Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 2025-03-20 15:30
Onboarding call on 20 Mar 2025. The branch connector is blocked by a narrow service-account role, not a fault. Deepa Chauhan wants one trade account page for key-account managers, and Tariq Saleem is the only admin.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Onboarding call on 20 Mar 2025. The branch connector is blocked by a narrow service-account role, not a fault. Deepa Chauhan wants one trade account page for key-account managers, and Tariq Saleem is the only admin.
What happened: Callie Brennan walked Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem through six connectors, account matching and the admin plan. The high-priority branch ticket was a permissions issue, and Callie asked for read access on four order-related tables.
Customer view: Deepa's test is one page with orders, disputes, calls and invoices for a trade account. She also asked for a plain status each week against the twelve-week Enterprise implementation.
Commercial: Everything sits inside the Enterprise implementation. The call recorder is still waiting on an authorisation, and Tariq asked for the date to move to the Friday because of an IT change freeze.
Watch: Tariq is the sole admin and Callie called that a single point of failure. A second admin is to be named, and mailbox scope needs a decision with credit control.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise onboarding progress
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Callie Brennan sends the written access list for the four tables and a weekly Friday status.
- Tariq Saleem takes the access list to the data owners and sends the sample export.
- Deepa Chauhan names a second admin and sets the page section order with credit control.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Tariq Saleem is the only admin, a single point of failure until a second admin is named.
- The call recorder authorisation slipped to the Friday, so calls will be missing from the first release.
- Mailbox scope is unresolved and Deepa Chauhan is wary of directors thinking all email is read.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A clear first-release test (one page with orders, disputes, calls and invoices) gives an easy win to show value.
- Enterprise directory sync suits the quarterly branch reshuffles Deepa and Tariq described.
Transcript
Callie Brennan NoneHello, hello. Can you both hear me alright? I've got the recording going on my side, so that should be fine.
Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, loud and clear. Good afternoon, Callie. Tariq's just coming in from the other room, he's wrestling with a projector cable.
Tariq Saleem NoneSorry, sorry. I'm here. Afternoon. The cable lost, I think, but I'll live.- Callie Brennan NoneNo problem at all. Right, so the plan for the next forty minutes or so is this. First, where we are on the connectors, one by one. Second, the account matching, because I know that's the thing you care about most. Third, who does what before we switch on the refresh. And then I'd like to leave a bit of time at the end for the two tickets that are open. Does that work?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat works. The one thing I need from today, if I'm honest, is a clear picture of what the key-account managers will actually see on a trade account when we go live. Everything else can follow from that.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, that's a nice anchor. We'll come back to it at the end and I'll show you where we are on it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I start with the open tickets, actually? Only because one of them is marked high priority and it feeds straight into the first thing you're going to ask.
- Callie Brennan NoneGo on then, please do. Which one is it?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThe branch system connector. The credentials I sent over authenticate fine from our side, but the first load on your side didn't land. I've checked the load log on our end and there's nothing failing, so my guess is it's not on our side, but I don't want to guess. That's why I raised it.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight. Thank you for not guessing, that's helpful. So what I'm seeing on my side is the connection is made, but the service account you gave us can see the table list and not the order tables. Which is a permissions thing, not a fault. What I need from your side is read access on the order and dispute tables, not only the reference ones.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAh. Okay. That's a mapping question, sort of, but really a role question. I set that account up with the narrow role on purpose. I'd rather widen it knowingly than have it widened for me.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich tables, exactly? Let me be sure we're not opening up more than credit control are comfortable with.
- Callie Brennan NoneFair question. Orders, order lines, disputes and the delivery status table. Nothing with customer bank details, nothing in the payroll area. I'll put the list in writing straight after the call so you can show it to whoever needs to sign it off. I never start a connector without written access, so I'd rather you had it on paper anyway.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. That's the answer I wanted. Tariq, can you take that list to the data owners and let me know by the end of the week?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYeah. I'll ask them tomorrow. If it's the four tables, I don't expect an argument, but I'll say so if I'm wrong.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. Then the second ticket, the other one. Is that the single sign-on question?
- Tariq Saleem NoneIt is. Not urgent. It's how provisioning works when someone moves branch. Whether the user just changes group or whether we have to remove and re-add them.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo that's a how-to, and the short answer is the group change is enough, provided the group is what drives their access in the brain. I'll write it up properly rather than say it here and have it vanish. It's one of the things Enterprise gives you, the directory sync, so it should be tidy once we've set the mapping.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneMm. And that matters, because the branch managers move around more than anyone admits.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThey really do. Every quarter there's a reshuffle somewhere in the North.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. So let me share my screen and walk through the connector list. Give me a second, I've got a few windows open. Right. Can you see the checklist?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes, I can see it. Is it a bit small? Tariq, can you read it?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can read it. Go on.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo we have the CRM, the branch system, the accounting system, the helpdesk, the call recorder and the mailboxes. That's six of the sources you told us about at the start. Enterprise lets us go up to twenty, so there's plenty of room for the rest. For each one I've got a status, a date and an owner. The CRM is connected and the first load has landed. That maps cleanly. The accounting system is connected and I've asked for a test read before we call it done.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhich connector is the one still waiting on a credential from us?
- Callie Brennan NoneThe call recorder. It needs an admin on your side to authorise it, and I think that's with someone in IT. I've put your name against it, Tariq, with a question mark, which isn't ideal.
- Tariq Saleem NoneHa. That's mine, fine. I'll chase our IT colleague. I'd rather it was written down against me than floating.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAnd the mailboxes? I'm a bit wary there. I don't want the regional directors thinking we're reading everybody's email.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood, and it's a sensible thing to be wary of. We can scope the mailbox connector to the shared account mailboxes and specific teams, so it's the key-account and credit-control inboxes, not everyone. I'd suggest we leave the mailboxes until last, once the rest is running, and you can decide the scope then with the directors in the room.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Let's get credit control in the room for that one. I'll find a slot.
- Callie Brennan NonePerfect. So the order is CRM, branch system, accounting system, helpdesk, call recorder, mailboxes. Does anyone want to challenge that?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd swap the helpdesk and the accounting system, if I'm honest. The accounting data is cleaner. The helpdesk has a lot of free text and I'd rather the accounts were matched before we pull tickets against them.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's what I have, actually. Accounting before helpdesk. I may have misread my own slide. Yes, sorry, it's the right way round on the list and the wrong way round in what I said.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOkay, good. Just checking.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, now the big one. Account matching. Deepa, you said the thing you care about is one version of each trade account, so I want to be careful here.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Which account, which branch? That's always the question. A builder who buys from three branches is three accounts in the branch system and in the CRM, one account, sometimes two, if someone's typed the name differently. And credit control have their own version again.
- Tariq Saleem NoneTo be precise, there's a branch account code, which is unique per branch per customer, and there's the CRM account ID. They don't match by design. The only bridge we have is a field the key-account managers fill in by hand, and it's patchy.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight. And that's what I need to see with my own eyes, rather than assume. Can you export a sample for me? Not everything. A few hundred rows, a mix of big accounts and small ones, with the branch code, the account name and the CRM link where there is one.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can do that tonight. Should I include the ones with no CRM link at all?
- Callie Brennan NonePlease, especially those. They're the interesting ones. I'd like to know how many there are before I say anything about what the matching will do.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'd make one point. Whatever we do, no one should be told their branch has bad data. It's a mapping problem. The branches have been entering things the way the old system let them.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAgreed, and that's how I'll describe it in the note. Never the branches' fault.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood. My approach is we match on what's certain first. Where the CRM link exists and agrees, that's settled. Where it doesn't, I'll propose matches using name and delivery address, and you two decide yes or no. Nothing is merged without one of you saying so.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneShow me where that number comes from, when you come back with the proposals. I mean the count of how many were certain and how many were guessed.
- Callie Brennan NoneYou'll get it as a plain table. Certain, proposed, unmatched. And the reason against each proposed one.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I ask about the refresh? When we switch it on, it's nightly, yes? And it'll be done before the branches open?
- Callie Brennan NoneNightly, yes, and complete by 07:00 your time on business days. That's the commitment on every tier. For the first week or so I'd like to watch it myself, before we switch on the refresh for the whole estate, so any slow connector shows up before anyone else sees it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOkay. And who sees the failures? I'd like to see them before Deepa does, no offence.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNone taken. I'd rather you did.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's easy. Failures go to you as admin, and I'll be copied while I'm still working with you. After handover it's you alone. Which brings me to something I care about, which is that you can run this without me. So there'll be a setup note, with every connector, every credential's owner, every mapping decision and the date. You'll have it before I step back.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd like that very much. We've had suppliers hand over a system and a verbal summary and that's been that.
- Callie Brennan NoneNot from me. Now, users. You have two hundred licensed, which is a lot, and I know you won't open it to everyone on day one.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneNo. The plan is the key-account team and credit control first, a handful of regional directors, and then a few branch managers as a pilot. If it holds, we widen it.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's sensible. What would you like those first people to be able to do in the first week? Because if we aim at one concrete thing, the training lands better.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOpen an account and see the orders, any open disputes, the last calls and the invoices, on one page. That's it. If a key-account manager can do that before a phone call to a customer, I'll consider it a win.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood. Then that's the test. I'll write it down as the acceptance check for the first release. Account, orders, disputes, calls, invoices, one page.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCalls come last, though, because of the call recorder authorisation.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. So the first release will have four of the five and calls arrive when the recorder is authorised. I'd rather say that now than have somebody look for calls and not find them.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's fine. I'll tell the regions straight. I'm not going to promise them something that isn't there yet.
- Callie Brennan NoneThank you. Let me do the dates, because I like a date against every step. The access list goes to you today. Tariq, the data owners' answer by the end of this week. The sample export tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. The call recorder authorisation, by next Wednesday. Then I'll come back with the matching proposals the week after. Does anything there look unrealistic?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThe Wednesday one, a bit. IT have a change freeze at the moment. Let's say next Friday and I'll tell you sooner if it's earlier.
- Callie Brennan NoneNext Friday it is. I'll move it. Thanks, Tariq. That doesn't break anything downstream.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOne question on security. We'll get asked about it by our own risk team, and where the data physically sits. Can I say it stays inside our own environment?
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. The brain is built and run inside your own Snowflake account. We don't copy it out into somewhere of ours. And because you're on Enterprise, there was security review support in the implementation, so if your risk team have questions, put them in writing and I'll answer them in writing.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. That's the sentence I wanted. Thank you.
- Tariq Saleem NoneMm. And while we're on that, the admin side. How many admins do you recommend? We have me, and I don't want to be the only one.
- Callie Brennan NoneHonestly, two at the very least. One person is a single point of failure, and I say that kindly. Is there a second person who'd take it on?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThere's an analyst on my team. She's good, a bit new. I'll ask her.
- Deepa Chauhan NonePlease do. I'd like her in the training sessions, too.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. Add her to the list and I'll include her in the walk-through of the load log, so it isn't only in your head, Tariq.
- Tariq Saleem NoneIt is mostly in my head. That's a fair point.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight. Let me use the last bit to show you something. I'll share the test page from the CRM load, only to show what a trade account looks like so far. Give me a moment.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay, there. This is one account, a made-up test one. You can see the CRM details at the top, owner, region, notes. The sections underneath are empty for now, they're where orders and disputes will sit once the branch system lands.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSo that's where it all hangs. That makes sense. Can we have credit control's view, the invoices and the overdue items, near the top? They'll want that first.
- Callie Brennan NoneWe can order the sections however you like. I'd suggest you decide that with credit control rather than me, then I'll set it. Put it on your agenda for the account-data review.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'll do that. It's the monthly one, we have it next week, so it's perfect timing.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I ask something slightly awkward? If the matching proposals are wrong, how do I undo it? I've been burnt by merges that can't be reversed.
- Callie Brennan NoneNot awkward at all. Matches are stored as links, not as merged records, so the source systems never change, and you can remove a link and the account separates again. I'll show you where in the walk-through, so you've seen it done once.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. That's what I wanted to hear. Never changing a mapping without telling Deepa, by the way, that stays.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI'd hold you to it.
- Callie Brennan NoneHa, fair enough. Anything else on the plan before I summarise? Anything that's bothering you, even if you can't say why?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOnly the timetable, really. I know Enterprise is a long implementation, twelve weeks, and I'd like to know where we are against it, in plain terms, without having to ask.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's reasonable, and I'll send you a one-page status every Friday. Connectors, what's done, what's waiting, who it's waiting on. If it's late I'll say so and say why.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThank you. That's all I need.
- Tariq Saleem NoneNothing from me beyond what we've covered. Except, will the first refresh be slow? I'd like to warn the branches if it's going to touch anything.
- Callie Brennan NoneIt won't touch the branch system for anything but reading, and I'll run the first big load in the evening, so no one notices. I'll tell you before I start it.
- Tariq Saleem NonePerfect.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo, to summarise. I send the access list in writing today. Tariq takes it to the data owners and comes back by the end of the week. Tariq sends the sample export tonight or tomorrow. The call recorder authorisation is next Friday. Deepa adds the section order to the account-data review. And the second admin gets named. And I send a status every Friday, starting this week.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's everything I had written down. Thank you, Callie.
- Tariq Saleem NoneSame. I'll get the high-priority ticket updated with the permissions answer so it's all in one place.
- Callie Brennan NonePlease do, and I'll close it from my side once the tables load. Thanks both. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon, and good luck with the projector cable, Tariq.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCheers. I'll be in touch tomorrow.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSpeak soon. Bye now.
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