Merriott Lyle Distribution / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 24 Apr 2025 15:00
Onboarding call on 24 Apr 2025 with Tariq Saleem alone. A branch system permission grant blocks the load, the security questionnaire is unconfirmed, and the first wave of connectors was agreed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 24 Apr 2025 with Tariq Saleem alone. A branch system permission grant blocks the load, the security questionnaire is unconfirmed, and the first wave of connectors was agreed.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon and Tariq agreed the first wave: branch system, CRM, accounting, disputes queue and calls for two teams, with mailboxes last. The CRM is live and loading, and the branch system waits on a grant covering the account reference table.
Customer view: Tariq is nervous about matching and does not want anything writing into the CRM. He asked to be told in plain terms before anything on BG-Demo's side changes.
Commercial: Laura restated the contract as £116k a year with 200 licensed users and a fixed-fee implementation. That figure is Laura's statement on the call, not checked against the order form here.
Watch: Tariq is the only admin so far, and the security questionnaire's status is unknown. Mailbox scope needs a data protection and IT decision.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Connector grants and first wave
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
user
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Tariq Saleem to add the grant, tell Laura when it is in, and check the load log after the first run.
- Tariq Saleem to confirm a backup admin and whether the security questionnaire has been started.
- Laura Penhaligon to send the plan, the load status link and a note on the matching approach.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The branch system connector cannot load until the service account grant for the account reference table is in.
- Tariq is the only admin so far, and a backup is not yet named.
- The security questionnaire may be sitting unanswered, and mailbox scope needs a senior decision.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Orders and invoices side by side for credit control is a clear first milestone that Tariq says they have asked for over about a year.
- An on-site training day add-on was raised, to be held back until several teams use the brain.
Transcript
Laura PenhaligonHello Tariq, can you hear me all right?
Tariq SaleemYes, loud and clear. Can you hear me? I've just swapped headsets.- Laura PenhaligonYou're fine. Good afternoon. Bit of a grey one down here, is it the same in Birmingham?
- Tariq SaleemDrizzle all day. Good afternoon to you too. I've had a morning of branch calls so I'm quite pleased to be sat down with something technical.
- Laura PenhaligonHa, well I'll try not to disappoint. So this is the onboarding session, and my plan is to go through where we are with the connectors, the account matching, who does what on your side, and then agree what happens before we next speak. Does that suit?
- Tariq SaleemThat suits. Can I start with the open tickets, though? Just so they're not hanging around while we talk about everything else.
- Laura PenhaligonPlease do. I can see one on our side, but tell me what you're seeing.
- Tariq SaleemJust the one. It's the question about the permissions on the service account the branch system connector reads with. I raised it because I wasn't sure whether read access to the order tables alone was enough, or whether it also needs the account reference table.
- Laura PenhaligonRight, yes. I saw the reply this morning. Short version, it needs both. The order tables on their own give us the lines, but without the reference table we can't tie an order to a trade account, and that's the whole point of the thing.
- Tariq SaleemOkay. That's what I suspected, but I didn't want to guess. I'll get that added to the service account and then check the load log after the first run to make sure it's picking them up.
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect. If you can tell me when the grant is in, I'll keep an eye on our side as well. Then we're not both waiting for each other.
- Tariq SaleemWill do. Right, that's my list. Over to you.
- Laura PenhaligonLovely. So, to set the scene, because I know a few people have joined late, you're on Enterprise, which means the build is company-wide rather than one team. You've got two hundred licensed users, the SSO and SCIM piece, and the security review support is part of the implementation. The contract is for £116,500 a year, and the implementation is a fixed fee on top of that.
- Tariq SaleemYes, that matches what I've been told. Finance have the order form, I just get the technical bits. Which is how I like it.
- Laura PenhaligonFair enough. So the picture is branch teams, key-account teams and credit control all looking at the same trade account: its orders, disputes, calls and invoices, in one place. For that to work, the connectors have to load every night and the accounts have to line up between the branch system and the CRM. Those are the two things I'd like to nail down today.
- Tariq SaleemAgreed. The matching is the one I'm most nervous about, to be honest.
- Laura PenhaligonGo on, say more.
- Tariq SaleemSo, the branch system holds a trade account per branch relationship. The CRM holds one record per customer company. A builder that trades with six of our branches is six accounts in one system and one in the other. And then there's the odd one where someone's keyed the same builder twice with a slightly different name. That's a mapping question, it's not a data quality question, and I want to be careful how we describe it to the branches.
- Laura PenhaligonYes, absolutely, and I wouldn't put it to them as bad data either. It's two systems that were built to answer different questions.
- Tariq SaleemExactly. Which is why I'd rather not have anyone blamed for it.
- Laura PenhaligonAgreed. So here's how I'd tackle it. We take a sample of trade accounts, a spread across big and small, and run the matching against it. We don't change anything in your CRM. We only produce a list of what matched cleanly, what matched with some doubt, and what didn't match at all. Then you and your colleague who looks after the CRM data with you decide what the rule should be.
- Tariq SaleemThat's good, because I won't change a mapping without her knowing about it. She'd have my head, and quite rightly.
- Laura PenhaligonQuite right. Is she able to join the next session? It'd be useful to have her in the room when we look at the doubtful ones.
- Tariq SaleemI'll ask. She's tied up with month end this week but after that should be free. I'll come back to you.
- Laura PenhaligonGreat. Now, connectors. Let me share my screen, hang on. Can you see the plan?
- Tariq SaleemYes, I've got a table with a lot of rows.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's the one. So we've got the branch system, the CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder, the accounting system and mailboxes. That's what's in the order form as the first wave. Enterprise has plenty of room, you can go up to twenty connectors, so there's no pressure to squeeze it all in at once.
- Tariq SaleemOkay. Which one's furthest along?
- Laura PenhaligonThe CRM, which is live and loading. The branch system is the one we've just been talking about, so it's waiting on that permission. The accounting system I'd expect to be quick, because it's a fairly standard read. The call recorder and the helpdesk are straightforward once we've got credentials. Mailboxes are the one with the most conversation attached, for obvious reasons.
- Tariq SaleemYes. Mailboxes will need a decision from above me. Who can be seen, whose mail is in scope, that kind of thing. I can wire it, but I can't decide it.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's the right way round. Is there someone senior who'd own that, someone like your head of IT or a data protection lead?
- Tariq SaleemBoth would have a view. I'd say the data protection lead gets the first say and IT sign it off. I'll find out who's holding the pen and let you know.
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect. My suggestion would be to leave mailboxes until last, so they don't hold up the rest. If the decision is slow it doesn't matter, because the value is mostly in the orders, the disputes and the invoices anyway.
- Tariq SaleemYes. I'd rather get orders and invoices side by side for credit control first. That's what they've been asking me for, and they've been asking for about a year.
- Laura PenhaligonThen that's our first milestone. Orders and invoices against the matched account, available to credit control. How many people are we talking about in that team?
- Tariq SaleemI'd say a decent handful to start. They're not the biggest team, but they spend the most time hopping between systems. And they'll tell everyone else if it works.
- Laura PenhaligonGood, that's what you want. A small group who actually use it and talk about it. We don't need two hundred people on day one. Licences are there for when it spreads.
- Tariq SaleemThat's fine by me. I'd rather it spread than land on the branches all at once and have everyone ask me why it doesn't know about their favourite customer.
- Laura PenhaligonHa. Yes. Which brings me to the nightly refresh, actually, because that's the other thing people ask about. The data is refreshed overnight and should be complete by seven in the morning on business days. So when credit control sit down, they're looking at yesterday's position, not last week's.
- Tariq SaleemSeven is fine. The branch system's own overnight jobs finish well before that. What happens if one of them runs late?
- Laura PenhaligonGood question. The brain will still answer, it just answers on the previous load for that source. So you don't lose availability, but the data could be a day behind. That's why I'd like you to have a way of seeing the load status without having to ask us.
- Tariq SaleemI'll check the load log either way, that's my habit. But yes, if there's a page I can point the credit control lead at, so she isn't emailing me at seven fifteen, that would help.
- Laura PenhaligonThere is. I'll send you the link and show you what the statuses mean. Make a note, Tariq, or I'll put it in the follow-up.
- Tariq SaleemPut it in the follow-up, I'll lose my note.
- Laura PenhaligonWill do. Right, SSO. Where are you on that?
- Tariq SaleemNot started, honestly. I know it's in scope. I need our identity people to give me the metadata, and they've said next week at the earliest.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's fine, it's not on the critical path for the connectors. What I'd flag is the SCIM side. If you want people provisioned and removed automatically, we need to agree which groups map to which roles. Admin, builder, ordinary user.
- Tariq SaleemRight. So I'd be the admin, and probably one other person as a backup. I don't want to be the only one who can fix things if I'm off.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's sensible and I'd recommend it. A single admin is a risk, for the reason you've just said. Who would the second person be?
- Tariq SaleemProbably someone from the data platform side who sits with me. I'll confirm the name, I don't want to volunteer him before I've asked.
- Laura PenhaligonVery wise. Tell me when you know.
- Tariq SaleemWill do. Can I ask about the security review? Our information security people were asking where that had got to, and I couldn't tell them.
- Laura PenhaligonSure. The review support is part of the Enterprise implementation, so we help you through their questions. As far as I know there's a questionnaire that's gone to your side. Has it come back?
- Tariq SaleemNot that I've seen. Let me ask them whether they've started it or whether it's sitting in somebody's inbox.
- Laura PenhaligonThat would be useful. If it's the latter, I can resend it directly to whoever should have it. And one thing worth saying: the brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, so a lot of their data location questions answer themselves. Nothing leaves your environment for storage.
- Tariq SaleemYes, that's the line I've been giving them and it's been going down well. They like that it's our Snowflake and our controls.
- Laura PenhaligonGood. Hold on to that, it does a lot of the work for you.
- Tariq SaleemOkay. Now, the helpdesk. We've got a couple of different queues, one for branch IT and one for credit disputes. Do you want both?
- Laura PenhaligonThe disputes one, definitely, because that's what ties to the trade account. Branch IT, I'd say leave out for now. It's noise for what you're trying to answer, and we can always add it later.
- Tariq SaleemAgreed. Disputes only. Same for the call recorder, I assume? Only the credit control and key-account calls?
- Laura PenhaligonYes, I'd start there. You can widen it once you've seen what it looks like. It's much easier to add a team than to explain why you pulled in everything.
- Tariq SaleemThat's a fair point. Okay, so first wave is branch system, CRM, accounting, disputes queue, and calls for two teams. Mailboxes later.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's it exactly. I'll put it in the plan as written and send it over after this.
- Tariq SaleemOne more thing on the matching, if I may, since you've got the screen up. What do you do with a branch account that has no CRM record at all?
- Laura PenhaligonWe don't create one. It shows up in the unmatched list with its orders and invoices still attached, so nobody loses sight of it. Then it's your call, whether it's a CRM record that needs creating or a trade account that doesn't belong there.
- Tariq SaleemGood. That's what I wanted to hear. I don't want something quietly writing into the CRM.
- Laura PenhaligonNo, it reads. It doesn't write. Nothing in the brain changes your systems of record.
- Tariq SaleemGood. Then I can sleep.
- Laura PenhaligonHa. Right, timings. I'd like the branch system loading by the middle of next week, assuming the grant goes in. Then the matching sample the week after. Does that feel realistic?
- Tariq SaleemMiddle of next week is realistic for the grant. I'll chase the owner of the database this afternoon so it doesn't slip. The matching sample is fine as long as my colleague has the time to look at it, which is the bit I can't promise.
- Laura PenhaligonUnderstood. Let's say that if it slides by a few days it's not a drama, as long as we know early. Just tell me.
- Tariq SaleemWill do. I'd rather tell you on Tuesday that it's slipping than on Friday.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's all I ask. Right, training. We include sessions for users, and I'd like to run the first one for the credit control team once their data is visible. Not before, because nobody learns anything from an empty screen.
- Tariq SaleemNo, quite. Should it be on site or on a call?
- Laura PenhaligonA call is fine to start with. An on-site day is an add-on and honestly I'd hold that back until you've got a few teams using it and want to bring the branches along.
- Tariq SaleemSensible. I'll ask the credit control lead what time of day suits. They're on the phones first thing, so probably mid-afternoon.
- Laura PenhaligonMid-afternoon it is. Anything else you wanted to cover, anything worrying you that we haven't touched?
- Tariq SaleemOnly that I'd like to be told in plain terms when something's changed on your side. We've had suppliers push updates and find out afterwards that a field had moved.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's reasonable. Anything that touches a connector or a mapping, I'll tell you before, not after. And if it's something you'd expect to be told about, I'll err on the side of telling you.
- Tariq SaleemAppreciated. Okay, I think that's everything from me.
- Laura PenhaligonThen let me recap, because it's easy for these to blur. You'll get the service account grant added to cover the account reference table and tell me when it's done. You'll ask whether the security questionnaire has been started. You'll ask your colleague about joining the matching session, and find out who holds the pen on mailboxes. You'll confirm a backup admin. I'll send the plan, the load status link and a note on the matching approach, and I'll watch for the first load.
- Tariq SaleemThat's the list. I'll add one: I'll find out which identity person has the SSO metadata, so I'm not just waiting for a date.
- Laura PenhaligonExcellent, put that on. Thanks, Tariq, this was a good one.
- Tariq SaleemLikewise. Speak soon. Cheers.
- Laura PenhaligonSpeak soon. Bye.
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