Delancey Haig / BG-Demo – Check In
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Delancey Haig · 24 Oct 2025 09:15
Saskia Mendes, Head of Client Operations, praised the brain after a director avoided a surprise invoice dispute, but said a dozen active users against 40 licensed is not enough. She asked whether the 3 Jul 2026 renewal will cost more; Daniel gave no renewal figure.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Saskia Mendes, Head of Client Operations, praised the brain after a director avoided a surprise invoice dispute, but said a dozen active users against 40 licensed is not enough. She asked whether the 3 Jul 2026 renewal will cost more; Daniel gave no renewal figure.
What happened: Daniel Okafor ran a check-in with Saskia alone on 24 Oct 2025. She opened with a director who found a disputed contractor invoice through the brain before a client review.
Customer view: Her team has mostly stopped building weekly packs by hand. She was candid that a dozen active users against 40 licensed seats is not where she wants it.
Commercial: Daniel raised the renewal early. The contract runs to 2 Jul 2026, the renewal date is 3 Jul 2026, and he said £44k a year matches contract and invoices. She asked if it will cost more and said Rupert will ask her.
Watch: Open items are a possibly stale answer one morning, two similarly named clients, and a timesheet connector idea that would use spare Growth connector room.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Adoption and early renewal heads-up
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor to send a one-page usage summary and a first client dashboard, with the summary due by the end of the following week.
- Saskia Mendes to email the two client names, the timesheet system name, the refresh day and two directors on Monday.
- Daniel Okafor to bring Priya Raman in on any change to seats or connectors and to set out renewal terms in writing nearer the time.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only about a dozen of 40 licensed Growth users are active, which makes the value case thin for whoever signs the renewal.
- Directors may stop using the brain if it keeps mixing up two similarly named clients.
- She asked whether the renewal will cost more and wants to hear it from Daniel before Rupert asks her.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A dashboard and short two-director training sessions could widen use within the existing 40 seats.
- A contractor timesheet connector would use spare Growth connector room and address disputes that are costing the customer money.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Saskia, can you hear me alright?
Saskia MendesLoud and clear. Morning, Daniel. Sorry, I'm finishing the end of a croissant, ignore me.- Daniel OkaforNot at all. Thank you for making the time, I know Fridays get swallowed whole. Is it just the two of us this morning, or is anyone else joining from your side?
- Saskia MendesJust me. The directors have their pipeline meeting at half ten, so I grabbed this slot before it. Can I tell you something that happened on Wednesday? It's sort of why I was happy to see this in the diary.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do.
- Saskia MendesSo one of our client-account directors, she's on a big technology client, she was about to walk into a quarterly review. And she'd asked the brain, just on her own, whether there was anything unresolved with that client before she went in. And it came back with a contractor invoice that had been disputed for weeks. Nobody had flagged it to her. The old way, she'd have found out in the room, with the client's finance person sat opposite her.
- Daniel OkaforOh, that's exactly the sort of thing it's meant to catch. How did she take it?
- Saskia MendesHonestly, she was a bit stunned. She rang me straight after to say the directors need this, which, you know, I've been saying for a year. She fixed it with the contractor and our finance team before the review. The client never knew.
- Daniel OkaforWell, that's lovely to hear. Just to close the loop on something from earlier in the year, is she one of the people who came to the session we ran with the directors, or did she pick it up on her own?
- Saskia MendesBit of both. She came to the session and then did nothing for about a month. Then I sent her a two line note with the question to type in and that was it.
- Daniel OkaforMm. That tends to be how it goes. Somebody needs the first useful answer, and then they're off. Right, so I've got a few things I'd like to run through, and then I want to hear what's on your list. I've pulled up the usage from the last quarter. Shall I start there?
- Saskia MendesGo for it. Be straight with me, I'd rather hear the awkward bits.
- Daniel OkaforI don't think there are many awkward bits this time, to be fair. Active users are up a good chunk on the previous quarter. On an average day you've got a dozen or so people in the brain, and that's the sort of level that's been building steadily since the summer. You're licensed for forty on Growth, so there's plenty of room.
- Saskia MendesA dozen. Right. So that's not forty.
- Daniel OkaforNo, it isn't, and I'd rather say so plainly. Forty is what you're licensed for, not what I'd expect on a normal day. But the direction is the right one.
- Saskia MendesYeah, no, I appreciate that. Because I could say it's all going brilliantly, and it's not quite. We've got the directors who use it constantly, probably most of them now. Then we've got a few who've never logged in. And the recruiters, the people on the desks, they barely touch it.
- Daniel OkaforHow is the team finding it, the ones who do use it? What do they say when you ask?
- Saskia MendesThey say it saves them the Monday morning scramble. That's the line I keep hearing. Before, someone in my team would build a pack for each director, pulling vacancies from the CRM, placements, then invoices from the accounting system, then any complaints. That's half a day, every week. Now they just ask.
- Daniel OkaforAnd is your own team still building those packs, or have they stopped?
- Saskia MendesMostly stopped. Two of them still do it for one director who doesn't trust a screen, bless him. But yes, mostly stopped.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a real shift. I'll make a note of that, because when we get to the renewal conversation it's the sort of thing worth having written down in your own words, not mine.
- Saskia MendesSure. Can we make that simpler for me though? Like, a one pager I can show upstairs?
- Daniel OkaforYes, absolutely. That's actually one of the things I wanted to offer. I can put together a short summary of how the brain has been used, who's asking the questions, which teams, and what's changed since go-live. You can edit it, you can strip out anything you don't like.
- Saskia MendesPerfect. And can it say who's asking the questions? Because that's the bit I want to see. Who's not.
- Daniel OkaforIt can. I'll show you what I've got so far, hang on, let me share my screen. Can you see that?
- Saskia MendesI can see a graph going up, so that's a good start.
- Daniel OkaforIt's going up, yes. So this is questions asked, month by month. And what I like about this is it's not one person doing the lion's share. A year ago, it was largely you and one other colleague. Now it's spread over a decent number of the directors.
- Saskia MendesWait, go back. What's that dip, there, mid-way?
- Daniel OkaforAh, that's August. People on holiday. It happens every year, you'll see the same shape the summer before.
- Saskia MendesOh good grief, of course it is. I was about to panic.
- Daniel OkaforNo, no panic needed. And you can see it picks up again straight after.
- Saskia MendesRight. And the other thing, the connectors. Are we still, what's the word, healthy? Is everything loading?
- Daniel OkaforEverything's loading. You've got your eight connectors on the Growth plan and they're all refreshing overnight. The record counts are going up each week, which is what I look for, because if that goes flat it usually means a source has quietly broken. Nothing like that here.
- Saskia MendesAnd tickets? I haven't raised anything, I don't think.
- Daniel OkaforYou haven't. Nothing in the last month, nothing urgent, and nothing waiting on us. And on the finance side, all your invoices are paid, so there's nothing to chase.
- Saskia MendesGood. Our finance team would have shouted if there was. They're good like that.
- Daniel OkaforThey are. Now, one thing I do want to flag, and it's not a worry, it's more a thing for your attention. A quiet ticket queue can be a very good sign, and in your case I think it is. But I always like to ask, is there anything that's irritated you that you didn't think was worth raising?
- Saskia MendesHm. Give me a second.
- Saskia MendesOkay. One thing. It's small. When the directors ask about a client by name, sometimes it doesn't know which of two similar names they mean. We have two clients with nearly the same name, different divisions. And it gives an answer that's a mix, and they're not sure which is which.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful, thank you. That's a how-you-ask-it problem and also partly a how-the-records-are-set-up one. Would you be able to send me the two names, just privately, over email? I'd like to look at how they're held in your CRM and see whether it's something we can tidy up.
- Saskia MendesYes. I'll send them today. Well, today or Monday. Today if I remember.
- Daniel OkaforMonday's fine. I won't promise a fix, I'd rather look first and then I'll come back to you with what I find.
- Saskia MendesFair. What did the other customers do, though? Is that a common thing?
- Daniel OkaforIt comes up, particularly with groups that have divisions or subsidiaries. Usually the answer is a bit of tidying on the source side, and sometimes it's a small tweak in how the brain is told to treat them. Nothing dramatic.
- Saskia MendesOkay good. Because that's the sort of thing that makes a director say, ah, it's wrong, and then they stop using it.
- Daniel OkaforYes, and that's exactly the risk I'd want to deal with early. People forgive a slow answer. They don't forgive one that's confidently wrong.
- Saskia MendesMm. Agree.
- Daniel OkaforCan I ask about the directors who haven't logged in? You said a few. Do you know why? Is it that they don't see the point, or they've not had a nudge, or is it something else?
- Saskia MendesMostly they've not had a reason. They've got their own ways of working. One of them has had a PA doing everything for twenty years. He's not going to type a question into a chat box.
- Daniel OkaforHa, no, fair enough. Is the PA someone who could use it on his behalf?
- Saskia MendesOh. Well. Yes, actually. That's not a bad idea. We have seats spare, haven't we?
- Daniel OkaforYou do. Forty licensed and a dozen or so active, so seats aren't the constraint. I'd be very happy to give the PA a login and do a half hour with them, if that helps.
- Saskia MendesLet me think about who. I don't want to give it to the wrong person and have it become a thing. Can I come back to you on that one?
- Daniel OkaforOf course. No rush at all.
- Saskia MendesSorry, I was just writing that down. Right. What else have you got?
- Daniel OkaforA couple of things. First, I'd like to offer a short training session for the directors who aren't yet using it. Not a big presentation. Thirty minutes, using their own clients, so they see their own data in front of them straight away. The sessions that work best are the ones where the person says, oh, that's my client.
- Saskia MendesI like that. Because the first session was a bit, you know, a lot of people in a room, and half of them were looking at their phones.
- Daniel OkaforI remember. Smaller is better, I think. Two or three directors at a time, maybe?
- Saskia MendesTwo. Two's about the limit before they start competing with each other.
- Daniel OkaforTwo it is, then. If you give me the names, I'll prepare something for each of them, so it's not generic.
- Saskia MendesWhat did the client actually say, is the question they always ask. So can you have, like, the last thing each client said, their complaints, in there? That's the thing they care about.
- Daniel OkaforI can pull that in. The complaints and the most recent conversations, yes, as long as they're in the sources you've connected. I'll check what's there for the two you choose before we sit down.
- Saskia MendesBrilliant.
- Daniel OkaforThe second thing is more of a heads-up. Your contract runs to 2 Jul 2026, and the renewal date on our side is 3 Jul 2026. That's some way off, and I'm not here to start a renewal conversation in October. But I always like to say it out loud early, so nobody's surprised. We'll come to you well ahead, in line with the ninety-day notice, and by then I'd like us to have a good picture of what it's been worth to you.
- Saskia MendesYeah. Okay. That's, what, eight months?
- Daniel OkaforRoughly, yes. A bit more than that, I think. I'm not going to promise you a number, because I'd only be guessing, but when we get closer I'll come back to you with the proper picture of the terms.
- Saskia MendesIs it going to cost more?
- Daniel OkaforI'd rather not say something I haven't got in front of me. You're at forty-four thousand a year today on Growth, and that's what's contracted and what's been invoiced, and they match, which is tidy. What happens at the renewal I'll set out properly nearer the time, in writing, so you're not relying on my memory of a call.
- Saskia MendesOkay. Fair. I'd just rather hear it from you than be surprised by it. Rupert's going to ask me, that's all.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. And when he does, I'd be glad to talk to him directly, if that's useful. Entirely up to you.
- Saskia MendesLet me see. Probably, yes, closer to the time. Can we leave that one?
- Daniel OkaforAbsolutely. Leave it with me and with you, and we'll pick it up in the new year.
- Saskia MendesRight. Now, can I ask you something that's slightly off to one side?
- Daniel OkaforPlease.
- Saskia MendesWe've been talking about bringing the contractor timesheet data in. At the moment it sits in a separate system and the invoice disputes, the ones I mentioned, they nearly always start there. Someone's timesheet is wrong, so the invoice is wrong. If the brain could see the timesheets, it might catch the dispute before it's even an invoice.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a really good thought. Mm. So you've got eight connectors on Growth and I'd want to check how many of those are in use. I think you've got a bit of room, but let me confirm that rather than say yes. And then it's about whether that timesheet system is one we can connect to straightforwardly.
- Saskia MendesI can find out what it's called, obviously. It's, well, our operations lead knows. I'll ask her.
- Daniel OkaforIf you can send me the name of it and whether it has any sort of export or access we can use, then I'll look at the connector list and tell you where we stand. Is there any urgency on it?
- Saskia MendesNot urgent. But the sooner the better, honestly, because the disputes are costing us money. Not enormous money, but it's the principle. And it makes us look sloppy to the contractors.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. I'll treat it as something to look at properly rather than something to park. I'll come back to you by the end of next week with what I can see.
- Saskia MendesLovely.
- Daniel OkaforSorry, I was just checking the connector page. So you do have room. I'll still want to look at the timesheet system, but on the count side there's no problem.
- Saskia MendesGreat. Good to know.
- Daniel OkaforIs there anything else on your list? You said you had things.
- Saskia MendesYes. Two more, quick. One, the nightly refresh. Last week one of the directors asked a question at about eight in the morning and got Wednesday's answer rather than Thursday's. I think. She wasn't certain. Is that a thing?
- Daniel OkaforIt shouldn't be, by that time. The refresh is meant to be complete by seven in your morning on business days. I'd want to look at the log for that particular day, because if something ran late I'd like to know about it. Do you know which day it was?
- Saskia MendesThursday, I think. Last Thursday? I'll ask her. She's not the sort to make it up, but she might have been looking at the wrong client.
- Daniel OkaforRight, so if you can tell me the client and the day, I'll check the refresh log for it. And if it was something on our side I'll tell you plainly. Just to close the loop, I haven't seen anything flagged in the last month, so I suspect it's something simpler. But I'd rather check than assume.
- Saskia MendesPerfect. Second thing. Dashboards. I know there's a dashboard builder on Growth. We haven't used it. Should we?
- Daniel OkaforI think you might, yes. At the moment your directors are asking questions one at a time, which is fine. But if there are three or four things they want to see every single Monday, the same view for each client, that's what a dashboard is for. It saves everyone retyping the same question.
- Saskia MendesVacancies, placements, open invoices, complaints. The same four things, for each client.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is, I think, precisely what you described to me when you first bought it. One page, one client, those four things.
- Saskia MendesHa. It is, isn't it. We went round the houses and ended up where we started.
- Daniel OkaforPeople usually do. It's not a bad sign, it means the original idea was right. Shall I build a first version and show it to you, rather than you having to learn the builder? Then you can tell me what's wrong with it.
- Saskia MendesThat's my favourite way of doing anything. Yes please.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Then I'll combine that with the training session. We could use the dashboard as the thing we show the two directors.
- Saskia MendesOh, that's clever. Then they've got something to look at straight away, instead of a blank box.
- Daniel OkaforExactly. A blank box is intimidating for people who don't live in these tools.
- Saskia MendesCan I be honest about something? Adoption. I want to be clear that I'm not telling anyone upstairs it's further along than it is. A dozen people in a business our size, with forty seats, it's not where I want it. It's good. It's not where I want it.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's a fair and, if I may say so, a rather healthy way to look at it. The people who use it get real value from it. The job now is widening it without it turning into a chore for people. And you know your directors far better than I do, so I'd lean on your judgement about who to bring in next.
- Saskia MendesOkay. So the plan's, what, the PA question, two directors for a short session, the dashboard. Have I got it?
- Daniel OkaforThat's it. Let me read back what I've got, then you tell me if I've missed anything. From me: a one page summary of usage that you can show upstairs, a first version of the client dashboard, a check on the timesheet connector once you send me the name, a look at the refresh log if you give me the day, and a look at the two clients with similar names once you send those over.
- Saskia MendesAnd from me?
- Daniel OkaforFrom you: the two client names, the name of the timesheet system, the day and the client for that refresh question, and two directors for the short sessions. Oh, and a view on the PA, when you've thought about it.
- Saskia MendesThat's, yes, that's a lot of things from me. I'll put it all in one email. Monday. I'll say Monday and then I'll actually do it.
- Daniel OkaforMonday's perfect. And if something takes longer, just tell me which bit and I won't worry.
- Saskia MendesDeal. Right, anything I haven't asked you? I feel like I've been talking at you.
- Daniel OkaforNot at all, it's your call. Just one thing from my side. I wanted to ask, how are you finding it? Not the brain. Your own work. Is it taking things off your plate, or putting new things on?
- Saskia MendesBoth, to be fair. It's taken the pack building off. But it's put the questions on. People ask me why it said something, and I'm the one who has to look. Which is fine. It's quite a nice problem to have, really.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good way to put it. And if there's ever a question you can't answer, send it my way and I'll look into where the answer came from. That's part of what I'm here for.
- Saskia MendesI might take you up on that. Last week someone asked why it quoted a placement date that was different from what the recruiter told her. Turned out the recruiter was wrong. But I only found out because I checked.
- Daniel OkaforHa, that's a better outcome than most. The brain was right, the person was wrong. Not that I'd put it quite like that to the recruiter.
- Saskia MendesNo, I did not put it like that to the recruiter.
- Daniel OkaforWise. Well, I think that's everything from me. I'll aim to get the usage summary to you by the end of next week, and the dashboard shortly after, once I've got the names from you.
- Saskia MendesLovely. Oh, one more thing. Sorry. Priya. Is Priya still the one I'd speak to if I wanted to talk about, you know, extending anything? Seats, or connectors?
- Daniel OkaforPriya Raman is your account owner, yes, she looks after the commercial side. I'm the one who looks after how it's going day to day. So if you're thinking about anything that changes the contract, start with me and I'll bring Priya in, or go to her directly, either is fine. I'd only say that you've got plenty of room at the moment, so I don't think you need to.
- Saskia MendesNo, it's just so I know. I'm not about to ask for more. I want to fill what we've got first.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the sensible order. Fill what you have, and then if it's genuinely not enough, we talk.
- Saskia MendesRight. Well. Thank you, Daniel. This was useful. Better than I expected for a Friday.
- Daniel OkaforI'm glad. Thanks for the story at the start, I'm going to quote that to a few people, with your permission.
- Saskia MendesQuote away, just don't name her. She'll be mortified.
- Daniel OkaforNot a chance. Nobody named, nothing identifiable.
- Saskia MendesOkay. Go and enjoy your weekend, then. Do something nice.
- Daniel OkaforI will. Possibly a very long walk, if the weather holds. You too. Speak soon, Saskia.
- Saskia MendesSpeak soon. Bye, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforBye bye.
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