Kielderside Growth Agency / BG-Demo – Demo
Callcompleted
Kielderside Growth Agency · 5 May 2026 14:45
Demo to the Chief Executive, finance director and procurement lead. Procurement restated that purchase is by open tender. Tom gave an indicative £155k Enterprise total including implementation. Keith wants whole-life cost in writing.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Demo to the Chief Executive, finance director and procurement lead. Procurement restated that purchase is by open tender. Tom gave an indicative £155k Enterprise total including implementation. Keith wants whole-life cost in writing.
What happened: Hannah Lowe showed outcome questions, pre-visit briefings, identity matching and a live dashboard. Paul Hetherington wanted to know which businesses the agency helped and what came of it.
Commercial: Tom Ashdown said BG-Demo's own records hold £155k for an Enterprise deployment of this shape, covering implementation as well as subscription. Keith Robson asked for the annual element separately, and Tom said the split would be set out in the tender.
Process: Sarah Dodds said the agency must buy through an open tender and that all questions go through the portal. Tom noted a placeholder expected close of Fri 13 Nov 2026 as internal planning only, not the agency's timetable.
Watch: Keith said he does not accept an unpriced option and will not sign before any standstill period has ended.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Tender rules and Enterprise pricing
Importance
neutral
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- Tom Ashdown to send one note via Sarah Dodds, copying all attendees, with the architecture write-up and access position.
- Tom Ashdown to confirm in writing how the £155,000 figure is made up, caveated as indicative.
- Tom Ashdown and Hannah Lowe to check the procurement portal each morning once the notice is live.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The deal can only be won through an open tender, with all questions in writing via the portal and answers shared with all bidders.
- Keith wants whole-life cost with the annual element separate, and will not accept an unpriced option.
- The £155,000 figure is a total including one-off implementation, so it must not be read as an annual figure.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Enterprise tier with the dashboards builder answers Paul's need to evidence impact to the councils.
- SSO and user provisioning in Enterprise address Keith's question on who sees financial information.
Transcript
Tom AshdownHello, hello. Can everyone hear me alright? I'm getting a bit of an echo on my side, so shout if it's the same for you.
Lesley CharltonYes, we can hear you, Tom. Afternoon. Keith and Paul are just coming into the room now, we've borrowed the big screen in the boardroom.- Tom AshdownBrilliant, no drama. How's your week been, Lesley? Last time you said it was all board papers.
- Lesley CharltonStill is, to be honest. The account managers are asking for the same thing they always ask for, which is one place to look rather than five. So it's useful that you're showing this to Keith and Paul today.
Keith RobsonGood afternoon. Keith Robson. I can see and hear you both. Before we start, I would like to be clear about the commercial position, and what this session is and is not.
Sarah DoddsSorry, Keith, if I can, that's partly why I'm on the call. I'll restate the position in a moment, once Hannah has done the walk-through. Is that all right, Tom?- Tom AshdownPerfectly all right. Sarah, you tell us where the lines are and we'll stay on the right side of them. Paul, good to have you with us, I know your diary's a nightmare.
Paul HetheringtonThank you, Tom. Paul Hetherington. I've read the notes from the first session. Lesley tells me it was mostly about how the account managers work. I want to see something different today. I want to see what happened to businesses we've helped.
Hannah LoweThat's a good place to start, Paul. Hannah Lowe here, I'm the solutions engineer. Before I share my screen, what do you most need to know by the end of the call? Then I'll shape it around that.- Paul HetheringtonSimply this. If I'm asked by one of the councils which businesses we helped last year and what came of it, can I get an answer without three people spending a week in spreadsheets?
- Hannah LoweRight. The short answer is yes, if the sources are connected and the records line up. The longer answer is that it depends how consistently a business is identified across your systems, and I'll show you exactly where that bites. Let me share now.
- Hannah LoweCan you see a window with a search bar and a list of pages down the left?
- Lesley CharltonYes. It's a little small on the boardroom screen. Could you make the text bigger?
- Hannah LoweOf course. Is that better? Good. So this is built on the sample extracts you sent us, the account manager notes, the enquiries log and the grants records. Nothing here is live in your environment, and it sits in a test space, not in anyone's production system.
- Keith RobsonUnderstood. And whose data is it, formally? Where does it sit?
- Hannah LoweTo be precise, in a live deployment it would run inside your own Snowflake account, so the data stays under your control. For today it's the extracts, loaded into a demo space. I'll put the architecture in writing for you afterwards, with a diagram.
- Keith RobsonThank you. We would need that in writing.
- Hannah LoweOf course. So, Paul's question. I'll type it in as he said it. Which businesses did the agency help last year, and what came of it?
- Hannah LoweGive it a moment. It's reading across the account manager notes, the grant records and the enquiry log. There. It's returned a list of businesses, grouped by what the agency did: an account manager relationship, a grant, or an enquiry that led to a visit.
- Paul HetheringtonMm. That's more than I expected. Can you open one? Pick any.
- Hannah LoweLet's take this manufacturer, it's one of the sample records. You can see the page pulls together the first enquiry, the account manager's notes, the grant application and the outcome noted afterwards. Each line says where it came from, so you can click through to the original.
- Lesley CharltonThat's what I keep coming back to. What does the business owner experience? If they ring the enquiries line, then speak to an account manager, then apply for a grant, they shouldn't have to tell the story three times.
- Paul HetheringtonAnd what came of it. Where does it say that? I can see what we did. I can't see the result.
- Hannah LoweThat's a fair challenge, and I'd rather be straight about it. It shows the outcomes that someone recorded: a follow-up note, a grant closure, a change in the account manager's comments. If nobody wrote the result down, B-Viz can't invent it. It surfaces what's there and tells you where it's thin.
- Paul HetheringtonSo it's only as good as what our people write.
- Hannah LoweLargely, yes. Though it does make the gaps visible. Let me show you. I'll ask which businesses had a grant but no recorded follow-up.
- Hannah LoweSo that's the list. A grants team would normally build that by hand. Here it's a question, and the answer comes with the source records beside it.
- Lesley CharltonThat alone would help the board paper. I need to evidence that we followed up, and at the moment I'm relying on account managers' memories.
- Tom AshdownIf I can chip in, Lesley, that's what a few of our other public sector customers say as well. It's less about the clever bit and more about being able to say what happened, with the receipts.
- Keith RobsonMay I ask about audit. If a councillor asks how an answer was produced, can we show that?
- Hannah LoweYes. Every answer lists the records it used, and you can open each one. I'd say it supports an audit trail, but I wouldn't overstate it: the controls on who can see what depend on how your team sets permissions. I'll put the exact position in writing rather than describe it from memory.
- Keith RobsonThat is appropriate.
- Paul HetheringtonCan you try something broader? Across the six councils. Which areas have we helped most, and which least?
- Hannah LoweI can, as long as the council or area is a field on the record. In the sample it is, mostly. Let me ask and see.
- Hannah LoweSo you get a spread by area, with a caveat from the system that a number of records have no area. That's the sort of thing that would be tidied in the first weeks of a rollout, not something to be embarrassed about.
- Paul HetheringtonNo, that's honest. We have those gaps. I know we do.
- Lesley CharltonCan I ask something from the account managers' side? They each look after a big portfolio, close to four and a half thousand businesses between them. Can one of them ask, before a visit, what's the latest on this business?
- Hannah LoweYes, that's probably the most common use. Let me do it for the manufacturer again. Prepare me for a visit to this business.
- Hannah LoweIt gives a short summary, the last contact, open grant items and anything raised through the enquiries line. The account manager can then ask follow-ups in the chat.
- Lesley CharltonThat would save them a morning each week, I think. I'd want to check that with them rather than promise it.
- Tom AshdownFair enough. Leave that with me, Lesley, I can send over how other teams have measured it, without putting words in anyone's mouth.
- Keith RobsonNow, the commercial position, if I may. What is the whole-life cost? I appreciate we are not at that stage, but I would like to know the shape of it.
- Sarah DoddsKeith, if I may step in here, this is exactly the point I wanted to make. Tom, Hannah, I'd like to explain how this has to work from our side, and then you can say what you're comfortable with.
- Tom AshdownPlease do. That's why you're here, Sarah.
- Sarah DoddsThank you. To restate the timetable first: these demonstrations are part of the agency's market engagement. The agency is publicly funded by six councils, so it cannot simply choose a supplier. It must buy through an open tender under the public procurement rules.
- Sarah DoddsOnce the tender notice is published, every question must go through the procurement portal. Please submit that through the portal, whatever it is, a technical point, a clarification, a price query. And all bidders will see the answer. I can't take anything off the record, and I can't extend a deadline for one bidder.
- Tom AshdownThat's clear, and we're comfortable with it. Can I just check one thing so we don't trip over it? After the notice is out, you don't want me phoning Lesley or Keith with questions, even small ones.
- Sarah DoddsCorrect. Questions about the tender go through the portal, in writing. The deadline for clarifications will be stated in the notice. I'd ask that you don't contact Lesley, Keith or Paul about it directly.
- Lesley CharltonAnd I should say, from my side, I can't discuss the tender outside the formal clarification process. I was glad to see B-Viz at the regional event, but it has to go through the tender. I'm not able to promise anything, and neither is anybody here.
- Paul HetheringtonI'll add that I'd be uncomfortable if anyone thought this session gave one supplier an advantage. That's not the point of it. We are trying to understand what is possible so the specification is sensible.
- Sarah DoddsExactly that, Paul. Which is why, Keith, I'd ask that we don't go into price negotiation today.
- Keith RobsonAgreed. I wasn't negotiating, Sarah, but I understand. I do not accept an unpriced option, and I do not sign before any standstill period has ended. I only wanted the order of magnitude, if it is permissible to give it.
- Sarah DoddsI'd say it's permissible for Tom to describe how he sees the scope, as long as it's understood to be indicative and that any real price is submitted through the tender. Tom, are you comfortable with that?
- Tom AshdownI am, and I'll be careful. I don't quote prices from memory without saying I'll confirm them. What we've got on our own records for an Enterprise deployment of this shape is £155,000. That's the total value, with the one-off implementation included, so it's not an annual figure. I'll confirm that in writing, and I'd expect any actual bid to be priced separately and properly through the tender.
- Keith RobsonThank you. So that is an all-in figure, not a yearly one. What's the whole-life cost then? We would need the annual element separately, and whether anything is fixed for the contract period.
- Tom AshdownYes, and that's a fair thing to ask. I'd rather not guess the split on a call, Keith. If it's in the tender documents, we'd answer it there, with the annual subscription and the implementation set out separately.
- Sarah DoddsThat's the right approach. The pricing schedule in the tender will ask for exactly that. Is that within the evaluation criteria, Keith? I believe whole-life cost is.
- Keith RobsonIt will be, yes. I'll confirm the weighting through the proper channel.
- Tom AshdownAnd one other thing, for tidiness. I've got a placeholder date of Friday 13 November 2026 on our side as an expected close. That's only our internal planning, Sarah. It isn't the agency's timetable and we're not assuming it.
- Sarah DoddsThank you for saying so. The timetable will be in the notice, and that is the only one that counts.
- Paul HetheringtonHannah, can we go back to the demonstration? I'd still like to understand one more thing about the product, if that's allowed.
- Sarah DoddsProduct questions about what you've seen today are fine for the session, Paul. Once the notice is out, any further ones come through the portal.
- Hannah LoweHappy to. Go on, Paul.
- Paul HetheringtonIf a business changes its name, or two records are really the same company, does it get confused?
- Hannah LoweGood question, and it's the unglamorous heart of this. The short answer is it can, if the two records share nothing. The longer answer is that we match on things like the company registration or a shared domain, and where it isn't sure, it flags the pair rather than merging them silently. Let me show you a sample pair.
- Hannah LoweHere, two records for what looks like the same business, one from the enquiries line and one from the grants team. It shows both, says why it thinks they match, and asks someone to confirm.
- Lesley CharltonThat's reassuring. The enquiries line and the grants team spell things differently, so I'd expect plenty of those.
- Hannah LoweYou would. In the sample we saw a fair number, and that's one reason the first weeks of any rollout matter.
- Keith RobsonOn who sees what. The grants team handles financial information about businesses. Would an account manager see all of it?
- Hannah LoweOnly if you let them. Permissions follow the groups you define. Enterprise includes single sign-on and user provisioning, so access can follow your existing directory. I'll set the detail out in writing, because I don't want to describe a control loosely and have you rely on it.
- Keith RobsonThank you. I would want that checked against our own information governance requirements.
- Hannah LoweOf course. And if there's anything I'm not certain of, I'll check with Ewan on the security side before I answer, rather than guess.
- Paul HetheringtonCould you show the dashboard thing? Lesley mentioned something the board might see.
- Hannah LoweYes, the dashboards builder. It's in Growth and above, so it would be in the Enterprise tier. I'll build a quick one live: businesses helped by type of support, per area.
- Hannah LoweThere. Rough, obviously. But your team could save it, share it and rerun it each quarter. And each bar opens onto the businesses behind it.
- Paul HetheringtonI like that last part. I've been given charts before that I couldn't trace back to anything.
- Lesley CharltonThat's the evidence point for me. I need to evidence that our help made a difference, and a board member should be able to click and see an actual business.
- Tom AshdownCan I ask what's useful for your side to take away? Because once the notice is out I'll be a bit tied up on what I'm allowed to say.
- Sarah DoddsAnything you send now should go to me, and I'll share it with the project group. I'd rather it was copied to all of us than sent privately to one person.
- Tom AshdownUnderstood, no drama. So what I'll do is send one note to Sarah, copying everybody here. It'll have Hannah's architecture write-up, the access control position, and my confirmation of how the figure I gave is made up.
- Hannah LoweAnd I'll include a list of the connectors the demo used, so your IT team can see what each one reads. I'll include what we're less sure about too, like the area field gaps.
- Keith RobsonThat would be helpful. Please state clearly anything that would be an additional cost. We need it in writing.
- Tom AshdownWill do. If it isn't priced, I'll say it isn't priced.
- Paul HetheringtonOne more from me, then I must leave for another meeting. If we did go ahead with someone, what would the first few months look like for our people?
- Hannah LoweTypically, connectors first, then a clean-up of the identity matching we just saw, then a small group of account managers using it in anger before it goes wider. For Enterprise the implementation runs over a number of weeks and includes support for your security review. I'd rather give you the specifics in the written note than quote durations from memory.
- Paul HetheringtonThat's fine. Thank you. That was the session I wanted. Lesley, Keith, I'll leave it with you.
- Lesley CharltonThanks, Paul.
- Sarah DoddsBefore Paul drops off, I'll restate where we are. This was market engagement. The tender notice will be published on the portal, and from then every question goes through the portal in writing, with every answer shared with all bidders. The deadline is noon on the date in the notice.
- Tom AshdownNoted, Sarah. Noon, portal, everyone sees the answer. We'll watch for the notice.
- Paul HetheringtonGood. Goodbye all, and thank you.
- Hannah LoweThanks, Paul.
- Keith RobsonWhile we have a few minutes, a question on the demonstration data. If we had to describe what you showed to our councils, what would be the accurate summary?
- Hannah LoweI'd say: a single searchable view over the agency's own records, built inside your own Snowflake account, where every answer points back to the source record. It doesn't invent outcomes. Where results weren't recorded, it shows the gap.
- Keith RobsonThat is a fair summary and I can use it. Thank you.
- Lesley CharltonHannah, just practically, the account managers wanted to see the chat on a phone. Is that something you can show later, or does that count as a tender question?
- Sarah DoddsUntil the notice is out, it's fine to ask. But if it affects the specification, I'd like it in the clarification log, so everybody has the same information.
- Hannah LoweUnderstood. I'll cover how it behaves on smaller screens in the note, in general terms, and anything more specific can wait for the portal.
- Lesley CharltonThat's sensible. I'm conscious I don't want to say anything that looks like favouring one supplier. I'll take what you send back to the account managers and ask what they actually need.
- Tom AshdownThat's exactly right, Lesley. Honestly, whatever the outcome, I'd rather you had a fair process you can defend.
- Lesley CharltonThank you, Tom. That matters.
- Keith RobsonIs there anything else Sarah needs from the BG-Demo side before the notice?
- Sarah DoddsOnly that you read the notice carefully when it is published, and that any questions are submitted in good time. Late submissions can't be considered.
- Tom AshdownRight, we'll make a note. Let's get something in the diary for ourselves to check the portal each morning once it's live, so we don't miss it.
- Hannah LoweTo recap my side: architecture note with the diagram, the access control position, the connector list, and a plain statement of where the demo data was thin. All in one document, sent to Sarah.
- Tom AshdownAnd mine is the written confirmation of the figure, with the split between the yearly part and the one-off part set out as I can, caveated as indicative. Copied to everyone on this call, through Sarah.
- Keith RobsonThank you both. That is all I need for now.
- Sarah DoddsThanks, everyone. I'll log that the session took place and what was agreed. Kind regards.
- Lesley CharltonThank you, Hannah, Tom. That was really useful. Best wishes.
- Tom AshdownCheers, all. Speak soon, and thanks for your time, especially with the diaries you've got.
- Hannah LoweThanks, everyone. Bye for now.
- Keith RobsonGoodbye.
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