spreadsheet something that could move into one of your systems, or is it likely to stay as it is?
- Helen MarsdenI'd say it needs to move. It's one person's file, and I'm not comfortable with that, frankly. I've raised it with the head of customer services. Whether it goes into a proper case system by the summer, I can't promise.
- Daniel OkaforI won't hold you to a date. I'll just note it, and when you know where it's going to live, tell me and we can look at the connector then. You have room on the connector count under Growth, so it's not a licensing question, it's just a matter of where the data sits.
- Helen MarsdenThat's helpful to know. I'd assumed we'd be told we'd run out.
- Daniel OkaforNo, not at the moment. Let me check I've got your current connectors right, so I'm not guessing. I'll put it in the notes and send it to you after the call.
- Helen MarsdenPlease do. I'd like to see them listed, with the last time each one loaded. Then I can show it to my director if she asks.
- Daniel OkaforI'll include that. Your director, that's someone I haven't met, I don't think. Is she close to the brain, or does it come to her through you?
- Helen MarsdenThrough me, mostly. She sees the output. She's interested in whether it's worth what we pay, which is a fair question, and I'd like to be able to answer it with something better than a feeling.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good thing to ask for, and I'd rather help you with it than have you do it alone. We're on forty-four thousand a year on the Growth plan, and what I'd like to put together is a one-page note on what that has bought. Questions answered, the reconciliation work you've avoided, who is using it. Would that be useful?
- Helen MarsdenVery. As long as the figures are ones I can defend. If you put a number in front of her and I can't show where it came from, I'm the one who has to explain it.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Everything will have its source, and anything I'm not sure of I'll leave out rather than estimate. I'd rather the note was short and true.
- Helen MarsdenGood. That's how I'd want it.
- Daniel OkaforWhile we're on the commercial side, I'd like to mention the renewal, only so it isn't a surprise. The contract started on 2 Sep 2024 and it runs to 1 Sep 2025, so it renews on 2 Sep 2025. That's some way off, and I'm not asking for a decision now.
- Helen MarsdenRight. Yes. I'd lost track of the date, to be honest. It's September, so that's after the autumn board cycle starts to get busy.
- Daniel OkaforExactly, and that's why I'm raising it early. I'll come back to you well ahead with the formal notice and a proper conversation about it. Tom Ashdown, who looks after the commercial side of your account, will be part of that too.
- Helen MarsdenTom, yes. I haven't spoken to him in a while. Is there anything I should be thinking about before then?
- Daniel OkaforMainly two things. Whether the forty licences are about right for where you're going, and whether you'll be adding sources, like the complaints log. Neither is urgent. If your usage keeps on the way it is, we may find you want more people in rather than fewer.
- Helen MarsdenThat would be a nice problem. I think it will go up, actually. The housing officers have been asking. They hear what the repairs team are doing and they'd like it for themselves.
- Daniel OkaforHow many are we talking about, roughly? Don't worry if it's a guess.
- Helen MarsdenOh, I couldn't say a number yet. A good team of them. I'd want to start with a pilot patch, not roll it out to everyone, because I want them to be taught properly. Otherwise they ask it something vague and decide it's rubbish.
- Daniel OkaforThat's wise, and it's something we can help with. We run training sessions, and I'm happy to do one for the housing officers, shaped around the questions they actually have. Shall I come back to you with some options?
- Helen MarsdenPlease. Short ones. They won't sit through an hour of anything.
- Daniel OkaforShort it is. Noted. Okay, so that's the training, the complaints connector once you know where it lives, and the value note. Anything else on the list from your side?
- Helen MarsdenYes, one more. When the board asks where a figure came from, I'd like to be able to give them something more formal than my word. Is there a way of exporting the source trail, the records behind a number, in a form I can attach to the pack?
- Daniel OkaforGood question. I know you can see the sources in the page itself, and I know people have copied them out. I'm not certain how tidy the export is, and I don't want to guess in front of you. Let me find out properly and come back to you by the end of next week.
- Helen MarsdenThat's fair. I'd rather you checked than told me yes and I found out at the board meeting.
- Daniel OkaforQuite right. I'll put it in writing so it's on record. Now let me take a step back, because I always like to ask this. How is the team finding it? Not the usage numbers, I mean how does it feel to them?
- Helen MarsdenIt feels like less drudgery. That's the honest answer. One of my analysts said last week she'd actually had time to look at something new, rather than rebuild the same report. That mattered to me.
- Daniel OkaforThat does matter. That's a good thing to hear. And are there any frustrations at all, however small? I'd rather hear them now.
- Helen MarsdenSmall ones. Sometimes it gives a longer answer than anyone wants. And the first time somebody asks something ambiguous, it's confident when it shouldn't be. We've learned to ask better questions. That's not a complaint about you, it's just us getting used to it.
- Daniel OkaforNo, that's a fair thing to say, and it's why the training matters. I'd rather people know how to ask than assume the answer. I'll make sure we cover phrasing in the session for the housing officers.
- Helen MarsdenThat would help a lot.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Let me also mention the quarterly review. As you're on Growth, you get one each quarter, and the next one is due soon. Would you like me to put a date in the diary with your team, or would you prefer to keep it small and just have the two of us?
- Helen MarsdenI think this time I'd like a couple of the team to join. The repairs supervisor, perhaps, and one of my analysts. It might do them good to hear the numbers, and it would give you a chance to hear from the people actually doing it.
- Daniel OkaforI'd really like that. I'll suggest a couple of slots and you can tell me which suits. Mornings seem to work better for you, from what I remember?
- Helen MarsdenMornings, yes. Not Mondays, if you can help it. Mondays are all meetings.
- Daniel OkaforNot Mondays. I'll note that down. Right, so, before we close, I want to go back over what I've got, just to check I haven't missed anything.
- Helen MarsdenGo on. I'll tell you if you've got it wrong.
- Daniel OkaforFirst, the arrears reconciliation is resolved, and you've written the definition down. Second, usage is up, with the repairs team leading, and the housing officers are interested. Third, one ticket in the month and it was sorted quickly. Fourth, the complaints log isn't connected yet and you'll tell me when you know where it's going. Is that right so far?
- Helen MarsdenThat's all correct. Though I'd add that the complaints log is a source, but also the thing I'm most keen on. If that's joined up, the picture for the board is complete.
- Daniel OkaforNoted, and I'll mark it as the one that matters most. Then for me: a one-page value note, some short training options for the housing officers, an answer on exporting the source trail by the end of next week, a list of your connectors with their last loads, and dates for the quarterly review.
- Helen MarsdenThat's a lot of homework for you. I'm sorry.
- Daniel OkaforNot at all, that's the job. And I'll send it all in one email, so you're not collecting it from different places.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. I do appreciate that you follow things through. Not everyone does.
- Daniel OkaforThat's kind of you. Can I ask one more thing, and it's a little personal? How are you finding the workload, with the pack and the survey and everything? You sounded tired at the start.
- Helen MarsdenHa, I did, didn't I? It's heavy at this time of year. We're a small team for what's asked of us. But it's the sort of heavy where I can see it's going somewhere, so I'll not complain.
- Daniel OkaforWell, I'll try not to add to it. Is there anything at all I could take off your plate, anything you'd like me to do rather than ask you to do?
- Helen MarsdenActually, yes. If you could draft the note for my director so that I only need to read it and add my own view, that would save me a job. I can tell you what she tends to ask.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Tell me now and I'll write it down. What does she normally ask first?
- Helen MarsdenShe asks whether it's saved anyone's time, and then whether it's made a difference to a decision. She doesn't care about the technology. She cares about whether someone made a better call because of it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's helpful, and it's a fair test. Is there a decision you could point me to? Something where the brain changed what you did, even a small one?
- Helen MarsdenThere's the repairs contractor review. We looked at reopened jobs by contractor, and one of them was far worse than the others on the second visits. We'd not have seen it without joining the tickets to the tenant calls. That conversation with the contractor was very different because of it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly the kind of example I'd want, and thank you. May I use it in the note, described as you've just described it?
- Helen MarsdenYes, as long as the contractor isn't named. Keep it general.
- Daniel OkaforGeneral it is. I'll write it as a review of reopened repairs across contractors and leave it there.
- Helen MarsdenPerfect.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Now, one last thing from me, and then I'll let you go. Is there anything about us, about BG-Demo, that I should be doing differently? Calls like this, the way we communicate, anything?
- Helen MarsdenHonestly, no. I'd say the thing I value is that when I've had a problem, you've been straight with me about what you know and what you don't. That's rarer than you'd think. Keep doing that.
- Daniel OkaforThank you, Helen. That means a lot, and I'll hold on to it. I'd always rather say I don't know and find out.
- Helen MarsdenWhich is why I trust you. Right. I should probably get back to my papers. Is that everything?
- Daniel OkaforI think so. Just one question for the diary, so I can put the review date in properly. Should I aim for some weeks from now, or would you rather wait until after the quarter pack has gone out?
- Helen MarsdenAfter the pack, definitely. Otherwise the team won't be able to give it proper attention. Give it a few weeks.
- Daniel OkaforA few weeks it is. I'll propose two or three mornings, none of them Mondays, and you can pick.
- Helen MarsdenLovely. And will you copy Tom in on the renewal conversation when it comes? I'd like him to hear it from the same place as me.
- Daniel OkaforYes, I'll make sure he's included from the start, and I'll keep the two of you in step so nobody hears anything twice. I'll come back to you before the summer with a first note, so there are no surprises.
- Helen MarsdenGood. I'd hate to be surprised in front of the director.
- Daniel OkaforYou won't be, I promise. And I'll say again, the figure I've got is forty-four thousand a year, invoiced and in line with your order form, nothing overdue on our side. If your finance team see anything that looks different, tell me straight away and I'll look into it.
- Helen MarsdenWill do. I'll pass that on to them, though I've no reason to think there's an issue.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Then I think we're done, and it's been a really encouraging conversation. It's rare to hear that many good things in one call, and I'm grateful.
- Helen MarsdenIt's genuinely working, Daniel. I'd say so if it weren't. Thank you for the time, and for keeping on top of all of it.
- Daniel OkaforMy pleasure. Look after yourself with the pack, and do get some rest when it's out. I'll send the email this afternoon, and the rest as I said.
- Helen MarsdenBrilliant. Speak soon, then.
- Daniel OkaforSpeak soon, Helen. Best wishes.
- Helen MarsdenKind regards, Daniel. Bye for now.
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