Hartside Student Living / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Hartside Student Living · 2026-04-22 12:45
Bethany Cole wants one answer for partner reviews instead of three systems. Hamza Akhtar agreed a first wave of CRM, helpdesk and accounting, then the agreements drive. Only a couple of the forty licensed users have logged in.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Bethany Cole wants one answer for partner reviews instead of three systems. Hamza Akhtar agreed a first wave of CRM, helpdesk and accounting, then the agreements drive. Only a couple of the forty licensed users have logged in.
What happened: Onboarding call on 22 Apr 2026 with Bethany Cole and Sana Rahman. They agreed connector order, owners for each step and a small pilot group.
Customer view: Bethany's test is what a university will ask at a partner review. She wants agreement terms beside the numbers and early warning of repair backlogs.
Commercial: The Growth tier has room under the connector limit and includes dashboards and alerts. Forty licensed users with only a couple active is headroom for adoption, and a successful pilot gives the story for the wider team.
Watch: IT control of Snowflake access adds days, and building tags on tickets are inconsistent. Sana is the admin and the main builder, which makes her a key person.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Onboarding scope and pilot
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- Hamza Akhtar sends IT a note on what is created, read and not read, and a list for the three connectors.
- Sana Rahman chases access with IT and runs the building tag count for the pilot university.
- Bethany Cole asks the finance lead about the accounting system and picks the first partnership managers.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Snowflake access sits with the customer's IT team, who want to know what the brain touches and may add days.
- Building tags on helpdesk tickets are inconsistent, which weakens the join to each university.
- Only a couple of the forty licensed users have logged in so far.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Dashboards and alerts on the Growth tier answer Bethany's wish to see repair backlogs before a university does.
- A successful pilot on one university gives the story to bring the wider team and licensed users on.
Transcript
Hamza Akhtar NoneHello, can you both hear me all right?
Bethany Cole NoneLoud and clear. Good afternoon, Hamza. Sana's just coming in, I can see her in the lobby.
Sana Rahman NoneHi both, sorry, I was finishing something in the other room. Afternoon. Can you see my screen yet or is it still just my face?- Hamza Akhtar NoneJust your face for now, which is fine. Right, thanks for making time over lunch. I know it's an awkward slot.
- Bethany Cole NoneIt's the only slot where the three of us aren't in a partner meeting, so we'll take it. Can I just say where my head is first? We've got the next partner review with one of our universities coming soon, and the question I keep asking is, what will the university ask?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGo on, that's useful.
- Bethany Cole NoneThey'll ask about the nomination agreement, how many beds we've filled through it, what's open with their students, and whether we're behind on anything. At the moment that's three different people and three different systems, and I don't want to turn up with a half answer. Partners first, always.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's exactly the thing we want to get to. So today I'd like to do three things. Agree which sources we connect first, agree who does what on your side, and talk about getting more people in, because you've got forty licensed users and I think only a couple of you have logged in so far.
- Sana Rahman NoneYeah, that's fair. It's basically Bethany and me poking around. I wanted to get the structure right before I let the wider team loose on it.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneSensible. Better than everyone arriving to an empty room. Sana, can I start with you? Walk me through where the nomination agreements actually live.
- Sana Rahman NoneSo the agreements themselves are documents in a shared drive, a folder per university. The status of each one, renewal dates and so on, is partly in the CRM and partly in a spreadsheet Bethany's team keeps. Which, yes, I know.
- Bethany Cole NoneIt's a good spreadsheet. It's just a spreadsheet.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneHa, no, it'll be the reason you've got a clean first load, honestly. Okay. And resident issues, the tickets, those are in the helpdesk?
- Sana Rahman NoneYes, the helpdesk. Each ticket is tagged with the building, and the building maps to a university, but the tagging is, let's say, inconsistent. Some people write the university name, some don't.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneRight, so that's a thing to flag now rather than later. The brain can join tickets to a university through the building, but only if the building field is reliable. How bad is it? Roughly.
- Sana Rahman NoneMostly fine for the big sites. Smaller ones, I'd want to check. I can run a quick count in the data and come back to you.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat would be great. And the invoices, they come from the accounting system?
- Sana Rahman NoneYes. Invoices to universities for the nomination arrangements and to some partners for services. Our finance team owns that one, so I'll need to ask them about access.
- Bethany Cole NoneI'll message our finance lead today. They'll say yes, they just like being asked properly.
- Hamza Akhtar NonePerfect. So the first wave would be the CRM, the helpdesk and the accounting system, and then the shared drive for the agreements as a second wave. You've got room under the connector limit on Growth, so there's no squeeze there.
- Sana Rahman NoneIs it worth doing the drive first? Honestly the agreements are what Bethany's team lives in.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneI can see why. My worry is that documents are the messiest source, so I'd rather prove the structured ones first and then add the agreements once we know the university names match across everything. Does that feel wrong to you, Bethany?
- Bethany Cole NoneNo, I can live with that, as long as I get the agreements in before the review. Let's bring the numbers, but I do need the agreement terms next to them.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneUnderstood. So I'll plan the drive for the week after the first three, and we'll say that out loud so it's not a surprise. Sana, you're the admin, so can I check you've got what you need on the Snowflake side?
- Sana Rahman NoneNot yet. Our IT team manage the account and they've said they'll set up the access, but they want to know exactly what the brain is going to touch. Is there something I can send them?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, I'll send a short note after this call. It says what's created in your account, what it reads, and what it doesn't. It all runs inside your Snowflake, nothing leaves, which is usually the sentence that settles it.
- Sana Rahman NoneThat'll help. They're careful, which I appreciate, but it adds days.
- Bethany Cole NoneCan I ask about the users, then? Forty licences. I'd like my university partnerships team on first, and then resident services. But I don't want the whole building arriving before it answers anything useful.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThat's the right instinct. My suggestion is a small group first, say your partnership managers, and give them one job. Pick a single university, and ask the brain the questions you'd ask before a review. If it answers well, you've got your story for everyone else.
- Bethany Cole NoneI like that. And I'd choose the one with the review coming up, obviously.
- Sana Rahman NoneWhich means I tidy the building tags for that university first and not for everyone. That's a lot less scary.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneExactly. Scope it small and make it right.
- Bethany Cole NoneOne thing I should say, in case it comes up. I never want a university to hear bad news from someone else. If the brain shows a repair backlog in one of their buildings, I want to see it before they do. Can it do that, flag things to us early?
- Hamza Akhtar NoneIt can show you open tickets by building and how old they are, so you'd spot a pile-up when you look. Alerts and dashboards come with the Growth tier, we'd set those up once the data is in and you know what you want to watch. I wouldn't promise that on day one, but it's a good second step.
- Sana Rahman NoneThat's my side of it, really. Dashboards for each partner. I can build those once I trust the joins.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneYes, and I'll show you how the dashboard builder works on the next call, so you're not learning it on your own.
- Sana Rahman NoneBrilliant. Oh, one small thing. I raised a ticket about the invitation email, it landed in junk for one of my colleagues. It was sorted, I just wanted you to know in case others hit it.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneThanks, yes, I saw it. If anyone else doesn't get theirs, check junk first and then tell me, I'll resend. Your IT team may want to allow the sender anyway.
- Bethany Cole NoneI'll pass that on. So who's doing what? Can we just say it out loud?
- Hamza Akhtar NonePlease. I'll send the note for your IT team and a short list of what I need for the three connectors. Sana, you chase the access with IT and run the building tag count for the pilot university. Bethany, you ask your finance lead about the accounting system and choose which partnership managers go on first.
- Bethany Cole NoneDone. And I'll tell Lewis and Hollie how it's going so they're not chasing us.
- Hamza Akhtar NoneGood. Hollie will pick up the check-ins once we're through onboarding, so it's worth her knowing the pilot choice. Let's speak again next week once access is sorted.
- Sana Rahman NoneSounds good. Thanks, Hamza.
- Bethany Cole NoneThanks both. Speak soon.
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