Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 26 Jan 2026 13:45
At the 26 Jan 2026 QBR, Helen Marsden and Paul Rigby showed repairs jobs counted twice in the brain, three high priority tickets with slow responses, and users drifting back to spreadsheets, while an in-house platform is discussed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026At the 26 Jan 2026 QBR, Helen Marsden and Paul Rigby showed repairs jobs counted twice in the brain, three high priority tickets with slow responses, and users drifting back to spreadsheets, while an in-house platform is discussed.
What happened: Helen opened the QBR with a repairs completed figure in the board pack that the brain overstates against the housing system. Paul showed duplicate job rows sent as original and updated records.
Customer view: Users who got answers that did not match their patch stopped asking and went back to spreadsheets. Helen is being asked what the brain is worth and says she cannot answer well at present.
Commercial: Daniel Okafor restated Growth at £44k a year with the contract running to the first of September. Usage is down by well over a third on forty licences, and questions rest mainly with Helen and Paul.
Watch: Connectors and the nightly refresh are working, so the problem is correctness, not availability. Helen wants the history restated, in writing, before the next board cycle.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Double-counted repairs, eroded trust
Importance
complaint
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 report by the end of that week on the three tickets and whether past totals can be restated.
- Paul Rigby to send his spreadsheet of duplicated job references to Daniel the same day.
- Daniel to draft the one-page value note with Helen Marsden, who decides what goes in.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Duplicate repairs records have overstated completed jobs and led managers to stop using the dashboards and go back to their own sheets.
- Questions asked are concentrated in Helen and Paul, so the brain would nearly stop if either were away.
- An in-house platform is being discussed in IT while Helen cannot yet show the board what the Growth subscription is worth.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A one-page, honest value note drafted with Helen could give her something to show the board before the next cycle.
- Once counts are fixed, a session with Paul for the area leads showing the repairs view against the source could rebuild trust.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforAfternoon, Helen. Afternoon, Paul. Thank you both for making the time, I know Mondays are heavy. Can you both hear me all right?
Helen MarsdenYes, we can hear you. Afternoon, Daniel. Paul's just coming off another call, he's in the room with me now.
Paul RigbyAye, I'm here. Sorry, two minutes. Got the screen ready.- Daniel OkaforNo rush at all. How's the week treating you? Last time we spoke you had the inspection prep on, so I hope that's calmed down a bit.
- Helen MarsdenIt's calmed down, yes, thank you for remembering. Now it's the board pack instead. Which is rather why I wanted to start with the numbers, if that's all right. These don't reconcile, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Go on, tell me what you're seeing, and then we'll do the quarterly review properly around it. I'd rather we spent the time on what's worrying you.
- Helen MarsdenThe repairs completed figure in section four of the pack. The brain gives us one number, the housing management system gives us another, and the brain's is higher. It's been higher since the upgrade on their side. The board will ask, and at the moment I can't tell them which one is right.
- Daniel OkaforRight. And Paul, I think this is the thing behind your tickets, is that fair?
- Paul RigbyAye. Double-counted again. I'll share the report, hang on. Can you see it?
- Daniel OkaforI can see a table with job references down the left. Is that the one?
- Paul RigbyThat's it. Look at these two rows. Same job ref, same operative, same completion time. One's coming through as the original and one as the updated record. Housing system's started sending both.
- Daniel OkaforMm. So the job itself is one job, but the feed is giving us a pair.
- Paul RigbyEvery time a job's reopened or the status is amended. Not every job. Enough that the total's wrong.
- Helen MarsdenAnd before you ask, Daniel, yes, I've checked it against the source. Section four, table two, the repairs by contractor view. Can you show me the source for the brain's count? That's what I need to be able to say to the board.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a fair thing to ask, and you should be able to. Paul, when you raised the tickets, did you get a response that showed the lineage, or just an acknowledgement?
- Paul RigbyAcknowledgement. Then a message saying it was being looked at. Then nothing for a good while. Any update on this? That's what I wrote last Thursday.
- Daniel OkaforOkay. I want to be straight with you both: three tickets in the last month, all three marked high priority, and I don't think that's the experience you should be getting on Growth. I've seen the thread. I'll come back to you on exactly where each one stands, and I'm going to ask for a proper written explanation of the cause, not just a status.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. I'd like the explanation in terms I can put in front of the board. Not a technical note, though Paul will want that as well.
- Paul RigbyI'll want the technical one. With job refs.
- Daniel OkaforBoth, then. Just to close the loop on that one, I'll ask for the two versions together so you're not chasing.
- Daniel OkaforCan I put something else on the table, Helen? Because I think it's connected. When I looked at activity before today, the number of people actually using the brain day to day is down quite a lot on the previous quarter. Well over a third down. And we're licensed for forty.
- Helen MarsdenYes. I saw it too. I wasn't going to hide it from you.
- Daniel OkaforI didn't think you would. I'm asking how the team is finding it, really. Not the licence count, the people.
- Helen MarsdenHonestly? Some of the people who used to ask it questions stopped when the repairs numbers went wrong. If a manager gets an answer that doesn't match what they know from their own patch, they stop asking. They go back to the spreadsheets. And I can't blame them.
- Paul RigbyTwo of the area leads told me they don't open the dashboards before stand-up any more. They've got their own sheets.
- Daniel OkaforMm. That's the thing I'd worry about most, to be honest. Trust goes quickly and it takes a lot longer to come back. So the double-counting isn't just a defect, it's changed behaviour. Is that a fair reading?
- Helen MarsdenThat's a fair reading. And there's something else I should say, because I'd rather you heard it from me. There's a conversation going on in IT about whether we should build something in-house. A platform of our own, using the data we already hold.
- Daniel OkaforThank you for telling me. That helps.
- Helen MarsdenI want to be clear that isn't my plan. I brought the brain in because I wanted the board picture in one place, and for a long while it did that. But I'm in the room when it's discussed, and I'm being asked what the brain is worth to us, and I can't answer that well at the moment.
- Daniel OkaforI appreciate that, and I won't dress it up. You're on Growth at forty-four thousand a year, the contract runs to the first of September, and you'll be thinking about all of that between now and then. The honest answer is that the way to deal with the question is to fix the figures and show the value, not to argue about it.
- Helen MarsdenAgreed. And the board will want to see the value, not hear it.
- Paul RigbyCan I say something? On the in-house thing. I don't know owt about it. Nobody's asked me. I just run the repairs reports.
- Helen MarsdenNobody's asked anybody yet, Paul. It's early.
- Daniel OkaforLet's park that and come back to it at the end. Paul, can we go back to the report for a moment? Is there any pattern in which jobs get duplicated? Or is it random?
- Paul RigbyI'm not going to guess at the cause. What I can tell you is what I see. It's the reopened jobs and the ones where the status changes after completion. Mostly the contractor jobs. I've got a list of every one in my spreadsheet, job ref attached, going back to when it started.
- Daniel OkaforThat spreadsheet would be really useful. Would you be willing to send it over to me directly? Then I can put it in front of the right people with the evidence rather than a description.
- Paul RigbyAye, I'll send it today.
- Helen MarsdenDaniel, one more thing on the figures. If the fix is a re-run, what happens to the history? The board pack goes back four quarters. If the earlier quarters are overstated, I need to know by how much and I need to be able to show the correction.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly the right question and I don't want to guess at the answer. I don't own the engineering timeline, so I won't give you a date I can't stand behind. What I will do is ask specifically whether the history can be restated, and what the effect on past totals would be. I'll come back to you by the end of this week with whatever I've got, even if it's only a partial answer.
- Helen MarsdenThat's all I ask. Honest and in writing.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Now, since this is the quarterly review, let me just cover the usage side briefly, because you'll want it for your own notes. Connectors are all still loading, which is good. Nothing's gone quiet on the source side. Records are coming in as they should.
- Paul RigbyNightly refresh has been fine. I'll give you that. It's there before stand-up. It's just that it's wrong when it gets there.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is a fair way to put it, and it's a different problem from availability. Fair enough. The questions being asked are what concern me. They're down too, and it's concentrated in a small number of people. Helen, I think it's you and Paul for the large part.
- Helen MarsdenIt will be. That's the part I don't like. If either of us were away, it would nearly stop.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the risk I'd name as well. So I'd like to suggest something practical. Not a big programme. Once the counts are fixed, a short session for the area leads, with Paul, showing them the repairs view against the source, job by job. So they can see for themselves it now matches what they know.
- Helen MarsdenI like that. Show them it reconciles, rather than telling them. Would you do that or would Paul?
- Daniel OkaforI'd run it with Paul, so it's your data and your people, and I'm just there to support. Paul, would that work for you?
- Paul RigbyAye, if the numbers are right first. I'm not standing up in front of the area leads with a report that's wrong.
- Daniel OkaforCompletely. The numbers come first, then the session. I wouldn't ask you to do it any other way.
- Helen MarsdenCan we also talk about what I take to the board? Not the technical side. The value. You said we'd need to show it.
- Daniel OkaforYes. What I'd suggest, and tell me if this is wrong, is a one-page note before the next board cycle. What the brain pulls together for you that you couldn't do before: tenant calls, repairs, complaints and arrears in one picture. Where it's been used, who's asked what, and where it's let you down, including this. I'd rather it was honest.
- Helen MarsdenI'd rather it was honest too. If I put a glossy note in front of them and the figures still don't tie, it makes me look foolish. Include the double-counting. Say what's been done.
- Daniel OkaforThen I'll draft it with you, and you decide what goes in. Nothing leaves your side without you having seen it.
- Helen MarsdenGood. Thank you, Daniel. I'll admit I came into this call expecting a slide deck.
- Daniel OkaforI've a few slides, but I think we've used the time better. So, just to close the loop on what we've said. I'll come back to you both by the end of this week on the three tickets and on whether history can be restated. Paul sends me the spreadsheet today. And I'll draft the one-page value note with Helen.
- Helen MarsdenAnd the session for the area leads once the counts are right.
- Daniel OkaforYes, thank you, that one's on the list, with no date until the figures are fixed. And Helen, on the renewal, I'd like us to keep talking about it openly between now and the summer, rather than leave it till the notice period. If there's anything about the in-house conversation you can share as it develops, it would help me make sure we're answering the right questions.
- Helen MarsdenI will. I'd rather you were in the conversation than outside it. Kind regards to you, Daniel. We'll speak at the end of the week.
- Paul RigbySpreadsheet's coming this afternoon. Cheers, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforThank you both. Best wishes, speak soon.
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