Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Marlcliff Security Services · 21 Nov 2025 12:00
Sharon Tilley said account managers drifted back to spreadsheets and she would keep B-Viz but cannot defend the cost to budget holders yet. Daniel proposed a refresher, saved questions and an overnight incident report.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Sharon Tilley said account managers drifted back to spreadsheets and she would keep B-Viz but cannot defend the cost to budget holders yet. Daniel proposed a refresher, saved questions and an overnight incident report.
What happened: Daniel Okafor said active use is lower than the previous quarter against forty Growth seats. Data is fresh and connectors are loading, so the gap is habit, not a fault.
Customer view: Sharon sponsored B-Viz and wants to keep it. She cannot take the cost to the budget holders without proper use, and she raised that forty seats may be more than needed.
Commercial: Daniel advised against deciding on seats yet and said a poor renewal picture would become a conversation with Lewis. The contract was stated as £40k a year, running to 4 Jun 2026.
Watch: usage is concentrated in a few people, and credit control stopped using it after a balance looked different.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage decline, value case
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel confirms by the middle of the following week whether the overnight incident report can reach account managers automatically.
- Sharon asks the credit control lead about the balance question and picks three recent client accounts for the sessions.
- Daniel proposes session dates, aiming for the first before the Christmas break, and copies Lewis on the note.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Usage is concentrated in a few people, so the loss of two would nearly remove it.
- Sharon raised that forty Growth seats may be more than needed, which points to a downgrade request at renewal.
- Credit control stopped using B-Viz after distrusting a balance, a cause not yet confirmed.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Refresher sessions for account managers built on real client accounts.
- An overnight incident report reaching account managers could become the success measure.
- Showing existing email and call sources more clearly could deepen use without new connectors.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Sharon, can you hear me all right? Thanks very much for your time today, I know Fridays are never quiet for you.
Sharon TilleyHi Daniel. Yes, loud and clear. Sorry, I've just come off the phone, give me a second to shut a door. Right. Incident of the week first, if you don't mind, because it's still sat in my head.- Daniel OkaforOf course. Go ahead.
- Sharon TilleyA client's shutter alarm went off overnight, our control room dealt with it properly, patrol attended, all fine. But the client's facilities manager rang the account manager at eight in the morning to ask what had happened, and the account manager hadn't seen the report yet. So the client heard it from their own alarm company's text before they heard it from us. What did the client hear from us? Nothing. That's the bit that annoys me.
- Daniel OkaforMm. That's frustrating, and it's exactly the sort of thing you brought us in to help with. Was the report sitting in the control room system, or had it not been written up yet?
- Sharon TilleyWritten, but not pushed anywhere the account manager would look. Which site, which shift, all of that was there. It just wasn't in front of the right person. Anyway. I'll come back to it, because I suspect it's connected to why you wanted this call.
- Daniel OkaforIt might well be. Just to check, is it only the two of us today? I wasn't sure whether anyone from the control room or credit control was joining.
- Sharon TilleyJust me. I thought I'd rather hear what you're seeing first and then decide who needs to be in the room. Frankly I've got a feeling I know what you're going to say.
- Daniel OkaforFair enough, and I'd rather be straightforward about it. I've been looking at how the team is using B-Viz over the last few months, and the number of people actively using it has come down. Compared with the previous quarter it's noticeably lower, and set against the forty seats you have on Growth, it's a small group now.
- Sharon TilleyYeah. I thought so. How small?
- Daniel OkaforOn an average day, a handful of people. I don't want to read too much into one number, so I'd like to understand it with you rather than just hand you a chart. How is the team finding it, from what you hear on the floor?
- Sharon TilleyHonestly? Mixed. The first few weeks after go-live were great. Account managers were in there all the time, pulling up a client's sites, the last incidents, the calls, whether an invoice was outstanding before they rang. People loved it. Then autumn happened. Contract renewals with clients, a couple of big tenders, two people off sick in the control room, and everyone went back to what they know.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is very human. And what they know is, what, the old spreadsheets and asking a colleague?
- Sharon TilleySpreadsheets, shouting across the office, and the control room system for incidents. Look, it's not that they think B-Viz is bad. Nobody's said that. It's that nobody told them to use it, and I haven't kept on at them. That's on me, I'll own that.
- Daniel OkaforI wouldn't put it all on you. We probably should have been in front of the account managers more after the first couple of months, and that's on our side. Just to close the loop on that, we did run the introductory sessions, but we haven't done a proper refresher since.
- Sharon TilleyNo, you haven't, and nor did I ask. So let's not trade blame. Let's work out what would actually change behaviour.
- Daniel OkaforYes, please. Can I share my screen for a moment? I want to show you something rather than describe it.
- Sharon TilleyGo on.
- Daniel OkaforRight, can you see that? This is the usage view for Marlcliff. The line on the left is the questions people ask. You can see it climb in the first weeks, then it levels, and lately it's drifted down. What I find interesting is that the records being indexed are still moving, so the data is fresh. Nothing is broken on our side. Your connectors are loading each night, and we've had no tickets from you at all recently, which is nice, but it also tells me people aren't hitting problems because they aren't in there much.
- Sharon TilleySilence isn't always good news. I know that one. I've said it to my own account managers about clients.
- Daniel OkaforExactly the same principle. So the system is healthy, the data is current, the invoices are all up to date on your side and ours, and what's missing is habit.
- Sharon TilleyWho's still using it? Can you see that?
- Daniel OkaforI can. It's concentrated. A few people ask most of the questions, and you're one of them. I'd rather not name individuals on a call, but I'll send you the list afterwards. The worry is that if two of those people are away, or move roles, the usage nearly disappears.
- Sharon TilleyRight. That is a worry. Because then if someone asks me in the new year what we're getting for the money, I'd have a very thin answer.
- Daniel OkaforAnd I'd like to make sure you don't have a thin answer. Can I ask how the renewal looks from your side? It's not until June, I know, and Lewis will pick up the commercial side nearer the time, but I'd rather we talked about value now than in the spring.
- Sharon TilleyStraight answer. I want to keep it. I sponsored it. I believe in having every account manager see sites, incidents, calls and invoices together. But I can't walk into a budget conversation with the people who sign off and say, we pay thirty-nine thousand six hundred a year and five or so people open it. I won't commit anything until they've seen proper use, and I'd want them in the loop anyway.
- Daniel OkaforThat's completely fair, and I'd say the same in your position. The contract is the thirty-nine thousand six hundred a year, forty seats, runs to 4 Jun 2026. We have plenty of time to change the picture before then, if we start now.
- Sharon TilleySo what do we do? Practical stuff, not a slide deck.
- Daniel OkaforThree things, and tell me if any of them is daft. One, a short refresher for the account managers, small groups, built around your real clients, not a generic tour. Thirty minutes, maybe, so it doesn't eat a day. Two, a handful of saved questions for the jobs they already do, like what happened at this client's sites in the last week, before I ring them. Three, we look at your incident of the week and see whether the report could reach the account manager automatically.
- Sharon TilleySay that last one again. That's the one I care about.
- Daniel OkaforThe overnight report you mentioned. If the incident data is already flowing into B-Viz, an account manager could open a client first thing and see what happened overnight on their sites, before the client rings. I'd want to check with our engineers exactly how the incident feed is wired in at your end, so I won't promise the mechanism today. I'll come back to you by the middle of next week on what's possible.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Because that's the story I can tell. Never be caught out by your own client. If the account managers believe it'll stop that happening, they'll use it. If it's just another screen, they won't.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. Which means the refresher should start with that, not with a tour of menus.
- Sharon TilleyYes. And the control room. They've barely touched it. Their world is the alarm and incident system, and they see B-Viz as the account managers' thing.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful to know. Would it help if I joined one shift handover, or would that be intrusive?
- Sharon TilleyNot intrusive, but the shift leads would be suspicious of a stranger. Let me introduce you. Which shift is quieter, I'd say early evening. I'll ask the duty manager.
- Daniel OkaforLovely, thank you. I'd also want to understand what the control room would actually ask it. If it's only what time did the patrol arrive, that's already in their own system and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. The value is when someone wants the client's whole picture: previous incidents, recent calls with the account manager, whether they've a dispute on an invoice.
- Sharon TilleyRight, that's credit control too. They're the other group that dropped off. They had it for a few weeks and then went back to their own reports.
- Daniel OkaforDo you know why? Was it something they couldn't find, or just habit again?
- Sharon TilleyI think they didn't trust the answers at first. One of them asked about a client's balance early on, got something slightly different from what they had, and that was that. I never chased it up. It was probably a timing thing.
- Daniel OkaforThat's worth chasing, and I'm glad you said it. If it was a timing difference between the accounting system and the nightly refresh, there's a simple explanation, and I can walk them through it. If it was something else, I want to know. Can you find out who it was?
- Sharon TilleyI'll ask the credit control lead on Monday. I'll get you a name and roughly what the client was.
- Daniel OkaforThank you. I'll make a note. So that's credit control, account managers, and the control room, in roughly that order of effort. Is that the right order?
- Sharon TilleyAccount managers first, because the incident story lands there. Credit control second, once we've sorted the trust thing. Control room third, and gently.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Then for the account manager refresher, how many people are we talking about, roughly? I don't need the exact figure.
- Sharon TilleyA fair crowd. Most of the team. Call it two or three sessions so nobody's pulled off the phones all at once. I'll pick a couple of people who are keen to go first and the rest will follow when they see it working. I'm not going to mandate it blindly, but I will tell them I expect them to try it before they ring a client.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the best kind of nudge, coming from you. I'll build the sessions around three real client accounts you choose, so it's their own sites on screen.
- Sharon TilleyPick ones where something has happened recently. Not the quiet ones.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Can I mention one more thing, and please say if it's too soon? Some customers find it helps to agree a simple measure of success, so that in the spring everyone is looking at the same thing. It might be as plain as how many account managers open it in a normal week, or whether the overnight report gets seen before the client rings.
- Sharon TilleyNo, not too soon, that's sensible. I'd go for the second one. If I can say we've not had a client beat us to an incident since we started, that's worth more than a usage chart.
- Daniel OkaforThen we make that the goal, with the usage view as a back-up. I'll write it up in a short note so we both have it.
- Sharon TilleyGood. And be honest with me if it isn't working. I'd rather know in January than find out in May.
- Daniel OkaforI will. That's a promise. And likewise, if the team tells you something we've got wrong, I'd like to hear it, even if it's blunt.
- Sharon TilleyBlunt is my speciality.
- Daniel OkaforI've noticed. In a good way.
- Sharon TilleyCan I ask something about the seats? Forty is more than we need at the moment. Not trying to cut anything, just thinking out loud about whether it's the right shape.
- Daniel OkaforIt's a reasonable question. My view, for what it's worth, is that it's too early to decide. If we get the account managers and credit control properly in, you may well use most of the forty. If we go to the renewal conversation and usage still hasn't picked up, then that's a conversation with Lewis about what's the right fit. I'd rather we earn the right to that conversation by making it useful first.
- Sharon TilleyThat's fair. I'm not asking for anything today. I just wanted it said.
- Daniel OkaforNoted, and thank you for saying it. Better out in the open.
- Sharon TilleySo who does what? Let me say it back.
- Sharon TilleyI ask the credit control lead about the balance question on Monday and pick three recent client accounts for the sessions. I speak to the duty manager about you joining an early evening handover. And I tell the account managers there's a refresher coming and I expect them to use it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's right. And from my side: by the middle of next week I'll come back to you on whether the overnight incident report can reach the account managers automatically, and what that would take. I'll send the list of who's using it, privately, to you only. I'll propose dates for the account manager sessions, and I'll write the short note on the goal we agreed.
- Sharon TilleyDates before Christmas, please. After that the year gets away from everyone.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. I'll aim to get at least the first session in before the break, and I won't guess at dates I can't promise. I'll check my own diary and the trainers' and send you options.
- Sharon TilleyFine. And copy Lewis on the note? I don't want him surprised in the spring.
- Daniel OkaforYes, I'd already planned to. He'll want to know the plan and I'd rather he heard it from us now than found it in a usage report later.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Anything else on your list?
- Daniel OkaforJust one small thing. The connectors. Everything you set up at the start is still loading, and nothing has been added since. If there's a system you wish was in there, say a phone or messaging source that account managers use day to day, tell me, because that can make it more useful for them.
- Sharon TilleyFunnily enough, yes, they live in their email and the call recording. Those are in, aren't they?
- Daniel OkaforThey are. So it may be more about showing people what's already there than adding sources. I'll check that the calls and emails are showing up as you'd expect for a few accounts before the session, so there are no surprises.
- Sharon TilleyPerfect. I think I know what to do now. I came into this call a bit braced, if I'm honest.
- Daniel OkaforI understand, and thank you for being so open. It makes it much easier for me to help. I'd far rather have this conversation now, with months in hand, than later.
- Sharon TilleySame. Right, I've got a client call at half past, so I need to run. Send me that note and I'll push things from this end.
- Daniel OkaforWill do, today if I can, otherwise first thing Monday. Thank you again, Sharon, and I hope the weekend is calmer than the week.
- Sharon TilleyFrom your lips. Alarms don't know it's the weekend, but fingers crossed. Thanks, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Daniel OkaforSpeak soon. Bye for now.
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