Carnmoor Fleet Leasing / BG-Demo – Renewal
Callcompleted
Carnmoor Fleet Leasing · 1 Sep 2026 11:45
Ian Prendergast, Finance Director, accepted Starter at £22k in place of Growth at £42k, subject to an order form. Fifteen users stay, twenty-five come off at term end, and BG-Demo wants signature by 22 Sep 2026.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Ian Prendergast, Finance Director, accepted Starter at £22k in place of Growth at £42k, subject to an order form. Fifteen users stay, twenty-five come off at term end, and BG-Demo wants signature by 22 Sep 2026.
What happened: Amara Obi laid out low usage, about five daily users against forty licensed. Sophie Ling proposed Starter at £22k, the current list price with no discount.
Customer view: Ian accepted the shape of the deal and will read the order form line by line. Gemma Thorne said the wider rollout never happened beyond the corporate account managers.
Commercial: Term ends 1 Dec 2026 and the renewal would start 2 Dec 2026. Ian wants users and connectors written in words, and the add-on price for extra users in the covering note.
Watch: Starter has a hard limit of four connectors and more are connected today. Ian does not want to discuss Growth again until usage is shown.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Downgrade to Starter
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- Sophie Ling to send the Starter order form and an add-on note, with the form back to Ian before 22 Sep 2026.
- Gemma Thorne to send the fifteen names and a paragraph on value, and Amara Obi to send the usage summary and check-in dates.
- Darren Holloway to check the names against logins and remove the other twenty-five accounts on 1 Dec 2026.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The subscription shrinks from the Growth order form figure of £41,800 to a Starter price of £22,000.
- More connectors are live than the Starter hard limit of four allows, so the four to keep must be agreed before signature.
- Ian will not discuss a return to Growth until Carnmoor has shown it uses what it has.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Amara described a route back to Growth if usage picks up, and Gemma wants a check-in before the end of the year.
- Additional users come in blocks of ten as an add-on if the count goes above fifteen.
Transcript
Amara ObiHello, can everyone hear me? I can see Gemma and Ian. Darren, are you on as well?
Darren HollowayYes, I'm here. Sorry, just fighting with the headset. Can you hear me now?- Amara ObiLoud and clear.
Gemma ThorneHi all. Apologies if I echo, I'm in the small room by the service desk because every meeting room in the building is taken today.
Sophie LingNo echo here. Hi everyone, it's Sophie. Thanks for finding the time just before lunch, I know the diary is tight.
Ian PrendergastHello. I have until about half past twelve, so I would rather we used the time on the numbers than on pleasantries.- Sophie LingFair enough. Amara, do you want to kick us off?
- Amara ObiHappy to. For anyone who hasn't dealt with me much, I'm Amara, I'm your customer success manager, so adoption and the renewal conversation sit with me, and Sophie owns the commercial side. What we want from today is simple. Where are you with the brain, what does good look like for you between now and the end of the term, and what do you want the contract to look like from December.
- Ian PrendergastBefore we get there, what has changed since the order form? Because I signed a Growth contract on the basis that several teams would be using this, and I would like to know whether that is still the case.
- Amara ObiRight, and I'd rather say it plainly than dress it up. Here's what the numbers say. Activity has roughly halved against the previous quarter. On a typical day we're seeing about five people active, where a quarter ago it was nearer ten.
- Ian PrendergastHalved from what base? A percentage on its own does not tell me much.
- Amara ObiFair. From about ten daily users to about five, out of forty licensed users. So the licence is a lot bigger than what's being used.
- Ian PrendergastForty licensed, five using it. Right. That is the thing I have been looking at on the invoice.
- Gemma ThorneCan I come in here, because I think I'm partly the reason Ian is looking at that line. I've been preparing the client reviews for the autumn and I went back through who actually opens the brain, and it's not the picture I had in my head when we signed.
- Sophie LingGo on, Gemma. We'd rather hear it straight.
- Gemma ThorneSo the account managers who run the corporate fleets use it a lot. They start every review from it and they like it. But the wider rollout never really happened. Remarketing looked at it for a bit and drifted off, and the service desk dipped in and out. That's on me as much as anyone, I didn't push it hard enough once the first few months were past.
- Amara ObiI wouldn't put it all on you, Gemma. Part of it is that we didn't get the service desk properly onboarded. Which client, which fleet, what did the client actually see, that's the question they ask, and I don't think we showed them how to ask it.
- Gemma ThorneThat's kind. The service desk team are good, they just had a busy summer and this was one more tool.
- Ian PrendergastUnderstood. Then let me ask the direct question. If five people use it daily, what am I paying for at Growth?
- Sophie LingYou're paying for headroom, honestly, and for the dashboards builder and the quarterly reviews. At the moment you're contracted at £41,800 and that's both what's on the order form and what we've invoiced, so there's no mismatch to chase. But I don't think it's right to sit here and tell you that you need all of it.
- Ian PrendergastThat is a more candid answer than I expected from a supplier.
- Sophie LingI'd rather we kept you at the right size than lost you in December on a bad feeling. So here's what I'd put on the table. Starter, at £22,000.
- Ian PrendergastStarter at twenty-two thousand. Walk me through what Starter is, in terms of what I lose. I want the list, not the brochure.
- Sophie LingAmara, you're closer to the product on this, do you want to?
- Amara ObiSure. Starter is one team. You'd have fifteen users, that's a soft limit, and four connectors, and that one is a hard limit. You keep pages, chat and search, which is what the account managers actually use. What goes is the dashboards builder, and the quarterly QBRs become a six-monthly check-in.
- Ian PrendergastSoft limit meaning what, precisely?
- Amara ObiMeaning we won't switch someone off on day sixteen. If you drift over, I'd flag it to you and we'd talk about extra users as an add-on. The connectors are different. Four is four, the brain won't load a fifth.
- Gemma ThorneFour we can live with, I think. Can I ask which ones we'd keep? Because right now there are more than four feeding the review pages.
- Amara ObiYes, and I'll be straight, that's the bit that needs care. You've got more connected today than Starter allows. I'd suggest we go through them with you and keep the four that feed the client reviews and the service desk view. The others would be switched off at term end, not before.
- Gemma ThorneOkay. Let's get the service desk in on that, because they'll have a view on what they'd miss.
- Ian PrendergastHang on, let me stay on the money for a moment. Twenty-two thousand against forty-one thousand eight hundred. I can do that subtraction myself. What I want to know is whether twenty-two is a firm figure or an opening one.
- Sophie LingIt's the Starter price. There's no discount layered on it, it's the list and it's what a new Starter customer would pay today. I'm not going to pretend there's lots of room beyond that.
- Ian PrendergastGood. I prefer a straight list to a negotiated one I then have to explain to the board.
- Ian PrendergastAnother thing. I don't like renewals that happen by themselves. What is the sequence, and what is the cut-off, so that nothing rolls over at the old price without somebody deciding it?
- Sophie LingTerm ends on 1 December 2026, and the renewal would start the day after, 2 December 2026. Nothing renews until there's an executed order form. What I'd like is a signed Starter order form by 22 September 2026, so we've got a clean run at the data and the connectors before the term closes.
- Ian PrendergastTwenty-second of September. That's three weeks.
- Sophie LingAbout that, yes. Is that too tight?
- Ian PrendergastNo, it's perfectly workable. I'll say this now so nobody has to guess later. Starter at twenty-two thousand is acceptable to me. I'll want it on an order form and I will read it line by line, but you have my agreement on the shape.
- Sophie LingThat's really helpful, Ian. Thank you.
- Amara ObiAnd can I just say, I think it's the right call for where you are. If usage picks up, there's a route back to Growth and we'd be glad to have that conversation.
- Ian PrendergastWe will take a view at the next renewal. I'd rather not talk about going back up before we've shown we use what we have.
- Gemma ThorneThat's fair, and it's right. Okay, so, the people. Ian, shall I just say who I'd keep? Because Amara will need the names.
- Ian PrendergastPlease. And I'd like it to be a number I can reconcile, not a rough idea.
- Gemma ThorneFifteen. That's my number. It's me, the corporate account managers who actually run client reviews, and the leads from the service desk, because I want them looking at the same picture as the account managers. That's the thing I care about, the service desk and the account managers telling the same story to a client.
- Amara ObiFifteen exactly. That sits right on the Starter soft limit. Can you send me the list, or shall Darren pull it from the admin console?
- Gemma ThorneI'll write it down and send it, then Darren can check it against who's actually active. I don't want to take anyone off by accident.
- Darren HollowayThat makes sense. Can I ask a practical question? What happens to the other accounts? There are forty licensed and only fifteen staying.
- Amara ObiGood question. Twenty-five would be surplus. From our side, they'd stop at the end of the term. What I'd normally ask is that your team removes them, so access is cleaned up properly on your side rather than just disappearing.
- Darren HollowayYes, I'd want to own that anyway. I'm not comfortable with accounts sitting there that nobody uses and nobody's accountable for. Leftover licences are exactly what the auditors pick up.
- Ian PrendergastWhich is a reasonable thing to say, and I'd rather it was done deliberately.
- Darren HollowaySo, to be clear for the record. I'll remove the other twenty-five accounts at term end. Not before, so nobody loses access in the middle of a review cycle, but on the day the term ends, 1 December 2026, they come off.
- Amara ObiPerfect. Could you confirm to me in writing once it's done, so I can note it against the account?
- Darren HollowayYes, I'll send you a short note. I'll also cross-check Gemma's fifteen against current logins, so if there are people on her list who've never signed in, I'll tell her before we finalise.
- Gemma ThornePlease do. I'd rather know.
- Darren HollowayOne more thing from my side. With fewer people and fewer connectors, does anything about how data is held change? Because I signed off a security position on the original setup.
- Amara ObiNo, the brain still runs inside your own Snowflake account, so where the data lives doesn't move. What changes is how many sources feed it and who can see it. If anything that's a smaller footprint than you approved.
- Darren HollowayGood. That's the answer I was hoping for.
- Ian PrendergastLet me ask something about value, since we are being honest. If I were the board, I'd ask whether the brain has earned its keep over the first year. What do I say?
- Gemma ThorneI can answer that one. The account managers say they don't rebuild each client's picture by hand any more. They used to spend most of a morning pulling the fleet, the queries and the invoices together before a review. Now they open it and start. I can't give you a pound figure, but I can give you the hours they've stopped spending.
- Ian PrendergastI would take that, written down, even without the pounds. The board can work with a clear statement from the person who runs the team.
- Gemma ThorneI'll write you a paragraph.
- Amara ObiAnd I can add to that from my side. I'll put together the usage for the last two quarters so you've got something clean to take upstairs. Questions asked, who's asking them, and where the drop-off happened. No spin.
- Ian PrendergastThank you. Though, I'll be candid: the drop-off is what I'll be asked about, not the questions.
- Amara ObiUnderstood, and it'll be in there. I'm not going to leave it out.
- Sophie LingCan I check one more thing before we go too far on the paperwork? Ian, anything on the invoicing side? Quarterly or annual, payment terms, anything you want changed on the new order form?
- Ian PrendergastSame as we have. Annual in advance, thirty days. I have no complaint about how you've billed us, nothing has been late and nothing has been wrong. I'd like to keep it that way.
- Sophie LingGreat, that's the easiest part. I'll draft the Starter order form on those terms.
- Ian PrendergastAnd please put the user number and the connector number in words as well as figures, if the form allows. I'd prefer it was impossible to argue about later.
- Sophie LingI'll make sure it's explicit. Fifteen users, four connectors, six-monthly check-in.
- Gemma ThorneCan I add a request? The check-ins. Could the first one be before the end of the year rather than waiting until after the new term starts? I want us to see whether usage has gone up once the service desk has had a go.
- Amara ObiYes, absolutely. Let's get the next check-in in the diary now rather than leave it. I'll send a few options after this call and we'll pick one that suits you and the service desk leads.
- Gemma ThorneLovely. And I'd like someone from the service desk on it, not only me.
- Amara ObiWho else should have access to the session? Give me a name and I'll add them.
- Gemma ThorneI'll come back to you with a name once I've talked to them. I don't want to volunteer somebody who's on leave.
- Darren HollowayCan I also ask, are the four connectors you keep decided before term end, or after? Because I'd like to stage the removals sensibly.
- Amara ObiBefore. I'd like it agreed with Gemma and her team by the time the order form is signed, so there's nothing to decide on the last day. Then on the day, it's just a switch.
- Darren HollowayGood. Send me whatever list comes out of that and I'll plan around it.
- Ian PrendergastI have one last thing, and it is a question rather than a demand. If the user count goes above fifteen in the new term, what does that cost? I want to know the exposure before it happens.
- Sophie LingAdditional users come in blocks of ten as an add-on. I don't want to quote a number off the cuff and get it wrong, so I'll put the add-on price in the covering note with the order form. That way it's written, not remembered.
- Ian PrendergastThat's the correct way to do it. Thank you.
- Gemma ThorneHonestly, I came into this call expecting to feel worse about it. It's clearer now. Fewer people, the right people, and the account managers carry on.
- Amara ObiThat's what I'd like too. Smaller, but used. And if it works, we talk about growing it back.
- Ian PrendergastRight. Let me make sure I have the actions, since I'll be asked. Sophie sends the Starter order form and a note on additional users. Gemma sends the fifteen names and a paragraph on value. Darren checks the names against logins and removes the other twenty-five at term end. Amara sends the usage summary and the check-in dates.
- Sophie LingThat's all of it. I'd add the connector shortlist, which Amara and Gemma will agree with the service desk.
- Amara ObiYes, that's mine to start. I'll send Gemma the current connector list this week so she's got something to react to.
- Ian PrendergastAnd the order form comes back to me before 22 September 2026, not on it.
- Sophie LingUnderstood. You'll have it well ahead of that, so there's time for you to read it properly.
- Darren HollowayFine from me. Thanks, all.
- Gemma ThorneThanks, everyone. Speak soon.
- Amara ObiThanks, all. Best of luck with the reviews, Gemma. Speak soon.
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