Kielderside Growth Agency / BG-Demo – Proposal
Callcompleted
Kielderside Growth Agency · 14 Jul 2026 10:45
Shortlisted bidders' presentation held on 14 Jul 2026. Enterprise bid at £155k total including implementation. Security findings remain open and Anil will not close any without evidence. Contract timing depends on award and standstill.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Shortlisted bidders' presentation held on 14 Jul 2026. Enterprise bid at £155k total including implementation. Security findings remain open and Anil will not close any without evidence. Contract timing depends on award and standstill.
What happened: This was a scripted, recorded tender session with a live demo, security findings and commercial questions. Sarah Dodds ran it for the panel and kept scoring comments out.
Customer view: Lesley Charlton wanted one place for everything about a business. Wendy Armstrong called the grants view the clearest thing she had seen in these presentations.
Commercial: Tom Ashdown said the bid is for Enterprise at £155k total, including one-off implementation, so it is not a yearly price. Keith Robson wants commercial answers separated from technical ones and will not sign before the standstill ends.
Watch: Anil Bhatt said he has two findings partly answered and three open. Theo Gallagher owns five written items, and the access answer depends on a check with Ewan. The evidence does not show an award decision. The 13 Nov 2026 contract date is BG-Demo's planning date only.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Enterprise tender presentation
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- Theo Gallagher submits five security items through the portal, with Ewan's input on access.
- Tom Ashdown sends separate commercial and technical clarification submissions.
- Hannah Lowe writes up the alerting detail for the tier.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Five security findings stay open and Anil will not close any without evidence.
- Contract timing depends on the award decision and standstill, which the call does not settle.
- Staff access and alerting answers were deferred, so the written bid must match what was said.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- An Enterprise win with SSO, SCIM and security review support included.
- The grants team liked the plain-language question and dashboard builder.
Transcript
Sarah DoddsGood morning, everyone. Can you all hear me? I can see Tom and Hannah, and Theo has just joined. Lovely.
Tom AshdownMorning, Sarah. Yeah, loud and clear. How's your week been? Hope it's not all been tender paperwork.- Sarah DoddsMostly, I'm afraid. Right, let me restate the timetable so that it's on the record. This is the shortlisted bidders' presentation, it's recorded for the evaluation file, and we have until about half past eleven. The panel has a set of scripted questions. Every bidder gets the same questions in the same order, and you'll answer them live on the test business we set up for you.
- Tom AshdownNo drama, that's how we understood it. Hannah's going to drive the screen for the live bits, Theo will take the security questions, and I'll pick up commercial and anything about the contract.
- Sarah DoddsThank you. Please note, if a question comes up that isn't on the script, I'll ask you to submit it through the portal so that all bidders will see the answer. Lesley, Keith, Anil, Wendy, anything before we start?
Lesley CharltonJust from me, that my account managers are asking for one thing really. When they open a business, they want everything in one place. The grants history, the enquiries, the last conversation. So I'll be watching for what the business owner experiences, as much as what the screen looks like.
Hannah LoweThat's helpful, Lesley. Before I share, what does the panel most need to see first? I can start with the account manager view or with the search.- Sarah DoddsIt's the scripted order, I'm afraid. Question one is the single view of a business. Over to you.
- Hannah LoweOf course. Sharing my screen now. Can you see it? Good. So this is the test business you gave us. I've connected the sample records you supplied, the customer relationship records, the enquiries line, the grants records and the email threads, into the sandbox copy of the layer, running inside a Snowflake account.
- Hannah LoweThe short answer to question one is that every source appears on one page for this business. The longer answer is that each item shows where it came from, so an account manager can tell the difference between something typed by a colleague and something that came from the grants system. I'll open the page.
Wendy ArmstrongSorry, can I ask, is that the grants history there, on the right? That's the part my team lives in.- Hannah LoweYes, that's it. Two applications are shown, with status and the last officer note. If I click the second, you can see the email thread attached to it, and the enquiry the business made before it applied.
- Wendy ArmstrongMm. So I wouldn't have to ask the account manager what was said.
- Hannah LoweRight. That's the idea. And to be precise, it only shows what the connected sources hold. If the note was never written down anywhere, it can't appear.
- Lesley CharltonThat's fair, and honestly a helpful thing to hear. Can I see what an account manager would see if she hadn't spoken to this business for a while? Is there a summary?
- Hannah LoweThere is. It's a generated page for the business, built from the records. Give it a moment, it's reading the sources now.
- Tom AshdownWhile that loads, Lesley, I'd just say it's the same page whether it's an account manager, the enquiries line or the grants team opening it. Same facts, same wording.
- Hannah LoweThere we are. It lists the contact history in date order, the open grant, and one open enquiry that hasn't been answered. It also says which source each line came from, which is the bit I'd want a panel to check.
- Lesley CharltonYes. I can evidence that to the board, I think. Thank you.
- Sarah DoddsNoted. Question two is the natural language search. The panel has written the query. I'll read it out: which businesses in the programme have an open enquiry and an application that is waiting for a decision.
- Hannah LoweRight, typing that in exactly as read. Sarah, I'll not change a word.
- Sarah DoddsThank you.
- Hannah LoweIt's come back with the test business, and one other in the sample set. It shows why each matched: the enquiry source on one side, the application source on the other. If I'd phrased it loosely, say asking for businesses we haven't heard from, it would have given me something different, so the wording matters.
Keith RobsonCan I ask a practical question there? If the answer is wrong, who is accountable? We need to be able to show an auditor how a figure was reached.- Hannah LoweGood question, and the short answer is that every answer links back to the underlying records, so it can be reproduced. The longer answer is that the answer is only as good as the data behind it, and that is why we show freshness for each source. I'll put that in writing for the clarification log rather than leave it as a verbal comment.
- Sarah DoddsPlease do submit it through the portal. Keith, that's a question on the script at a later point, I think, so we'll come back to it. Question three is for the grants team. Wendy?
- Wendy ArmstrongYes. So my team gets asked, over and over, which businesses have had grant money and what happened next. Can the system answer that without someone building a report each time?
- Hannah LoweIt can ask the question in plain language, and there's also a dashboard builder if you want a view that stays on the screen. Let me do the question first. I'm typing: which businesses received a grant and later made an enquiry.
- Hannah LoweLoading. This one touches two sources, so it takes a few seconds longer.
- Hannah LoweAnd it's back. One business, our test business, with the grant listed first and the later enquiry underneath. If I wanted that as a standing view, I'd save it as a dashboard, and your team could change the filters themselves.
- Wendy ArmstrongOh, that's good. And my people can do that without asking IT?
- Hannah LoweFor the filters, yes. For adding a new source, no, that goes through a connector, and that would be a conversation with the right owner on your side.
- Wendy ArmstrongRight, that makes sense.
- Sarah DoddsThank you, Hannah. That completes the live demonstration questions. We now move to security and data protection. Anil, I believe you have your findings.
Anil BhattThank you, Sarah. I have my open findings from the written submission, and I'll take them in order. Theo, I understand you are responding.
Theo GallagherMorning, Anil. Yes. For the record, I'll start by listing what I think is open from our side so we're working from the same list. One, where the data is held. Two, who has access. Three, the certifications. Four, the exit plan. Is that your list too?- Anil BhattIt is, with one addition. Five, how the service behaves if a source system is changed without notice. But let us begin with one. Where does the data live, please evidence that.
- Theo GallagherOne. The layer is built and run inside your own Snowflake account, so the data stays in the account and region you choose. We don't copy it into a BG-Demo environment. The control reference in our questionnaire response covers it, and we can evidence that with the architecture diagram that Hannah prepared. I'll make sure it is attached to the portal answer.
- Anil BhattA diagram is a description. I would like to see the evidence of the configuration, not only the drawing.
- Theo GallagherUnderstood, and that's fair. To be exact, what I can give you before contract is the design and the questionnaire answers. The configuration evidence exists once the build happens in your account, because it is your account. I won't claim more than that. Here is the dated commitment: I'll set out in writing what is evidenced now and what is evidenced at build.
- Anil BhattThat is acceptable as a position, though I shall not close the finding until I have seen it.
- Theo GallagherQuite right. Two, who has access. The access to your data is through roles granted inside your Snowflake account, so you decide who holds them and you can see them. For anything about our own staff access beyond that, I'd want to check with Ewan on the platform side before I answered, so I'll take that as an action rather than guess.
- Anil BhattWho has standing access, in plain terms? Does anyone at your company hold permanent access to our data?
- Theo GallagherI don't want to answer that from memory, Anil. The design intent is that access is granted by you and can be withdrawn by you, but you've asked for evidence, not intent. I'll confirm with Ewan and answer in the portal.
- Anil BhattThank you. That is the correct way to answer it. Three. Which certifications do you hold?
- Theo GallagherThe certifications are listed in the questionnaire response with their scope. I'd rather not recite them from memory in case I blur which covers what. What I can say is that anything we claim we can evidence with the certificate, and I'll point the portal answer at the exact documents.
- Anil BhattI will review the documents. I do not accept a reference in place of a control, as you know.
- Theo GallagherUnderstood. Four, exit. If you leave, the data is already in your Snowflake account, so there's nothing for us to hand back. What we would remove is our own configuration and any access we have been given. The exit steps are in the response, and I'll make sure the order is clear.
- Lesley CharltonSorry to come in. Anil, is that the sort of answer you were hoping for? I only ask because I need to understand where it leaves the evaluation.
- Sarah DoddsLesley, I'm going to stop you there, if I may. Scoring of the security response is for the panel and not for this session. Please keep any comment to clarification of the answers.
- Lesley CharltonOf course. I apologise. It has to go through the tender, quite right.
- Anil BhattFive. If a source system is changed and a connector stops loading, how would we know?
- Hannah LoweI can take that one, Theo, if you don't mind. In the product, each source shows its last refresh and how many records were indexed. If a connector breaks, the count stops moving and the freshness shows as late. You'd see it on the page, and the nightly refresh is meant to be complete by seven in the morning on business days. To be precise, it tells you the data is stale, it doesn't fix the source.
- Anil BhattAnd who is told?
- Hannah LoweYour administrators see it in the product, and our support team sees it from our side. I'd want to confirm the exact alerting set up for your tier before promising a notification, so I'll put that in writing.
- Anil BhattVery well. I will record that as partly answered.
- Sarah DoddsThank you, Anil. Before we move to commercial, can I take a quick break? We'll resume at eleven twenty exactly. Please stay connected.
- Tom AshdownBrilliant. Back in a minute.
- Sarah DoddsWe're back. Thank you. Keith, I understand you have the commercial questions.
- Keith RobsonThank you, Sarah. Tom, could you set out the commercial position, please, as submitted.
- Tom AshdownCourse, Keith. The bid is for Enterprise, and the total value in our submission is £155,000. I want to be careful here, because that total includes the one-off implementation as well as the subscription, so please don't read it as a yearly price. The split is in the priced schedule you already hold, and I won't quote the pieces from memory, I'd rather you read them off the document.
- Keith RobsonUnderstood. Then, what's the whole-life cost over the contract period? We need it in writing.
- Tom AshdownIt's in the schedule as submitted, and if the panel wants it laid out differently, I'll do it through the portal so that every bidder sees the same clarification. I don't want to give you a number in a call that differs by a hair from the document.
- Keith RobsonThat is the right approach. Are the prices fixed for the contract period?
- Tom AshdownThey're fixed as stated in the bid. If there's any wording in the schedule you read differently, flag it, and we'll answer it formally. No drama on our side.
- Keith RobsonIs there anything in the pricing that is optional and unpriced? I will not accept an unpriced option.
- Tom AshdownNothing that I'm aware of is left unpriced. Anything that's an add-on is shown as an add-on with its price in the schedule. If I've missed one, that's on me to correct in writing, and I'll check the schedule line by line after this call.
- Keith RobsonThank you. And is the offer consistent with the evaluation criteria? I do not want to learn afterwards that something falls outside them.
- Sarah DoddsKeith, if I may, that is a matter for the evaluation panel, not for the bidder to confirm. Tom, you may respond only on what your submission says.
- Tom AshdownFair enough, Sarah. All I'd say is the bid answers the questions as they were set. How it scores is up to you.
- Keith RobsonUnderstood. One more. Implementation. How long, and who is responsible?
- Tom AshdownEnterprise implementation runs to a fixed plan, with the security review support included. Hannah, I'll let you speak to the plan, you know it better than I do.
- Hannah LoweThanks, Tom. The plan starts with the connectors, so the sources you named, the customer records, the enquiries line, the grants system and the mailboxes. Each connector has an owner on your side and one on ours, and each is committed to go live within a stated number of days in the order form. I'd rather not recite the days now. They're in the bid, and I'll make sure the portal answer matches them word for word.
- Wendy ArmstrongCan I ask who from my side would be involved? I'm trying to work out how much of my team's time it takes.
- Hannah LoweGood question. For grants, I'd expect one person who knows the grants system well enough to say what a field means, and someone to check the first results against what you know to be true. It's not a lot of hours a week, but it does need to be the same person throughout.
- Wendy ArmstrongThat'd be me, probably, plus one of my officers. Fine.
- Sarah DoddsI will log that as a clarification on resources. Keith, anything further on commercial?
- Keith RobsonOnly the contract mechanics. I will not sign before the standstill period has ended. What is your understanding of the timing?
- Tom AshdownUnderstood, and we'd expect nothing different. Our own planning has the contract in place around 13 Nov 2026, but that's a planning date on our side, not something we'd treat as agreed. It depends entirely on your award decision and the standstill. Sarah would know better than me.
- Sarah DoddsThe tender timetable is published, and I can't comment on any bidder's planning date. Please keep to the published timetable. The award notification and the standstill are set out in the documents.
- Tom AshdownAbsolutely. Thanks, Sarah.
- Sarah DoddsThat brings us to the last scripted element. The panel would like a second live test. Lesley, you set this one.
- Lesley CharltonYes. It's a scenario, really. An account manager is about to ring the test business. She has two minutes. What does she see, and what would she say to the owner? That is what the business owner experiences, in the end.
- Hannah LoweOkay. Opening the business page again, and I'll ask it directly: what should I know before I speak to this business today.
- Hannah LoweReading the sources. It does take a moment on a fresh question.
- Hannah LoweRight. It says the business received a grant, has an open enquiry not yet answered, and the last email from the business was a question about eligibility. It suggests the account manager lead with the unanswered enquiry. And each of those lines links to its source.
- Lesley CharltonThat's exactly the thing. The business owner shouldn't have to explain herself three times. Could you show me what happens if the information is out of date? For instance, if the enquiries line was last updated some days ago.
- Hannah LoweI can show you where it appears. This panel on the side lists each source and when it last refreshed. In the sample, they're all current, so I can't make it stale without changing your data, and I wouldn't do that on a live call. But a late source would show here, and the answer would carry a note saying so.
- Lesley CharltonGood. I'd rather it told me than pretended.
- Hannah LoweAgreed. That's the part I'd defend most. Availability and freshness are different things. The service can be up and still be answering from stale data, and the page says which.
- Anil BhattSarah, may I make a procedural point? I have two findings partly answered and three that remain open. I would like the record to show that.
- Sarah DoddsNoted, Anil. Theo, can you confirm what you'll submit and through which route?
- Theo GallagherYes. Through the portal, so everything is visible to all bidders as the process requires. One, the configuration evidence statement, setting out what's evidenced now and what's evidenced at build. Two, the access answer, once I've checked with Ewan. Three, the certification documents with their scope. Four, the exit steps in order. Five, the alerting detail, with Hannah. I'll give each a control reference so you can tie them to your findings.
- Anil BhattThat is a clear list. I shall expect them in that form.
- Theo GallagherAnd I won't call anything final until it's final. If something goes in as a draft, it will say so.
- Sarah DoddsThank you. Any further clarification from the panel before we close? Keith?
- Keith RobsonOnly a request. When the clarification answers come, I would like the commercial ones separated from the technical ones, so that I can read them without the rest.
- Tom AshdownLeave that with me. Two separate submissions, commercial and technical, each labelled.
- Keith RobsonThank you.
- Wendy ArmstrongFrom me, I just want to say the grants view was the clearest thing I've seen in these presentations. I can't say any more than that, I know, but I wanted to say it.
- Sarah DoddsWendy, I'll ask you to keep evaluative comments for the scoring stage, though I appreciate the sentiment is noted as a user comment. Lesley, anything final?
- Lesley CharltonNo, other than thank you to all three of you. I won't comment further, I know the rules. The account managers will be glad it's over, honestly. They've been asking about it for weeks.
- Tom AshdownHa, I'm sure. Thank you, all of you, for the time. Sarah, can I just check, is there anything we should have asked and didn't?
- Sarah DoddsNo, Tom. Anything further goes through the portal. The deadline for clarification questions is noon on the day stated in the timetable, and it will not be extended for any bidder.
- Tom AshdownUnderstood. We'll have the written follow ups in well before that. Hannah, Theo, do you want to add anything?
- Hannah LoweOnly that if the panel finds any answer I gave today differs from the written bid, the written bid is the one that counts, and please tell us so we can correct it formally.
- Theo GallagherSame from me. Open findings and owners are as I listed: five items, all mine to deliver through the portal, with Ewan's input on the access question.
- Anil BhattI will review each as it arrives. I will not close any finding without evidence.
- Sarah DoddsThank you, everyone. That concludes the presentation. The recording will be retained for the evaluation file. You will be notified of the outcome in line with the published timetable. Kind regards to you all.
- Tom AshdownCheers, Sarah. Cheers, everyone. Speak soon.
- Hannah LoweThanks, all.
- Theo GallagherThanks, everyone.
- Keith RobsonGood morning to you all.
- Lesley CharltonBest wishes, all.
- Tom AshdownIs the recording still on? Hannah, Theo, stay on a minute. That went about as well as it could, I think. Let's get something in the diary this afternoon to split the follow ups.
- Hannah LoweYes. Give me ten minutes to write up what I promised on alerting, and I'll send it to you both.
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