Strensall Merchants / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Strensall Merchants · 1 Dec 2025 11:45
Group Finance Director Fiona Metcalfe agreed nothing and wants a usage case beyond activity before renewal. Neil Craven backed continuing. Payments are on terms and support was quiet.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Group Finance Director Fiona Metcalfe agreed nothing and wants a usage case beyond activity before renewal. Neil Craven backed continuing. Payments are on terms and support was quiet.
What happened: Daniel Okafor ran the quarterly review on 1 Dec 2025 with Neil Craven, Fiona Metcalfe and Lewis Kerr. Fiona asked at the start what decision she needed to make, and Daniel said none.
Customer view: Neil called B-Viz the best thing the team had done in a while. Fiona said the exposure view is why she signed, but she wants evidence of what it has changed, not just activity.
Commercial: Lewis stated the order form and invoices agree at £114k a year plus VAT, with nothing overdue. He will send renewal paper co-termed to 28 Feb 2026, same scope.
Watch: Fiona will brief the board in the new year. Questions still come from a small group. The evidence does not show the renewal outcome.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Renewal value case
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- Lewis to send renewal paper co-termed to 28 Feb 2026 on the day of the call.
- Neil to send the branch list by Thursday and two or three short examples of time saved.
- Daniel to send Fiona a one page usage summary and Neil the reference for the high priority ticket.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Fiona committed to nothing and needs a value case she can give the board, so the renewal is not yet agreed.
- A small group asks a large share of the questions, which is a key-person risk.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Branch sessions on each manager's own accounts could turn the unused seats into active use.
- Short examples from branch managers and a one page usage summary could give Fiona the evidence she asked for.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, can you all hear me all right? Thank you for making the time, I know diaries are tight at this end of the year. Let me just check who has joined. I've got Neil, I've got Fiona, and Lewis is on with me.
Neil CravenAye, hear you fine. Sorry, I'm a minute or two behind. I've had a branch manager on the phone since half eight, one of the housebuilder accounts. Which branch, which account, you know how it is. It's sorted now.- Daniel OkaforNo need to apologise at all. I hope the housebuilder is happy.
- Neil CravenHappy enough. I'll tell you about it in a bit, because it's actually a good example for you.
Fiona MetcalfeHello, Daniel. Hello, all. Before we begin, what decision is needed from me today?- Daniel OkaforThat's a fair question, Fiona, and the honest answer is none. This is the quarterly review. I'd like to look at how the team is finding it, what the usage is telling us, and then Lewis will say a few words about the renewal in February, so that nothing arrives as a surprise.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. I prefer it that way round.
Lewis KerrIf I may, just so I'm clear on the purpose. My understanding is that you intend to continue on Enterprise, with the same scope, and that the date that matters is the end of February. Is that still right, or has anything shifted on your side?- Neil CravenFrom my side, it's continue. I'd be daft to say anything else. But Fiona will have her own view.
- Fiona MetcalfeI do. We'll look at it at renewal, Lewis. I'm not going to agree anything today, and I'd rather we were all clear about that. I'd like to see the usage case first.
- Lewis KerrUnderstood, and that's entirely reasonable. I'm not asking for a commitment on this call. I'll just put the facts on the table so we're all looking at the same thing. The contract ends on 27 Feb 2026, and the renewal date is 28 Feb 2026. The order form and the invoices agree, at £113,500 a year, plus VAT.
- Fiona MetcalfeAnd nothing outstanding on our side?
- Lewis KerrNothing overdue at all. I checked with our finance team before the call. You've paid on terms throughout.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. That's how I like to hear it.
- Daniel OkaforRight, let me share my screen and talk you through the quarter. Bear with me a second. Can you see that?
- Neil CravenNot yet. Just a blue box saying you're presenting.
- Daniel OkaforAh, hold on. Let me stop it and start again. It's always the same thing with this software, it wants a prod.
- Daniel OkaforThere we go. Is that better?
- Neil CravenAye, that's it.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. So, the headline first. Average active users over the last month are in the mid-forties, and that is up by about a fifth on the quarter before. Of the 160 licensed users you have, that's still a good deal of room, but the direction is the thing I'd point to. It's going the right way, and it's going that way steadily rather than in one spike.
- Fiona MetcalfeMid-forties out of 160. So a little over a quarter of the seats are in regular use.
- Daniel OkaforYes, that's a fair way to read it, and I'd rather you read it plainly than I dress it up. Adoption has grown, and there's headroom. Where the headroom sits is the more interesting conversation. Can I show you who's using it?
- Fiona MetcalfePlease.
- Daniel OkaforSo the heaviest use is in your trade credit team and the key account managers. Branch use is growing, but it's patchy. A few branches are in every day, and quite a lot of others have logins that have hardly been touched.
- Neil CravenThat's about what I'd expect. Some branch managers took to it straight away. Others are waiting for somebody to show them why they should bother.
- Daniel OkaforHow is the team finding it, Neil? Honestly, from where you sit.
- Neil CravenHonestly? Best thing we've done in a while, and I don't say that lightly. I'll give you the one from this morning, since it's fresh. A housebuilder rang the branch about a delivery, and the branch said the order had gone out. Credit said the account was on hold. The builder's site manager is stood there with a gang waiting for materials.
- Neil CravenIn the old days that's three phone calls and an hour. Now I put the account name in, and I can see the orders, the deliveries, the last couple of calls and the credit position on one page. What's the builder actually seeing? That's the question I always ask, and now I can answer it in a minute.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what it was meant to do, so I'm very glad to hear it. Was it a credit hold in the end, or a mix-up?
- Neil CravenA bit of both. A payment had landed but hadn't been matched. Credit released it and the lorry went. Let's sort it, not talk about it, that's my view.
- Fiona MetcalfeI'd like to put a question on that, Neil. What was our exposure on that account at the time?
- Neil CravenFiona, I'm not going to quote you a figure off the top of my head. That's your team's call. I'd only say we could see it, and that's the point.
- Fiona MetcalfeFair. I mention it because the exposure view is the reason I signed it. If credit and sales see the same picture, I'm happier. And to be clear, a credit limit is never set by sales, whatever the screen shows them.
- Neil CravenWouldn't dream of it. We see it, you decide it.
- Daniel OkaforAnd that separation is how it's set up, Fiona. Everyone can see the account picture, and the permissions around who can change anything stay with your team. I can walk your people through that again if it would help.
- Fiona MetcalfeIt might. Let's see where we get to.
- Lewis KerrCan I ask, Daniel, whether the growth in users is mostly credit and key accounts, or is it branches coming on?
- Daniel OkaforIt's a mixture, Lewis, though I'd say more of the recent growth is branches. The key account side was in early. What I'd be careful about, and I'll say it gently, is that a good share of the questions people ask still come from a small group. Neil, your team is in that group.
- Neil CravenAye, that'll be me and a couple of others, I'd guess.
- Daniel OkaforIt's no criticism at all. It just means that if two or three people were away at the same time, the habit might wobble. So spreading it across more branches would make the whole thing sturdier.
- Fiona MetcalfeThat's a sensible thing to flag. Can you do something about it?
- Daniel OkaforYes. That's where I'd like to spend a bit of time today. Before that, though, shall I cover support? Three tickets in the last month, and one of them was marked high priority.
- Fiona MetcalfePlease. In pounds, if there was any cost to us, though I suspect there wasn't.
- Daniel OkaforNo cost that I'm aware of, Fiona. I went through all three before the call. The high priority one is closed, and I'm comfortable with how it was handled. The other two were ordinary questions of the how-do-I kind. For a company your size, I'd call that a quiet month.
- Neil CravenWhich was the high priority one? I don't think I heard about it.
- Daniel OkaforI'll send you the reference after the call, Neil, so you've got it in writing. I don't want to describe it from memory and get a detail wrong.
- Neil CravenFair enough. Send it over.
- Lewis KerrWhile we're on service, Fiona, I should mention that being on Enterprise, you have the faster response times and the freshness commitment as well as availability. If at any point the nightly refresh isn't landing by the morning, that's something we want to hear about, not something to put up with.
- Fiona MetcalfeNoted. Has it been landing?
- Daniel OkaforAs far as I can see, yes. Nobody has raised it, and the records indexed have kept moving, which is what I look at to tell. If it had stalled I'd have seen it flat.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. Then let's talk about what you'd like to do with the headroom.
- Daniel OkaforSo, my suggestion, and Neil, tell me if it's off the mark. We pick a small group of branches that have logins but aren't using them, and we run a couple of short sessions with them, using their own accounts. Not a general tour. Their own customers, their own deliveries.
- Neil CravenThat's the only way it works with branch managers. If you show them somebody else's data they glaze over. Show them their biggest builder and they sit up.
- Daniel OkaforExactly my thinking. Could you tell me which branches you'd start with? I'd rather you chose than I guessed.
- Neil CravenI'll have a think and send you a list. Probably the ones with the big housebuilder accounts, because that's where a wrong answer costs us most.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. I'll come back to you by Friday with some dates, if you can get me the list before then.
- Neil CravenYou'll have it by Thursday.
- Fiona MetcalfeDaniel, may I come back to the usage case? When I sit down with the board in the new year and say we are renewing, I need to explain it in a couple of sentences. What would those sentences be?
- Daniel OkaforThat's a good way of putting it. I'd suggest three things. First, adoption has grown by about a fifth this quarter, and it's a team that uses it daily. Second, credit, branches and key accounts are looking at the same account picture, which was the reason you bought it. Third, you've had a quiet quarter on support. Would that be enough, or would you want something more?
- Fiona MetcalfeIt's a start. But I'd want something that is not just activity. What has it changed? Neil's housebuilder story is the kind of thing, but a story is a story.
- Neil CravenI can get you more than one. I'll ask a few of the branch managers for the times it saved them a morning. Cheaper than any report.
- Fiona MetcalfePlease do. Two or three, short, with the account named internally. Then I can ask my own team whether the credit side agrees.
- Daniel OkaforAnd on our side I'll put the usage into a single page, in plain words, so you aren't wading through screens. Trend on users, who is using it, the support picture. I'll leave out anything that needs explaining.
- Fiona MetcalfeThank you. One page, please.
- Lewis KerrOn the commercial side, I'll keep this short. The sensible approach is to have the renewal paper ready well before the end of the year, so you're not reading it in a rush in February. I'll send that over today, co-termed to your renewal, with the VAT position stated on the front, and nothing in it for you to sign until you're ready.
- Fiona MetcalfeSend it by all means. But, Lewis, to repeat, I'm agreeing nothing on this call.
- Lewis KerrUnderstood entirely. It's there for your reference, and for your procurement colleagues to read at their own pace.
- Neil CravenLewis, is there any talk of changing what we've got? I'd not want to be told in February that something's different.
- Lewis KerrNot that I'm aware of, Neil. The proposal is the same scope as today. If I find anything that differs, I'll tell you straight away rather than leave it to the paperwork. And I won't suggest adding anything the usage doesn't support. You've got plenty of room as it is.
- Fiona MetcalfeI appreciate that, Lewis.
- Daniel OkaforJust to close the loop on where we are, then. Is there anything else on the quarter that either of you wanted to raise, anything that has been bothering the team that perhaps hasn't reached a ticket?
- Neil CravenOne thing, and it's small. A couple of the branch people say the search sometimes brings back more than they want when they type a short customer name. They'd like it tighter.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful, thank you. It's often a matter of how people phrase it, and I can show them a couple of tricks in the sessions. If it turns out to be something deeper, I'll raise it properly and tell you what comes back.
- Neil CravenThat'll do me.
- Fiona MetcalfeNothing from me. I'll wait for the one page.
- Daniel OkaforThen thank you all very much for your time. To recap: Neil sends me the branch list by Thursday, and a few short examples of what it has saved people. I send you, Fiona, a one-page usage summary, and Neil the reference for that high priority ticket. Lewis sends the renewal paper today.
- Lewis KerrThat's right. I'll send that over today.
- Fiona MetcalfeThank you, all. Speak in the new year.
- Neil CravenCheers, everyone. Good to see it earning its keep.
- Daniel OkaforBest wishes, all. Take care.
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