Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 13 May 2025 14:15
Helen Marsden flagged an arrears split in the board pack that does not reconcile, said IT leadership is discussing an in-house platform, and asked for a usage summary she can defend. Core group is nine or ten of forty.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Helen Marsden flagged an arrears split in the board pack that does not reconcile, said IT leadership is discussing an in-house platform, and asked for a usage summary she can defend. Core group is nine or ten of forty.
What happened: On the 13 May 2025 check-in Helen raised former and current tenant arrears that do not reconcile in section four of the board pack. On screen, Daniel Okafor showed old tenancies with an end date but a status still active, which fits transfers but is not yet proven.
Customer view: Helen said her team lives in the brain and the platform has been stable, with the reconciliation being the issue. She said the in-house idea is not her plan and that no decision has been made.
Commercial: Daniel confirmed Growth at £44k a year, with the order form and invoices matching. Helen wants a usage summary for IT leadership before the 1 Sep 2025 end date.
Watch: Weekly users are down, and a core of nine or ten use it properly out of forty licensed.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Arrears reconciliation, in-house plan
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- Helen Marsden to send the three tenancy references today so Daniel Okafor can compare them and the whole transfer set.
- Daniel Okafor to update Helen on the comparison by Friday.
- Daniel Okafor to prepare the usage summary after the reconciliation work.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- IT leadership is drafting a business case for an in-house reporting platform before the 1 Sep 2025 renewal.
- The arrears split does not reconcile to the housing system, and Helen needs it fixed before the board pack is signed off.
- Weekly users are down on the previous quarter and only nine or ten of forty licensed users are regular.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A usage summary showing who asks what and which questions only the brain can answer gives Helen a case for IT leadership.
- A session for housing officers built around their own repairs and rents questions could widen use.
- Helen named reconciliation, lineage and speed as what the board values, which the brain already provides.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Helen, thanks for making the time. Can you hear me alright?
Helen MarsdenI can, yes. Good afternoon, Daniel. Sorry, I'm a minute behind, I was finishing something with the performance team.- Daniel OkaforNo problem at all, it's only just gone quarter past. Is it as grey in Leeds as it is down here?
- Helen MarsdenRather. It's been drizzling since breakfast and half the office has come in with wet shoes.
- Daniel OkaforHa, same here. Well, thank you for the time anyway. I've got your account open, the usage and so on, but I'd rather hear how it's going from you first.
- Helen MarsdenThat's rather why I wanted to start with something specific, if that's all right. Section four of the board pack, the arrears summary. The brain's figure for former tenant arrears doesn't reconcile to what the housing management system gives us. It's close, but it isn't the same, and the board will ask.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Just so I've got it clear, is the gap in the headline figure, or in how it splits between current and former tenants?
- Helen MarsdenThe split. The headline is within a whisker. But former tenant arrears are lower in the brain and current tenant arrears are higher, by about the same amount. So something is being classified differently.
- Daniel OkaforMm. That pattern usually means a tenancy end date being read differently, rather than a record going missing. Have you got a couple of example accounts where it differs?
- Helen MarsdenI have three. I'll send you the references after the call, I don't want to read them out loud. But they're all tenancies that ended in the last few months, and in each one there was a transfer to another property.
- Daniel OkaforRight, transfers. That's helpful, actually. A transfer can look like an ending followed by a new start, and depending on how the housing system flags it, we might be treating the old tenancy as current until the new one is confirmed.
- Helen MarsdenWhich would explain it. But I'd want to see that in the data, Daniel, not take it as a theory. Can you show me the source?
- Daniel OkaforFair. Let me share my screen, give me a moment. Can you see the lineage page?
- Helen MarsdenNot yet. Ah, there it is.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is the arrears model for your account. It reads the tenancy table every night, and this field here, tenancy status, is what drives the current versus former split. I'll filter to tenancies with a transfer flag, so we can look at the pattern without opening anyone's record.
- Helen MarsdenGood. Yes, I'd prefer that.
- Daniel OkaforRight. So there are a fair few. And look at this column. The end date is filled in on the old tenancy, but the status still says active for some of them.
- Helen MarsdenSo those would be sitting in current when they should be in former.
- Daniel OkaforThat's what it looks like. Which would push current up and former down by the same amount, as you said. I don't want to claim it's the whole explanation until we've matched it to your three references, but it fits.
- Helen MarsdenI'd want it to be the whole explanation. If it's only part of it, I have a different problem for section four.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. What I can do is ask our data engineers to run a comparison on your three and on the whole transfer set, and come back to you with a line by line result. I'll come back to you by Friday with where we've got to.
- Helen MarsdenFriday would be fine. The pack is signed off the week after, so I need to know before then whether to footnote it.
- Daniel OkaforJust to close the loop on that, then. You send the three references today, we compare, and I update you on Friday.
- Helen MarsdenYes. Thank you. While you've still got the screen up, can I ask about the complaints data? It's the other area where my team gets questions.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Let me open the connectors page. Yes, everything is showing as loading on its schedule, and nothing is flagged on my side. The complaints source is in there with the rest.
- Helen MarsdenThat's reassuring. The board does ask whether complaints and repairs line up with the arrears picture, so I want to be sure they're current.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. I'll stop sharing now. Yeah. Right. Can I ask about the wider picture? How is the team finding it day to day?
- Helen MarsdenMostly well. My own team lives in it. The tickets and the tenant calls sitting next to the repairs data, that's what we bought it for, and it still does that.
- Daniel OkaforGood. I'll be straight with you, I did notice the number of people logging in each week is down a little on the previous quarter. Nothing dramatic, but I'd rather ask than assume.
- Helen MarsdenThat doesn't surprise me. Some of that is people. Two of the analysts who were using it daily have moved onto the complaints return project, so they're not in there as much. And honestly, some of the housing officers asked a lot at the start and have settled back into their usual reports.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a common shape, to be fair. Questions come in a burst after go-live and then find their level. You've got forty licensed users. Are you using most of them, or are there some that could be freed up?
- Helen MarsdenWe've got a core group, perhaps nine or ten, who use it properly every week. The rest have a login and dip in now and then. I wouldn't claim we're using forty.
- Daniel OkaforThat's honest, and thank you. Is there anything stopping the wider group? Is it training, or is it that they don't have a reason to ask?
- Helen MarsdenA bit of both. The housing officers want answers in their own language, rents and repairs, and they find the chat a bit generic. My team gets on fine because we know the tables. And I should say, the executives mostly see it through the board dashboards my team built. They open those, they don't ask the brain directly. So the usage numbers undersell it a bit.
- Daniel OkaforMm, that's a really good point, and I'll make sure it's in whatever I put together for you. Would a short session with the officers, built around their own repairs and rents questions, be useful? I could set one up.
- Helen MarsdenIt might. Let me think about timing, they're stretched with the complaints return. Can I come back to you on that?
- Daniel OkaforOf course, no rush at all.
- Helen MarsdenThere's something else, and I'd rather you heard it from me. The group's IT leadership have been talking about an in-house platform for reporting, built on our own data warehouse. I want to be clear that it isn't my plan. I've been asked to give a view on what we'd need from it, and what the brain does today that we'd have to replace.
- Daniel OkaforI appreciate you telling me, Helen. How far along is that conversation?
- Helen MarsdenEarly. There's a business case being drafted, and I haven't seen it. Nothing is decided. I'm just saying so that you're not surprised, because the contract runs to 1 Sep 2025 and the question will come up before then.
- Daniel OkaforThat's very fair, and I'd much rather know. Can I ask what the board cares about most from it? Because if I understand what you'd need to replace, I can be useful to you whichever way it goes.
- Helen MarsdenThe reconciliation, frankly. If the numbers tie to the housing system and I can show the lineage, the board trusts the pack. That's what I'd have to reproduce. And the speed. Tenant calls, repairs tickets, complaints and arrears all in one place, without my team stitching spreadsheets together.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a clear list. Yeah. And on the commercial side, you're on Growth at £44,000 a year, and the order form and what we've invoiced are the same figure. So there's nothing to untangle there. I'll make sure that's all tidy for whenever your colleagues want to look at it.
- Helen MarsdenYes, finance haven't raised anything. No invoices overdue, as far as I know.
- Daniel OkaforNo, nothing overdue on our side either. And no tickets in the last month, which is either a good sign or a quiet one, so I'm asking.
- Helen MarsdenGood, I think. It's been stable. The nightly refresh has been there when we've needed it. It's the reconciliation that's the issue, not the platform being down.
- Daniel OkaforGood to hear. Is there anything you'd want to see from us before that renewal conversation, so you have it for whoever's making the case?
- Helen MarsdenA usage summary I can put in front of IT leadership. Who's asking what, how often, and which questions only the brain could answer. Not a sales document. Something I can defend.
- Daniel OkaforI can do that. I'll put it together after the reconciliation work, so it isn't competing for attention. Is that all right?
- Helen MarsdenThat's sensible. Let's get section four right first.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. And Helen, whatever the group decides, if it would help to write down what the brain does today, the sources, the joins, the nightly timings, I'm happy to do that with you. It's your record of what you'd need, not a pitch.
- Helen MarsdenI might take you up on that. Not yet. Let me see the business case first, if they let me.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. So, just to close the loop. You send the three references today, and I come back to you on Friday with the comparison on the transfers. You think about a session for the housing officers. And I prepare a usage summary, after the reconciliation work. Anything I've missed?
- Helen MarsdenNo, I think that's everything. I'll send those references as soon as we're off.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. Thank you for your time, and for being so open about the in-house plan. I do appreciate it.
- Helen MarsdenWell, you'd have heard anyway. Thanks, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforSpeak on Friday. Enjoy what's left of the afternoon. Best wishes.
- Helen MarsdenYou too. Bye for now.
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