Kelvinhaugh Pension Services / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Kelvinhaugh Pension Services · 20 Oct 2023 11:15
Fiona Drummond described an hour of manual prep per employer meeting and wants a small, quick start. Tom Ashdown floated Starter at £24k all-in, with a possible signing on 26 Jan 2024. Finance director sign-off needed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Fiona Drummond described an hour of manual prep per employer meeting and wants a small, quick start. Tom Ashdown floated Starter at £24k all-in, with a possible signing on 26 Jan 2024. Finance director sign-off needed.
What happened: In a discovery call, Fiona Drummond said preparing for a scheme meeting means checking the admin platform, the shared mailbox and scattered notes. A big defined-benefit scheme takes easily an hour.
Customer view: She wants managers to walk into meetings knowing everything, and fears tools that need a long project and then go unused. She wants her own team first, then to widen.
Commercial: Tom proposed Starter for one team and quoted £24k for the whole thing, implementation included, not a yearly price. Fiona found it in the range she expected but needs her finance director. End of January was called realistic.
Watch: Source traceability and member data access matter to her. Tobias, the CTO, is to cover Snowflake and who sees what in a demo.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Discovery: Starter for one team
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 to confirm the price in writing and arrange a demo with Tobias on real schemes.
- Fiona Drummond to pick two or three schemes, check the Snowflake position with her systems administrator and email Tom by early the following week.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The finance director has not yet seen the price, so sign-off is unconfirmed.
- Member data and who-sees-what questions, plus an unchecked Snowflake account, could slow the security conversation.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A Starter package for Fiona Drummond's scheme-relationship team fits her wish for a small, quick start.
- Widening to the wider administration team later could follow a successful first team.
Transcript
Tom AshdownHello Fiona, can you hear me alright?
Fiona DrummondYes, loud and clear. Sorry, I'm a couple of minutes behind, one of the scheme managers caught me by the lift.- Tom AshdownNo drama at all. How's your week been? It's Friday, so I'm hoping it's winding down for you.
- Fiona DrummondBusy, honestly. What the scheme managers asked me this week was the same question three different ways: can somebody tell me everything we know about this employer before I walk into the meeting? And right now the honest answer is, give me an hour.
- Tom AshdownRight, that's what I'd like to dig into, then. Before I say a word about us, can I ask what normal prep looks like? Say a relationship manager has a trustee meeting on Tuesday.
- Fiona DrummondSo they'd open the admin platform for membership and case numbers, then the shared mailbox for what's been said, then their own notes, which live in all sorts of places. Some keep a spreadsheet, some use the CRM, some just remember. I'm not being critical, it's how a lot of administrators work.
- Tom AshdownMm. And how long does that take, roughly?
- Fiona DrummondDepends on the scheme. A big defined-benefit scheme, easily an hour, and then you're never quite sure you've got the latest. A small defined-contribution one, twenty minutes or so. I haven't actually timed it, so call that about.
- Tom AshdownThat's useful. And who's in the meeting, is it just your team or the wider administration side as well?
- Fiona DrummondMostly my team, the scheme-relationship managers. They're the ones facing the employers and the trustees. The wider administration team would dip in for case detail, but I'd want to start with my people, and see it work there first.
- Tom AshdownSounds sensible. Start small, prove it. Who owns the client, in your world? If a trustee rings with a question, whose problem is it?
- Fiona DrummondHa, you've borrowed my line. The relationship manager owns the client, that's the rule. In practice they own the conversation, and the answer sits with three other people.
- Tom AshdownYeah, that's the gap we see a lot. So the brain, just so you've got the picture, is one layer that sits over your systems. The CRM, the mailbox, the helpdesk, call recordings if you make them. You ask it a question in plain English and it answers from all of them, and it shows you where it got the answer.
- Fiona DrummondWhere it got the answer matters a lot. Trustees will ask me how I know something, and I can't say the computer told me.
- Tom AshdownCompletely. Every answer points back to the source record. The other thing is it's built and run inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't go off to us. I'd get Tobias, our CTO, to take you through that properly in a demo, he's much better at it than me.
- Fiona DrummondThat would help. Member data is the first thing anyone asks about. I'd want our systems administrator in that conversation, they'd know what we have and what we don't.
- Tom AshdownGood, bring them along. Do you know off the top of your head whether you've got a Snowflake account already, or is that something we'd need to look at?
- Fiona DrummondI'd be guessing, so I'd rather check. Leave that with me, I'll ask our systems administrator this afternoon.
- Tom AshdownBrilliant. Now, what would a good result look like for you? Say we're sat here in six months and you're pleased. What's happened?
- Fiona DrummondHonestly? My managers walk into a meeting knowing the lot. Nobody's emailing me for a history of an employer. And the new starters get up to speed in weeks rather than months, because the picture's already there.
- Tom AshdownRight. And is there anything that would worry you, anything that's put you off tools like this before?
- Fiona DrummondTools that need a six-month project and then nobody uses them. I've seen this work when it's a small group and a quick start. I've also seen it not work when it's rolled out to everybody at once. So, the partners, sorry, the managers who'll actually use it first, then widen.
- Tom AshdownThat fits how we'd do it. We'd look at our smallest package for one team, it's called Starter. One team, a handful of connectors, chat and search and pages. Quick to set up, a matter of weeks.
- Fiona DrummondThat sounds about right for us. Can you give me a feel for the money, so I know whether I'm dreaming?
- Tom AshdownI don't like quoting from memory, so I'll confirm it in writing. But the number in my notes for the whole thing, implementation included, is twenty-three thousand five hundred and fifty pounds. That's the all-in, not a yearly price, so don't take it as an annual figure. Leave that with me and I'll send it properly.
- Fiona DrummondOkay. That's not scary, and it's in the range I'd expect. I'd need to take it past our finance director, though.
- Tom AshdownOf course. Is there a date you're working to? I've got 26 January 2024 pencilled in as when we might be signed, but that's my guess rather than yours.
- Fiona DrummondEnd of January is realistic. Before the new financial year planning gets going, I'd like it decided. So yes, that works.
- Tom AshdownGood. Then next steps from me: I'll get a demo into the diary with Tobias, ideally on a couple of your real situations rather than made-up ones. Can you pick two or three schemes you'd be happy to use?
- Fiona DrummondYes. I'll choose one big defined-benefit scheme and one smaller one, and I'll ask our systems administrator about the warehouse and who should be on the call. I'll email you both by early next week.
- Tom AshdownPerfect. Anything else you wanted to ask me while I've got you?
- Fiona DrummondJust who sees what. Not everybody should see every scheme. But I suspect that's one for Tobias.
- Tom AshdownIt is, and a good one to raise. Let's get something in the diary. Thanks for your time, Fiona, have a good weekend.
- Fiona DrummondThanks, Tom. You too. Speak soon.
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