Corstorphine Building Society / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Corstorphine Building Society · 9 Mar 2026 14:15
Morag Cowie described a broker firm that went quiet unnoticed and wants one page per firm. Tom Ashdown pencilled £155k as the whole deal value. It needs supplier risk review and a board paper; timing is a hope, not a plan.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Morag Cowie described a broker firm that went quiet unnoticed and wants one page per firm. Tom Ashdown pencilled £155k as the whole deal value. It needs supplier risk review and a board paper; timing is a hope, not a plan.
What happened: Morag explained that broker data is spread across submissions, pipeline, member services and underwriting, so nobody sees a firm's full picture. Tom and Hannah Lowe positioned the brain as one page per broker firm.
Customer view: She wants managers to ask which brokers are slipping and why. She also wants to see where the society's own turnaround is the cause.
Commercial: Tom pencilled £155k as the whole deal value, not a yearly price, with Enterprise as the fit for a regulated buyer. Morag said it would be a board paper and she would like it settled before the end of September.
Watch: Supplier risk review, data quality and whether a Snowflake account exists are all open. She also worries about key-person dependency.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Broker visibility, Enterprise discovery
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Tom Ashdown sends a written summary confirming the figures and what is one-off and what is annual.
- Hannah Lowe sends a short note covering what a first look needs, plus the Snowflake question.
- Morag Cowie checks with IT and supplier risk who would attend and what is in scope.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Supplier risk and data protection review must clear before any demo or deal, and the board date is unknown.
- It is not known whether the society has a Snowflake account, and broker data in the CRM has duplicates.
- Morag is the sole enthusiast, so the project depends on one person.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Enterprise fit for a PRA and FCA regulated buyer, with a pencilled deal value of £155,000.
- A firm-level demo on broker data with no member personal data could be a light first step.
Transcript
Tom AshdownHello, hello. Can you hear me alright, Morag?
Morag CowieI can, yes. Afternoon, Tom. Though you've frozen on a rather unflattering frame.- Tom AshdownHa, that's my best side, that. Hang on... is that better? And I've got Hannah with me, our solutions engineer. She's just joining.
Hannah LoweAfternoon, both. Sorry, I was on mute. Hello, Morag, lovely to meet you.- Morag CowieAnd you. Nice to put a face to the emails.
- Tom AshdownSo how's your week been? Anything going on up in Edinburgh, or is it the usual?
- Morag CowieWell, it's Monday, so we're only at the start of it, but I'll give you the broker story of the week, because it's the reason I'm on this call. One of our bigger broker firms went very quiet in February. They'd sent us a healthy run of cases in January and then barely a trickle. And I only found out because one of my business development managers bumped into one of their advisers at an event and asked how things were going. Nobody had flagged it. Nothing in any report.
- Tom AshdownRight. That's a bit of a sting, isn't it. So nobody knew until a chat at an event. How many people look after that firm, roughly?
- Morag CowieWell, that's the thing. One business development manager owns the relationship, but the picture of that firm is spread about. Submissions are in one place, the pipeline and completions are somewhere else, our member services team hear about queries and complaints in another, and the underwriting side hold the fall-out rates. Nobody sees it all at once. Which brokers are slipping? I can't tell you without asking four people.
- Hannah LoweCan I ask, before we go further, what would be most useful for you to walk away knowing from today? I'd rather aim at that than give you a general tour.
- Morag CowieFair. Two things. Whether this does what Tom says it does, which is give each broker firm one view that my managers can open and trust. And what it would take on our side, because I know I'll be asked. We're a mutual, our members come first, and anything that touches their data goes through supplier risk. I'm not skipping that.
- Tom AshdownNo, and we wouldn't want you to. Leave that with me, Hannah's done more of those reviews than anyone. Just so I've got it straight though, Morag, who's it for? Is it your managers first?
- Morag CowieManagers first, yes. Then my own view for the board, because I'll need a case. But member services come into it too, because when a broker firm's client rings us about a mortgage, the person answering ought to know that firm's history. Let's not overcomplicate it. One page per firm, that's the dream.
- Hannah LoweThat's a good description of what we'd build, actually. To be precise, the brain sits over your existing systems: the CRM, call recordings, emails, helpdesk tickets, finance. It builds a page for each organisation, so for you each broker firm, and you can ask it questions in plain English. The short answer is yes, one page per firm. The longer answer is that it depends on what's in those sources and how clean they are.
- Morag CowieRight. And I'll be honest, some of it is not clean. Broker firms are in our CRM, but the same firm might be there twice under slightly different names, or a trading name. And a lot of what the managers know is in their heads, or in emails.
- Hannah LoweThat's very common, and not a blocker. Duplicates are something we'd look at early, because if the brain thinks one firm is two, your picture of it is wrong. Could you tell me where the managers record their broker contacts today? I don't need the product name if you'd rather not say, just the sort of thing.
- Morag CowieIt's a CRM, yes. Managers log visits and calls in there, more or less. Some are better at it than others. Submissions come through from a separate platform that our mortgage team use. I'd have to ask our colleagues in IT exactly how the two talk to each other, if at all.
- Hannah LoweThat's fine, that's a question for a later call with your IT people. One thing I will flag now, because it shapes everything: BG-Demo runs inside the customer's own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your environment. Is there a Snowflake account in the society today, do you know?
- Morag CowieI honestly couldn't tell you. I think our data team use something like that for reporting, but I'd be guessing and I don't like guessing. I'll find out.
- Tom AshdownNo problem at all. Put that on the list. Hannah, can you drop that in a note after so it doesn't get lost? Paperwork's not my strong suit, as Hannah will tell you.
- Hannah LoweI'll put that in writing, yes. Don't worry.
- Morag CowieGood. Now, can I ask about the shape of it? Tom mentioned Enterprise before, and I don't pretend to follow the tiers. What does that mean for us, as opposed to the smaller ones? Because I have a board that will want to know why we're not just buying the cheapest thing.
- Tom AshdownCourse. So, no drama, I'll keep it simple. Enterprise is the tier for company-wide use and regulated buyers, and you're regulated by both the PRA and the FCA, so it makes sense. It brings single sign-on, a proper security review, and an executive sponsor on our side. Hannah would lead the security review support. The smaller tiers are really for one team.
- Morag CowieMm. And money? I'm not asking for a quote, I just don't want to waste anybody's afternoon if it's miles away from what we'd get through.
- Tom AshdownFair question. Let me be careful, because I never like quoting from memory. The figure we've got pencilled for the deal is £155,000. That's the whole deal value, not a yearly price, and I'll confirm exactly what's in it, one-off and annual, in writing so you've got it clean for the board. Is that in the region you'd expected?
- Morag CowieIt's bigger than a team budget, I'll say that. It would be a board paper, not a manager's sign-off. Which is fine, that's why I want the case to be solid. I won't oversell it to our executive, I'd rather go in with something I can defend.
- Tom AshdownWouldn't want you to. Honestly, that's how the good ones go. What's the timing look like on your side?
- Morag CowieWell, I'd like it settled before the end of September, but I'll not promise that, because it depends on supplier risk and when the board meets. So that's the hope, not the plan. Let's say a hope with a question mark on it.
- Tom AshdownThat's helpful, and honest. We've pencilled end of September in our own books too, so we're singing from the same sheet. It doesn't need to be anything more than a marker yet.
- Hannah LoweCan I come back to the broker view, as that's the thing I'd most like to get right? When you say slipping, what does that actually look like in your numbers? Is it fewer submissions month on month, slower response, a drop in completions? If we're going to answer 'which brokers are slipping', we need to agree what slipping means first.
- Morag CowieGood, that's the right question, and I'll be straight, we don't have one definition. Mostly it's submissions. A firm that sent us a steady flow and then drops off. But it's also firms that send plenty and then lose half in the process because our turnaround is slow, or the cases fall out at underwriting. In which case it's not them slipping, it's us. And I'd want to see that too. Our members come first, and a broker's client is very often one of our members, or about to be.
- Hannah LoweThat's a useful distinction, and I'd keep it. So the brain would show you the trend in submissions for a firm, and alongside it the tickets or queries that have come in, the calls and emails with their people. You'd see whether the quiet is theirs or yours.
- Morag CowieWhich brokers are slipping, and why. That'd do me. If a manager could ask that on a Monday morning and get an answer with something behind it.
- Tom AshdownThat's it, that's the whole pitch, really. And the 'something behind it' bit matters. Hannah, when we do a demo, it's on their own data, isn't it, not some made-up broker?
- Hannah LoweYes. We'd typically pick a handful of broker firms with you, connect a few sources, and show the page for each. Even a small slice tells you quickly whether it's useful. Though I should say, for a regulated organisation, what data we can touch for a demo is something your supplier risk and data protection people would need to be comfortable with first.
- Morag CowieThey would, and rightly. Let's not overcomplicate it though. If we start with broker firm data, firms rather than members, I think that's lighter than anything with member records in it. But I'd need to check that, not assume.
- Hannah LoweAgreed, and I'd suggest exactly that. Keep the first look to firm-level information, no member personal data, and write down what's in scope. That makes the review much easier. I'd rather get it right first time than fix it later.
- Tom AshdownSounds sensible. So, thinking about next steps. Morag, who else would need to be in the room for a demo? Anyone from the IT side, or the data team?
- Morag CowieIdeally one of my business development managers, so they can say whether it's useful, and someone from IT or data who knows how the systems fit together. I'll ask. I can't promise who'll be free, and I'd rather not name anyone until I've asked them.
- Tom AshdownOf course. Would it help if we sent a short note you could pass round, so they know what they're being asked to give an hour to?
- Morag CowieThat would help a lot. Short, mind. Nobody reads long.
- Hannah LoweShort it is. I'll cover what the brain is, how it sits in your Snowflake account if you have one, what we'd need for a first look, and the questions your supplier risk team will probably ask.
- Morag CowieGood. One more thing, and then I'll let you go. What happens if the person who set this up leaves? I've seen systems go stale because the one enthusiast moved on. I'm the enthusiast here.
- Tom AshdownHa, honest of you. That's exactly why we'd want more than one person on your side involved from the start, and why we'd have a customer success person looking after how it's being used, not just the setup. No drama, we'd build it so it doesn't hang on one head.
- Morag CowieRight. That's reassuring. Okay. I think I've got what I need for now.
- Tom AshdownBrilliant. So let me say it back. I'll send you a written summary and confirm the figures, what's one-off and what's annual. Hannah sends the short note and the list of what we'd need for a first look, plus the Snowflake question. You check with IT and with supplier risk who'd need to be there and what's in scope. And then let's get something in the diary for a demo.
- Morag CowieThat's it. I'll come back to you once I've spoken to a couple of people. I'll try to give you a date but I'll not promise one yet.
- Hannah LoweThat's fine. Thanks, Morag. It's a clear problem, which makes it easier.
- Tom AshdownCheers, Morag. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon, and mind how you go with that broker firm.
- Morag CowieThank you both. Speak soon. Bye now.
- Hannah LoweBye.
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