Brimscombe Energy / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Brimscombe Energy · 2025-02-10 16:15
Onboarding call on 2025-02-10. Wave one (CRM, helpdesk, call recorder, accounting) is agreed, subject to written role mapping. Siân Pritchard reported an early useful answer and warned about senior expectations.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Onboarding call on 2025-02-10. Wave one (CRM, helpdesk, call recorder, accounting) is agreed, subject to written role mapping. Siân Pritchard reported an early useful answer and warned about senior expectations.
What happened: Nikhil Rao grouped the sources into three waves and Callie Brennan confirmed wave one as CRM, helpdesk, call recorder and accounting. Wave one switches on the week after next if the setup note reads well.
Customer view: Siân Pritchard said the brain's first answer, on contracts coming up alongside open complaints, was useful but not yet quotable. She said it is the sort of question that made them buy Enterprise.
Commercial: Callie restated the order form at £115k a year on Enterprise, and Siân agreed. Nikhil asked whether the licensed seats are named or concurrent, and Callie will check the wording.
Watch: Some senior people expect answers to everything on day one. The group field in the records is inconsistent, and a second admin was again promised by the end of next week.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Connector waves and refresh
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Callie Brennan to send the setup note draft to Nikhil Rao and the wording for Siân Pritchard's note to the directors by the end of this week.
- Callie Brennan to check the order form wording on named versus concurrent users and put it in the setup note.
- Nikhil Rao to nominate a second admin by the end of next week.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Senior stakeholders expect full answers on day one, which could sour early perception.
- Group data is inconsistent and free-text entries will show as unresolved, so some key-account answers will be incomplete.
- The second admin is still not named, leaving Nikhil Rao as a single point of failure.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Siân Pritchard wants a complaints team session once wave one is in, which deepens use.
- Key accounts and collections teams are expected to come across, using the licensed headroom.
Transcript
Callie Brennan NoneHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right?
Siân Pritchard NoneLoud and clear. Good afternoon, Callie.
Nikhil Rao NoneYep. Afternoon.- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. Sorry, I know it's a bit late in the day to be starting, so thanks for making the time. Right, here's the plan for the next forty minutes or so. First I'll walk through where we are with the connectors. Then what I need from your side is a few access answers, mostly for Nikhil. Then we agree who owns what for the first refresh, and I'll finish with the setup note so nobody is guessing.
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat works. Can I start with one quick thing? It's been a funny week, the key account team asked the brain which of their business customers had a contract coming up and an open complaint at the same time. They'd never been able to see that in one place before.
- Callie Brennan NoneOh, that's a nice one to open with. Did it get it right?
- Siân Pritchard NoneRight enough to be useful. Not right enough to quote yet, mind. Let's measure it before we claim it. But it's the sort of question that made us buy Enterprise in the first place.
- Callie Brennan NoneMm, good. And that's exactly why I want the first refresh to be clean, so the answers are trustworthy from day one. Nikhil, how's your Monday been?
- Nikhil Rao NoneBusy. One of the billing exports changed a column name over the weekend. That's a schema change, nobody told us. I checked the load history, patched the mapping on our side, reran it. It's fine now.
- Callie Brennan NoneAh, the classic. And that's a good example for us, actually, because that's the sort of thing that will matter once the brain is reading from it. I'll come back to it in the checklist.
- Nikhil Rao NoneFine.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. So, where we are. Contracted, we're on Enterprise, a hundred and eighty licensed users, and the order form is for £115,000 a year. That's what I have, and it matches what Siân's team signed since January. Does that sound right to you both, or have I got something stale?
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat's what I have. A hundred and eighty seats, though we won't be near that for a while. Right now it's a handful of us in the room, really. Customer data, a couple from complaints, Nikhil.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's normal at this stage. The seats are there for when the key account and collections teams come across, so I wouldn't worry about the number. What matters is the sources feeding it.
- Nikhil Rao NoneWhich brings us to the list. Twenty-odd sources, as I said on the earlier call. I've split them into three groups. Safe to connect now, needs a role change first, and not until I've spoken to the owner.
- Callie Brennan NoneBrilliant, that is exactly the shape I'd hoped for. Can you share it, or shall I just take it from you verbally?
- Nikhil Rao NoneI'll put it on screen. Give me a second.
- Nikhil Rao NoneRight. Can you see that?
- Callie Brennan NoneI can, yes. Bit small, but I can read it. Let me just zoom in on my side.
- Nikhil Rao NoneTop group is the CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder and the accounting system. Those have service accounts already and I've scoped them read only.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat maps cleanly. Those four I'd like to do first, before we switch on the refresh, because between them they cover the sites, contracts, calls and bills Siân described. Everything else can follow in waves.
- Siân Pritchard NoneCan I push on the calls bit? For complaints, the recordings matter a great deal. If someone rings in angry about a bill, the adviser needs to see the contract and the last few conversations together. One customer, one view.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood. So I'm putting the call recorder in the first wave, not the second. Nikhil, any objection?
- Nikhil Rao NoneWhich role has access to the recordings today?
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat's the thing, it's a small group. Complaints leads and a couple of quality people. Not the whole of the contact centre.
- Nikhil Rao NoneThen the brain's service role needs to be treated the same way. I'm not going to give it blanket access to every recording and let the permissions sort themselves out. If somebody asks the brain a question it should only see what that person is allowed to see.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, and that's how it's built, it respects the roles inside your Snowflake account. What I need from your side is the list of which groups should see which sources, in writing, so I'm not inferring it. I never start a connector without written access.
- Nikhil Rao NoneGood. I won't send credentials by email either. They go through the secrets store, and you get a reference.
- Callie Brennan NonePerfect, that's how I prefer it. Okay, I'm writing that down: access by written role mapping, credentials through the secrets store, no email.
- Siân Pritchard NoneI'll draft the role mapping with Nikhil. It'll be me asking what people need and him telling me what's sensible.
- Nikhil Rao NoneThat's about right.
- Callie Brennan NoneNow, second group on your list. The ones needing a role change first. What's in there?
- Nikhil Rao NoneMostly the meter data feeds and the field engineer system. The service account exists, but it's got write permissions it should never have had. I want to strip those before you touch it.
- Callie Brennan NoneSensible. And how long would that take you?
- Nikhil Rao NoneCouple of days. I'm not doing it on a Friday, so realistically Tuesday or Wednesday this week, and then I'd test it before I tell you it's done.
- Callie Brennan NoneLovely. So I'll plan that group for the back end of this week at the earliest and not count on it. If it lands sooner, bonus.
- Siân Pritchard NoneAnd the third group, Nikhil. The ones waiting on owners. Is that the ones I think it is?
- Nikhil Rao NoneProbably. Two of them belong to the regulatory reporting side, and one's an old complaints tracker nobody wants to own. I'll chase.
- Siân Pritchard NoneLeave the complaints tracker with me. It's mine in all but name, and I'd rather it was in the brain than in someone's spreadsheet.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood. And just so I'm clear on why that's important, since the regulator's deadlines are tight, the history in that tracker is presumably what the complaints team relies on to show a customer's timeline?
- Siân Pritchard NoneExactly that. Complaint answers have to meet the regulator's rules, and I never let a deadline slip. If the brain is going to help, it needs the history, not just the latest status.
- Callie Brennan NoneGot it. Then I'll mark that one as important but dependent on you, and I won't promise a date until we have access.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay, let me share my screen for the field mapping, because this is the bit where I'd like you both to tell me where I'm wrong. Hold on.
- Callie Brennan NoneThere we go. So this is the first pass of how a business customer becomes one record. We join on the account reference in the CRM, the contract number in billing, and the caller's registered account in the call recorder. Sites hang off the account.
- Siân Pritchard NoneMm. And what happens with the parent and subsidiary customers? We have corporate groups with dozens of sites, each with its own contract. The key account team think of them as one business, but billing thinks of them as separate.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's the question I was hoping you'd ask. At the moment I've mapped the group at the CRM level and the contract at the billing level, and the brain shows both. I haven't checked how consistent the group field is across your records, so I'm not going to say it maps cleanly until I've looked.
- Nikhil Rao NoneIt isn't consistent. Older accounts have the group in a free text field. Newer ones have a proper reference.
- Siân Pritchard NoneRight, and that's on us, that's a data quality thing. We can clean up the free text ones, but it won't be a week's job.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's useful to know. So we go live with the proper references and I flag the free text ones as unresolved rather than guessing. Then you can work through them and the next refresh picks the fixes up. Does that feel okay?
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat feels honest. Better than a wrong group on a key account.
- Nikhil Rao NoneCan it give me a list of the unresolved ones? I'd rather not find them by hand.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes. I'll build you an exceptions view, so after each refresh you can see what didn't match and why. I'll put that in the setup note.
- Callie Brennan NoneNext, the refresh itself. Before we switch it on, I want to agree the window. Nikhil, when do your overnight loads finish?
- Nikhil Rao NoneUsually well before the morning. The big billing load is the long one. If that slips, everything behind it slips. I'd rather the brain waited for it than read half a load.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's exactly the design. The refresh waits for your load to report complete, and then runs. It won't start on a partial one. And on a normal business day it's finished before seven in the morning your time.
- Siân Pritchard NoneWhich is what my teams need. They start early, particularly collections. If they open it at half past seven and it's last night's data, they'll stop trusting it.
- Nikhil Rao NoneAnd if the load fails?
- Callie Brennan NoneThen the refresh doesn't run and you get told, and it shows as stale rather than pretending it's current. I'd rather say that plainly than have it quietly show yesterday's numbers.
- Nikhil Rao NoneGood. Who gets told?
- Callie Brennan NoneYou, as admin, and anyone you list. Give me the addresses in the same document as the role mapping. I'd suggest at least one person who isn't you, so it isn't down to one inbox.
- Nikhil Rao NoneFair point. Someone on the platform team. I'll name them.
- Siân Pritchard NoneCallie, can I ask something a bit different? On the first refresh, how will we know it's worked? I don't want to have a conversation in a month where someone says it feels better and we can't show anything.
- Callie Brennan NoneI like that. So I'd propose three simple checks on the first refresh. One, the record counts per source against what Nikhil sees in the source. Two, a sample of business customers you pick, where we compare the brain's view to what the account manager knows. Three, a handful of real questions your teams ask, run before and after.
- Siân Pritchard NoneThe sample of customers, I can do that. I'll pick some easy ones and some awkward ones, because the awkward ones tell us more.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, please. Exactly the awkward ones. A customer with several sites, one with a dispute, one that's moved supplier and come back.
- Nikhil Rao NoneI'll do the counts. I can have those from the source side ahead of time so you've got something to compare to.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat would be very helpful, thank you.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay. Let me take a breath and pull this together, because I've been writing as we go. So, wave one is the CRM, the helpdesk, the call recorder and the accounting system. Subject to the written role mapping and the secrets store references. Wave two is the meter data and the field engineer system, after Nikhil's cleanup. Wave three is the regulatory reporting ones and the complaints tracker, depending on owners. Is that fair?
- Nikhil Rao NoneFair.
- Siân Pritchard NoneYes. And I'd add one thing, that I want a session for the complaints team once wave one is in. Not a big training day, just them with the brain, asking their own questions, with you or someone from your side in the room.
- Callie Brennan NoneI'll flag that to Daniel, he looks after the account on our side and he'll want to shape that with you. It's the right thing to do, getting real users in early rather than leaving it for later.
- Siân Pritchard NoneLovely. Daniel and I spoke briefly before Christmas, he was very clear about not overselling.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat sounds like Daniel.
- Nikhil Rao NoneOne more from me. Security review. I know we did some of it before signing, but the auditors will ask again. Documentation. Where does your side keep the record of what the brain can read, and what it can't?
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's in the setup note. For each source, it lists what's connected, the account it uses, the permission level, and who approved it. I update it every time a connector changes. And I'd point out that it's a living document, so it won't be a one-off PDF that goes stale.
- Nikhil Rao NoneI'll want to read it before wave one goes live, not after.
- Callie Brennan NoneUnderstood. I'll send you the draft first. You can mark it up and I'll fix it before we switch anything on. And please be as picky as you like, I'd rather it was right.
- Nikhil Rao NoneI will be.
- Siân Pritchard NoneHe will be. It's one of his better qualities, to be fair.
- Nikhil Rao NoneThank you.
- Callie Brennan NoneRight. Let me do the customer side of the housekeeping. Siân, you've raised one ticket with us so far. Is that sorted?
- Siân Pritchard NoneI think so. It was just about a user who couldn't log in. Nikhil sorted the identity side, if I remember rightly.
- Nikhil Rao NoneIt was a mapping on our side. Single sign on group had the wrong name. Fixed it the same day.
- Callie Brennan NoneGood, then I'll close that one off properly on my side. And I'd say, if anything comes up like that again, just put it through the helpdesk so we've got a record, even if you've fixed it yourselves.
- Nikhil Rao NoneNoted.
- Siân Pritchard NoneCallie, can I ask about the people side? I'm conscious that only a few of us are using this. When the wider teams come on, who do they go to? Me? Nikhil? You?
- Callie Brennan NoneIn the first instance, I'd suggest you as the business owner and Nikhil for anything technical. I'll be on the onboarding until it's handed over, and then Daniel picks up. What I never want is for it to depend on just one person who happens to know it all. That's one of my things, leaving your admin able to run it alone.
- Nikhil Rao NoneWhich means a second admin.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, ideally. Someone on the platform team who can step in if you're off. It's a bit dull, but it's the thing that goes wrong when people move on.
- Nikhil Rao NoneI'll nominate someone. Not today.
- Siân Pritchard NonePut it on the list, Nikhil. By the end of next week, shall we say?
- Nikhil Rao NoneFine. End of next week.
- Callie Brennan NoneBrilliant. I think we've covered most of it. Let me ask a different sort of question, in case I've been too focused on the mechanics. Is there anything you're worried about that I haven't touched on? Doesn't matter how small.
- Siân Pritchard NoneI suppose, honestly, it's expectations. People have heard a lot about this. A couple of senior people think it'll answer anything on day one. I'd rather be clear that it gets better as the sources come in.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's a fair worry, and it's better said now than later. I'd suggest you describe it as wave by wave. Wave one answers about customers, contracts, calls and bills. Wave two adds the operational picture. I can give you two or three lines of wording if that helps.
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat would help a lot. Something I can put in an email to the directors without it sounding like a sales pitch.
- Callie Brennan NoneDone. Plain and honest, no adjectives.
- Siân Pritchard NoneDiolch.
- Nikhil Rao NoneMy worry is smaller. Timing. If I make the role changes mid week and you connect wave two straight after, I want a day in between to check nothing odd has happened in the load history.
- Callie Brennan NoneYes, absolutely. Build in a day. I'll write it into the plan that wave two connects the day after you confirm, never the same day.
- Nikhil Rao NoneGood.
- Callie Brennan NoneOkay, so let me read back the next steps, and shout if I've got any wrong. From me: the setup note draft to Nikhil, the exceptions view design, wording for Siân's note to the directors, and a word with Daniel about the complaints team session. All by the end of this week.
- Callie Brennan NoneFrom Siân: the role mapping with Nikhil, the sample of awkward customers, and ownership of the complaints tracker. From Nikhil: the role cleanup on the second group, the source counts, the alert addresses, a second admin nominated by the end of next week, and secrets store references for wave one.
- Nikhil Rao NoneRole cleanup is Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll say when it's tested, not before.
- Callie Brennan NoneNoted, and I won't chase before then. Siân?
- Siân Pritchard NoneThat's all right. I'd want the role mapping done before Nikhil's secrets, otherwise he'll be waiting on me. So I'll do that first, tomorrow.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's even better. Then we're looking at wave one switching on the week after next, if the setup note reads well and nothing surprises us.
- Siân Pritchard NoneAnd if something does surprise us?
- Callie Brennan NoneThen we say so, and move the date. I'd rather that than switch on a refresh I haven't checked.
- Siân Pritchard NoneGood. That's what I wanted to hear.
- Nikhil Rao NoneCan I confirm one thing on licensing? A hundred and eighty seats. Are those named users, or concurrent?
- Callie Brennan NoneNamed users, as far as I recall from the order form. I'd rather not guess, so let me check the exact wording and put it in the note. It's the sort of thing you'll want written down for the auditors anyway.
- Nikhil Rao NonePlease.
- Siân Pritchard NoneOne last thing from me, and then I'll let you go. It's the end of the day for you in London, so thank you for staying on. I think this has been the most practical conversation we've had about it.
- Callie Brennan NoneThat's kind, thank you. And honestly, it's you two who made it practical. Nikhil with the three groups, Siân with the awkward customers. That's what makes a first refresh land.
- Nikhil Rao NoneWe'll see on the refresh.
- Callie Brennan NoneHa, quite right. Let's judge it on the results.
- Callie Brennan NoneSo, I'll send a short summary this evening with what we agreed, who owns what, and the dates. If anything in it doesn't match your memory, reply and tell me, don't just let it sit.
- Siân Pritchard NoneWill do. Talk to you later in the week, then.
- Nikhil Rao NoneCheers, Callie.
- Callie Brennan NoneThanks, both. Speak soon. Bye.
- Siân Pritchard NoneHwyl fawr.
- Callie Brennan NoneSorry, still here, the recording hasn't stopped. Right, ending it now.
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