Brackwell Freight Ltd / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd · 30 Sep 2026 15:30
At the 30 Sep 2026 QBR Gareth Whitlam again asked what £44k a year buys with under four of forty users active. One analyst carries the brain, and he is not minded to agree any increase without a line-by-line reason.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026At the 30 Sep 2026 QBR Gareth Whitlam again asked what £44k a year buys with under four of forty users active. One analyst carries the brain, and he is not minded to agree any increase without a line-by-line reason.
What happened: Marcus Bell showed under four active people a day, about a third down on the previous quarter. Aisha Rahman, the heaviest user, now looks after connectors and users alone since the previous admin left.
Customer view: Gareth accepted the Tuesday review is useful but said half a day a week is not worth £44k. He asked for the contract terms set out plainly.
Commercial: He asked Marcus to tell Tom Ashdown he will not agree any increase without a reason he can justify. Marcus offered a depot dashboard and a usage review before renewal on 1 Dec 2026.
Watch: Key-person dependence on Aisha, and the dashboards builder not yet serving depot managers.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage and renewal value
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- Marcus Bell pulls usage by team and depot, runs the depot session and sends the order form summary.
- Aisha Rahman sends Marcus the list of depots that matter most for retail contracts by the end of the week.
- Marcus passes Gareth's no-increase position to Tom Ashdown in writing today.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Under four of forty licensed users are active, and the number is about a third down on the previous quarter.
- Aisha Rahman is the heaviest user and sole admin, so the brain goes quiet without her.
- The Finance Director will not agree any increase at the 1 Dec 2026 renewal without a line-by-line reason.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Build a depot dashboard with the depot account managers using the Growth dashboards builder.
- Re-train the next group of users so the brain is embedded beyond the Tuesday operations review.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right? I'm just letting people in.
Aisha RahmanYes, I can hear you. Hi Marcus. Sorry, I'm in the small meeting room, so tell me if I echo.- Marcus BellNo, you're fine, clear as anything. Good afternoon. Gareth, are you with us?
Gareth WhitlamI'm here. Slightly late, I had a supplier on the line. Afternoon.- Marcus BellNo problem at all. Right, I'll share my screen in a second. What I want to cover today is how the brain has been used since the last review, what's working, what isn't, and then what we do between now and the renewal. Happy to be steered, though. It's your hour.
- Gareth WhitlamBefore you start. I've read the pack you sent on Monday. I've read the order form. What I haven't found is anything that tells me what we get for the money. So I'd like to start there, if that's all right.
- Marcus BellYes, that's fair, and I think the usage page is the honest place to start, so I'll put it up. Can you see it? It's the Growth dashboard for Brackwell.
- Gareth WhitlamI can see a chart going the wrong way.
- Marcus BellIt is, and I'm not going to dress it up. You're licensed for forty users. Over the last month the number of people actually active on an average day has been under four. And that's about a third down on the previous quarter.
- Gareth WhitlamForty seats and fewer than four people. Say that again so I'm sure I've heard it. What exactly are we paying for?
- Marcus BellYou're paying for the Growth subscription, which is £44k a year, and that covers the connectors, the dashboards builder and the quarterly reviews like this one. But your question is really whether the use justifies it, and on those numbers I'd understand why you're asking.
- Gareth WhitlamGood. Then we're agreed on the question. Show me the usage. Who are the four?
- Marcus BellSo, mm, if I click through to the by-user view. Aisha is the heaviest by some distance. Then a couple of people in revenue operations, and one account manager from the Trafford Park depot who dips in. After that it's a long tail of people who logged in once and haven't come back.
- Aisha RahmanSorry, can I just flag something? I think that's roughly right, but I don't think it's because people don't want it. I mean, I'm not sure why they've stopped. I haven't asked them properly.
- Gareth WhitlamThen somebody should. Aisha, how much of your week is the brain?
- Aisha RahmanHonestly, quite a lot. The Tuesday operations review runs off it, so every Monday I check the refresh has landed and that the delivery exception numbers look right. And since the previous admin left it's just me looking after the connectors and the user list. I've tried to learn it as I go.
- Gareth WhitlamSo one analyst is carrying a product we bought for forty people.
- Aisha RahmanI wouldn't put it like that. It does help. The review is quicker than it was. Is it me or is that a slightly different question from the one you're asking?
- Gareth WhitlamIt's a fair correction. Carry on.
- Marcus BellCan I add something, because I think Aisha's undersold it. Of the questions asked in the brain this quarter, a big share come from her and the Tuesday review. That's good, it's real value, but it's also what I'd call a key-person issue. If Aisha's on leave, the brain more or less goes quiet.
- Gareth WhitlamThat's your polite way of saying it's not embedded.
- Marcus BellYes. It's not embedded across the depots. I'd rather say that to you now than have you find it in a budget meeting.
- Gareth WhitlamAppreciated. It doesn't change the sum, though. Let me ask differently. If we switched it off on 30 Nov 2026, what would stop working? Name one thing.
- Marcus BellOne thing. The Tuesday review would go back to being built by hand from the CRM, the helpdesk export and the call notes. Aisha, how long did that take before?
- Aisha RahmanA good half a day. Sometimes more, because the numbers never matched between systems and I'd spend an hour working out which one was wrong.
- Gareth WhitlamHalf a day a week for one person. I can do that arithmetic. It isn't forty-four thousand pounds.
- Marcus BellNo, it isn't, not on its own. And I won't try to make it so. The case for the brain was never one analyst's half day. It was that the depot account managers would see accounts, delivery exceptions and calls together and catch a retail contract going wrong early. That's the part that hasn't happened, and that's the part I think we should talk about.
- Gareth WhitlamGo on.
- Marcus BellTwo reasons, from what I can see. One, the people who were trained when you joined us have moved or changed role, and nobody re-trained the next group. Two, the dashboards. There's a handful built, and they're good, but nobody's added one for the depot managers' own view. So they log in, don't see their depot, and leave.
- Aisha RahmanThat's true. I did try to build one for Trafford Park, but I wasn't sure which fields they'd want, and I didn't want to guess.
- Marcus BellAnd that's the right instinct, don't guess. It's something I can help with. Happy to jump on a call with the depot managers and build it with them in the room.
- Gareth WhitlamLet me stop you there. A feature list is not an answer. You're telling me there's a possible fix. I'm asking whether I should be paying before there's evidence the fix works.
- Marcus BellYes, understood. And I'll be straight: pricing and what the renewal looks like is Tom Ashdown's side, not mine, and I don't want to speak for him. What I can do is make the usage case honest and give you something to measure.
- Gareth WhitlamThen let me put this on the record for Tom. I'm not minded to agree to any increase on this contract without a reason I can justify line by line. Please tell him that.
- Marcus BellI will. I'll write it up today, in those words, so there's no filtering.
- Gareth WhitlamThank you. Now, the other thing. How many tickets have we raised? I saw a figure in the pack but I'd like it from you.
- Marcus BellOne in the last month. And none of the urgent kind. It was a how-to question, from Aisha, and it was answered within the target for your tier.
- Gareth WhitlamOne ticket from a product with forty seats. Is that good or bad?
- Marcus BellFair challenge. Normally I'd say few tickets and lots of users is a healthy sign. Few tickets and few users is just quiet. In your case I think it's quiet, and I don't want to pretend otherwise.
- Aisha RahmanCan I add, just flagging, that during the outage in July I raised several, because the Tuesday review ran on stale figures. So it's not that nothing's gone wrong. It's more that it's been fine since.
- Gareth WhitlamI remember the email. Fine. Are the invoices up to date, Marcus? Nothing overdue on our side?
- Marcus BellNothing overdue. Invoiced and contracted line up at £44,000 a year, so there's no discrepancy for you to chase on that.
- Gareth WhitlamThat's one thing I won't have to ask finance about. Now, what do you want from us in the next two months? Be specific.
- Marcus BellThree things, and I'll put them in the follow-up email as bullets. First, I pull the numbers by team and by depot, so you can see exactly where the forty seats sit and who's active. Second, I run a session with the depot account managers and build the depot view with them. Third, we sit down again once that's been live a few weeks and look at whether the usage has moved.
- Gareth WhitlamAnd if it hasn't moved?
- Marcus BellThen you'll have a clear picture before the renewal on 1 Dec 2026, and you can decide on the evidence. I'd rather you made that choice with the facts than let it roll over without anyone looking.
- Gareth WhitlamThat's the first thing you've said today I fully agree with. Aisha, can you give Marcus a list of which depots matter most for the retail contracts? I don't want him training people who don't touch those accounts.
- Aisha RahmanYes, of course. I can do that by the end of the week. I'll ask the depot managers who'd actually use it, rather than guessing.
- Marcus BellThat would be brilliant, thanks Aisha. And honestly, if there's anything on the admin side you're unsure of, send it to me. You shouldn't be left alone with it.
- Aisha RahmanThank you. I appreciate that. I'll send you the list and a screenshot of the current dashboard so we're looking at the same thing.
- Gareth WhitlamOne last point from me. I'd like what's in the contract set out plainly, line by line, so I can see what the forty-four thousand covers. Not a brochure. The actual terms.
- Marcus BellYes. I'll send you the order form summary: tier, users, connectors, service levels, what's included. And I'll ask Tom to follow up with you directly on anything commercial.
- Gareth WhitlamGood. Then I think we're done. Thank you, both.
- Marcus BellThanks, Gareth. Thanks, Aisha. I'll get that email out to you both today. Speak soon.
- Aisha RahmanThanks, Marcus. Bye both.
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