Merriott Lyle Distribution / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Merriott Lyle Distribution · 2 Apr 2025 11:30
Onboarding call on 2 Apr 2025. Tariq Saleem raised a high-priority ticket: the nightly load finished after branches opened twice. Laura Penhaligon agreed that is a miss against 07:00 and set out a three-wave connector plan.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 2 Apr 2025. Tariq Saleem raised a high-priority ticket: the nightly load finished after branches opened twice. Laura Penhaligon agreed that is a miss against 07:00 and set out a three-wave connector plan.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon walked Deepa Chauhan and Tariq Saleem through connector order and owners. Tariq raised the high-priority ticket on the nightly branch load, which twice finished after branches opened.
Customer view: Deepa wants every number traceable and will be asked about the load at the account-data review. She asked for the cause in writing and was calm but exacting.
Commercial: Laura confirmed the order form at £116k a year, Enterprise, two hundred licensed users, with a term from 28 Feb 2025 to 27 Feb 2026. Deepa left money questions to Lewis, the account owner, and declined on-site training for now.
Watch: Freshness is credited on Enterprise, and Laura called the late load a miss against 07:00. The evidence does not show the cause or the outcome of the ticket.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding and late refresh
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Laura Penhaligon to find the refresh slack and write to Deepa and Tariq about the ticket by the end of next week.
- Laura to line up security review support and send written answers for the IT identity contact for single sign-on.
- Tariq and Deepa to send names for credit control, the accounting system and identity.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The nightly refresh finished late twice, a freshness miss against 07:00 on an Enterprise subscription.
- One wrong account in front of a regional director would damage trust in the account view.
- The cause depends on the timing of the branch system extract, which Tariq's team cannot move themselves.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only a pilot group of about a dozen is live against two hundred licensed users, so there is wide room for adoption.
- Credit control wants invoices and disputes together, which makes the accounting system a natural early connector.
- An on-site training day for the branches remains available as an add-on if Deepa changes her mind.
Transcript
Laura PenhaligonHello? Can you both hear me all right? I've got you on screen but my headset has been temperamental this morning.
Deepa ChauhanLoud and clear, Laura. Morning. Tariq's just coming in now, I can see him in the lobby.
Tariq SaleemMorning, both. Sorry, I was finishing a load check and lost track of the time.- Laura PenhaligonNo problem at all, we've only just started. How's the week treating you?
- Deepa ChauhanBusy. The regional directors are all asking for numbers at once and every one of them thinks theirs is the urgent one. But it's the useful sort of busy, so I won't complain.
- Tariq SaleemSame. Half the branch network seems to have decided this is the week to change their opening hours, so the CRM has been lively.
- Laura PenhaligonHa, that sounds about right. Well, shall we get going? Deepa, you said in your note that there was one thing you needed from today.
- Deepa ChauhanYes. Before we finish I want an agreed order for the connectors, with a named owner against each one, so the branch managers and credit control know what arrives when. If I leave with that, I'm happy.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's very doable. It's more or less what I wanted to walk through anyway. Tariq, I think you usually start with the tickets?
- Tariq SaleemI do, yes. We've got three open at the moment. Two are how-to questions from the pilot group, nothing worrying. One is marked high priority, and that's the one I'd like to talk about.
- Laura PenhaligonGo on.
- Tariq SaleemIt's the nightly load from the branch system. Twice last week it finished after the point where the branches open, so the account view was a day behind for the first hour or so. I've been through the load log and I can see where it slowed down, but I'm not going to guess at why until I've seen the source side.
- Deepa ChauhanWhich branches saw it?
- Tariq SaleemNot all of them. The reports I have are from a handful in the north. And it's not the branches' doing in any case, it's the timing of the extract, so let's not make it about them.
- Laura PenhaligonUnderstood. I've seen the ticket and our support team has it. What I can say is that the nightly refresh is meant to be complete by 07:00 on business days, so what you're describing is a miss against that, and I'd rather we treat it as a real item for this onboarding and not just something sitting in a queue.
- Tariq SaleemThat's all I wanted.
- Deepa ChauhanAnd can we make sure that when we know the cause, it comes to me in writing as well? I'll be asked about it at the account-data review.
- Laura PenhaligonOf course. I'll copy you both, and I'll ask Daniel to look at it too, since he's your customer success manager and he'll want to know.
- Deepa ChauhanLovely. Thank you.
- Laura PenhaligonRight, let me share my screen. Give me a second. Can you see the plan?
- Tariq SaleemYes. Bit small but readable.
- Laura PenhaligonI'll zoom in. Better? So this is how I'd sequence it. You're on Enterprise, which gives you room for plenty of connectors, so the constraint isn't the number, it's the order, and who on your side looks after each one.
- Laura PenhaligonFirst wave, the CRM and the branch system together, because the whole point is the account view, and that only works if the two agree on who the account is. Second wave, the helpdesk and the call recorder. Third wave, the mailboxes and the accounting system, with documents from the shared drive last.
- Deepa ChauhanLet's stay on the first one for a moment. Which account, which branch? Our trade accounts sit under a head office record in the CRM, but the branch system holds them per branch, and sometimes twice.
- Tariq SaleemThat's a mapping question, and it's the one I care most about. A fair number of accounts have more than one branch code against a single CRM account. I keep a matching table by hand, and I'd like to bring that in as the starting point rather than have the brain guess.
- Laura PenhaligonGood, I'd much rather use yours. We load the matching table, run the brain's own matching against it, and hand you the differences as a list. You decide which side wins on each one. Nothing gets merged without you seeing it first.
- Tariq SaleemAnd Deepa gets the list at the same time. I don't change a mapping without telling her.
- Deepa ChauhanThank you. That matters, because the key-account managers will notice immediately if a customer they know turns into two, or two turn into one.
- Laura PenhaligonExactly. So owner for the first wave: Tariq does the work, Deepa signs off the matching. Does that feel right?
- Deepa ChauhanYes. Tariq does the work, I sign off, and nothing is final until the list has been through me.
- Tariq SaleemOne practical thing. The branch system extract runs overnight and my team can't move that window ourselves. If the refresh needs the extract earlier, I need to know soon so I can ask the people who own it.
- Laura PenhaligonThat ties straight into your ticket, actually. I'll find out from our side how much slack the refresh has, and then we can ask the owners for a realistic change rather than a wish. I'll have that for you by the end of next week.
- Tariq SaleemGood. Then we'll know what we're asking for.
- Deepa ChauhanCan I ask about the second wave? Credit control are the ones who'll care most, because they want to see the disputes next to the invoice, and what was said about them on the calls.
- Laura PenhaligonThen I'd move the accounting system up into the second wave, with the helpdesk, so invoices and disputes are together early. The call recorder can follow in the third wave. Is that the right way round for them?
- Deepa ChauhanYes. And let's get credit control in the room. I'd like them to see invoices and disputes together before anyone outside the pilot sees it.
- Laura PenhaligonI like that. Who should we have? I'd want someone who actually chases the accounts, not only the manager.
- Deepa ChauhanI'll bring a team leader and someone from the disputes desk. I'll send you their names, and the owner of the accounting system, who sits in finance.
- Tariq SaleemThe accounting system admin is a colleague in finance, I'll introduce you. They'll only need read access, so it should be quick.
- Laura PenhaligonRead access is all we need. And everything runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data isn't leaving your environment, which helps when finance ask.
- Deepa ChauhanGood. That will be their first question.
- Laura PenhaligonNext, sign-in. Enterprise includes single sign-on and automated user provisioning. Tariq, who looks after identity on your side?
- Tariq SaleemA colleague in IT. I can set up a call. They'll want the security paperwork first, they're careful about anything that touches sign-in.
- Laura PenhaligonUnderstood. I'll make sure the security review support is lined up so they have what they need before that call, and I'll get the written answers over to you by the end of the week.
- Deepa ChauhanOn users. We have two hundred licensed, but at the moment it's a pilot group of about a dozen. I don't want to open it to everyone until the account view is right.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's sensible. I'd go in stages: the pilot group, then the key-account managers, then branch managers region by region. People lose trust quickly if they open it early and see one wrong number.
- Deepa ChauhanExactly that. One wrong account in front of a regional director and I'll be explaining it for a month. Show me where that number comes from, every time.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's built in. Every answer carries its sources, so a branch manager can click through to the order, the call or the invoice behind it.
- Tariq SaleemThat helps me too. If a number looks off I want to trace it back to the load, not argue about it.
- Deepa ChauhanCan we confirm the commercial side, so I'm not guessing? Enterprise, two hundred users, and what's the annual figure on the order form? I'd like to quote it correctly at the review.
- Laura PenhaligonThe order form is £116,500 a year, Enterprise, two hundred licensed users, and the invoices match it. The term started on 28 Feb 2025 and runs to 27 Feb 2026. Anything beyond that, Lewis, your account owner, can go through with you.
- Deepa ChauhanPerfect. I'll leave anything about money with Lewis.
- Tariq SaleemBefore we finish, can I check the training? The branch managers won't read a manual. Is there something short for them?
- Laura PenhaligonThere's walkthrough training for each wave, and I can run it for the pilot group first. If you want a full day on site for the branches, that's an add-on, and Lewis would need to scope it with you.
- Deepa ChauhanLet's keep to the walkthroughs for now. I don't want to promise the regions anything I can't show them.
- Laura PenhaligonLet me recap, then. First wave, the CRM and the branch system, with Tariq owning it and Deepa signing off the matching list. Second wave, the helpdesk and the accounting system, with credit control in the room. Third wave, the call recorder and the mailboxes. Sign-in once IT have the security paperwork. And I find out about the refresh slack and write to you both about the ticket by the end of next week.
- Tariq SaleemThat matches my notes. I'll send names for the accounting and identity people tomorrow.
- Deepa ChauhanAnd I'll send the credit control names. Thank you, Laura, this is the clearest it's been.
- Laura PenhaligonGood. I'll send the plan and my notes this afternoon. Speak soon.
- Tariq SaleemCheers, both.
- Deepa ChauhanThanks, bye.
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