Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 16 Dec 2024 16:45
Check-in on 16 Dec 2024. The brain surfaced an unbilled lighting variation on the retail unit. Craig Ashwell sees value, usage has roughly doubled, and he wants January sessions and a project dashboard.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Check-in on 16 Dec 2024. The brain surfaced an unbilled lighting variation on the retail unit. Craig Ashwell sees value, usage has roughly doubled, and he wants January sessions and a project dashboard.
What happened: Marcus Bell ran a check-in with Craig Ashwell on 16 Dec 2024. Asked live about the retail unit, the brain found three change requests, one with no written approval.
Customer view: Craig said finding the gap before the final account was worth the money on its own. He added that his father and uncle keep asking what the firm gets for it.
Commercial: Usage is nearly six people a day against forty licensed on Growth, and the dashboards builder is barely touched. Marcus proposed a per-project dashboard and short January sessions for site managers, quantity surveyors and the bid team.
Watch: The renewal is next summer and no decision was needed. A usage summary and quarterly review early in the new year should carry a value case, including what the lighting variation recovers.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Early value proof, widening use
Importance
praise
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell to email the action list and usage summary, with the overnight refresh note, today or the next morning.
- Marcus Bell to book half an hour to build the first project dashboard with Craig and the credit control lead.
- Marcus Bell to schedule the January sessions and the first quarterly review early in the new year.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only a handful of the forty licensed users are active, so the value case rests on few people.
- The dashboards builder on Growth is barely used because nobody knew what to build.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A per-project dashboard showing instructed changes, signed approvals and valuation status, built with Craig and credit control.
- Short January sessions for site managers, quantity surveyors and the bid team to widen use within the forty licences.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello Craig, can you hear me alright?
Craig AshwellYeah, got you. Afternoon. Well, nearly evening. Sorry, I'm just coming off site, give me a second, I'm in the car park trying to find somewhere with signal.- Marcus BellNo rush at all. I've got the kettle on this end. It's absolutely chucking it down in Manchester, so I'm not complaining about being indoors.
- Craig AshwellSame here, Reading's gone grey and wet. Right, I'm in. Door's shut. Go on.
- Marcus BellBrilliant. So I'm going to share my screen in a second, and what I want to cover is just three things. How the brain's being used since you went live, anything that's been annoying you, and what we might do in the new year. Happy to jump around if you've got something more pressing.
- Craig AshwellI do, actually. Can I start with the one that's keeping me awake? It's the retail unit, the one we're finishing before Christmas. The client's been asking for changes on the walk rounds. Verbally. Moving the till point, extra lighting in the stock room, all of it.
- Marcus BellRight. And that's the sort of thing the variations side is meant to catch.
- Craig AshwellIt is, and half of it hasn't been recorded. Where's the variation? That's what I keep asking. What has the client signed? Because if there's nothing in writing, we've built it and we can't bill it.
- Marcus BellOkay. Do you want to try something now, while I've got you? If you ask the brain what's been instructed on that project and whether there's an approval attached, we can see what it pulls.
- Craig AshwellYeah, go on. I've done it myself on my phone but it's nicer to see it on a big screen.
- Marcus BellSharing now. Can you see it? It's the chat window, and I've typed in the project name and asked for any change instructions and approvals since the contract was signed.
- Craig AshwellYep, I see it. Give it a moment. It always takes a few seconds and then I panic.
- Marcus BellThere we go. So it's found three change requests. Two have an email from the client's facilities manager that looks like approval, and one is only mentioned on a call recording, no email behind it.
- Craig AshwellThat's the lighting. I knew it. We talked about it on the Thursday call and nobody wrote anything down. Can you click on the call? What does it say?
- Marcus BellSo it's quoting the bit of the transcript where the client says to go ahead with the extra lighting in the stock room, and your project manager says they'll price it. Then nothing after that in the emails.
- Craig AshwellRight. So that's the gap. We priced it, we never sent the price, and we built it. Good. Well, not good, but at least I know. That's worth the money on its own, honestly, finding that before the final account goes in.
- Marcus BellGlad it's useful. It's only showing what's in your own systems, so it's as good as what people write down, but the calls are a decent safety net when they don't.
- Craig AshwellThat's the bit I like. Nobody argues with a recording. Let's get paid for what we've built.
- Marcus BellHa, yes. Okay. Shall I carry on with the usage side, and then we'll come back to that if you want to chase it up?
- Craig AshwellYeah, yeah. Fire away.
- Marcus BellSo I've pulled the numbers. Over the last month, on a typical day, you've got nearly six people active in the brain. That's roughly double what you had in the previous quarter, so it's moved a lot since the first weeks after go-live.
- Craig AshwellNearly six. Hm. Is that good? It sounds low when you say it out loud.
- Marcus BellIt's good in direction, and I'll be straight about the other half as well. You've got forty licensed users on Growth, so there's a lot of room. But doubling in a quarter is what you want to see, and it's not people logging in and bouncing. They're asking real questions.
- Craig AshwellWho's asking them? Is it just me?
- Marcus BellIt's not just you, which is the good news. You're the heaviest user, I won't pretend otherwise, but there are a couple of project managers, someone in what looks like credit control, and a commercial person who's in most days.
- Craig AshwellThat'll be the credit control lady and our senior QS. They've both taken to it. The credit team ask it which valuations are still unpaid and what was instructed on the job, and then they ring the client with the answer in front of them.
- Marcus BellThat's exactly the use you described at the start, so the projects, the variations and the invoices in one place. It's nice to see it actually happening.
- Craig AshwellIt's changed the tone of those calls. Before, they'd ring and the client would say, oh, I'll have to check, and then three weeks go by. Now they say, here's the instruction, here's the date. Short sentences.
- Marcus BellMm. Yeah. Short sentences get paid quicker, in my experience.
- Craig AshwellEvery time.
- Marcus BellCan I ask about the rest of the licences? Forty seats, and you've got a handful of regulars. Who else is there at Ashwell Mercer who'd get value and just hasn't been shown it?
- Craig AshwellSite managers, mostly. And the rest of the quantity surveyors. And the two bid people, they'd love to see what we've actually delivered for a landlord before they write the next tender.
- Marcus BellThat's a good one. Bid teams tend to like it because they can ask what a past project really cost against what was priced. I'd think about that group first.
- Craig AshwellThe site managers are the harder sell, honestly. They're on their phones, they're covered in dust, they don't want another login. They want somebody to tell them what's been agreed.
- Marcus BellSure. That's fair. What if it wasn't a login they have to think about? Some customers get a short session where I show people three questions to ask, and that's it. Not a training course. Twenty minutes with the kettle on.
- Craig AshwellThree questions I can sell. What's been instructed, what's been signed, what's unpaid.
- Marcus BellThat's pretty much it, yeah. You've just written the session.
- Craig AshwellHa. Cheaper than a consultant.
- Marcus BellRight, so let me note that. A short session for site managers and the quantity surveyors, and maybe a separate one for the bid people. I'll come back to dates in a second.
- Craig AshwellNot before Christmas. The whole site operation's winding down, everybody's on the final fix, and I need them on the job. January.
- Marcus BellJanuary's perfect. Nobody's in the mood before then anyway.
- Craig AshwellExactly.
- Marcus BellOkay, now the second thing I wanted to ask. Have there been any problems? I've looked on my side and I can't see any tickets from you at all in the last month, which is either lovely or suspicious.
- Craig AshwellLovely. Honestly. It's been quiet. I'd have shouted if something was wrong, you know I would.
- Marcus BellI do know that. I just like to ask. Does the data look fresh when people open it in the morning? Because a couple of people have told me before that their first question of the day is the one that matters.
- Craig AshwellIt's there when I get in. I'm usually at my desk by half seven and it's up to date. The one thing, and it's not a fault, is that sometimes the QS asks about something that happened yesterday afternoon and it isn't there, and I have to remind her it refreshes overnight.
- Marcus BellYeah, that's how it's designed. The refresh runs overnight and should be done before the working day, so yesterday afternoon's emails will be in by the morning, but not by that evening. I'll put a line in the guide I'm sending so she's not caught out.
- Craig AshwellGood. Put it in big letters.
- Marcus BellWill do. Okay, third thing. Dashboards. You've got the dashboards builder on Growth and I can see, at the moment, it's barely been touched. Is that deliberate or is it just that nobody's had a minute?
- Craig AshwellNobody's had a minute. And I wasn't sure what to build. I looked at it and it was a blank page, and I'm a commercial director, I'm not a data person.
- Marcus BellSure. Can I suggest one? Based on what you've told me today, I'd build a single view per live project. Instructed changes down the left, whether there's a signed approval next to each, and then the valuation status. Basically your three questions, as a table.
- Craig AshwellWhere's the variation, what's been signed, what's unpaid. On one page.
- Craig AshwellI would literally have that on the wall in the office. Every Monday, we go through it. Anything red, somebody owns it.
- Marcus BellThat's a proper use. I'd be happy to jump on a call and build the first version with you or whoever you want to nominate. It's not hard, it's mostly knowing what to click. Shall we book half an hour?
- Craig AshwellYes. But get the credit control lady on it as well, not just me. She'll know what she wants to see better than I do. I'd only put things on it that make me feel clever.
- Marcus BellHa, no, fair. I'll suggest we include her. And I'll keep the first one deliberately simple so you've got something up before it gets complicated.
- Craig AshwellSimple is good. I'll give you a thing for free: I'm impatient. If it takes more than a couple of clicks, it won't get used.
- Marcus BellNoted, and I've written that down as a design requirement.
- Craig AshwellPut it in bold.
- Marcus BellOkay. Let me just scroll to the contract side, because I always like to say it out loud so we're both looking at the same thing. You're on Growth, forty licensed users, thirty nine thousand six hundred pounds a year. That matches the order form and it matches what's been invoiced, so nothing odd there.
- Craig AshwellRight. Yeah. That's what I've got in my head as well. I'll be honest, I don't get involved in the invoices. If you want to talk about cash or payment, that's for our finance team, I don't do cash without them in the room.
- Marcus BellNo, that's absolutely fine, I wasn't going there. Nothing's outstanding on our side, so there's no chasing either. I just wanted you to know what the numbers said.
- Craig AshwellGood. Good. Nothing to chase is the best news you can give me.
- Marcus BellAnd the renewal's not until next summer, so there's no decision needed from you now. What I'd like is to do a proper review with you in the new year. As Growth, you're entitled to a quarterly review, and the first one's due. I'd bring the usage trend and a few examples of questions people have asked, so you've got a bit of evidence of what it's been worth.
- Craig AshwellThat's good, because I'll want something to show the family. My dad and my uncle keep asking what we're getting for it. And now I can say, well, we found a variation we hadn't billed.
- Marcus BellExactly. That's a very good example, actually. If you can tell me roughly what that lighting change turns out to be worth once you've priced and sent it, I'd love to include it. No pressure, no numbers I need today.
- Craig AshwellLet me get it priced first. If we recover it, I'll tell you. Might be a few weeks.
- Marcus BellOf course. Whenever. Okay, one more thing I was going to raise, and it's more of a question. Is there anything you wish the brain did that it doesn't? Anything you've tried to ask and it's given you a blank?
- Craig AshwellHmm. Honestly, it's when the answer is in somebody's head. Or on a WhatsApp group. The site managers do half their deals on a group chat and that's never going to be in there.
- Marcus BellYeah. That one's tricky, and I'm not going to promise anything on it, it's outside what's connected today. What I'd say is the more of those conversations that move into email or onto the recorded calls, the more it can see.
- Craig AshwellWhich is a polite way of saying tell the site managers to stop using WhatsApp.
- Marcus BellI'd never say that. But I'd also not stop you.
- Craig AshwellHa. Fair. I'll have a word. A gentle one. Every site has one lad who just won't write anything down.
- Marcus BellThere's always one. Right, I think we're in a good place. Let me read back what I've got, and tell me if I've got any of it wrong.
- Marcus BellOne. You're going to price and send the lighting variation on the retail unit, and let me know what it ends up being worth when you've got it. Two. I'm going to send you a short usage summary, with the line about the overnight refresh in big letters, and the three questions for site managers. Three. We'll book half an hour to build the first project dashboard, with you and the credit control lady. Four. Short sessions for site managers, quantity surveyors and the bid people, in January. And five, the quarterly review early in the new year.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. That's all of it. Can you send me the list in an email so I don't have to remember?
- Marcus BellThat's what I was going to do. Today or first thing tomorrow.
- Craig AshwellPerfect. And I'll send you the names of the site managers and the QS team so you can sort the access out. It'll be a few more people. I don't want to hold you up.
- Marcus BellGreat, that's plenty of room on forty, and we can talk about anyone else when you're ready. No rush on the names, the new year's fine.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Right. I'm freezing, I'm going to get in the car and put the heater on. Thanks, Marcus. This was actually useful, which I wasn't expecting from a check-in.
- Marcus BellHa, I'll take that. Good luck with the handover on the retail unit, and have a good Christmas when it comes.
- Craig AshwellYou too. Enjoy the rain. Speak soon.
- Marcus BellCheers Craig. Bye for now.
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