Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 29 Dec 2025 09:30
Helen Marsden says the brain's arrears figure does not reconcile with the housing system and that casual use has fallen. She also disclosed that group technology leadership are looking at an in-house data platform, with no decision known.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Helen Marsden says the brain's arrears figure does not reconcile with the housing system and that casual use has fallen. She also disclosed that group technology leadership are looking at an in-house data platform, with no decision known.
What happened: Daniel Okafor held a check-in on 29 Dec 2025 with Helen Marsden. She raised an arrears figure in the board pack that differs from the housing system, then volunteered that fewer people are using the brain.
Customer view: Helen says users are not frustrated, they have stopped investing time because they were told the direction is changing. The in-house platform came from above, and she does not know whether it replaces or sits alongside the brain.
Commercial: The Growth subscription is forty licences at £44k a year, with the term running to 1 Sep 2026 and renewal on 2 Sep 2026. Helen asked where the contract stands and who to ask for a handover of the data model.
Watch: Helen wants the brain judged on traceable figures. If the arrears, repairs and complaints reconciliations do not hold, the renewal has little to stand on.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
In-house platform and usage fall
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- Daniel Okafor to trace the brain's arrears figure against the housing system and report back by the end of that week.
- Daniel to run the same trace on repairs and complaints figures and ask what happened to the complaints figures in the autumn.
- Helen Marsden to send the two arrears figures and run date, and decide on the manager session after speaking to her director.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Group technology leadership are looking at an in-house data platform that may replace or sit alongside the Growth subscription.
- Casual users such as repairs managers have drifted away, leaving use concentrated in Helen's team and a couple of analysts.
- The arrears figure in the board pack does not reconcile with the housing system, which undermines the brain's role in the board pack.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A traced reconciliation of arrears, repairs and complaints figures would give Helen evidence to show the in-house team and her director.
- An optional January session for managers framed around the board pack could bring lapsed users back if Helen agrees.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforMorning, Helen. Can you hear me all right? I think I'm a touch quiet on my side.
Helen MarsdenI can hear you fine. Morning, Daniel. Sorry, I'm in the quiet corner on the third floor, so if I go a bit echoey just say.- Daniel OkaforNo, you're clear. Thank you for making the time, especially this week. I wasn't sure anyone would be in at all between the two bank holidays.
- Helen MarsdenSkeleton staff. Half of the team is off, which is partly why I wanted to talk now, actually, while it's quiet and nobody is asking me for anything.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. How was Christmas, did you get away at all?
- Helen MarsdenTwo days at my sister's in Harrogate, then back to the washing. It was lovely, thank you. And you?
- Daniel OkaforVery quiet. Too much food, a long walk, and my daughter beat me at every board game we own. Right, I know this is a check-in and I'd like to hear how the team is finding it, but you sounded like you had something on your mind in your note.
- Helen MarsdenI did. I'll start with the thing I've been chasing, if that's all right. The arrears figure in the board pack, the section on rent arrears by area, doesn't reconcile with what the housing management system gives us at month end. It's a small gap, but the board will ask.
- Daniel OkaforMm. Is that a gap you're seeing in the brain's answer, or between the brain and the pack your team assembles?
- Helen MarsdenBetween the brain and the source. When I ask the question in chat I get one number, and when I run the report out of the housing system I get another. Can you show me the source for the brain's number? That's all I want, really.
- Daniel OkaforYes, that's fair, and I'd want the same. Do you remember roughly which day you ran the report?
- Helen MarsdenIt was the Tuesday before Christmas. The report was run mid-morning, and I asked the brain the same afternoon.
- Daniel OkaforRight. Then my first thought, and I'm saying it is a thought and not a diagnosis, is timing. The nightly refresh finishes early in the morning, so anything posted in the housing system during the day won't show in the brain until the next morning. If the report was mid-morning and the question was in the afternoon, they could be sitting on different sides of a day's postings.
- Helen MarsdenThat's possible. But the arrears postings are mostly batch, they go in overnight. So I wouldn't expect much to move during the day.
- Daniel OkaforOkay, then I shouldn't lean on that. What I'll do, just to close the loop, is take both figures, yours and the brain's, and trace the brain's one back to the records it was built from. Then you can see which records are in and which are out.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. I'll send you the two numbers and the date. The section in the pack is the one headed arrears by neighbourhood, so you can see what the board will be looking at.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. And I'll come back to you by the end of this week with what I find, or tell you if I need longer.
- Helen MarsdenGood. That's the first thing.
- Daniel OkaforThere's a second one?
- Helen MarsdenThere is. And I'd rather be straight about it. Not many people are using the brain at the moment. Fewer than in the autumn, and fewer than when we started. You'll see it on your side, I imagine.
- Daniel OkaforI did see it, yes, and thank you for saying it first. It's a good deal fewer active people than last quarter, across the board. We've got forty licences on your Growth subscription, and what I'm seeing is a handful of people in on a typical day.
- Helen MarsdenA handful is about right. Mostly my own team, and a couple of the performance analysts. The wider group of managers who were dipping in to look at repairs, they've drifted away.
- Daniel OkaforDo you have a sense of why? I don't want to guess. We haven't had a ticket from you for a while, which is either a good sign or a quiet one, and I'm not sure which.
- Helen MarsdenQuiet, I think. People haven't been frustrated. They've just been told, in so many words, that the longer-term direction is changing, so they've stopped investing time in learning it.
- Daniel OkaforChanging in what way, if you can say?
- Helen MarsdenI can say what I know. The group's technology leadership are looking at building an in-house data platform. It's a direction that came from above, it wasn't my plan, I want to be clear about that. I was asked to inform the requirements, and I'm doing that. Whether it replaces what we do with you, or sits alongside it, nobody has told me.
- Daniel OkaforThank you for being so open about it. I appreciate that can't have been a comfortable thing to say to me.
- Helen MarsdenIt isn't, particularly. You were at the start of this with us, and you've been very patient with my questions. I'd rather you heard it from me than saw it in the numbers.
- Daniel OkaforI'm glad you did. So, to make sure I've understood. There's an internal piece of work looking at a platform of your own. You're feeding into it. There's no decision that you know of. And meanwhile the people who used the brain more casually have stepped back.
- Helen MarsdenThat's it exactly.
- Daniel OkaforThen can I ask what would make the next few months most useful for you, rather than assuming? Because from where I sit the board pack is the thing the brain was bought for, and if the figures don't reconcile, that's the thing to fix first.
- Helen MarsdenYes. If the brain's numbers can't be traced and agreed with the housing system, it hasn't got a leg to stand on in that room. And if the in-house team ask me what the brain does well, I'd like my answer to be backed by something I can show them.
- Daniel OkaforThat seems the right way round to me. Let me suggest something, and tell me if it's too much for January. When I've traced the arrears figure, I could also run the same trace on the repairs and complaints figures in the pack, so you have the full set of reconciliations in one place.
- Helen MarsdenThat would be very useful. Particularly the complaints section. We had a wobble there in the autumn and I never got to the bottom of it, I just fixed the pack by hand.
- Daniel OkaforThen I'll include it. I'd like to know what the wobble was, as well, because if it's a connector doing something odd I'd rather it were fixed than worked around.
- Helen MarsdenUnderstood. I'll write down what I remember. Honestly it was a few cases that appeared twice, or didn't appear when I expected.
- Daniel OkaforThat's helpful already. Duplicates would point somewhere quite specific.
- Helen MarsdenCan I ask you about the contract? I don't want to go over anyone's head, and I know Tom Ashdown looks after that side. But I should understand where we stand if the group decides to do something different.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. The subscription is on Growth, forty-four thousand a year, and the current term runs to 1 Sep 2026, with the renewal on 2 Sep 2026. Nothing about that changes because of anything we've said today.
- Helen MarsdenSo until then the contract stands, and the licences are ours to use.
- Daniel OkaforYes, that's right. The renewal conversation is something I'd normally begin about three months ahead, and Tom would join for the commercial side. I won't guess at anything beyond that, because it's not mine to decide, and I'd rather you didn't hear a date from me that Tom hasn't confirmed.
- Helen MarsdenThat's fine. I just wanted to hear it said plainly.
- Daniel OkaforAnd I'd say, whatever the group decides, the next several months are still worth making good. If the brain earns its place on the board pack, that's a fact your leadership can see for themselves. If it doesn't, you'd want to know that too.
- Helen MarsdenYes. I'd rather the decision were made on the figures than on a feeling.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. Now, going back to the people side. Would it help if I ran a short session in January for the managers who've stepped away? Not a sales pitch. Just fifteen or twenty minutes on the two or three questions they used to ask, and how quickly they get an answer.
- Helen MarsdenI'm not sure. I don't want to ask people to spend time learning something that might not be here in a year. That wouldn't be fair on them.
- Daniel OkaforNo, that's a fair point, and I'd take it seriously. What if it were optional, and framed as just getting what they need for the board pack quickly this quarter?
- Helen MarsdenPerhaps. Let me think about it and speak to my director first. I don't want to go round anyone.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Leave it with you, and no pressure.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. One more thing, and then I'll let you go. If I do need to hand anything over to the in-house team, such as how we modelled the tenant and repairs data, who would I ask?
- Daniel OkaforMe, in the first instance. That's your data in your own Snowflake account, so you're not reliant on us to hold it. But I'd happily walk you through how it's laid out, so that whatever you build next, you're not starting from nothing.
- Helen MarsdenThat's generous. I'll keep it in mind.
- Daniel OkaforSo just to close the loop on today. You'll send me the two arrears figures and the date you ran them. I'll trace the brain's number and come back to you by the end of the week. I'll look at repairs and complaints in the same pass. You'll think about whether a short session for the managers is worth it, and talk to your director.
- Helen MarsdenYes, that's all of it. Thank you, Daniel. I wasn't looking forward to this call, and it's been easier than I thought.
- Daniel OkaforI'm glad. And thank you for telling me straight. Enjoy what's left of the break, and say hello to the team from me.
- Helen MarsdenI will. Happy New Year, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforAnd to you, Helen. Speak soon. Bye for now.
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