Ardcarne Life Assurance / BG-Demo – Proposal
Callcompleted
Ardcarne Life Assurance · 18 Jun 2026 11:30
Matteo Ricci took Niamh Costello and Ronan Tierney through the Enterprise proposal. Ronan said the business case is clear but he will not sign until the CISO and procurement are content; 30 Jun 2026 is likely, not certain.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Matteo Ricci took Niamh Costello and Ronan Tierney through the Enterprise proposal. Ronan said the business case is clear but he will not sign until the CISO and procurement are content; 30 Jun 2026 is likely, not certain.
What happened: Matteo Ricci walked Niamh Costello and Ronan Tierney through the Enterprise proposal on 18 Jun 2026. Ronan left after setting his condition, and the remaining time covered procurement and security items.
Customer view: Niamh described the purchase as one view of each broker firm and said the regulator's test includes being told quickly if something goes wrong. Ronan said the business case and the shape of the cost are clear.
Commercial: The £155k is the total deal value in the proposal, not an annual price, and the order form is to show the split. The target is an executed order form by 30 Jun 2026, which Niamh called realistic but not certain.
Watch: Open security items now number four, and Niamh is the only person who understands the setup. The evidence does not show whether the order form was signed.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Enterprise proposal sign-off
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Matteo Ricci to email the list of open security items and send the order form and master agreement together via Niamh.
- Matteo to send a proposed start window and first milestone only once engineering has agreed it.
- Elena Novak to join a short call with the CISO to go through the implementation plan.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Ronan will not sign until the CISO and procurement are content, and another round on incident wording would squeeze the 30 Jun 2026 target.
- Four security items remain open, including the sub-processor position.
- Niamh is the only person who understands the setup, so the programme depends on her diary.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Enterprise scope includes single sign-on and a first use case, one view of each broker firm, that Niamh has already described to the executive committee.
- Clear incident notification wording speaks directly to the regulator's test and to Niamh's view that vendors who tell early are kept.
Transcript
Matteo RicciHello, Niamh. Can you hear me all right? I think I have just joined ahead of everyone.
Niamh CostelloI can hear you fine, Matteo. Good morning. Ronan is just finishing something and will be on in a minute.- Matteo RicciOf course, no problem at all. How has your week been? It is Thursday, so I imagine you are already thinking about the weekend.
- Niamh CostelloBusy, honestly. We have had the regulator's questions on third-party registers all week, so my team has been living in spreadsheets. Which is rather the point of why we are doing this.
- Matteo RicciAh, yes. Spreadsheets are the enemy. Well, I am glad to be useful, and I hope to be less of a spreadsheet today.
Ronan TierneyMorning both. Sorry, I was held up. Can you hear me?- Matteo RicciGood morning, Ronan, we can hear you well. Thank you for joining, I know your diary is not kind.
- Ronan TierneyNot at all. Before we start, what decision do you need from me today?
- Matteo RicciA fair question, and let me restate the timeline so we are all looking at the same thing. You have had our proposal for the Enterprise tier. The aim on our side is to reach an executed order form by 30 June 2026. Today is really about three things. First, that the scope reads the way Niamh and you expect. Second, that the commercial shape is understood, so there are no surprises when it goes to procurement. Third, that we agree who needs to be content before anything is signed. I would rather you heard the open points from me today than found them in the paper later.
- Ronan TierneyGood. Go on.
- Niamh CostelloCan I add one thing first, Matteo? So Ronan has the business outcome in his head. What we are buying is one view of each broker firm. Today distribution sees a broker one way, customer service sees them another, and neither of them is wrong, they are just looking at different systems. What does good look like for the brokers? A single answer to the question: what is going on with this firm, across everything we know.
- Ronan TierneyThat I understand. And the board risk?
- Niamh CostelloThe risk is on the supplier side more than the data side. We are an insurer under the Central Bank and we are in scope of DORA, so anything we put in the outsourcing register has to stand up. That is where our CISO and procurement come in.
- Matteo RicciYes, and that is the right place to begin, because it is where we differ from a typical software supplier. The brain is built and run inside your own Snowflake account. The data does not leave your environment to sit in ours. So the question your regulator will ask, which is where the data is and who can touch it, has a short answer.
- Ronan TierneyShort answers are good. Is our CISO content with that?
- Niamh CostelloContent with the architecture, yes. There are a couple of items outstanding on the security review, and I do not want to pretend otherwise. I need him comfortable, and I will not go round him.
- Matteo RicciNor would we ask you to. Let me be specific about where that stands, because I would like Ronan to hear it plainly. The review has been running for some weeks. The remaining points are about evidence rather than about design: the incident notification wording, and how we evidence exit and portability for the register. I have those in a list and I will send it to you in writing after this call, so there is no doubt about what is open.
- Ronan TierneyFine. Does any of that move the date?
- Matteo RicciIt could, and I would rather say so than hide it. If your CISO needs another round on the incident wording, the thirtieth gets tight. I do not see a reason it should, but it is his review and not mine.
- Ronan TierneyUnderstood. Appreciate that.
- Niamh CostelloLet's not over-engineer it either. The exit wording we need is the standard sort. If you can give us the same structure other regulated customers have accepted, our legal team will move quickly.
- Matteo RicciThat is how I would like to do it. I will ask our legal colleagues to send you the structure we normally use for regulated insurers, and then we mark up only what is different for you.
- Niamh CostelloPerfect.
- Matteo RicciShall I move on to the scope? Ronan, stop me if this goes too deep, I know you will not want the whole deck.
- Ronan TierneyKeep it to the headlines. Niamh will hold you to the detail.
- Matteo RicciUnderstood. Headlines, then. The proposal is the Enterprise tier. That means the brain across the systems you chose in discovery: your CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder and your mailboxes, with the finance system as a later phase. Pages, chat and search for the broker and service teams, dashboards for your management information, and single sign-on so your people come in through your own identity provider.
- Niamh CostelloAnd the one-view-of-the-broker piece, which is the first use case. That is in the first phase, not the later one, correct?
- Matteo RicciCorrect. It is the first thing we build, because it is the reason you are buying. The broker firm becomes the thing everything hangs off: policies, conversations, tickets, calls. Your distribution and service teams then ask questions of the same record.
- Niamh CostelloGood. That is what I told the executive committee, so I am glad we are consistent.
- Ronan TierneyWhat does it cost? Just the headline.
- Matteo RicciThe total value of the deal in the proposal is £155k. That is the whole figure for this agreement. How it divides between the one-off implementation and the subscription is set out in the order form, and I will make sure the split is clear on the first page, so nobody has to do arithmetic.
- Ronan TierneySo the £155k is the total, not a yearly number.
- Matteo RicciExactly, it is the total deal value, so please do not read it as an annual price. The order form will show the annual subscription separately from the implementation. Let me confirm that in writing as well, so there is no confusion in the board paper.
- Ronan TierneyGood, that matters. I do not want the board to be surprised.
- Niamh CostelloRonan, you will not be. I will write the paper with the split in the table.
- Ronan TierneyThank you. Matteo, one question on delivery. When do we see something real?
- Matteo RicciA fair question. I will be careful here, because I do not want to give you a date that engineering has not agreed. What I can say is how the implementation is shaped. There is a first stage where we connect your main systems and the broker view starts to fill. You would see your own data in the brain before anything is rolled out widely. For the exact start window, I will take it to our delivery team this week and come back to you in writing.
- Niamh CostelloI will need that in writing, Matteo, with a start week and a first milestone. I never accept vague timelines, you know that, and I would rather have a cautious date than a soft one.
- Matteo RicciUnderstood, and I would rather give you a cautious one. You will have a plan with named milestones, and our customer success manager, Elena Novak, will walk you through it. She will be your contact once the order form is signed.
- Niamh CostelloGood. I have met Elena briefly, I think she was on the first security call.
- Matteo RicciShe was, yes. She will be there through the implementation and afterwards.
- Ronan TierneyRight. I am going to drop off shortly. Let me say where I am. The business case is clear. The shape of the cost is clear. I will not sign until our CISO and procurement are content. If they are, let's proceed. Is that fair?
- Matteo RicciThat is entirely fair, and it is the order I would want too. Thank you, Ronan.
- Niamh CostelloThat is exactly how we will run it. Thank you, Ronan, I will keep you posted.
- Ronan TierneyGood. Thanks both. Ronan.
- Matteo RicciThank you, Ronan. Have a good day.
- Niamh CostelloHe has gone. That went well, I think. He rarely says that much on a supplier call.
- Matteo RicciI thought so too. He was very clear, which helps me. Shall we use the remaining time for the part he does not need, which is procurement and the review?
- Niamh CostelloYes, please. Procurement first. Their usual process takes longer than the time we have, so I want them to see the paper early.
- Matteo RicciThen the sooner the better. What does your procurement team need to see first, the order form or the master agreement?
- Niamh CostelloBoth together, ideally, because they will read the order form against the terms. If they get one without the other they will ask for the other and we lose a week.
- Matteo RicciUnderstood. I will send them together. Is there a named person in procurement I should address it to, or should it come through you?
- Niamh CostelloSend it to me and I will forward it with a note. It carries more weight coming from the data office, and I would like to keep control of the sequence.
- Matteo RicciOf course. And then the security items. Let me read you the list as I have it, and you tell me if I have missed anything. One, the incident notification wording. Two, the exit and portability evidence for your register. Three, confirmation of how single sign-on and access are administered by your team inside your own environment.
- Niamh CostelloThat is three of the four. The fourth is the sub-processor position. He wants to see precisely what, if anything, sits outside our Snowflake account.
- Matteo RicciYes, thank you, that is a good catch, and I should have had it on the list. I will add it. I will also say plainly that I will not guess at the answer. I will ask our security colleagues for a written statement and send it as it is.
- Niamh CostelloThat is what he will want. A written statement he can put in front of the auditors.
- Matteo RicciThen that is what he will have. What does your regulator need to see, in the end? If I know the test, I can make sure the evidence answers it rather than being merely thorough.
- Niamh CostelloHonestly, the test is whether we can show that we understood the dependency, that we have a way out, and that we will be told quickly if something goes wrong. That last one is the one that keeps people awake. Vendors who tell us early are vendors we keep.
- Matteo RicciThen we are aligned, because telling you early is how I like to work. If there is an incident that touches your brain, your security team hears it from us first and not from a status page.
- Niamh CostelloGood. Put that in the wording and Declan, sorry, our CISO, will be a lot happier.
- Matteo RicciI will ask legal to draft it that way and show you the language before it goes to him.
- Niamh CostelloRight. Now, on the user side. I would like to be sure we are not overpromising to the broker team. How do they get access, and who decides who has it?
- Matteo RicciYour people sign in through your identity provider, so access follows the groups you already manage. Nobody at BG-Demo decides who sees what. Your administrators do, and we will help them set up the first groups during implementation.
- Niamh CostelloGood. That is another thing I can tell Ronan. We keep the keys.
- Matteo RicciYou keep the keys, yes. And may I raise one thing that is not in the paper, as a suggestion? Choose two or three people in the data office who will be the administrators from the first day. In my experience, if the champion is the only person who understands the setup, the programme depends on her diary.
- Niamh CostelloThat is fair, and a little uncomfortable. I am, at the moment, the only person who understands it. Let me think about who. I have two people in mind.
- Matteo RicciWonderful. You do not need to name them today. Just before the implementation starts.
- Niamh CostelloYes. Let's not over-engineer it, but let's not leave it to chance either.
- Matteo RicciAgreed. Is there anything in the proposal itself that you would change? Anything that struck you as odd when you read it?
- Niamh CostelloTwo small things. The language about the support hours. I want to be sure it reflects the hours our service team actually works, because they start early. And the section on training. I am not sure how many of the broker managers will want a full session rather than a short walk-through.
- Matteo RicciBoth reasonable. On support, I will check the wording against what you need and confirm in writing. On training, I would suggest we plan a short walk-through for the broker managers and a longer session for your administrators, and we can see how it goes.
- Niamh CostelloThat works. A short one for the managers. They will not sit through an hour.
- Matteo RicciNo one does. Right, shall I recap what I will send, so you can correct me?
- Niamh CostelloPlease.
- Matteo RicciFirst, an email today with the list of open security items, now four. Second, the order form and the master agreement, together, so you can pass them to procurement. Third, the structure for the incident and exit wording, from legal. Fourth, a written statement on sub-processors from our security team. Fifth, a proposed start window and first milestone, once engineering has agreed it, and I will not send it before. And the support hours wording, checked.
- Niamh CostelloThat is everything. On my side, I will brief our CISO, forward the paper to procurement with a note, and tell you who the administrators will be. And I will write the board paper with the total value and the split.
- Matteo RicciGood. And what do you think the realistic path is to 30 June 2026? I would like to be honest with you and with myself about the forecast.
- Niamh CostelloRealistic, if procurement moves at a reasonable pace and our CISO has no new questions. If he does, it slips by a few days, not weeks. I would not say it is certain, and I will not pretend it is.
- Matteo RicciThat is the answer I needed. I will carry it as likely, not certain, and I will tell you if I see anything on our side that changes it.
- Niamh CostelloGood. Same from me.
- Matteo RicciWould it help if Elena joined a short call with your CISO next week, to go through the implementation plan from the security side, so he sees how the access and the connectors will be set up?
- Niamh CostelloYes, that would help a lot. He likes to see the people who will actually do the work. Send me a couple of slots and I will put it in his diary.
- Matteo RicciI will do that today with the email. Anything else you would like me to cover while we have time?
- Niamh CostelloNo, I think we are in a good place. Thank you, Matteo. I appreciate the plainness, particularly on the open items.
- Matteo RicciThank you, Niamh. It is the only way I know how to do this with a regulated buyer. Let me confirm everything in writing this afternoon, and we will speak again after your CISO has had a look.
- Niamh CostelloPerfect. Speak soon, then.
- Matteo RicciSpeak soon. Best regards, Niamh. Goodbye.
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