Ardcarne Life Assurance / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callscheduled
Ardcarne Life Assurance · 19 Oct 2026 08:15
Onboarding kickoff with Ardcarne Life Assurance, hosted by Ollie Pearson, is booked for 19 Oct 2026 at 08:15 for 60 minutes. It is after the as-of date of 9 Oct 2026, so it is a plan and its outcome is not described.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding kickoff with Ardcarne Life Assurance, hosted by Ollie Pearson, is booked for 19 Oct 2026 at 08:15 for 60 minutes. It is after the as-of date of 9 Oct 2026, so it is a plan and its outcome is not described.
What is booked: an onboarding kickoff hosted by Ollie Pearson, BG-Demo Implementation Consultant, with Niamh Costello, Chief Data Officer at Ardcarne Life Assurance, as the customer participant listed.
Status: the call is dated 19 Oct 2026, after the as-of date of 9 Oct 2026. It is booked, not held, so nothing said on it is treated as fact.
Watch: review the record once the call has taken place. Until then the evidence shows no customer view, risk or commercial signal from this call.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding kickoff booked
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
neutral
Voice
unknown
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Ollie Pearson to hold the kickoff on 19 Oct 2026 and the account team to review the record afterwards.
Call prep
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026The second booked onboarding call, three weeks into an Enterprise term at £125k a year. Questions are rising, but 0 of 20 connectors are configured and use leans on Niamh Costello. The call should turn the extract answer into a dated first connector group.
Context: The assessment status is Healthy, but value is not yet shown. The policy administration extract decides the first connector group and the first view date, and Declan Furlong, the CISO, must agree each connection.
Approach: Ollie Pearson should start from whatever the 13 Oct 2026 call left open, which the records do not show. Confirm the extract answer and the broker CRM admin, then fix dates for the first group.
Approach, continued: Check that Declan has the exit plan test evidence, the July 2026 outage note and the control mapping evidence. Then raise the duplicate broker records ticket and widening use beyond Niamh.
Watch for: Niamh has said she is nervous and wants early, honest warning if usage lags. Give her plain dates and say what is still open, rather than reassurance. She does not sign, so her standing with Ronan Tierney and finance rests on visible progress.
Booked
Updated 9 Oct 26Date2026-10-19
Time08:15
Typeonboarding
Statusscheduled
Callsmade from
Transcript
Elena NovakGood afternoon, everyone. Can you all hear me? I am dialling in from Amsterdam, so if my connection drops, please tell me.
Niamh CostelloGood afternoon, Elena. We hear you well. Declan is just taking a seat, I believe.
Declan FurlongI'm here. Good afternoon. Apologies, I was finishing a call with a colleague in IT.
Ollie PearsonAfternoon all. Ollie here, from the implementation side. It's good to finally put faces to names. Elena's told me a lot about the review you've been through.- Niamh CostelloHa. I hope it was kind. How was your weekend, Ollie? Ours was mostly spent trying to get a Monday that wasn't full of meetings. We did not succeed.
- Ollie PearsonQuiet, thanks. I did some gardening and then it rained. So a fairly typical Sunday.
- Elena NovakThank you. If I may, I will begin with the agenda that I emailed beforehand. There are five parts. First, the outcome you want and how we will recognise it. Second, the plan and the connectors, in order. Third, the owners on both sides. Fourth, the security conditions that carry over from the review. And fifth, how we will work together in the first weeks. Is that acceptable?
- Niamh CostelloThat's exactly what I'd hoped for. And if it's alright, I'll start with the business outcome, then the plan. I find it easier for everyone.
- Elena NovakPlease, Niamh.
- Niamh CostelloThank you. The reason we bought this is that broker distribution and customer service each hold part of the picture of every broker firm, and neither sees the other's part. A broker rings customer service about a policy and the person answering doesn't know what distribution agreed with them last month. And distribution doesn't know what that firm has been complaining about. So what I want is one view of each broker firm that both teams work from. Not a report. A view they actually use.
- Ollie PearsonThat's clear, and it's useful to hear it in your words, because it shapes which sources come first. When you say one view of each broker firm, is the firm the unit, rather than the individual broker?
- Niamh CostelloThe firm. Individuals matter, but the firm is what the commercial relationship hangs on. What does good look like for the brokers? It looks like not having to repeat themselves. And for us, it looks like someone in customer service being able to ask a plain question and get an answer that distribution would agree with.
- Elena NovakTo confirm, then, the first success measure is that both teams ask questions of the same view and trust the answers. I will write that down as the outcome, in your words, and we will return to it at each checkpoint.
- Niamh CostelloPlease do. And let's not over-engineer it. I would rather have a small thing working in a few weeks than a grand design in the spring.
- Ollie PearsonUnderstood, and that fits how I like to run it. So let me lay out the plan. It's in stages. Stage one is access and the foundations: the brain is built inside your own Snowflake account, so the first job is agreeing how we get in, with which service accounts and which permissions. Nothing is loaded until Declan's team is happy with that.
- Declan FurlongI am very glad that is the order. May I ask what exactly you will need? I would like the list before anyone requests it.
- Ollie PearsonOf course. A dedicated database and schema in your Snowflake account, a service account for the brain, and a role with the minimum rights it needs. I'll write it up as a one-page request so your team can approve it against your own policy. I'd rather you gave me less and we extended it than the other way round.
- Declan FurlongLeast privilege, then. Good. And the logging of that account's activity?
- Ollie PearsonIt's visible to you in Snowflake's own access history, which is yours, not ours. I'll point your team to where it sits, so you aren't relying on a report from us.
- Declan FurlongThat is the right answer.
- Ollie PearsonStage two is the first connectors. In line with what Niamh described, I'd start with your CRM, because that's where the broker firms live, and the helpdesk, because that's where customer service's side of the story lives. Between them you'd already have a view of each firm that combines relationship and service. That's a small thing that works.
- Niamh CostelloThat sounds right. I would put the call recorder after those, if at all in the first phase. Distribution does record broker calls, but I'd want the pilot proven before we bring in conversations.
- Ollie PearsonAgreed, and it's sensible to hold that back, particularly because call content needs its own conversation with Declan. Stage three is where we'd look at it, once the first two are loading cleanly and people are using them.
- Declan FurlongI would want to see a data protection assessment of the call content before it is connected. I raise it now so that it is not a surprise later.
- Elena NovakI will note that as a condition. To confirm, the call recorder connector will not be started until Declan has seen the assessment and agreed in writing. I will make sure that it is on the plan as a gate, not as a task.
- Declan FurlongThank you, Elena. That is exactly how I want it recorded.
- Niamh CostelloCan I ask about timing, Ollie? I never accept vague timelines, as Elena may already have learned. What does stage one and two look like in terms of weeks?
- Ollie PearsonFair challenge. I don't want to give you a loose number on the first call, because it depends on how quickly access is approved on your side. What I can say is that I'll bring a dated plan to the next session, working back from your approvals. If access lands this week, the first connector can be loading shortly after. Give me until the end of the week to produce dates you can hold me to.
- Niamh CostelloEnd of this week. That I can work with. Elena, will you put it in the actions?
- Elena NovakI will. Ollie, a dated implementation plan by the end of this week, with the access request as the first dependency. I will send it in the written actions today.
- Ollie PearsonYes. And I'll flag anything that moves, as it moves, not at the next checkpoint.
- Niamh CostelloGood. Now owners. On our side, I will sponsor it, but I will not be doing the daily work. For access and security approvals it is Declan, or whoever he nominates. For the CRM, I will name someone from the distribution operations side. And for customer service, someone who knows the helpdesk well. I would rather give you names in writing tomorrow than say them here and have them be wrong.
- Elena NovakThat is perfectly acceptable. To confirm, you will send three names by tomorrow: one for the CRM, one for the helpdesk, and one as the day to day coordinator. And Declan nominates the security contact.
- Declan FurlongI will nominate someone in my team for approvals. I will remain the person who closes security conditions. That is not delegated.
- Ollie PearsonThat's how I'd assumed it. Then on our side, I'm the day to day lead on the build, Elena is your customer success manager and owns the written follow-up and adoption, and Matteo remains the contact for anything contractual.
- Niamh CostelloMatteo has been very good through all this. I'd like him to stay close to it, even though it's no longer a sale. The sale is the easy part, in my experience.
- Elena NovakI will pass that on. He will be glad. Shall we move to the security conditions, Declan, since you have a firm list?
- Declan FurlongYes. I will list them. The review closed with commitments that I have in writing. They carry over into delivery. First, the notification commitment for incidents, which I would like reflected in the onboarding contacts. Second, the escalation path, with the out-of-hours route having been tested. Third, the notice of any change to sub-processors. Fourth, the exit plan and the exercise we agreed. Fifth, evidence on request. I will not go through the detail now, only confirm that they remain in force.
- Elena NovakTo confirm, they are all in the documents you hold, and none of them is changed by the onboarding. I will add them to the project plan as standing conditions, with you as the owner who closes each one.
- Declan FurlongThat is acceptable. I should also say, for the register of information, I will need the contact details of your named people on the incident path. Please send them in writing, not on a call.
- Elena NovakI will make sure that is sent. By role as well as by name, because names change.
- Declan FurlongBy role, yes. That is what I would have asked for.
- Niamh CostelloI need Declan comfortable, as you've gathered. If he is, the rest follows. I'd say that to every vendor.
- Ollie PearsonThat's a good way to run a project. I'll make sure that anything touching security goes to Declan before it goes anywhere else.
- Niamh CostelloGood. Let me ask about users. We're licensed for a hundred and fifty. I don't expect to use anything like that at first. How should we think about rollout?
- Elena NovakYes, the order form provides for 150 users on the Enterprise tier. My suggestion, and Ollie may wish to add to it, is to begin with a pilot group from distribution and customer service, perhaps a small number from each, and let them tell us what is missing before we widen it.
- Ollie PearsonAgreed. A small pilot also helps with the questions people ask. The value shows quickly if the right ten or so people use it daily. And you've got room, so there's no pressure to hurry the number.
- Niamh CostelloI like that. And single sign-on? I don't want people with more passwords.
- Ollie PearsonEnterprise includes single sign-on and automated user provisioning, so that's part of the setup, not an extra. It does depend on your identity team, so I'd add that team to the owners list. I'll put the request in the plan, in the second stage, so the pilot group signs in the same way they do everywhere else.
- Declan FurlongPlease include my team in that conversation. Identity configuration is something we review.
- Ollie PearsonOf course. I'll put you on the first session.
- Niamh CostelloElena, I should ask while we are all here. The contract. I want to be sure I have the basics right, because I'll be asked.
- Elena NovakOf course. To confirm, you are on the Enterprise tier. The order form is for £125,000 a year, and the contract started on Thursday 1 October 2026. It runs to 30 Sep 2027, and the renewal date is 1 Oct 2027. The first invoice matches the order form.
- Niamh CostelloThat matches my understanding. Thank you.
- Declan FurlongAnd the service levels are as stated in the order form, not as in the general terms. I assume that is correct.
- Elena NovakYes. The order form governs. If at any point you see a difference between a general document and the order form, please tell me, and the order form will be the reference.
- Declan FurlongI will do so.
- Ollie PearsonCan I come back to the plan for a moment? There's something I want to be upfront about, because it'll affect the first weeks. The first connector can't be tested properly with the fields as they are in most CRMs. Broker firm records are usually messy. There'll be duplicates, different spellings, firms that have merged. The brain will show you that, and it can look worse before it looks better.
- Niamh CostelloI would prefer to know. In fact it's a large part of why we want this. We suspect that we have the same firm three times under different names.
- Ollie PearsonThen it'll be a good first finding. What I'd ask for is somebody in distribution operations who can say which of two firms is the right one, quickly. Without that person, the duplicates sit there and people stop believing the view.
- Niamh CostelloThat is the person I'll name for the CRM. They know the firms. I'll make sure they have the time.
- Elena NovakI will add it to the actions: a named person with time set aside for resolving duplicates in the first weeks. As agreed, it will be in the written summary.
- Niamh CostelloGood. Now. Declan, anything you want to ask Ollie directly about how the thing runs? You've done the review, but this is the first time you've spoken to the person building it.
- Declan FurlongYes. Ollie, the nightly refresh. When does it run, and what happens if it fails? I want to know who tells me and when.
- Ollie PearsonIt runs overnight and is meant to be complete by 07:00 your time on business days. If it doesn't complete, the first place it shows is the freshness indicator in the brain, and the support team sees it as well. As to who tells you, I'd make it part of the contact list we're building, so that your named security or data contact is on the list for freshness failures. Whether it's a notification you want for every failure or only a repeated one is your call.
- Declan FurlongI would want every failure at first. I can reduce it later. I would rather have noise than silence.
- Ollie PearsonUnderstood. Every failure, to start with. I'll note it.
- Niamh CostelloYou said the freshness indicator. Is that something the users see, or only your team?
- Ollie PearsonUsers see it. When they ask a question, the answer carries the date the underlying data was last refreshed. So nobody is relying on an answer without knowing how old the data is. It's one of the things I like about it.
- Niamh CostelloThat's important to me. A regulator will ask how old the data is, and I'd like to be able to say it's on the screen.
- Declan FurlongIt is also the kind of statement I would verify rather than accept. I will look at it in the pilot.
- Ollie PearsonPlease do. It's much better if you've seen it yourself.
- Elena NovakPerhaps I may move to ways of working, the fifth item. I propose a short weekly session in the first weeks, with Ollie, Niamh's coordinator and a security contact. A written summary will follow each session, with actions and owners. And a checkpoint with Niamh and Declan at the end of the first phase.
- Niamh CostelloA weekly session is fine, provided it is short. Half an hour, and it needs to be a working session, not a presentation.
- Elena NovakTo confirm, half an hour, weekly, working in nature. I will send the invitations after this call.
- Ollie PearsonAnd between sessions I'll be on the shared channel if there's something quick. I find it saves a lot of email.
- Declan FurlongI would ask that anything involving security conditions is also by email, so that I have a record. The channel is fine for logistics.
- Ollie PearsonOf course. Security items by email, logistics on the channel. I'll keep to that.
- Niamh CostelloIs there anything about this that worries either of you? I'd rather hear it now than in a month.
- Ollie PearsonHonestly, the thing that worries me most is access approval taking longer than expected, because everything waits behind it. It's not a criticism, it's just where projects like this lose time. If it can be fast-tracked, I'd do it.
- Declan FurlongI will not shorten a review to save time. But I will be quick if the request is clear and complete. The one-page request you described will help. Please make sure it is accurate.
- Ollie PearsonIt will be, and I'll send it today so you've got the longest possible runway.
- Elena NovakI will add one concern, which is more about adoption. In the first weeks, the people in customer service will be busy with their normal work. If the pilot is seen as extra work, it will not succeed. I would like Niamh to help us position it as a way of saving effort.
- Niamh CostelloThat is fair, and I'll speak to the heads of both teams this week. I'd want to give them a concrete example from their own day. What is the question they most often can't answer?
- Ollie PearsonThat would be a very good thing to bring to the first working session. If you can collect three or four real questions from each team, I'll build the first set of examples around them. Then it's their questions, not ours.
- Niamh CostelloI'll do that. I'll ask them to write down the questions they had to chase someone for last month. They'll have plenty.
- Declan FurlongMight I ask one more thing about the question history? When people ask questions, are the questions and the answers retained, and who can see them?
- Ollie PearsonThey're retained inside your Snowflake account, and visibility follows your own permissions, so it's something you configure rather than something we decide. There's an admin view for named administrators. I'd suggest we agree who the administrators are in the first session, and keep the list small.
- Declan FurlongA small list is what I would want. I will propose names.
- Elena NovakI will add it to the actions: administrator names from Declan, for the first working session.
- Niamh CostelloLet me ask how we will know it's working. You said at the start that we'd return to the outcome at each checkpoint. What will we actually look at?
- Elena NovakI would propose we look at three things, kept deliberately modest. Whether the connectors are loading and the data is fresh. Whether the pilot users are asking questions, and which ones. And whether the answers are trusted, which we will ask them directly. I will bring the first figures to the checkpoint, not before, because there is little to show in the first days.
- Niamh CostelloThat's sensible. I'm wary of dashboards of numbers in week one. Though I'd like to see who is asking the questions. If it's one person asking everything, that tells me something.
- Elena NovakIt does, and I watch for it. If one person is asking a large share, that is a risk for you, because the value depends on one individual. We will spread the use deliberately.
- Niamh CostelloGood. I'm happy with that.
- Ollie PearsonIf it's alright, I'll take a few minutes to go through the access request in outline, so you can tell me whether anything looks wrong before I write it up. It'll save a round trip.
- Declan FurlongPlease. That is a good use of the time.
- Ollie PearsonSo. One database, which you name according to your convention. Within it, a schema for raw loaded data and a schema for what the brain builds. A warehouse sized small, and you can cap it. A role for the service account with read access only to what you choose to expose, and write access only to its own schemas. And network restrictions if your policy requires them.
- Declan FurlongNetwork restrictions will be required. I would want the addresses you connect from stated precisely.
- Ollie PearsonYes. I'll include them in the request, and I'll tell you if they ever change before they change. I'd put that under the same notice commitment as sub-processors, if that's acceptable.
- Declan FurlongIt is acceptable and sensible. Please do it that way.
- Niamh CostelloYou've lost me a little, but I'm happy that you two have the same picture. Declan, you'll tell me if it isn't right?
- Declan FurlongI will. You will hear it from me first.
- Niamh CostelloWhich is what I like about it.
- Elena NovakMay I ask a question for the project record? Is there anything in the next weeks on your side that we should plan around? Audits, reorganisations, freezes on change?
- Declan FurlongThere is a supervisory exercise coming up that will take part of my team's time. I cannot give details on this call, but I would expect approvals to be slower in the period around it. I will tell you the dates when I can, in writing.
- Elena NovakThank you. I will plan with that in mind. Ollie, that is a reason to send the access request today and not wait.
- Ollie PearsonAgreed. It's going today. I'll keep it short enough to approve quickly.
- Niamh CostelloOn my side, there's a change freeze on the CRM before year end that I should flag. It's usual, and it would affect when we could add fields. I'll find out the dates.
- Ollie PearsonThat's helpful. If we can avoid needing new fields, it won't matter. We read what's there. But I'll want to know the dates, because we might want to ask for one or two changes before it starts.
- Niamh CostelloI'll send them with the names.
- Elena NovakTo confirm, then, from Niamh: three names, the CRM change freeze dates and a set of real questions from each team. From Declan: a security contact for approvals, administrator names, and the supervisory exercise timing when possible. Is that right?
- Niamh CostelloThat's right. The questions will take me a little longer, perhaps by the first working session.
- Declan FurlongCorrect, with the proviso that the timing is when I am permitted to say.
- Elena NovakUnderstood. And from our side: the written actions today, the invitations today, the access request today from Ollie, and the dated plan by the end of this week. I will also send the incident path contacts by role, for the register of information.
- Ollie PearsonYes. And I'll write up what I said about the refresh and the freshness indicator, so it's in writing for Declan to verify, as he said.
- Declan FurlongI appreciate it. That is the way I would prefer to proceed.
- Niamh CostelloOne last thing from me, and it's less about the project. I want to say that the way you handled the review, and especially the difficult month, is a large part of why I was comfortable proceeding. You told us early, and you didn't dress it up. I'd like that to be the pattern, because there'll be difficult days again.
- Elena NovakThank you, Niamh. I will make sure that it is the pattern. If something is wrong, you will hear it from us early, and in writing.
- Ollie PearsonSame from me. If I'm going to miss a date, you'll know before the date.
- Declan FurlongI would add only that I will hold you to it. That is not unfriendliness.
- Ollie PearsonIt's how I'd want it.
- Niamh CostelloRight. I think we have what we need. Anything else, Elena?
- Elena NovakOnly that the next contact is the invitation for the first working session, and the written summary today. If anything in the summary is wrong, please reply and I will correct it. I would rather it be right.
- Niamh CostelloWe will. Thank you, everyone. That was a good start.
- Declan FurlongThank you. I will look for the access request.
- Ollie PearsonIt'll be with you within the hour. Thanks all, speak soon.
- Elena NovakThank you. Have a good afternoon. Goodbye.
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