Brimscombe Energy / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Brimscombe Energy · 4 Mar 2025 13:45
Onboarding call on 4 Mar 2025 agreeing connector waves, access steps and a before-and-after baseline. Siân Pritchard must justify the £115k contract at her first review and wants a small first user group.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 4 Mar 2025 agreeing connector waves, access steps and a before-and-after baseline. Siân Pritchard must justify the £115k contract at her first review and wants a small first user group.
What happened: Callie Brennan set the connector list against the Enterprise limit of twenty connectors and proposed three waves. Siân asked for complaints to move up because of regulator deadlines, and it moves up if the sample rows look workable.
Customer view: Siân wants a timed baseline for assembling complaint cases and a small first group rather than wide licensing. She has to justify the £115k contract at the first review.
Watch: The billing extract runs late at month end against the 07:00 refresh target, and Nikhil Rao has not yet given timings. He also doubts the customer key matches between the CRM and billing.
Commercial: An extra block of five connectors was mentioned only as a later option. SSO and SCIM are in scope, and the request to the customer's IT team is still to be drafted.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding plan and value baseline
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Nikhil Rao grants the role on Wednesday or Thursday and confirms role name, schemas and warehouse in writing.
- Siân Pritchard sends the first group's names by Friday and has team leaders time a few cases for the baseline.
- Callie Brennan sends the written connector plan, the one-page SSO and SCIM request and a first draft of the setup note.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The billing extract runs slowly at month end and could miss the 07:00 nightly refresh target.
- The customer key may differ between the CRM and billing, which would break the joins the three teams want.
- Siân must show evidence of value for the £115,000 contract at the first review.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- An extra block of five connectors could follow once the core sources earn their place.
- A wider rollout beyond the first small group if the before-and-after baseline shows value.
- Complaints data may move into wave one if the sample rows map cleanly.
Transcript
Callie BrennanHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right? I've got the recorder going, so it'll say so in a moment.
Siân PritchardYes, loud and clear. Good afternoon, Callie.
Nikhil RaoAfternoon. I can hear you. Camera's off, I'm on a laptop with a load running in the background.- Callie BrennanThat's fine, no pressure on the camera. How's the week been? Is it as grey in Gloucester as it is here?
- Siân PritchardGrey and wet, yes. It's been the sort of Tuesday where everyone's already looking at Friday. But busy in a good way. The complaints team had a long queue this morning, so I'm glad we've got this slot.
- Callie BrennanLovely. Right, so, the plan for the next fifty minutes, if that works for you. First, I want to agree the order we connect your sources, because I know there are a lot. Second, access: what I need from your side is the roles and the written go-ahead, before we switch on the refresh. Third, how the nightly refresh sits against Nikhil's own loads. And last, who owns what once I step back. Does that look right?
- Siân PritchardThat's the right list. Can I add one thing at the end? I'd like us to talk about what the three teams will ask first, because I've got to show what this is worth, and let's measure it before we claim it.
- Callie BrennanAbsolutely, we'll put it as item five. Nikhil, you open, what's the state of play on your side?
- Nikhil RaoShort version. I created a dedicated role in the Snowflake account last week, read access on the schemas we agreed, nothing wider. I checked the load history for the last fortnight so we know when the big loads land. Most finish well before six. One doesn't, the billing extract, that's slower at month end.
- Callie BrennanThat's really useful, thank you. So the billing extract is the one to watch. Do you know roughly how late it runs at month end?
- Nikhil RaoI'd rather not guess. I'll pull the timings and put them in writing. Last time I answered that from memory I was wrong by a good margin.
- Callie BrennanPerfect, that's what I'd want. Because the nightly refresh has to be complete by seven in the morning on business days, and I'd like to be sure the billing data is in before then, or that we agree what we do when it isn't.
- Siân PritchardWhich matters to us more than you'd think. Collections start their day with the overnight picture. If the bills are a day behind, they chase a customer who's already paid.
- Callie BrennanRight, understood. So that one goes near the top for testing. Let me share my screen and show you the connector list as I've got it. Give me a second.
- Callie BrennanCan you see that? It's the sheet with every source you mentioned at the kickoff, one row each, and a column for the owner and a column for the date.
- Nikhil RaoI see it. There are more rows than I expected.
- Callie BrennanYes, because you said twenty-odd sources and I wrote down everything. The Enterprise plan includes twenty connectors. So some of these either wait, or we talk about an extra block of five later. I'm not pushing that, I just want it on the table.
- Siân PritchardUnderstood. I'd rather start with what earns its place and add later. Not everything in that sheet needs to be in the brain on day one.
- Nikhil RaoAgreed. Some of those are legacy extracts that I'd like to retire anyway. No point connecting something I'm about to switch off.
- Callie BrennanThat's a good filter. So, three waves, if we go that way. Wave one is the core: the CRM, the billing system and the call recorder, because that's what lets a key-account manager see one business customer with its sites, contracts and bills. Wave two is the helpdesk and the complaints records. Wave three is whatever's left after Nikhil's tidy-up.
- Siân PritchardWhere do complaints sit? Because for me complaints are not wave two. That's the thing with a deadline attached. If a complaint answer is late, the regulator doesn't care that we were in wave two.
- Callie BrennanFair challenge. What would it take to bring it into wave one? Is the complaints data in the same system as the helpdesk, or separate?
- Siân PritchardSeparate. It's a case management tool that the complaints team own. Nikhil, you've got the extract for it already, haven't you?
- Nikhil RaoI have an extract. It lands in its own schema. Whether it's clean enough is another question, there's a free-text field that people have been using for three different things.
- Callie BrennanHa, I've met that field before. Can you send me a handful of rows? Not the real customer data, just the shape, with the sensitive columns masked. I'll tell you whether that maps cleanly or whether we need a rule for it.
- Nikhil RaoI'll mask it myself and put it in the shared folder. Not by email.
- Callie BrennanPlease, yes, not by email. That actually leads me into access. Can I check I've understood your process? You create the role, and I get the role name, and nothing else.
- Nikhil RaoCorrect. Role name, the schemas it can read, and the warehouse it uses. No credentials in a message, ever. Which role has access is a question I'd like anybody on the audit side to be able to answer from one page.
- Siân PritchardAnd that's the page that the auditors will ask for, so thank you. It's the bit I get nervous about. Everyone's excited about the questions and nobody wants to write the access note.
- Callie BrennanWhich is exactly why I write one for every customer. A setup note: what's connected, with which role, who approved it, and when. I never hand over without it. Nikhil, would you want to review it before it goes to the wider team?
- Nikhil RaoYes. And I want it to say plainly what the brain can't see. Anything that's not in scope should be listed as not in scope.
- Callie BrennanGood, I'll add a section for that. Right, so before I start any connector I need your written access confirmation. I won't touch a source on a verbal yes, however sure we all are.
- Nikhil RaoI'd expect nothing less. I'll confirm in writing once the role is granted, and I'll do the grants on Wednesday or Thursday. Not Friday. I don't change production on a Friday.
- Siân PritchardHe really doesn't. We've all learnt that.
- Nikhil RaoIt's saved us more than once.
- Callie BrennanSensible. So Thursday for the grants, and then I can begin wave one the following Monday. Let me note that. Sorry, one moment, I'm typing.
- Callie BrennanRight, got it. Now, SSO. It's in your plan, and it's in the security review support we're giving you as part of the implementation. Who's the person on your side for the identity provider? Is that you, Nikhil?
- Nikhil RaoNo. That's a colleague in IT. I can introduce you but I won't speak for them. They'll want the request in writing, and they'll want to know whether you're using group provisioning, SCIM, or just login.
- Callie BrennanBoth, ideally. SSO for login and SCIM so that when someone leaves, their access goes with them. That's something I'd want in place before the wider rollout, not after.
- Siân PritchardYes. We have a lot of people on short contracts in collections over the winter, so joiners and leavers are not a hypothetical for us.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood. I'll draft the request for IT and you can send it on. It's one page. And while we're on users, you've got one hundred and eighty licences. Who's going to be in the first group?
- Siân PritchardSmall, to begin with. A dozen or so, maybe slightly more. Key-account managers, a couple of people from collections, and the two team leaders from complaints. Nikhil and me. I'd rather ten people use it properly than a hundred and eighty have a login.
- Callie BrennanI'd say that's the right call. A small group finds the awkward things quickly, and they become the people who show everyone else. Would you pick them, or should I suggest?
- Siân PritchardI'll pick. I know who asks questions and who just wants a report. I'll send you the names by Friday, if that's fine, and who they report to.
- Callie BrennanThat's more than fine. Right, let me go back to the sheet, because I want to fix the dates against wave one. Bear with me.
- Callie BrennanOkay. Here's what I'd propose. CRM first, because that's your account and contact backbone, and everything else hangs off it. Then billing, with Nikhil's month-end timings in hand. Then the call recorder. Each one gets its own first load and a check of record counts against what you expect, before I move to the next.
- Nikhil RaoWho does the count check? Me or you?
- Callie BrennanBoth, ideally. I'll show you what the brain has indexed, and you tell me whether that matches the source. You're the one who knows what the right number looks like. I don't, and I'd rather not pretend.
- Nikhil RaoFine. I'll run my own counts first so I'm not just agreeing with what I see on your screen.
- Siân PritchardThat's the right way round, I think. One customer, one view, but only if the view is right.
- Callie BrennanYes. And a flat record count over several days is the first sign something's gone stale, so we'll watch for that in the first weeks, not just at the start.
- Siân PritchardCan I ask the practical question? When do my teams actually get to ask something? Because I've said to the managing director that we'd have something to show soon, and I don't want to be vague.
- Callie BrennanFair. Without making a promise I can't back up: once the CRM and billing have loaded and checked, the first group can start asking about a business customer's sites, contracts and bills. That's the first useful moment. I'd call it a few weeks, and I'll give you a date in the written plan, not on this call.
- Siân PritchardThat's honest, thank you. I'd rather have a real date later than an optimistic one now.
- Callie BrennanGood. Now item five, your list. What would the three teams ask first?
- Siân PritchardKey accounts want to know, for a business customer, every site and its contract end, plus anything open with complaints. Collections want to know who's behind on payment and whether they've called us recently. Complaints want to see the whole history for a customer before they write a response, so nobody's answering from half the picture.
- Nikhil RaoThose are three different joins across the same customer key. Which means the customer key has to be right. I want to check that the key is consistent between the CRM and billing before we load anything, because I know it isn't, always.
- Callie BrennanThat's a really good catch, and I'd rather find it now. Could you send me ten or so customers where you know the key differs? Then I can see what the mapping rule has to do.
- Nikhil RaoYes. I'll mask them like the complaints rows, same folder.
- Siân PritchardAnd for measurement, I'd like us to agree one thing in advance. What do the complaint handlers do today, how long does it take them to assemble a case, so that we can compare it afterwards. Otherwise I'm just telling a story.
- Callie BrennanI love that. We can do a baseline with a handful of cases: time to assemble the history, and what they had to look in. I'd not trust a single number, but a before and after on the same type of case is solid.
- Siân PritchardI'll ask the team leaders to time a few this week, before anyone has seen the brain.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Is there anything that worries either of you about the plan? Now's the time.
- Nikhil RaoThe billing timing. And that people will treat the brain as the source of truth the first week and then be annoyed when it's a day behind on something. It's a copy, with a schedule. I'd want that said clearly to the users.
- Callie BrennanI'll put a line in the user note about when each source was last refreshed, so people can see it. And I'll make sure the admin view shows it to you.
- Siân PritchardMy worry is smaller and more human. That the teams will ask the brain something, get an answer they don't like, and decide it's wrong without checking. What does the record say? That's what I keep asking them, and I want the answers to show where they came from.
- Callie BrennanThey do show their sources, so people can click through. I'll walk the first group through that in the training, so that checking becomes a habit from the first day.
- Siân PritchardGood. Because the contract's a hundred and fifteen thousand pounds a year, £115,000, and I'll have to justify it at the first review. I want evidence in hand, not enthusiasm.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood, and that's what the baseline is for. Okay. Let me read back what we've agreed, and you tell me if I've got anything wrong.
- Callie BrennanOne. Nikhil grants the role on Wednesday or Thursday and confirms in writing, with role name, schemas and warehouse. Two. Nikhil puts masked complaint rows and the mismatched customer keys in the shared folder, plus the billing extract timings. Three. Siân sends the first group's names by Friday. Four. Siân's team leaders time a few cases for the baseline. Five. I send the written connector plan with dates, the one-page SSO and SCIM request for IT, and a first draft of the setup note. Six. Wave one starts the Monday after the grants, CRM, then billing, then the call recorder, counts checked by Nikhil each time.
- Nikhil RaoAdd that complaints moves up if the rows look workable. Otherwise that's right.
- Callie BrennanYes, thank you. Complaints moves up pending the sample. I'll mark that as a decision for next week.
- Siân PritchardThat's my understanding too. And I'm happy, genuinely. It's the first time anyone's put a plan in front of me that I can actually check against.
- Callie BrennanThat's kind, and I'll hold myself to it. Last thing, so you know how I work: by the end of this I want Nikhil to be able to run the refresh and read the load status without calling me. If you're ever relying on me to explain it, I've not done my job.
- Nikhil RaoGood. I'll hold you to that too.
- Callie BrennanPlease do. Thanks, both. I'll send the plan this afternoon, and we'll speak again once the grants are in. Speak soon.
- Siân PritchardDiolch, Callie. Speak soon.
- Nikhil RaoCheers. Talk next week.
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