Delancey Haig / BG-Demo – Renewal
Callcompleted
Delancey Haig · 23 May 2025 12:15
Rupert Lasker, the CFO, joined the renewal call and challenged the forty licences against about twelve active users. He will judge the renewal on time saved and disputes caught, and committed to nothing.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Rupert Lasker, the CFO, joined the renewal call and challenged the forty licences against about twelve active users. He will judge the renewal on time saved and disputes caught, and committed to nothing.
What happened: Rupert asked what the company is actually using, called forty licensed and twelve active a lot of empty chairs, and asked whether they could run it themselves.
Customer view: He wants evidence, not a feeling, and said it must justify itself on time saved and disputes caught. He prefers fewer suppliers, and Saskia confirmed it has not replaced one.
Commercial: Daniel quoted £42k a year on the order form and invoices. Priya Raman said the open renewal deal shows £44k but would not explain it until she sends the order form and a written breakdown.
Watch: Rupert said he would ask two internal people about running it in-house, and he is not committing to anything. Paperwork is pencilled for Mon 9 Jun 2025.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Renewal value and seat sizing
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Priya Raman to send the order form and a written breakdown of the £44,000 on Tuesday.
- Daniel Okafor to send a usage page from go-live by Wednesday, with Saskia Mendes sending dispute examples.
- Priya Raman to contact Rupert Lasker by email ahead of Mon 9 Jun 2025 to hear where he has landed.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The CFO sees forty licences against about twelve active users and may seek a smaller subscription or an in-house alternative.
- The £44,000 open renewal deal is unexplained against the £41,800 current price, which could read as a price rise before the written breakdown arrives.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Quiet directors could be re-engaged through short sessions on their own clients before the paperwork date.
- Priya Raman can offer options on subscription shape, with a dated written quote.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, hello. Can everyone hear me all right? Thank you for making the time, I know a lunchtime slot is a squeeze.
Saskia MendesLoud and clear. Apologies, I'm eating a sandwich on camera, you'll have to forgive me.- Daniel OkaforPlease do. Just to check who's joined, I can see Saskia, and Priya is here with me. Is Rupert coming in?
Rupert LaskerHere. How long is this going to take?- Daniel OkaforWe've got the half hour booked, but I'd hope to finish a little under.
- Rupert LaskerGood.
- Saskia MendesCan I just tell you one quick thing before we start? One of our directors went into a client review on Tuesday with the brain open on her laptop. The client brought up a complaint from earlier in the spring, and she already had it, with the placement and the invoice next to it. The client actually said, oh, you've got that to hand. That's the whole point, really.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely to hear. And how is the team finding it, generally? We'll come to the numbers, but I'd like your own sense first.
- Saskia MendesHonestly, mixed. The directors who use it swear by it. Some of the others only open it the night before a review. I won't pretend otherwise.
Priya RamanThanks, Saskia, that's refreshingly straight. Can I do a very quick recap of where we are, so we're all on the same page? The current term runs to 2 Jul 2025, and the renewal date is 3 Jul 2025. We've pencilled Monday 9 June 2025 as the point where we'd like the paperwork agreed, just to keep momentum and avoid any last-minute scramble.- Rupert LaskerRight. Before we talk paperwork. What are we actually using?
- Daniel OkaforFair question, and I'm glad you asked it that way round. Let me give you the plain picture. You're licensed for forty users on Growth. On average about twelve people are active in a given month. That's a touch down on the previous quarter, nothing dramatic, but I wouldn't want to dress it up.
- Rupert LaskerForty licensed, twelve using. That's a lot of empty chairs.
- Daniel OkaforIt is a gap, yes. I'd say two things about it. One, Growth was bought for several teams to grow into, so some of that was always headroom. Two, I'd rather look at what those twelve are doing than at the headcount alone.
- Rupert LaskerGo on then. What are they doing?
- Daniel OkaforMostly the client-account directors, and a few people in client operations, asking questions about specific clients. Vacancies, placements, invoices, complaints, that sort of thing. Saskia would know better than me which of those lead to something useful.
- Saskia MendesThe invoice disputes, mostly. Contractor invoices that don't match what the client says they approved. We catch those a lot earlier now. Before, someone would spend half a day pulling things from three places and then ring the client.
- Rupert LaskerHalf a day of whose time? A coordinator's?
- Saskia MendesUsually a coordinator or one of the senior consultants, yes. So it's not nothing, but I can't give you a clean hours figure, I'd be guessing.
- Rupert LaskerMm. I'd rather you didn't guess.
- Saskia MendesNo, quite. I'll ask the coordinators properly.
- Daniel OkaforOn the support side, if it helps, it's been a quiet month. One ticket in the last thirty days, nothing high priority. And I believe there's nothing outstanding on invoices, is that right, Rupert?
- Rupert LaskerThey're paid when due. Not before.
- Priya RamanWhich is perfectly fine, we have no concerns there at all. Everything's on terms.
- Rupert LaskerRemind me of the annual cost.
- Daniel OkaforCurrently it's £41,800 a year, that's what's on the order form and what's been invoiced. Priya, do you want to say where the renewal is sitting on our side?
- Priya RamanSure. The renewal deal we have open shows a value of £44,000. Now, I don't want to stand here and describe what that is made up of from memory, because I'd rather you had it written down properly. Happy to make this easy: I'll send the order form and a clear breakdown, so nobody is relying on what I say on a call.
- Rupert LaskerSo it goes up.
- Priya RamanWhat I'll say is that the figure I've just quoted is the one in our system, and I'd like to confirm exactly how it relates to what you pay today before I tell you what it means. I'll put it in writing so it's unambiguous.
- Rupert LaskerRight. That's not an answer, but it's an honest one. When?
- Priya RamanEarly next week. Tuesday, let's say.
- Rupert LaskerFine.
- Saskia MendesCan I come in here? Rupert, I know where you are on this, and I'd rather we have the conversation on value than on the figure. What did the directors actually get out of it this year? That's what I'd want to be able to show you.
- Rupert LaskerThat would help. I need to see it, Saskia. Not a feeling.
- Saskia MendesUnderstood. Daniel, could we get something that shows questions asked, by whom, and by team?
- Daniel OkaforYes, I can do that. I'd put it as a single page, month by month, with who is asking and which areas they're asking about. Just to close the loop on one thing, is a year of history enough, or do you want it from when you went live?
- Rupert LaskerFrom go-live. I'd like to see the shape of it.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. From 3 Jul 2024, then. I'll come back to you with that by Wednesday.
- Rupert LaskerCan we do this ourselves?
- Daniel OkaforIt's a reasonable thing to ask. I'll be straight with you. You could, in principle. The data sits in your own Snowflake account, so nothing is locked away from you. What you'd be taking on is the upkeep: the connections to your CRM and the accounting system, keeping them loading properly every night, and the layer that lets people simply ask a question and get an answer. That's someone's job, and it needs to be a person who stays.
- Rupert LaskerHm. And if that person leaves.
- Daniel OkaforThen you've got a problem, yes. That's the honest trade, and I'd rather you weighed it properly than took my word for it.
- Rupert LaskerWe have two internal people who could do it, I think. I'd have to ask.
- Saskia MendesThey're both flat out, Rupert. Neither has time for it. I'd be surprised if they said yes.
- Rupert LaskerI'll ask anyway.
- Saskia MendesOf course you will.
- Priya RamanAnd that's absolutely fair. Can I add that if the question is really about size, as in whether forty users is the right shape for you, then I'm very happy to look at options with you. Anything I did put in writing would come with a date on it, so you'd know exactly how long it was good for.
- Rupert LaskerOptions meaning what?
- Priya RamanWell, I don't want to run ahead of myself. It might be a different shape of subscription, it might be keeping what you have. Let me work out what's genuinely possible and come back with it, rather than throwing half-formed ideas at you now.
- Rupert LaskerI'm not committing to anything today. I want that clear.
- Priya RamanCompletely understood. No one's asking you to.
- Daniel OkaforIf I may, there's one more thing I'd flag, because it touches your question about empty chairs. The people who aren't active, do we know who they are? Are they directors who've not been shown it, or people who were never going to use it?
- Saskia MendesBoth, to be honest. A few were just given seats because we had them. Others are directors who got a short intro at the start and then life got in the way.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful, and it's quite common. For the second group, a short session on their own clients would probably do more than anything else. For the first group, it may just be that the seats aren't needed.
- Rupert LaskerSo some of the forty we simply don't need.
- Daniel OkaforPossibly, yes. I'd rather say so now than have you find it later.
- Rupert LaskerI appreciate that.
- Saskia MendesCan we make it simpler, though? If I run two short sessions with the directors who've gone quiet, Daniel, would you sit in? Show them how to ask about their own clients, not the generic tour.
- Daniel OkaforI'd be glad to. Let's say within the next couple of weeks, and we can see whether the picture changes before you decide. I'll check dates with you after this.
- Rupert LaskerThat seems sensible. It gives me something to look at before the ninth.
- Priya RamanWhich is Monday 9 June 2025, just so we're all saying the same date. That still leaves us room before the term ends on 2 Jul 2025.
- Rupert LaskerHm. Fewer suppliers is what I want, ideally. If this replaces something else, that's a different conversation. Does it?
- Saskia MendesIt hasn't replaced a supplier, no. It's replaced a lot of spreadsheets and a lot of ringing round. I'd be making it up if I said otherwise.
- Rupert LaskerRight. Then it has to justify itself on time saved and disputes caught. Nothing else.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's the right test, and we'll build the page around it. If we can, I'd like to put in a couple of examples of disputes that were caught early, with what Saskia's team would otherwise have done. Saskia, would that be something you can help with?
- Saskia MendesYes. I'll get two or three, anonymised if it's easier. I'll send them by Wednesday too.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. So, just to close the loop on that one, I'll send the usage page, you'll send the examples, and we'll line them up together.
- Rupert LaskerAnd then what? Walk me through the next few weeks.
- Priya RamanSo, in order. Daniel's usage page and Saskia's examples by Wednesday. Order form and the written breakdown from me on Tuesday. The sessions with the directors in the next couple of weeks. Then a short call with you, Rupert, ahead of Monday 9 June 2025, to hear where you've landed.
- Rupert LaskerI don't want another long call.
- Priya RamanTwenty minutes at most, I promise. Or we do it by email if you'd rather.
- Rupert LaskerEmail first. Then we see.
- Priya RamanEmail first, absolutely.
- Daniel OkaforIs there anything else either of you wanted to raise while we've got you? Anything about the service itself, the nightly refresh, anything that's been rubbing?
- Saskia MendesNothing that's rubbing. The one ticket was a how-to question, and it was answered fine. My only wish is that more of the directors would just use it.
- Rupert LaskerThat's rather the point of my question.
- Saskia MendesI know it is. I'm not arguing with it.
- Daniel OkaforThen thank you both. Rupert, I appreciate you being so direct, it makes it much easier for us to bring you the right things. Saskia, I'll be in touch this afternoon about the sessions.
- Priya RamanThanks, everyone. Speak on Tuesday, Rupert, by email.
- Rupert LaskerThank you. Goodbye.
- Saskia MendesThanks all. Speak soon.
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