Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Marlcliff Security Services · 23 Jun 2025 11:15
Early onboarding call on the Growth order form. Sharon Tilley says the account managers need incidents in one place: 'That's exactly why we bought this.' Connector order, pilot group and data owners were agreed. No extra spend was committed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Early onboarding call on the Growth order form. Sharon Tilley says the account managers need incidents in one place: 'That's exactly why we bought this.' Connector order, pilot group and data owners were agreed. No extra spend was committed.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon agreed a connector order with Sharon Tilley and Kamal Hussein, and a small pilot group of account managers. Kamal is the only user so far and has set up the Snowflake role and warehouse.
Customer view: Sharon wants every site visible per client and wants to know if a client was told after an incident. She is wary of an empty screen putting people off, and of the data going stale unnoticed.
Commercial: Laura confirmed the Growth order form at £40k a year, with the contract running to 4 Jun 2026 and renewal on 5 Jun 2026. Single sign-on is an Enterprise feature; Sharon said she would not commit money without checking upstairs.
Watch: Adoption depends on the pilot, a second source owner in finance and the control room, and compliance approval for call recordings. Freshness is nightly, not live, and Sharon wants to be on the connector-failure mailbox.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding plan and connectors
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Laura Penhaligon to send the credentials checklist, the connector plan and pilot training dates.
- Sharon Tilley to pick the pilot account managers, name two data owners and ask compliance about call recordings.
- Kamal Hussein to create read-only users, set up a shared mailbox and check the alarm platform question.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Kamal Hussein is the only person with access and the only source owner, so the build depends on one person.
- Invitations before there is useful data could cause early drop-off among the forty licensed users.
- Data refreshed overnight may disappoint account managers expecting live incidents.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Single sign-on, an Enterprise feature, could be raised later if separate logins irritate users.
- A list of sites that exist in one system but not the others could be an early quick win.
- The alarm platform would be a sixth connector, within the eight Growth includes.
Transcript
Laura PenhaligonHello, can you hear me all right? I've got you both on screen but I think Kamal's a bit quiet.
Kamal HusseinIs that better? I had the wrong headset selected.- Laura PenhaligonMuch better, yes. Hi Kamal. And Sharon, hello.
Sharon TilleyMorning, Laura. Sorry, I'm in the car park, give me one second to get inside. Right. Yes. I'm here. It's been a week already and it's only Monday.- Laura PenhaligonGo on, what happened?
- Sharon TilleyAlarm activation at a client's warehouse over the weekend. Third one in a fortnight at the same unit. Which site, which shift, that's what I wanted to know, and it took the control room twenty minutes to piece together because the site notes are in one place and the incident log's in another. And then, what did the client hear from us? Nothing, until they rang us. That's exactly why we bought this.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's a useful way in, actually. That's the picture we want to get you to: one place, where the account manager can see the site, the incidents and the calls together. Let's make sure today gets us a step closer.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Kamal, do you want to go first? You always do tickets.
- Kamal HusseinYeah. So, open tickets. There aren't any. We haven't raised anything with BG-Demo yet, which I think is just because nothing's connected yet. I've got a list of questions though, mostly about the rostering side.
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect, we'll get to those. Let me say where I think we are, and you correct me. The order form was signed on Thursday 5 June 2025, so we're a couple of weeks in. The environment is built inside your Snowflake account, which Kamal set up access for last week.
- Kamal HusseinYes. The role and the warehouse are in. I kept it separate from the finance reporting warehouse so nothing can collide. It's in the runbook.
- Laura PenhaligonLovely, I did see that, thank you. It's much tidier than most. So today is really the plan: which systems we connect, in which order, and who owns each one on your side. Then I'll show you what a connector looks like once it's live so you know what to expect.
- Sharon TilleyBefore we do, can I say what matters most to me? I want the account managers looking at a client and seeing every site. Not most of them. Every one. We've got about two thousand clients and a lot of them have several sites, some on patrol, some manned, some alarm only.
- Laura PenhaligonUnderstood. So the client list is the spine. Kamal, which system holds the master list at the moment?
- Kamal HusseinThat's the awkward part. Strictly it's the finance system, because that's where the client gets created to be invoiced. But the rostering system has its own client codes, and the control room has a third set. They mostly match. Mostly.
- Sharon TilleyMostly is what keeps me awake.
- Kamal HusseinFair. There's a mapping sheet I keep by hand. It's fine, but it's one person.
- Laura PenhaligonRight, and that's a good thing to know early. Can I suggest we treat that sheet as an input? We load it, and B-Viz uses it to join the three sets of codes. Then anything that doesn't match gets flagged rather than silently dropped.
- Kamal HusseinWhich client code is that, when it flags? Will it show me the code from each system?
- Laura PenhaligonYes, each side, so you can see the one that's out. You decide which is right, we don't guess.
- Kamal HusseinGood. I'd rather it didn't guess.
- Sharon TilleyNor would I. Go on.
- Laura PenhaligonSo let me propose an order and you tell me where it's wrong. First the finance system, because it gives us clients and invoices, and credit control are going to want that early. Second the rostering system for sites and shifts. Third the control-room system for incidents and alarm activations. Then calls and email after that, once the spine's solid.
- Sharon TilleyI'd swap them. Incidents before finance. I know credit control will moan, but the incidents are what the account managers have been asking for since we signed.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's fair. The only catch is that incidents without a clean client list are hard to attach to anyone. So could we do a light pass of the finance client list first, just names and codes, and then incidents, and then the invoices afterwards?
- Kamal HusseinThat works. Client list is a read-only export for me. Low risk. The invoices I'd want to look at more carefully.
- Sharon TilleyWhy more carefully?
- Kamal HusseinBecause they include credit notes and a few manual adjustments the finance team make. I don't want B-Viz to tell somebody a client owes money when it's been settled another way. I'd want to check how those are stored first.
- Laura PenhaligonSensible. Put that on the list and we'll look at it together when we get there. Nothing goes in without your say-so.
- Kamal HusseinThanks. I never change a live system without a way back, so if anything needs a setting changed on our side I'll write the backout first.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's exactly how I'd want it. Right, let me share my screen and show you what this looks like on a connector that's already running, just so it's concrete. Bear with me.
- Laura PenhaligonCan you see that? It's a demonstration environment, not yours, but the layout's the same.
- Sharon TilleyYes. Bit small.
- Laura PenhaligonLet me zoom. Better? So this is the connectors page. Each one shows when it last loaded, how many records it's brought in, and whether anything's failed. If a number stops moving for a while, that's the first sign something on the source side has changed.
- Kamal HusseinChanged how? Like a field renamed?
- Laura PenhaligonExactly that, or an upgrade, or someone changing a login. It usually isn't B-Viz that's broken, it's the source moved. So I'd ask you to tell us before you upgrade anything, if you can.
- Kamal HusseinI can do that. There's a change calendar. I'll add you to it.
- Laura PenhaligonBrilliant, that would genuinely save us a day or two each time.
- Sharon TilleyShow me the bit the account managers will see. Not the plumbing.
- Laura PenhaligonOf course. So this is a client page. Sites down the side, recent incidents, the last few calls, the latest invoices. And up here you can just ask a question in plain English.
- Laura PenhaligonSo I'll type, which sites for this client had more than one alarm activation this month, and who spoke to them about it. And it comes back with the sites, the dates, and the calls, with a link to each one.
- Sharon TilleyMm. That's the twenty minutes gone. That's what I want.
- Sharon TilleyCan it tell me whether the client's been told? Whether anybody phoned or emailed them after the incident?
- Laura PenhaligonIf the calls and emails are connected, yes, it can show you whether there's any contact after the incident time. If there isn't any, it says there isn't. It won't tell you why, mind. That's still a person.
- Sharon TilleyGood. I'd rather know there's a gap than assume.
- Laura PenhaligonRight. Now, users. You've got forty licensed, on the Growth tier, so that's account managers, the control room, and credit control. How were you thinking of rolling that out?
- Sharon TilleyAccount managers first. Then the control-room supervisors, not every operator. Credit control last, once the invoices are in and Kamal is happy. I don't want forty people logging in to an empty screen. They'll try it once and never come back.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's wise, and honestly it's the commonest way these go wrong. At the moment I can see it's really only Kamal who's been in, which is what we'd expect, so there's nothing to worry about, but it does mean we shouldn't invite people until there's data worth looking at.
- Kamal HusseinYeah, that's me. I've been poking about with the admin settings. Nobody else has been given access.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Keep it that way for now.
- Laura PenhaligonSo what I'd suggest is a small group first. Say a handful of account managers, and you, Sharon, as the person who'll tell us honestly if it's rubbish.
- Sharon TilleyI will. I always do.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's why I asked. Who'd pick the account managers?
- Sharon TilleyMe. Let's get the account manager on it who looks after the biggest portfolio, and one who's always complaining about the data. If it works for both of them it works for everyone.
- Laura PenhaligonI like that. Hard cases first.
- Kamal HusseinCan I ask about sign-in? We use the same login for most things. Will people have to remember another password?
- Laura PenhaligonOn Growth it's a standard login with its own password, rather than single sign-on, so yes, I'm afraid it's another one. Single sign-on is an Enterprise feature. If it becomes a real irritation we can talk about it with Lewis, but I wouldn't push it now.
- Sharon TilleyLewis is who we signed with. Fine. Not now. And I'm not committing any money for it anyway, not without checking upstairs.
- Laura PenhaligonNo, completely understood, I wasn't suggesting it. Just flagging it.
- Kamal HusseinFine by me. I'll set the accounts up by hand. It's only a few.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay. Now the rostering questions you mentioned, Kamal. Shall we go through them?
- Kamal HusseinYes. First one. The rostering system stores each shift against a site code and an officer. Will B-Viz hold the officer's name?
- Laura PenhaligonIt can. But you get to choose. Some customers load names, some load only an internal reference, depending on how they feel about people's data being searchable. What does your team prefer?
- Sharon TilleyReferences, I think. I never want anyone asking a question that ends up pointing at an officer. We don't blame an officer to a client, ever. If something happened on a shift, it's the shift we look at and then I'll have the conversation myself.
- Kamal HusseinThen references. I'd keep the name lookup in rostering where the permissions already exist.
- Laura PenhaligonDone. I'll note that as a decision so we don't revisit it by accident. Next one?
- Kamal HusseinSecond. Rostering is refreshed through the day, the control room system is more or less live. How often does B-Viz pull?
- Laura PenhaligonOvernight, every night. By the start of the working day, the account managers see yesterday's picture. It isn't a live feed. So for something that happened this morning, they'd still go to the control room.
- Sharon TilleyRight, that's worth saying out loud to the team, otherwise someone will ask it about this morning's incident and get upset when it's not there.
- Laura PenhaligonAgreed. I'll put a line about it in the welcome note so it comes from us as well as you.
- Kamal HusseinThird. Where do the credentials live? For the finance system I'd use a dedicated read-only user, not mine.
- Laura PenhaligonExactly right. A dedicated read-only user for each source, created by you, with the password stored in your secrets setup in Snowflake, not sent in an email. I'll send a short checklist so you've got it in writing.
- Kamal HusseinPlease. I'll file it with the runbook.
- Sharon TilleyCan I ask something awkward?
- Laura PenhaligonPlease.
- Sharon TilleyHow long until my account managers can use it? Roughly. I've told them it's coming and they've stopped believing me.
- Laura PenhaligonHonest answer. The Growth implementation runs over about eight weeks from the start, and we're roughly two weeks in. The first useful thing, the client list with sites and incidents, I'd hope to have in front of your pilot group well before the halfway mark. The invoices and the calls come later. I'd rather underpromise.
- Sharon TilleyThat's all right. Tell them a few weeks for the first look and more after that.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's fair to say. And if it slips, I'll tell you before you find out yourself.
- Kamal HusseinIs there a limit on how many systems we connect? I've got the three main ones, but there's also the alarm receiving platform and the phone system.
- Laura PenhaligonGrowth includes eight connectors, so you've room. Finance, rostering, control room, the phone system, email, that's five. The alarm platform makes six. You'd still have a couple spare. Is the alarm platform separate from the control-room system?
- Kamal HusseinIt feeds it. I'd have to check whether the incident data is complete in the control room already, or whether we'd lose detail. I'll check the connector options and come back to you.
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect. Don't spend a lot of time on it before we've done the first three.
- Sharon TilleyWhile we're on calls. The recordings from the phone system. Are we allowed to put them through this? I want to be careful.
- Laura PenhaligonGood question, and one for your side as much as ours. It all stays inside your Snowflake account, it never leaves. But whether you may analyse recordings depends on what people are told when they ring. Who looks after that?
- Sharon TilleyCompliance. I'll ask them this week and let you know. If it's no, we start with call logs only.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's a sensible fallback. Logs alone still tell you who rang whom and when, which answers your question about whether the client was contacted.
- Sharon TilleyYes. It does. Actually that might be enough for the first stage.
- Laura PenhaligonLet me write down where we've got to. Hang on, I'm typing.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay. So. Order of connectors: finance client list, then the control room incidents, then rostering sites and shifts, then finance invoices once Kamal's checked how credit notes are stored. Calls and email after that, subject to compliance. Alarm platform is an open question for Kamal. Have I got that?
- Kamal HusseinI'd put rostering before incidents, actually. Incidents need the site codes to land anywhere sensible.
- Laura PenhaligonAh, yes. You're right, I was thinking about what Sharon wants to see first, not what depends on what. Rostering sites, then incidents.
- Sharon TilleyFine with me, as long as I see incidents in the pilot group's hands soon after.
- Laura PenhaligonThey'll follow straight on. Now owners. For each connector I'd like one name on your side who answers questions about the data. Kamal, I assume you for all three systems?
- Kamal HusseinTechnically yes. But for what the fields mean, I'd want someone in the control room for incidents and someone in finance for the invoices. I know where the data is. I don't always know what it means to them.
- Sharon TilleyI'll find you a supervisor in the control room. For finance, I'll ask our finance team to name someone, someone who knows the adjustments.
- Laura PenhaligonThat would be ideal. Even half an hour each is enough.
- Sharon TilleyThey'll give you half an hour. I'll make sure.
- Laura PenhaligonThank you. Now, Daniel Okafor will be your customer success manager once we've finished the implementation. He'll set up check-ins and look after the usage side. I'll introduce you by email this week so he's not a stranger.
- Sharon TilleyGood. And Lewis stays on the commercial side?
- Laura PenhaligonYes, Lewis Kerr is still your account owner for anything about the contract. The contract runs to 4 Jun 2026, with renewal on 5 Jun 2026, but that's a long way off and Daniel will pick it up with you nearer the time. I mention it only so you know who's who.
- Sharon TilleyNoted. Contract kept, that's all I care about. And the number was thirty-nine thousand six hundred a year, yes? Just so I've got it straight for the budget.
- Laura PenhaligonYes, £39,600 a year, that's what's on the order form. I'd always defer to the order form over me, mind, but that matches what I have.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Then we're square.
- Kamal HusseinCan I go back to the invoices for a moment? I said I'd check how credit notes are stored. If a credit note is applied, will B-Viz show the net, or both lines?
- Laura PenhaligonBoth lines, as they are in the source, and it treats a credit note as a one-off adjustment, not as a change to what the client normally pays. So the account manager shouldn't see a client's annual value drop just because there was a credit.
- Kamal HusseinGood. That was my worry. Somebody gets a credit for a missed patrol and suddenly the client looks smaller.
- Sharon TilleyWhich would be a problem for me because they'd come to me about a missed patrol, and the account manager would be looking at the wrong thing.
- Laura PenhaligonYes, exactly. And we'll test it on real examples before anyone else sees it. Kamal, could you pick a few clients where you know there's been a credit note and a manual adjustment? Then we check the result against what finance say is right.
- Kamal HusseinI can do that. I'll pick some awkward ones. I'll send the client codes, not names, in the email.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's perfect, thank you.
- Sharon TilleyWhat about the sites? My biggest worry is sites that exist in one system and not another. A site goes live in rostering, the control room never hears about it. Then there's an alarm and nobody knows where to send anyone.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's the kind of thing the mapping gives you for free. Once all three are joined, we can produce a list of sites that appear in one place and not the others. I'd call that a quick win. It might surprise you a bit, though.
- Sharon TilleyI'd rather be surprised by a list than by a client.
- Kamal HusseinI expect we'll find a few. Old sites that were never closed, mostly.
- Laura PenhaligonUsually, yes. Closed contracts that are still open somewhere. Not dramatic, but it's tidy to know.
- Laura PenhaligonRight, let me think what else I need from you. Training. When the pilot group starts, I'd like to run a short session, maybe an hour, on their own data, so it isn't a generic demo. Would you both be there?
- Sharon TilleyI will. Kamal should as well, they'll ask him things.
- Kamal HusseinI will. Though I may be quiet. Mostly I'd be listening for where it doesn't match what they expect.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's the most useful thing you could do, honestly.
- Sharon TilleyCan we make it before the month end? Credit control get busy then.
- Laura PenhaligonCredit control come later in our plan anyway, so that shouldn't clash. I'll look at the diary and send a couple of options, I won't fix anything today.
- Sharon TilleyGood.
- Kamal HusseinOne more technical thing. If a connector fails overnight, who gets told?
- Laura PenhaligonAt the moment, us and you. The admin gets an email. I'd suggest we put a shared mailbox on your side as well so it doesn't depend on one person being at their desk.
- Kamal HusseinYes. I'll set up a shared mailbox for that. Better than my own inbox.
- Sharon TilleyAnd add me to it. I want to know if the thing is stale before an account manager tells me.
- Laura PenhaligonI'll note that. Honestly, that's one of the things I'd watch hardest in the first few months: whether the data's moving. If it goes flat, nobody complains, it just quietly goes out of date, and then people stop trusting it.
- Sharon TilleyThat's the thing. I've seen it with other tools. People stop looking.
- Laura PenhaligonWhich is why I'd rather start small and keep it right.
- Kamal HusseinAgreed.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay, shall I recap actions? I'll be quick, and shout if I get any wrong.
- Laura PenhaligonMine. One, send the credentials checklist and a short written plan with the connector order we agreed. Two, introduce Daniel Okafor by email. Three, send some dates for the pilot training session. Four, put a line in the welcome note about the data being refreshed overnight rather than live.
- Laura PenhaligonKamal. One, create the read-only users, starting with the finance client list and rostering. Two, send me a handful of awkward client codes with credit notes or adjustments. Three, check the alarm platform question. Four, set up the shared mailbox and add me to your change calendar.
- Kamal HusseinThat's right. I'd do the read-only users first, so you're not waiting on me.
- Laura PenhaligonThank you. Sharon. One, pick the pilot account managers. Two, name a control-room supervisor and someone in finance as data owners. Three, ask compliance about the call recordings.
- Sharon TilleyThat's all fine. I'll do the names this week. Compliance may take longer, they always do.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's all right, we aren't blocked on it. We start with logs if we have to.
- Sharon TilleyCan I raise one more thing? It's a bit off the plan.
- Laura PenhaligonOf course.
- Sharon TilleyThat warehouse client from the weekend. Three alarms at the same unit. Is that the sort of thing I'd be able to see as a pattern? Not just count them, but spot that it's the same unit, same time of night.
- Laura PenhaligonYes, once the incidents are in with their site codes and times, you can ask for repeats at a site and it will group them. What it won't do is tell you the cause. A pattern gives you the question, you still need somebody to go and look at the door.
- Sharon TilleyHa. Yes. It's usually the door.
- Kamal HusseinOr the sensor.
- Sharon TilleyOr the sensor. Fine. That's a good example to use when you train them, actually. Use that kind of thing.
- Laura PenhaligonI will, with details taken out. I'd rather work from real cases than invent them.
- Kamal HusseinLast thing from me. Who do I contact if I get stuck between now and the next call? You, or the support desk?
- Laura PenhaligonMe while we're in implementation, by email or phone, and copy the support desk so there's a record. Once you're live, the support desk is the front door and Daniel is behind it. I'd rather you asked a question that turns out to be nothing than sat on it.
- Kamal HusseinI'll ask. I don't like leaving a ticket without an update, so I tend to over-communicate anyway.
- Laura PenhaligonPlease do. It makes my job easier.
- Sharon TilleyWhen's the next call?
- Laura PenhaligonI'd suggest the same slot in a week's time, a short one, to check the first connector's loaded and the client list matches what Kamal expects. Does next Monday work for you both?
- Kamal HusseinThat works for me.
- Sharon TilleyAnd me, as long as nothing catches fire. Literally or otherwise.
- Laura PenhaligonFingers crossed. I'll send the invite after this.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Laura, thank you. This is the first time I've felt it's real rather than a promise.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's lovely to hear. We'll keep it real. It's a good team to be working with, you've done the groundwork well, Kamal.
- Kamal HusseinThanks. It's all in the runbook, if anyone needs it.
- Laura PenhaligonRight then. I'll let you get on with your Monday. Speak soon, both of you.
- Sharon TilleyThanks, Laura. Bye both.
- Kamal HusseinBye. Cheers.
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