Calderbrook Housing Group / BB-Demo – Qbr
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 2025-04-28 16:30
Helen Marsden led with a repairs figure in the board pack that double-counts jobs, then said the executive team has asked IT to look at an in-house platform. Contract runs to 1 Sep 2025; Growth, nine of forty users active.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Helen Marsden led with a repairs figure in the board pack that double-counts jobs, then said the executive team has asked IT to look at an in-house platform. Contract runs to 1 Sep 2025; Growth, nine of forty users active.
What happened: On the 28 Apr 2025 QBR Helen opened with completed repairs jobs showing twice after the housing system upgrade. Daniel Okafor agreed a trace of Paul Rigby's logged jobs with an engineer, plus a written note covering completed jobs and average time to complete.
Customer view: Helen said she is not unhappy with the product, but cannot put a number in the board pack that she cannot defend. She also said the executive team has asked IT to look at building in-house, and that it was not her proposal.
Commercial: Tom Ashdown raised the 1 Sep 2025 end date and agreed to write a plain factual list of what is in use and what it costs. Daniel will send the renewal notice ahead of the ninety-day mark, to Helen with Paul copied.
Watch: Only nine of forty Growth users are active, which is headroom. Questions come from a couple of people, Helen among them, so there is key-person risk.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Repairs data trust, in-house option
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Daniel Okafor to arrange the early Thursday trace with Paul Rigby and an engineer, then send Helen a written note on both figures.
- Tom Ashdown to prepare the plain list of what is in use, what it covers and what it costs, for after the board pack is out.
- Daniel Okafor to send the renewal notice ahead of the ninety-day mark, to Helen with Paul copied.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- The executive team has asked IT to look at an in-house platform ahead of the 1 Sep 2025 renewal.
- Duplicated repairs jobs in the board pack could damage trust in the brain if the cause is not shown clearly.
- A fair share of questions come from a couple of people, so usage depends on them.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Growth licence covers forty users and about nine are active, so housing officers and arrears teams could be added without a contract change.
- A plain list of what the brain does and costs gives Helen a factual case for the in-house discussion.
- A training session for the arrears and complaints teams could spread usage once the trace is done.
Transcript
Daniel Okafor NoneGood afternoon, everyone, and thank you for making the time. Let me just check who's joined. Helen, I can see you, and Paul, hello. Tom, are you with us?
Tom Ashdown NoneHere, here, sorry. Had to unmute about three times. How's everyone's week been so far? Helen, you've had the board papers going out, haven't you?
Helen Marsden NoneAfternoon, Tom. Yes, they're going out this week, which is partly why I wanted this call at half past four rather than pushing it. There's a figure in the repairs section of the board pack that doesn't reconcile, and I'd like to start there if that's all right.- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. I'd planned to take usage first and then come to tickets, but if the board pack is the thing that matters most, we can turn it round. Paul, is this the one you raised with us?
Paul Rigby NoneAye. Double-counted again. I'll share the report, hang on.- Paul Rigby NoneCan you see that? That's the repairs jobs completed view for the last full month. Top line's wrong. It's higher than what the scheduling team have on their own sheet.
- Helen Marsden NoneAnd that's what lands in the repairs section of the board pack. The board will ask why completed jobs are higher than what the operations director reports verbally. They always ask. Last time I had to say we were checking, and I'd rather not say it twice.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's completely fair. Just so I'm clear, Paul, this is the same pattern as the ticket you sent in this month? Jobs showing twice after the housing system upgrade?
- Paul Rigby NoneSame. Job ref attached on the ticket. Some jobs come through once, some twice. I've got a spreadsheet of the ones I've found.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSorry to jump in, I'm conscious I'm the commercial one on the call, but is that a brain problem or a source problem? Because if it's the upgrade doing it, I don't want us promising something we can't fix.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI don't want to guess at the cause on a call, Tom, and I don't think Paul wants to either. What I can say is the brain is showing what it's receiving, and what we need to establish is whether the duplication is arriving or being created. That's the bit I'll come back to you on.
- Helen Marsden NoneCan you show me the source? That's all I'm asking. Not the explanation, the source. If I can see one job appearing twice in the housing system extract, I can write that down and put it in the board commentary. If it's appearing once there and twice in the brain, that's a different sentence.
- Daniel Okafor NoneUnderstood, and that's exactly the test. I'd suggest we pick a handful of the jobs Paul has already logged, trace each one from the raw extract through to the dashboard, and give you the trail. Paul, would ten minutes with our engineer this week be workable for you?
- Paul Rigby NoneThursday's best. Before the stand-up if possible, I'm not much use after eleven.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'll ask for early Thursday and confirm by end of tomorrow. I won't promise the time until I've heard back, but I'll come back to you by then either way.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you. And for the record, I'm not unhappy with the product. The questions people ask are good, the answers are useful. I just can't have a number in the board pack that I can't defend.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, that makes sense. No drama on our side, we'd rather you had it right than quick.
- Daniel Okafor NoneShall we do the usage then, while Paul's screen's still up? I can share mine as well. Give me a second.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight, you should see the account summary now. So you're on Growth, forty licensed users, and over the last thirty days the average number of people active has been around nine. That's marginally down on the previous quarter, a couple of percent, so effectively level.
- Helen Marsden NoneNine out of forty. I'll be honest, that's about what I expected. It's the BI team, a few analysts in repairs, one or two in complaints. We haven't rolled it out to the housing officers.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich is the headroom, really. The licence covers forty, so there's room for the housing officer teams or the finance people who chase arrears, without any change to the contract. How is the team finding it day to day, the ones who do use it?
- Helen Marsden NoneWell, the arrears analysts like it a lot. They ask it things they used to wait a fortnight for. Paul's team use it mainly for the dashboards rather than asking questions.
- Paul Rigby NoneDashboards, yeah. I don't ask it much. I look at the report, if it's right I move on, if it's wrong I raise it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's honest, and it's useful for me. One thing I'd flag from the activity, and I'm being gentle here, is that a fair share of the questions come from just a couple of people. Helen, I think you're one of them.
- Helen Marsden NoneProbably. I use it for the board commentary, so I'm in there most days before a pack goes out.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWhich is lovely, but it does mean if you're on leave in the middle of a reporting cycle, the questions drop away. It's something I'd like us to spread a bit. Maybe a short session for the arrears team and the complaints team on how to ask better questions.
- Tom Ashdown NoneAnd that's, what, a training session, Daniel? Nothing to do with the contract?
- Daniel Okafor NoneCorrect, it's within what you already have. We can run one remotely. I'd just want Helen's view on who should be in the room.
- Helen Marsden NoneLet me think about that. I'd rather fix the repairs figure before I ask other teams to rely on it. If I roll this out to housing officers and the repairs numbers are wrong, I've damaged my own credibility.
- Daniel Okafor NoneThat's a sensible order of things, and I'm not going to push you past it. Let's park the training until the trace is done.
- Daniel Okafor NoneShall I move on to tickets? There's only been the one in the last thirty days, and it's the one we've been discussing. It was marked high priority, as it should be given the board timetable.
- Paul Rigby NoneAny update on that, actually? I put a note on it last week and heard nothing back.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI saw that, Paul, and I should have chased it internally sooner. Just to close the loop, the ticket was acknowledged inside the Growth response time, but you're right that you haven't had a substantive answer, and that's the part I want to put right. Thursday's session will cover it.
- Paul Rigby NoneFine. As long as someone looks.
- Helen Marsden NoneDaniel, while we're on it. Could I have in writing, even a few lines, what you've traced and what you've ruled out? I need something to put under the repairs section if the source question isn't answered by the time the pack is finalised.
- Daniel Okafor NoneYes. After Thursday I'll send you a short note: what we looked at, what we found, what we haven't yet established. I won't dress it up. If we don't know, it'll say we don't know.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's all I ask. Thank you.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOkay, connectors. You've got the housing management system, the complaints system, the call recordings and the helpdesk feeding in. All four loading each night, records indexed still climbing, which is what we want. Nothing flat.
- Paul Rigby NoneRefresh has been in before seven every day this month. I check it.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'm glad you do, that's a good habit. And that matches what I see. So the duplication, whatever it turns out to be, isn't a freshness problem. The data's arriving on time, it may just be arriving with extra rows.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWhich is a bit of good news, in a roundabout way, isn't it? Nothing's broken, nothing's stale.
- Helen Marsden NoneIt's not good news if the number is wrong, Tom.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, no, fair. Poor choice of words. I just meant the plumbing's working.
- Daniel Okafor NoneLet me show you the dashboards side, because there's something there I think you'll want to see. Paul, you've built a good number of these. Give me a moment.
- Daniel Okafor NoneSo that's the list. Most of the dashboards built on the account are yours, Paul, and a couple are Helen's. It's real investment by your team, and it's the clearest sign of how much you've put into it.
- Paul Rigby NoneMost of them are the same report cut different ways. Repairs by patch, repairs by contractor, repairs by trade.
- Daniel Okafor NoneRight, and this is where I'd gently suggest a tidy. If the duplication sits upstream, every one of those cuts carries the same error. It would be worth being clear which ones the board actually sees, so we know which to check first once we've found the cause.
- Helen Marsden NoneTwo of them. The completed jobs one, which we've seen, and the average time to complete. The second one is the one I'm most nervous about, because if jobs are counted twice then the average is meaningless.
- Paul Rigby NoneIt would come out lower. If a job's in twice with the same dates, it drags the average the wrong way. I haven't checked how much.
- Helen Marsden NoneThen I'd like that checked as well, please, Daniel. Both of them, same trace.
- Daniel Okafor NoneBoth, yes. I'll write that into the note so it's clear it's in scope.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCan I come in on the commercial side now, or are we still on the technical?
- Daniel Okafor NoneGo on, Tom. I think we've done the main part.
- Tom Ashdown NoneRight. So, the thing I'm thinking about, and I'll be honest, I'm a bit rambling when I say it, is that you went live with us in September last year, and the contract runs to 1 Sep 2025. That's coming round quicker than anyone thinks. I'd like us to have a proper conversation about it, not at the last minute.
- Helen Marsden NoneI'd assumed there'd be a conversation. I'll be straightforward with you, Tom. It isn't only my decision. There's a wider discussion going on here about our data platform in the longer term.
- Tom Ashdown NoneOkay. Can you say a bit more? Only if you're able to.
- Helen Marsden NoneOnly that the executive team have asked IT to look at what we might do ourselves. It's early, and I wouldn't want to overstate it. And I should be clear, it's not something I proposed. I've been asked to contribute what BI needs from whatever we end up with.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, I appreciate you telling me. Honestly, better I hear it now. We'd want to help with that, not get in the way. If it'd be useful for your team to put what the brain does against what you'd need to build, we can do that.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat might be helpful, yes. Though I'd want it to be factual. Not a sales document.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWouldn't dream of it. Plain list. What's in use, what it covers, what it costs you today. Leave that with me.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI'd add, from the customer success side, that whichever way it goes, my job is to make sure the next few months are good for your team. The repairs figure matters whatever the platform. I'm not going to ease off on that because of a contract date.
- Helen Marsden NoneI do appreciate that, Daniel. You've been straightforward with us.
- Paul Rigby NoneIf it goes in-house I'll be the one rebuilding these dashboards, aren't I.
- Helen Marsden NonePossibly, Paul. We're a way from that. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
- Tom Ashdown NoneJust so everyone's got the same picture of where you are today. You're on Growth, order form's forty-four thousand a year, and I'll confirm that against the paperwork rather than go from memory. Forty users. And you've been invoiced on that and paid on time, as far as I can see, nothing outstanding.
- Helen Marsden NoneFinance have never raised anything on the invoices, so I'd say that's right.
- Daniel Okafor NoneAnd I'll be sending you the renewal notice in the normal way, ahead of the ninety-day mark, so there's no surprise on timing. I'd rather you got it and didn't need it.
- Helen Marsden NoneThat's fine. Send it to me and copy Paul.
- Daniel Okafor NoneWill do. Now, anything else on the account before we run out of road? We've got a bit of time but I don't want to keep Paul past the stand-up preparation.
- Paul Rigby NoneOne thing. Can the report show me which source system a row came from? So I can see at a glance. Saves me opening the extract.
- Daniel Okafor NoneI think that's possible, but I don't want to say yes until I've asked the engineers what's exposed. Put it on the ticket and I'll come back to you by the end of next week.
- Paul Rigby NoneWill do.
- Helen Marsden NoneNothing more from me. Thank you for turning the agenda round, Daniel.
- Daniel Okafor NoneOf course. Just to close the loop on who's doing what. Thursday early, Paul and our engineer trace a handful of jobs. After that I send Helen the note, covering both the completed jobs figure and the average time to complete. Paul, you add the source column request to the ticket. Tom, you pull together the plain list for Helen.
- Tom Ashdown NoneAye, that's mine. I'll get something in the diary for after the board pack's out, so Helen's not juggling it. Cheers, everyone.
- Helen Marsden NoneThank you all. Kind regards.
- Paul Rigby NoneRight. Cheers.
- Daniel Okafor NoneBest wishes, all. Speak soon.
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