Strensall Merchants / BG-Demo – QBR
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Strensall Merchants · 1 Sep 2026 12:00
At the QBR, Daniel reported active users in the mid-thirties, down roughly two fifths. Lewis quoted the Enterprise renewal. Fiona will not renew without a usage case and wants both options.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026At the QBR, Daniel reported active users in the mid-thirties, down roughly two fifths. Lewis quoted the Enterprise renewal. Fiona will not renew without a usage case and wants both options.
What happened: Daniel said active users are in the mid-thirties out of 160 licensed, down roughly two fifths on the quarter before. Platform health is good: records indexed rising, connectors loading, refresh before 07:00.
Customer view: Fiona asked what the company is paying for and wants a usage case, not a feeling. Neil accepted the branch gap is down to adoption and said he cannot defend the spend if branches do not use it.
Commercial: Lewis quoted the Enterprise list at £125k, plus a ten-user pack at £4,000, total £129k plus VAT, about 13.7% up on £114k. He will also price staying at the included users.
Watch: Fiona set a bar of active branches and questions asked by team. Renewal is 28 Feb 2027.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage case before renewal
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 both renewal versions the same day, with VAT on each, co-termed to renewal.
- Daniel to build the branch manager page with Ashok and return to Neil by the end of the following week.
- Daniel to write up the active branches and questions asked measures for Fiona and set up regional refresher sessions.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Active users fell by roughly two fifths to the mid-thirties against 160 licensed.
- The finance director challenged a roughly 13.7% rise and will not renew without a usage case.
- The champion, Neil, says he cannot defend the spend if branches stay idle.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The current Enterprise tier includes Premium support and the Sandbox, which Ashok welcomed.
- A branch manager page and regional refresher sessions could rebuild adoption.
- Credit and key account teams still show healthy question volumes.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, can everyone hear me all right? I can see Neil and Ashok. Fiona, I think you're just joining. Thank you all for making the time, I know lunchtime is not anyone's favourite slot.
Fiona MetcalfeHello. Yes, I'm here, sorry, my previous meeting ran over. Before we start, what decision is needed from me today?- Daniel OkaforFair question, and I'll be straight with you. It's mainly a review of the quarter, but the renewal is coming up, so I've asked Lewis to join in case you want to talk through what it looks like. Nothing needs signing today.
Lewis KerrAfternoon, all. Yes, happy to keep that short and to the point, Fiona. If it's useful I can put a number on it before we finish, but only if you want it.
Neil CravenBefore we get going, I've had a builder on the phone this morning. One of our big housebuilder accounts, rang about a delivery that showed as paid on their side and held on ours. Took me ten minutes to find out which branch, which account. That's exactly the thing we bought this for, so I'd like to come back to it.- Daniel OkaforOf course, Neil, put it on the list. Ashok, you usually have a change to report. What's moved since we last spoke?
Ashok PatelYes. Two things. I tidied the account number mapping between the credit system and the branch system, so the same trade account now resolves to one record in more cases than it did. I tested it on one branch first, then rolled it out. And I paused one delivery source for a few days while the team there changed something at their end. It's back on now.- Daniel OkaforThat's helpful, thank you. And just to close the loop, that's the one ticket we had this month, isn't it? The delivery source.
- Ashok PatelThat's the one. It was resolved quickly. I've no complaints about the response, honestly.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Let me share my screen, and tell me if you can't see it. So this is the quarter in a page. Starting with the number I know you'll all look at first. You have one hundred and sixty licensed users on the Enterprise plan, and the contracted annual figure is £113,500, which matches what's been invoiced. No overdue invoices on your account, so on that side it's clean.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. And the usage? You said a page. I'd like the honest version.
- Daniel OkaforYes. The honest version is that it's lower than I'd like. Of the one hundred and sixty licensed, the number of people actually active in a typical month is in the mid-thirties. And that's down by roughly two fifths on the quarter before. I'm not going to dress that up.
- Neil CravenTwo fifths. Right. That's more than I'd have guessed.
- Daniel OkaforIt surprised me a little too, Neil, which is why I wanted to look at it with you rather than send a report. Part of it is summer, people are off. But I don't think that's all of it.
- Ashok PatelCan I add something? I looked at the logins by branch last week. The drop isn't even. A handful of branches are still asking questions every day. A good number have gone quiet since the spring, and I think that's the people who were trained once and never had a reason to come back.
- Neil CravenThat's fair. We did the launch sessions, got everyone excited, and then branch managers went back to the counter. Nobody's told them it's part of the job now. That's on me, not on the tool.
- Fiona MetcalfeSo what's our exposure on that? If forty-odd people use it and the rest don't, what exactly are we paying for?
- Daniel OkaforIt's a reasonable thing to ask. What I'd say is the people who do use it are the credit team, the key account managers and a core of branches, and those are the ones where the value is clearest. The questions asked are still healthy among them. The gap is the wider branch network, which is where the licences are sitting idle.
- Fiona MetcalfeMm. And is that something you'd fix, or something we'd fix?
- Daniel OkaforBoth, honestly. We can run short refresher sessions by region and build a simple page for branch managers: their top trade accounts, anything on credit hold, anything late. Neil, you'd need to be the one saying it's expected. How is the team finding it, when you ask them?
- Neil CravenThe ones who use it love it. The ones who don't say they haven't got time. Which is a different problem. Let's sort it, not talk about it. If you can give me a page that answers what the builder's actually seeing, I'll get it in front of every branch manager.
- Daniel OkaforI'll build a draft with Ashok. I'll come back to you by the end of next week with something you can look at.
- Ashok PatelWhich account number do you want as the example? I'd rather use one where the credit and delivery data both load cleanly, so it doesn't look broken on day one.
- Neil CravenUse the housebuilder who rang me this morning. If it works for them it'll work for anyone.
- Ashok PatelFine. I'll check it's clean first, though. I'm not putting a live customer on a screen if the data says otherwise.
- Daniel OkaforSensible. Let me move on to the rest of the picture, then we'll get to the renewal. Records indexed are rising steadily, connectors are all loading, and the nightly refresh has been in before seven each business day this quarter. So the platform side is in good shape. It's people, not plumbing.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. That I can explain to the board. Now, the renewal. Daniel said nothing is to be signed. I'd still like to know what it costs. In pounds, please.
- Lewis KerrOf course. I've got the quote paperwork open in front of me, so I'm reading rather than going from memory. Your renewal date is 28 Feb 2027, and the contract runs to 27 Feb 2027. From that renewal you move onto the current list prices for Enterprise, which is a hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds a year.
- Fiona MetcalfeAgainst the £113,500 we pay now.
- Lewis KerrCorrect. Now, in the current Enterprise tier, Premium support and the Sandbox are included. So you'd get a named engineer between seven in the morning and eight at night, UK time, and a separate environment to test changes in, without paying extra. Ashok, I'd have thought that matters to you.
- Ashok PatelIt does. A Sandbox would let me test a new source before it touches live data. That's how I like to work anyway.
- Lewis KerrThen there's the users. Enterprise includes a hundred and fifty, and you currently have a hundred and sixty. To keep that, you'd add one pack of ten users, which is four thousand pounds a year. So the total comes to a hundred and twenty-nine thousand pounds a year, plus VAT. That's about thirteen point seven percent up on what you pay today.
- Fiona MetcalfeThirteen point seven. So over thirteen percent on a product where about a quarter of the licences are in use.
- Lewis KerrI understand how that reads, Fiona. I'd say two things. The increase is the move from the old list to the current one, which was flagged to all customers earlier this year. And the ten extra users are optional. I'm not going to push an upgrade the usage doesn't support. If you'd rather stay at the included number, I'll price that as well.
- Fiona MetcalfeI'd want to see that version too. I won't agree anything on a call, and I won't renew without a usage case. We'll look at it at renewal, but I'd rather see the options now than in February.
- Lewis KerrUnderstood. I'll send both versions over today, with the VAT position on each, co-termed to your renewal so nothing overlaps.
- Neil CravenCan I say something, Fiona? I'm not going to discuss price without you, so I'll keep it to the value. The credit and sales teams used to argue about the same accounts with two different sets of numbers. They don't now. That's worth something to me. But you're right that if the branches don't use it, I can't defend it.
- Fiona MetcalfeThank you, Neil. That's what I need: a usage case, not a feeling. What would make the case by the autumn?
- Daniel OkaforI'd suggest we agree a measure now. The number of active people across the branch network, and the questions asked by the credit and key account teams, compared month on month. We review it at the next check-in and again before the renewal conversation. If it's moving the right way, the case writes itself. If it isn't, we say so together.
- Fiona MetcalfeGood. Put those in writing, please. Active branches, and questions asked, by team.
- Daniel OkaforI will. Just to close the loop on the actions. I build the branch manager page with Ashok, and I'll come back to Neil by the end of next week. I also set up regional refresher sessions with Neil, he'll tell me which branches to start with. Lewis sends both renewal versions today. And I write up the two measures for Fiona.
- Lewis KerrThat's right. And Fiona, if there's anything on the paperwork you'd like changed, tell me and I'll rework it rather than argue it on a call.
- Fiona MetcalfeUnderstood. Thank you, Lewis. Thank you, Daniel. I'll leave you to it.
- Neil CravenCheers all. Daniel, ring me after you've seen that housebuilder account, will you?
- Daniel OkaforWill do, Neil. Thank you everyone, speak soon.
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