Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – Training
Callcompleted
Marlcliff Security Services · 7 Jan 2026 14:45
Training with Jade Vowles found the incident connector had failed since a service account change. Rhys Gulliver fixed it, the old admin was removed, and a catch-up restored the data. Many seats had never been used.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Training with Jade Vowles found the incident connector had failed since a service account change. Rhys Gulliver fixed it, the old admin was removed, and a catch-up restored the data. Many seats had never been used.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon walked Jade through admin, user access, connectors and the dashboards builder. The incident connector log showed authentication refused after Rhys changed the control room service account before Christmas.
Customer view: Sharon said account managers had been looking at stale incidents for weeks, which explains why they stopped logging in. She wants brief team sessions and will tell the leads they are not optional.
Commercial: Many of the forty Growth seats show never signed in, mostly South Wales and credit control. Jade asked about connecting an HR source, and Daniel said the plan has a connector limit and he would revert by the end of next week.
Watch: Usage may now recover, but the evidence does not show it. Single sign-on and provisioning sit on Enterprise.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Admin training, connector fix
Importance
neutral
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 to revert to Jade on the connector question by the end of next week.
- Laura to send her notes and a written guide to the connector check.
- Sharon to ask the account manager leads to book short team sessions.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Many seats show never signed in, mainly South Wales and credit control, so adoption is still weak.
- A flat records graph does not trigger an alert, so a broken source could go unnoticed again.
- Jade only recently inherited the admin role with few notes.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Jade's interest in an HR source and a credit control role points to possible extra connectors, within the plan's connector limit.
- The restored warehouse incident gives a real example for short sessions with each account manager team.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello, good afternoon everyone. Thank you all for making the time. Let me just check who has joined. I can see Jade, and Laura is in the room with her in Bristol, I think. Sharon, Rhys, are you with us?
Sharon TilleyI'm here. Dialling in from my desk, so if a phone goes off behind me, that's the control room.
Rhys GulliverYeah, I'm on. Can you hear me all right? My headset's been temperamental.- Daniel OkaforLoud and clear, Rhys. Laura, can you hear everyone from the room?
Laura PenhaligonYes, all fine here. Afternoon, everybody. Jade's got me set up at the end of the table and the screen share is working, so I'll start sharing in a minute. The train down was fine, by the way, only a little late.
Jade VowlesGood afternoon. I've got a list of questions, sorry, it's quite a long one. I thought if I put them all down at the start we could see which ones the session covers.- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what I'd hoped for. Before we dive in, Sharon, I always like to ask. How is the week treating you? I know the start of January is never quiet for you.
- Sharon TilleyBusy. We had an alarm activation at a client's warehouse over the new year, and the client heard about it from their own keyholder before they heard from us. Which site, which shift, what did the client hear from us? That's what I keep asking. It shouldn't take three phone calls to find out who the account manager is meant to ring.
- Daniel OkaforMm. And that's really the reason we're all here, isn't it. The idea was always that an account manager opens one page and sees the sites, the incidents, the calls and the invoices together.
- Sharon TilleyRight. And to be frank, Daniel, I don't think they're doing that. I look at the usage and it's a handful of people. Before Christmas it was a lot more than that. I don't want to point fingers, but I'd like to know why.
- Daniel OkaforI'd rather not guess at the why on a call like this, to be honest. What I can say is that we've got far fewer people logging in than we'd expect for forty licensed users, and that's partly down to how the admin side was handed over in December. Jade took it on quite recently, so today is about her getting the whole picture, and then the account managers getting what they need.
- Jade VowlesYes, and I'll be honest, I inherited it with a few notes and not much else. I'd rather learn it properly than click around and break something.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's the right instinct. So here's what I'd suggest. We go through four things in order: the admin area, user access, the connectors, and then the dashboards builder. Jade, you drive, I'll talk. Stop me whenever.
- Jade VowlesGreat. Can I check one thing first? Is it fine for me to take notes as we go and write it up for the team afterwards? I'd like a proper set of training notes.
- Laura PenhaligonPlease do. I'll send you my own notes as well so you can compare.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay. Top right, there's your name and under it the admin area. Click that. What you're looking at is the overview: users, connectors, and the little health panel on the right. Don't worry about the colours yet.
- Jade VowlesRight, I see it. Can you show me how that health panel is built? Is it just the last refresh time, or does it check something else?
- Laura PenhaligonGood question. It's mostly the last successful refresh for each connector, and whether anything new came in. If a source loads but nothing new arrives for weeks, it'll look fine and still be stale. That's the one to watch, and we'll come to it.
- Jade VowlesOkay. So green doesn't always mean good.
- Laura PenhaligonExactly that. Green means it ran. It doesn't mean it brought anything in.
- Jade VowlesGot it. I've written that down. Next one on my list, who else has admin rights at the moment? Because I thought it was just me, but the list shows another name.
- Laura PenhaligonLet's open the people tab and have a look together.
- Rhys GulliverSorry, can I jump in? That second admin, is that the leaver's account from before the autumn? Because if it is, I'd like it gone today. We shouldn't have a former colleague holding admin on anything.
- Laura PenhaligonIt looks that way from the last sign-in date, though I'd want you to confirm it from your side, Rhys. If you're happy, Jade can remove the admin role and then deactivate the account in one go.
- Rhys GulliverYeah, confirmed, that's the old account. Take it off.
- Jade VowlesDoing it now. Okay, it's asking me to confirm. Is it going to delete their questions and pages?
- Laura PenhaligonNo, deactivating keeps their history and shared pages, it just stops the login. Deleting is a separate step and I'd leave that alone for now.
- Daniel OkaforJust to close the loop on that one, Rhys, we'll note in the follow-up that the old admin was removed today, so there's a record for your leaver process.
- Rhys GulliverAppreciated. That's the kind of thing audit asks about.
- Laura PenhaligonNow, user access. You've got forty seats on the Growth plan. Let's see how many are actually assigned and how many have signed in recently.
- Jade VowlesSo most of them are assigned, but when I sort by last sign-in, loads of them say never. That's quite a lot of account managers who've never opened it.
- Sharon TilleyNever? Not even once? Right. That's what I suspected. Which ones, can you read me a few?
- Jade VowlesIt's mostly the South Wales team and some of the credit control group. I can export the list if that helps.
- Sharon TilleyPlease. Let's get the account manager leads on it. If they were never given a proper walkthrough, that's on us, not on them.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's a generous and fair way to put it, Sharon. Often with a rollout the first group gets a lot of attention and the second wave gets an email. Laura, would the invitation emails still be valid for those people?
- Laura PenhaligonSome will have expired. Jade, there's a resend option on each row, and you can select several at once. Let's try it with the first few so you can see what the person receives.
- Jade VowlesDone. Can I check what role they get? I don't want people seeing things they shouldn't, especially the credit control side, because they see invoices.
- Laura PenhaligonGood thing to ask. Access follows the roles you set and the sources each role can see. Let's open the roles page. You can make a role for account managers that sees sites, incidents and calls, and a different one for credit control that adds the finance data.
- Rhys GulliverAnd is that tied to our directory groups, or is it all managed by hand in here?
- Laura PenhaligonOn your plan it's managed in here. Single sign-on and automatic provisioning sit on the Enterprise tier, so for now it's by hand. I'd keep a short list of who's in each role and review it monthly.
- Rhys GulliverFine. By hand is fine as long as someone owns it. Jade, that's you?
- Jade VowlesThat's me. I'll put it in the notes, and I'll tell Sharon if anyone needs moving between roles.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay, I'll let you have a go at creating the credit control role now. Take your time, I'll just watch.
- Jade VowlesI think I've got it. It lets me pick the sources, so I've ticked the accounting system and the helpdesk and left the call recorder off. Is that sensible?
- Sharon TilleyCredit control do listen back to calls when a client disputes something, so I'd add the calls. Just those, not the internal ones.
- Laura PenhaligonThere's a filter for that. Click the little arrow by the call source and limit it to client calls.
- Jade VowlesRight. Saved. And I've told nobody yet, so I won't assign anyone until I've spoken to the leads.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is exactly what I'd hope you'd say.
- Laura PenhaligonShall we move to connectors? This is the bit I'd really like you to be comfortable with, Jade.
- Laura PenhaligonSo this is the connectors page. Each row is a source: your CRM, the call recorder, the helpdesk, the accounting system and so on. For each one you've got the status, the last refresh, and the records indexed over time. That last graph is the one that matters.
- Jade VowlesWhich report do they actually use from this? I mean, which source matters most to the account managers day to day?
- Sharon TilleyIncidents and the CRM. Without those they've got nothing to look at before a client meeting.
- Laura PenhaligonThen let's open the incidents source first. Look at the records graph. Can you see where it goes flat?
- Jade VowlesYes. It climbs and then it's nearly level for a few weeks. Is that bad?
- Laura PenhaligonIt may be. It could mean the quiet period over the holidays, or it could mean the source stopped feeding us. Rhys, did anything change on the incident system recently? An upgrade, a new login method, anything like that?
- Rhys GulliverHang on. We moved the control room software to a new service account before Christmas. I did the change myself. I may not have told anyone, to be fair. Would that break it?
- Laura PenhaligonIt could well do. The old credentials would simply stop being accepted. Let's check the connector log together.
- Jade VowlesThere are lots of lines here saying authentication refused. Starting from just before the end of the year.
- Rhys GulliverWell, that's me, then. I'm sorry, Sharon. That's my miss.
- Sharon TilleyDon't apologise, just fix it. So the account managers have been looking at stale incidents for weeks and wondering why they never matched what the control room told them. No wonder they stopped logging in.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's a really important thing to have found today, and nobody did anything careless on purpose. A source changed and the connector wasn't told. Laura, what does Rhys need to do?
- Laura PenhaligonRhys, you give Jade the new service account details through whatever secure route you normally use, not in this chat. Jade enters them on the connector's settings page and runs a test. If the test passes, she triggers a catch-up load.
- Rhys GulliverI'll sort the credentials now and send them to Jade the proper way. Give me a few minutes.
- Rhys GulliverSent. Jade, check your secure inbox.
- Jade VowlesGot it. Entering them. I'm slightly nervous. Okay, pressing test connection. It says successful.
- Laura PenhaligonLovely. Now the button next to it, run catch-up. It will take a while, so don't sit and watch it.
- Sharon TilleyWhile that runs, can I ask something? What did the client hear from us, if the data was behind? Because I need to know whether the warehouse incident is even in there.
- Laura PenhaligonOnce the catch-up finishes it should be, with the dates it actually happened. I'd check it with the account manager rather than trust me.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Let's get the account manager on it when it's done.
- Daniel OkaforJade, one more practical thing while we wait. How would you want to find out if this happens again? Rather than discovering it in a training session.
- Jade VowlesHonestly, an alert would be ideal. Is there one? Otherwise I'll put a weekly check in my diary to look at the records graphs.
- Laura PenhaligonThere are notifications for failed connectors in the admin settings, so let's switch those on for you and for Rhys. The flat graph won't trigger one, so the weekly look is still sensible. Five minutes on a Monday.
- Jade VowlesDone, both of us are set. I'll also write the Monday check into the training notes.
- Rhys GulliverAnd I'll add the connectors to our change checklist. If we touch a source system, someone tells Jade first. Simple as that.
- Sharon TilleyGood. That's one I'm going to repeat to the whole team.
- Laura PenhaligonRight, the catch-up has moved on. Let's look at the CRM and call recorder connectors while we're here, and then we'll go to dashboards.
- Jade VowlesThe CRM one looks healthy, the line is rising. The call recorder is the same. So it was only the incident source?
- Laura PenhaligonFrom what I can see, yes. Good news, really.
- Jade VowlesSorry, one question before dashboards. If I wanted to connect another source later, say something from the HR side, is that a conversation with you, or can I do it myself?
- Daniel OkaforI'll take that, if I may. There's a limit on connectors in the plan and I'd want us to look at it together before anything is added, so just come to me first. I'll come back to you by the end of next week with what's possible. No pressure at all, it's just good to plan it.
- Jade VowlesPerfect, thank you.
- Laura PenhaligonDashboards, then. Open the builder from the left menu. A dashboard here is just saved questions arranged on a page, so everything you build comes from something you could ask in plain words.
- Jade VowlesCan you show me how that's built, from the start? I'd like to make one for the account managers that shows a client's sites, the latest incidents and any open invoices.
- Laura PenhaligonGood one to start with. Click new dashboard, call it something the account managers will recognise. Then add a first tile and type the question the way you'd ask a colleague.
- Jade VowlesI've typed show me the incidents at this client's sites in the last month. It's given me a table. It's got the site names and dates.
- Sharon TilleyAdd the shift. Which site, which shift. That's the thing I always ask.
- Laura PenhaligonYou can ask for it in the question, or add the column in the tile settings. Try the settings so you see how it works.
- Jade VowlesOkay, shift is in. Now, a client picker at the top, so they choose a client and every tile follows. Is that a filter?
- Laura PenhaligonYes, a dashboard filter. Add it, tie it to the client field on each tile, and test it with two different clients.
- Jade VowlesIt works. I switched client and everything changed. That is much nicer than what the account managers do now, which is three systems and a spreadsheet.
- Sharon TilleyThat's the one. If they open that before a client meeting, I'm happy. Don't publish it yet, though. Let me see it first, and then we'll show a couple of account managers who'll be straight with us.
- Jade VowlesAgreed. I'll keep it as a draft and I won't change anything the account managers already rely on without telling them.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a lovely habit to start with, Jade. How is the team finding it so far, Sharon, from what you've heard? Even the people who did log in?
- Sharon TilleyMixed. The ones who tried it early said the incidents looked wrong, and that was that. Now we know why. I think if the data is right, they'll come back. Brisk, short session for each team, though. They won't sit through a long one.
- Laura PenhaligonI can help with that. A short session per team, built around their own clients, tends to work better than a general tour.
- Daniel OkaforLet me pull together where we've got to, just to close the loop. The old admin account is deactivated. The incident connector has new credentials and a catch-up running. Failed-connector alerts are on for Jade and Rhys. Jade has a credit control role set up but not assigned, and a draft dashboard for account managers.
- Jade VowlesAnd the resend of invitations for the people who never signed in, which I've started, and I'll send you the full list, Sharon.
- Sharon TilleyYes. And I'll ask the account manager leads to book a short session each. I'll tell them it's not optional, but I'll say it nicely.
- Daniel OkaforFrom our side, Laura will send her notes and a short written guide to the connector check. I'll come back to you on the connector question by the end of next week, and I'll look at usage again with Jade in a few weeks so we can see whether it's moving.
- Rhys GulliverI'll update our change checklist today and confirm to Jade when it's done.
- Laura PenhaligonOne last thing, Jade. Before I leave today, let's check the incident catch-up has finished, and look at the warehouse incident Sharon mentioned, so you have a real example to show the team.
- Jade VowlesIt's finished. The records graph is climbing again, and the warehouse alarm is there, with the right date and the shift. I'll screenshot it for the notes.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Right, that's the first thing that's made me feel better all week. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforThank you all. Jade, you asked very good questions. Rhys, thanks for owning the credentials so quickly. We'll speak soon.
- Jade VowlesThanks, everyone. I'll send the write-up round tomorrow and I'll tell you if anything doesn't make sense.
- Rhys GulliverCheers all. Speak soon.
- Laura PenhaligonBye for now. I'll stay a few more minutes with Jade to tidy the draft dashboard.
- Jade VowlesThank you, Laura. That's really helpful. I think I can stop the recording now.
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