Merriott Lyle Distribution / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 2025-03-28 11:15
Onboarding call on 28 Mar 2025. The branch connector reported complete without new records, so the brain answered from a day-old load. Deepa Chauhan said stale numbers would cost trust. Only about ten users are active.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Onboarding call on 28 Mar 2025. The branch connector reported complete without new records, so the brain answered from a day-old load. Deepa Chauhan said stale numbers would cost trust. Only about ten users are active.
What happened: Tariq Saleem said the high-priority branch load reported complete but the records indexed count did not move, probably because it started before the export was written. Callie Brennan will set the load to follow the export and add a check on records indexed.
Customer view: Deepa cares most about the 07:00 refresh and traceable matches. She warned that branch managers who see old numbers will stop trusting the brain.
Commercial: Tariq said about ten people are active against two hundred licensed, so there is large headroom. Rollout order is credit control, then branches, then key-account managers, with single sign-on to be set up before the branches.
Watch: Tariq is still the only person who understands the connectors. A second admin from Deepa's side is to be named.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Stale branch data risk
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Tariq Saleem sends branch export finish times and introduces the IT colleague for single sign-on.
- Deepa Chauhan names the second admin and credit control group by the middle of next week.
- Callie Brennan sets the load after the export, adds the records indexed check and sends the setup note.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- A branch load can report complete with no new records, leaving the brain available but a day behind.
- Branch managers who see stale numbers before the counters open may stop using it.
- Tariq Saleem remains the only admin who understands how the connectors fit together.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- About ten active users against two hundred licensed leaves large room to widen use in groups.
- A working session with credit control on awkward live accounts can show value quickly.
Transcript
Callie Brennan NoneHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right?
Deepa Chauhan NoneLoud and clear. Morning, Callie.
Tariq Saleem NoneMorning. Yes, I can hear you. Give me a second, I've got the load log open on the other screen and it keeps stealing focus.- Callie Brennan NoneNo rush. How's the week been? It's Friday, so I'm hoping everyone's coasting.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCoasting is not the word. We had the regional directors in on Wednesday and Thursday, so I've mostly been in rooms. But it's a good Friday, because nobody's rung me about a trade account since eight o'clock.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's tempting fate, Deepa.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI know. I've said it out loud now. Sorry.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, so here's the plan for the next forty minutes or so. First, a quick look at where the connectors are, what's loaded and what's still waiting on something. Second, the account matching between the branch system and the CRM, because I know that's the bit you care most about. Third, who does what in the admin side and how we bring the first group of branch and credit control people in. And then we finish on who sends what and by when. Does that work?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat works. The one thing I need from today is a clear picture of when branch managers and credit control can see the same account view. If I leave with that, I'm happy.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, then we'll land on that. Tariq, you normally open with the tickets, so go on. What's open?
- Tariq Saleem NoneThree in the last month. Two are how-to, really. One was someone asking where the search box filters live, and one was about who can see what, which is probably a permissions question rather than a fault. The third is the one I marked high priority, and that's the branch system connector. It loaded on the first night and then missed a night, and I didn't want to wait to find out why.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. Which night, roughly, and did it fail or did it just come back empty?
- Tariq Saleem NoneWhich connector, you'd say, if you were me. It's the branch one. It didn't fail outright. It reported complete, but the records indexed number didn't move. I'll check the load log again to be sure, but I think the job started before the export file had been written.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight, that's a timing issue, then, not a credentials issue. And that's useful, because it's exactly the sort of thing I want to fix before we switch on the refresh for everyone. What I need from your side is the time the branch export normally finishes. Do you know it, or is it a best guess?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI don't guess at that sort of thing. It's scheduled for the small hours, but it runs long on a Monday after the weekend orders. I'll pull the actual finish times from the last couple of weeks and send them over.
- Callie Brennan NonePerfect. That's what I'd do too. Then I can set the load to start after the export, with a bit of room, and the nightly refresh will be done by seven in the morning your time. That's the commitment, every business day, on Enterprise.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneSeven is the number that matters. The branch managers start looking at accounts before the counters open. If it's half past eight and the numbers are from Wednesday, they'll stop trusting it. And once they stop, I won't get them back.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood. Fair point, and I'd rather we build it so that doesn't happen than apologise for it later.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo, connectors. Let me run through what I have, and tell me if any of it's wrong. The CRM is connected and loading cleanly. The branch system is connected and has the timing question we've just talked about. The accounting data for credit control is connected, and the first load of that looked fine to me. The call recorder and the mailboxes are the two that are still waiting. For those I need written access before I touch anything.
- Tariq Saleem NoneMailboxes are with our IT team. I raised the request last week and it's sitting with a colleague who looks after Microsoft 365 permissions. I'll chase on Monday. The call recorder is a different story. I'm not sure who owns the admin login.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat would be sales operations. I can find out. Is it urgent?
- Callie Brennan NoneIt's not blocking anything today. It's the thing I'd want in before the key-account managers start using it, because their questions will be about calls. But the branch and credit control view doesn't depend on it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThen I'll ask on Monday, alongside Tariq's mailbox chase, and tell you who it is. I don't want to promise the key-account managers anything about calls until it's in.
- Callie Brennan NoneQuite right. That's a sensible line to hold.
- Tariq Saleem NoneCan I ask something about the licence? We've got two hundred licensed users, and at the moment we have about ten people active in a typical month. Is there any issue with us adding people in a rush when the branch managers come on? I don't want to hit something I wasn't expecting.
- Callie Brennan NoneNo issue at all. Two hundred is what's on your order form, so you've got plenty of room. The thing that matters more is the order you bring them in, because if two hundred people open it on the same morning and the data's not right, that's your problem, not a licence problem. I'd rather we do it in groups.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGroups. Yes. That's what I'd want anyway.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneWhich groups, though? Let's not skip that. If we say groups, I want to know which account, which branch, and who gets it first.
- Callie Brennan NoneFair. Let me come back to that in a minute, because it hangs off the account matching and I'd like to do that one properly first. Is that all right?
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGo on, then.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay, account matching. This is the bit that I think will make or break how people feel about the brain. The branch system has its own account codes. The CRM has its own account records. And somewhere in the middle there are accounts that exist in both but with slightly different names, or one branch account that rolls up to a single parent in the CRM. Tariq, you know this better than I do. How clean is it?
- Tariq Saleem NoneMostly clean. There's a key that's meant to be shared, a trade account number, and it matches for the large majority. Where it falls down is the accounts that were opened at a branch and never given a CRM record, and the ones where a contractor trades through two branches under one company name. That's a mapping question, not a data quality problem, and I don't want anyone reading it as the branches getting it wrong.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThank you. Exactly that. I will not have this turn into a conversation about whose fault it is. If the branch opened the account first, that's how the business works. The system has to cope.
- Callie Brennan NoneAgreed, and that maps cleanly onto how I'd build it. What I'll do is match on the trade account number first, then on name and postcode as a second pass, and anything that doesn't match either way goes onto a list for you rather than being guessed at. I won't force a match.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Because a wrong match is worse than no match. If a credit controller sees another company's disputes against a customer's name, we're done.
- Callie Brennan NoneCompletely. So the unmatched list comes to you, Tariq, and Deepa sees the same list, so there's no version of it that only one of you has.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. And show me where the number comes from. When you say it's matched on the account number, I want to be able to click through and see that it was. I don't want to be told it's right. I want to see why.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's how it works. Every answer in the brain points back to the source record, and the match rule is recorded against each account. I'll show you on a couple of real ones once the second pass has run.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. That's what will persuade the regional directors, to be honest. Not the clever bit, the traceable bit.
- Tariq Saleem NoneOne thing I'd flag on the mapping. There are fields in the CRM that the key-account managers have been using as free text. Things like notes on payment behaviour. I'd rather those weren't pulled into the brain as if they were structured fields.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood, and thank you for saying it. I'll bring them in as notes, searchable but not treated as a field. I won't map them to anything until you and Deepa have looked at them. I don't say it should be fine about a mapping I haven't checked, so I'll check it.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. And I'll tell Deepa before I change anything on our side, as always.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes please. I'd rather hear it from you than find out in the review.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay, so let me ask a slightly bigger question. When the account view is live, what's the first thing a credit controller does with it? I want to build the first group around a real task, not a feature list.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneChases. They look at an account that's behind, and what they want to know before they pick up the phone is whether there's an open dispute, whether the branch has been in touch, and whether the key-account manager has had a call with the customer that week. Those three. Today they ring around to find out, or they send an email and wait.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAnd the spreadsheet. Don't forget the spreadsheet. There's one that goes round every Monday and by Tuesday there are four versions of it.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneFour is generous. But yes. That's the one I would love to be rid of.
- Callie Brennan NoneThen that's the first group. Credit control, a handful of people, with disputes and orders and invoices and the call and email history against each account. If that works, branch managers follow, then the key-account managers once the call recorder's in.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneI like that order. Credit control first, branches second, key accounts third. And let's get credit control in the room for the first session, rather than me relaying it. They'll ask better questions than I will.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. I'd suggest we do that as a working session rather than a presentation. Bring two or three live accounts they know well, the awkward ones, and we'll ask the brain about them together.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneAwkward ones I can do. I have a list.
- Tariq Saleem NoneWe all have a list.
- Callie Brennan NoneNow, the admin side. Tariq, you've been the admin since go-live. I want to make sure you can run this on your own, because that's what I care about when I hand a setup over. So what I'll send is a setup note. It covers each connector, where its credentials sit, what time it runs, what a normal load looks like and what to check when it doesn't.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat would help a lot. I'm the only one who really knows how the connectors fit together, and I'd rather that wasn't true. If I'm off for a week, I'd like Deepa's team to be able to read the log and know whether it's a problem.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneIt's a fair worry. Can we nominate a second admin? Someone from my side, not another person from IT.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, and I'd encourage it. You're on Enterprise, so you'll also have single sign-on and user provisioning to set up. That's the other thing on my list for your side. Tariq, what I need is a contact in IT who can configure it from your identity provider's end, and I'll give them the settings.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat's a colleague in IT. I'll introduce you by email. Does it have to be done before the wider rollout?
- Callie Brennan NoneI'd say before the branch managers, yes, because otherwise you'll be setting people up by hand and then having to redo it. For the first credit control group, you could start with a few named logins if you needed to, but I wouldn't want to run that way for long.
- Tariq Saleem NoneAgreed. I'll make it a priority with IT.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I come back to the high-priority ticket? Because I want to be sure I understand what it means for the seven o'clock promise. If the branch load starts too early, and says complete but isn't, do people see old data and not know?
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's a good question, and it's the honest risk. Today, yes, the brain would answer from the last good load, and it would be up and running while being a day behind. That's the difference between available and fresh. So what I'll add is a check that compares the records indexed after each load, and flags it to Tariq if the count doesn't move on a business day.
- Tariq Saleem NoneThat would have caught it for me. I only noticed because I happened to be looking at the log.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneGood. Then I'm comfortable. Not delighted that it happened, but comfortable that we'd know.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's a fair way to put it. I'd feel the same.
- Callie Brennan NoneLet me share my screen for a moment, because I'd like to show you the connector status page and the order I'd switch things on. Can you see it?
- Tariq Saleem NoneI can see it. It's a bit small. Could you make it bigger?
- Callie Brennan NoneIs that better?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. That's fine. So that's the branch connector at the top, with the amber.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's the one. The amber is the load that completed with no change in the count. And below it, the CRM and the accounting data, both green. The two greyed-out ones are the mailboxes and the call recorder, waiting on access.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneCan I see an account? Pick any, but not one of ours that I'll recognise and get distracted by.
- Callie Brennan NoneI'll use a test account so we're not looking at anyone's real data on a recording. Here you can see orders on the left, the invoices in the middle, and on the right the open items. Once the mailboxes and calls are in, they'll come up on the same page, in date order.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThat's the picture I've been describing to the directors for months. It's a relief to see it, honestly.
- Tariq Saleem NoneI'd want the account code visible at the top. Not just the name. People search by the code.
- Callie Brennan NoneNoted, and that's a display setting rather than anything deeper, so I can do it. Let me write that down.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. I'll stop sharing. So, to bring it together, here's what I have as actions. Tariq, you'll send me the finish times of the branch export for the last couple of weeks, and the introduction to your IT colleague for single sign-on. Is that right?
- Tariq Saleem NoneYes. Export times and the introduction. I'll do the export times today if I can, and the introduction on Monday, when I do the mailbox chase.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. Deepa, you're finding out who owns the call recorder login, nominating a second admin from your side, and picking the credit control people and the awkward accounts for the first working session.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneYes. Three things. I'll get you names for the second admin and the credit control group by the middle of next week, and I'll tell you the call recorder owner on Monday.
- Callie Brennan NoneAnd from me: I'll set the branch load to run after the export finishes, add the check on records indexed, show the account code at the top, and send the setup note and the unmatched account list. I'll also write up what we agreed today so there's one version.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneOne version. I like the sound of that.
- Tariq Saleem NoneLast thing from me. When the unmatched list comes, will it say why each one didn't match? Not just that it didn't.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. Each line will carry the reason, so no number on its own, always with where it came from. That's the same rule as the matched ones.
- Tariq Saleem NoneGood. Then I'm done. Cheers, Callie.
- Deepa Chauhan NoneThanks, Callie. Thanks, Tariq. This was more useful than I expected, and I expected it to be useful.
- Callie Brennan NoneThank you both. Speak soon. Have a good weekend, and keep your fingers crossed that nobody rings you about a trade account this afternoon.
- Deepa Chauhan NonePlease don't say that. Bye now.
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