Kielderside Growth Agency / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Kielderside Growth Agency · 23 Mar 2026 10:15
Discovery call on 23 Mar 2026 with a public body buying through a formal tender. Three unmatched records, hand-built board reporting and Enterprise as the proposed tier. Budget sits with Keith, who was not on the call.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Discovery call on 23 Mar 2026 with a public body buying through a formal tender. Three unmatched records, hand-built board reporting and Enterprise as the proposed tier. Budget sits with Keith, who was not on the call.
What happened: Lesley Charlton and Emma Kirkup described three separate records of each business, matched by hand, with board reporting taking a couple of weeks each quarter. Hannah Lowe explained the Snowflake approach and flagged matching as the hard part.
Customer view: Lesley wants answers that trace back to records and a single view for account managers. Emma worries about who sees grant assessments and is a single point of knowledge.
Commercial: Tom Ashdown said Enterprise would be proposed, with the security review and SSO. Lesley said budget is Keith's and anything on the tender goes through formal clarification.
Watch: Keith's view is unknown. Tom's pencilled 13 Nov 2026 is BG-Demo's own planning date, not the customer's.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Single view, public tender
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Tom Ashdown to send a written note of what BG-Demo heard and confirm what the deal value covers, through the proper route.
- Hannah Lowe to write up the architecture, access and timeline points, and review field descriptions once Lesley confirms they may be shared.
- Emma Kirkup to draft who should see which kinds of record.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Everything must go through the formal tender process, which limits what BG-Demo can discuss or show.
- Budget sits with Keith, who was not on the call and whose view is unknown.
- A wrong merge on grant records would damage trust, so matching must be proven on a sample first.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Enterprise tier with the security review, SSO and provisioning fits a company-wide, regulated public body.
- Board outcome reporting by council area and one view per business before visits show clear value.
Transcript
Tom AshdownMorning, Lesley. Can you hear us all right? We've got Hannah here with me as well.
Lesley CharltonMorning, Tom. Yes, I can hear you fine. Emma's just coming in, I think she's stuck on the lobby screen.
Emma KirkupSorry, sorry. The meeting room booking had somebody else's name on it. I'm in now. Morning, everyone.- Tom AshdownNo drama at all. How's your week been so far? It's only Monday, but you always find out on a Monday, don't you.
- Lesley CharltonBusy. The account managers have had a long run of visits and they're all coming back with the same grumble, which is partly why we're here. But I'll get to that.
- Tom AshdownGo on, that's the bit I'd like to hear. Hannah, did you want to say hello first?
Hannah LoweHello, both. Thanks for making the time. Before we start, what do you most need to know from us today? I'd rather aim at that than run through a standard introduction.- Lesley CharltonThat's helpful, thank you. Let me start with what the account managers are asking for, because it's simple to say and awkward to deliver. They want to open one business and see everything we know about it. Everything.
- Lesley CharltonAt the moment that's not possible. The account managers keep their own notes and their own record of each business. The enquiries line keeps another. And the grants team keeps a third, which is mostly a spreadsheet, if I'm honest.
- Emma KirkupMostly a spreadsheet, yes. It's a well-kept one, to be fair to them. But it's a spreadsheet.
- Tom AshdownRight. And when you say three records, is it the same business turning up in all three, or do they just overlap a bit?
- Lesley CharltonOften the same business, yes. A business owner rings the enquiries line, then speaks to their account manager, then applies for a grant. And what does the business owner experience? They tell their story three times, to three people who can't see each other's notes.
- Hannah LoweThat's a very clear example. Emma, from the data side, how do those records line up? Is there a shared identifier, or is it names and addresses?
- Emma KirkupNot reliably, no. Some have a company number, some don't. A sole trader might not have one at all. So the same café on the coast can be spelled two or three different ways across the three, and we match them by hand when somebody asks us for a report.
- Hannah LoweMm. That's common, and it's worth saying early, because it shapes the design. To be precise, the matching is the hard part, not the connecting. Getting the systems to talk is usually the easier half.
- Lesley CharltonThat's reassuring, actually, because I think people assume it's the other way round.
- Tom AshdownCan I ask about the board side? You mentioned in your first email that they want to see something. What is it they're after?
- Lesley CharltonThe board wants to see which businesses the agency helped and what came of it. That sounds like one question, but it's really two. Who did we touch, across all three routes? And then, did anything happen afterwards? Did they take on staff, did they win work, did they invest.
- Lesley CharltonSix councils own us, so every one of them wants to know what their residents and their businesses got. I need to evidence that. At the moment I can give them activity counts, but not outcomes, and certainly not by business.
- Emma KirkupAnd it takes us a couple of weeks each time to pull it together. Every quarter. By the time it's done, the numbers are already a bit old.
- Tom AshdownYeah. That's the bit that wears people out, I'd imagine. Doing the same stitching again every quarter.
- Emma KirkupIt really is. And it depends on me, which isn't ideal. If I'm off, nobody else knows which tab matters.
- Hannah LoweThat's worth noting. Can I ask what systems are involved? I don't need the whole estate, just the main places the information sits.
- Emma KirkupThe account managers work in the CRM. The enquiries line has a helpdesk, and it logs each call there. Grants is the spreadsheet, plus a shared drive with the application documents and the monitoring forms. And there's email, obviously, which holds a lot of the real story.
- Hannah LoweRight. So that's the CRM, a helpdesk, a shared drive and a mailbox, plus the spreadsheet. The short answer is that's all workable. The longer answer is that the spreadsheet will need a bit of care, because there's no fixed structure to hold on to.
- Emma KirkupUnderstood. I could tidy it up first if that makes it easier.
- Hannah LowePossibly, but don't do anything yet. I'd rather see it as it is. How people really use a spreadsheet tells us more than a cleaned version would.
- Tom AshdownCan I just check something on where this sits for you? I know there's a formal process here. I don't want us to wander into anything we shouldn't.
- Lesley CharltonThank you for asking, that's sensible. Yes. It has to go through the tender. I can talk about our needs in general terms, the problem and how we work, but I can't discuss the tender itself outside the formal clarification process. If you have questions about it, they go in writing through that route.
- Tom AshdownCompletely fair. We'll keep this to understanding the agency, and anything about the tender goes through the proper channel. Hannah, that suits you too?
- Hannah LoweIt does. I'll keep my questions about the data and how people work, and I'll put anything else in writing.
- Lesley CharltonGood. And I should say, I can't promise anything about the outcome, and budget isn't mine to commit, that's Keith's. I'm here to understand what's possible.
- Tom AshdownUnderstood. Though I'm not sure I know Keith. Is he involved day to day, or more at the sign-off end?
- Lesley CharltonMore at the sign-off end. He'll want to see that it's a fair process and a sensible use of public money. I'd rather not say more than that.
- Tom AshdownNo problem. Leave that with me, I won't push. Let's go back to the practical side. Emma, who actually uses these records day to day?
- Emma KirkupThe account managers most, then the enquiries team, then grants. Perhaps a dozen people in grants, a bit more on the enquiries line. I'd have to count properly, I don't want to guess.
- Hannah LoweThat's fine, a rough sense is enough for now. The reason I ask is that who asks the questions changes what we'd set up. Account managers tend to ask about one business. The board's question is about many businesses over time.
- Lesley CharltonExactly that. Two quite different questions, and I'd want both to work. One business, quickly, before a visit. And all of them, with outcomes, for the board.
- Hannah LoweThen let me describe what we'd normally do, in general terms. Everything runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your control. We connect the sources, bring them together, and then people ask questions in plain English and get answers that point back to the underlying records.
- Lesley CharltonPointing back to the records matters to me. If I put a number in front of the board, someone will ask where it came from.
- Hannah LoweYes, and I'll put that in writing, so you've got it properly. The answer shows its sources, so you can trace it. I wouldn't claim it replaces your judgement. It saves the stitching.
- Emma KirkupCan I ask about the matching problem again? If it can't tell two spellings are the same café, what happens?
- Hannah LoweGood question. Where it's confident, it joins them. Where it isn't, it flags a possible match for a person to confirm, so you stay in charge of the awkward cases. It won't quietly merge two businesses and hope for the best.
- Emma KirkupI'd want that. A wrong merge on a grant record would be worse than a missed one.
- Hannah LoweAgreed. That's exactly the risk, and it's why I'd start with a sample before anyone relies on it.
- Tom AshdownOn that, Lesley, would it help if we showed this on a small, safe sample of your kind of data at some point? Not a commitment, just so your team can see how it behaves.
- Lesley CharltonI think that would be valuable for the account managers, yes. But again, anything like that has to sit properly within the formal process. I'll need to check what's permitted before I say yes.
- Tom AshdownOf course. You check, and we'll wait to hear. No pressure from our end.
- Lesley CharltonThank you. May I ask about size? We're a public body, so people will want to know whether you've worked with organisations our scale, with several teams in one view.
- Tom AshdownFair question. We'd be proposing the Enterprise tier for something company-wide like this, with the security review that comes with it. Hannah leads that review herself.
- Hannah LoweI do. It's a questionnaire plus a conversation with your IT people, and I try to get the answers right first time. If I'm not sure on a control, I check with our security lead before I answer. I won't overstate anything.
- Emma KirkupOur IT team will want that. They're quite thorough, and rightly so, given what's in the grants files.
- Tom AshdownOn cost, I'm not going to quote you a figure from memory today. Internally we've got a total deal value for something like this, and I'll confirm exactly what it covers in writing before it goes anywhere. It would include the one-off set-up as well as the subscription.
- Lesley CharltonYes, and I wouldn't expect numbers on a first call. Anything on price would need to come through the right route in any case.
- Tom AshdownAbsolutely. I'll only say that, for our own planning, we've pencilled in Friday 13 November 2026 as a possible date. That's our diary, not yours, and it doesn't assume anything about your process.
- Lesley CharltonUnderstood. I'd be careful not to read anything into it from our side, but thank you for being clear that it's yours.
- Hannah LoweCan I go back to the grants side for a moment? When a business gets a grant, what happens afterwards? Is there monitoring data coming back?
- Emma KirkupThere are monitoring forms at set points. Jobs created, spend, that sort of thing. They arrive as documents and sometimes by email, and someone keys the main figures into the spreadsheet.
- Hannah LoweSo the outcomes the board wants are partly in those forms. That's useful, because it means the answer to what came of it already exists. It's just in the wrong shape.
- Lesley CharltonThat's a good way to put it. The answer exists, it's scattered. And I'd like the account managers to see it too, so they know what happened after they handed a business over.
- Tom AshdownThat's a nice point, actually. So the board story and the account manager story are the same data, seen from two seats.
- Lesley CharltonYes. I hadn't put it like that, but yes.
- Emma KirkupFrom my side, one worry. If it's all in one place, who sees what? The enquiries team shouldn't necessarily see grant assessments, for instance.
- Hannah LoweRight, and that's a design point rather than an afterthought. Access follows who the person is. At the Enterprise level we'd also look at single sign-on and how users are provisioned. I'd want a proper list from you of who should see which kinds of record.
- Emma KirkupI can draft that. I'd need to ask grants and the enquiries manager, but I can start.
- Tom AshdownBrilliant. And Emma, you're the person who'd know the systems best, so I'd lean on you. Hope that's all right.
- Emma KirkupThat's fine. I'm usually the one they ask in any case.
- Lesley CharltonShe is. Which is another reason I'd like the knowledge to be less in one person's head.
- Hannah LoweThat comes up a lot, and it's a fair benefit. Once the logic for matching is written down in the system, it stops living in one tab on one laptop.
- Lesley CharltonCan I ask what a typical timeline looks like once something is agreed? I'm not asking about ours, just in general.
- Hannah LoweIn general terms, for Enterprise, the set-up runs over a few months, and the security review sits inside that. Connectors go in first, then matching, then people start asking questions. I'll put the typical sequence in writing so you can see it.
- Tom AshdownAnd I'd say the first useful answers usually appear well before the end of that. People tend to see value on the first connected source, then it grows.
- Lesley CharltonThat would matter to me. A board doesn't want to wait for the end of a long project to see anything.
- Emma KirkupNeither do I, frankly.
- Tom AshdownHa. Fair. Right, I think we've got a good picture. Let me say it back and you tell me where I've got it wrong.
- Tom AshdownThree records of each business, from the account managers, the enquiries line and the grants team. Matching them is done by hand, mostly by Emma, and it's slow. The board wants to see which businesses you helped and what came of it, and the account managers want one view before a visit. Access has to be careful. And anything to do with the tender goes through the formal clarification process.
- Lesley CharltonThat's a very fair summary. I'd add that the business owner's experience is the thing I keep coming back to. If we do this well, they only tell their story once.
- Tom AshdownGood, we'll keep that front and centre.
- Hannah LoweOne practical request, if it's allowed. Could Emma send me a description of the fields in each of the three records? Just the column headings and what they mean, no actual business data.
- Lesley CharltonI think a description of the structure is reasonable, but let me check that against the process before Emma sends anything. I'd rather be careful.
- Hannah LoweOf course. Please do. I'd rather wait than put you in an awkward position.
- Emma KirkupI'll get it ready anyway, so it's there once Lesley says it's fine.
- Tom AshdownPerfect. And from our side, I'll send a short note after this with what we heard, in writing, so you can correct us. Let's get something in the diary for a follow-up once you've checked what's allowed. Does later in the spring sound sensible, or is that too soon with everything else going on?
- Lesley CharltonLater in the spring should be workable. Let me come back to you on the timing, because it depends on the formal side.
- Tom AshdownNo drama, we'll wait for you. Anything else either of you wanted to ask before we finish? We've got a bit of time.
- Emma KirkupJust one. If the spreadsheet is the weak point, does it have to be replaced before any of this works?
- Hannah LoweNo. The short answer is no. The longer answer is that we can read it as it is and bring it in. Whether grants wants to move to something sturdier later is a separate choice, and an easy one to make once the data is joined up.
- Emma KirkupGood. That would be one less argument to have internally.
- Lesley CharltonI had one more, about the board. Would the answers be something I could show them, say a view by council area? Each council will want to see its own.
- Hannah LoweYes, that's the kind of question it's built for. By area, by programme, by year. It depends on the area being recorded somewhere in the source data, so that's another thing I'd look at when I see the field descriptions.
- Lesley CharltonI think it is, for most of them. Emma would know.
- Emma KirkupMostly. A few older records are missing it. I'll flag which.
- Hannah LoweThat's exactly the sort of thing that's good to know now rather than halfway through.
- Tom AshdownRight. I think we're in good shape for a first conversation. Lesley, thank you for being so open about the problem, and for being clear on the boundaries. It helps us do this properly.
- Lesley CharltonThank you both. This has been useful for me too. I'll speak to the team about what we're permitted to share and come back to you.
- Hannah LoweAnd I'll write up the architecture points and the access question so it's all in one place. Thanks, both.
- Emma KirkupThanks, everyone. Speak soon.
- Tom AshdownCheers, all. Have a good week, and try to stay dry. Bye for now.
- Lesley CharltonGoodbye, and thank you.
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