Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Marlcliff Security Services · 10 Feb 2026 13:15
Quarterly review with four customer attendees. Active users rose to twenty-two of forty seats. The Finance Director is not yet convinced of value, wants the margin dashboard proven on month-end numbers before the June renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Quarterly review with four customer attendees. Active users rose to twenty-two of forty seats. The Finance Director is not yet convinced of value, wants the margin dashboard proven on month-end numbers before the June renewal.
What happened: Daniel reported twenty-two active users over the last month, against eleven in December, on a Growth licence of forty. Lorraine showed a client review built from the client page, and Jade demoed a contract margin dashboard built in the dashboards builder.
Customer view: Nigel Fairbrother, the Finance Director, asked who is actually using it and said the dashboard is better than a spreadsheet but that he is not convinced. He wants to see it run for a few weeks against real month-end numbers.
Commercial: Daniel confirmed Growth at £40k a year, with the paperwork and invoices agreeing, and the contract running to the start of June. Nigel said he is not deciding anything today and does not want to hear about more seats until the existing ones are used.
Watch: Account managers covering smaller commercial clients have not adopted it. Daniel owes Nigel a usage breakdown by team by the end of the week, which he declined to quote from memory.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Growth QBR and adoption
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- Daniel sends Nigel the usage breakdown by team by the end of the week.
- Jade refines the margin dashboard against month-end figures and sends Nigel the list of contracts with no recorded rate.
- Nigel reviews the dashboard again before the June renewal.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Finance Director is sceptical of value and wants month-end proof before the June renewal.
- Account managers covering smaller commercial clients have not adopted the tool, leaving roughly half the forty seats unused.
- Credit control may resist the client page showing payment reminders.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The contract margin dashboard, built in the Growth dashboards builder, gives finance a concrete value case.
- A lunch and learn led by Lorraine could widen adoption among account managers.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello everyone, can you hear me alright? Good afternoon, and thank you all for your time. Just checking who has joined: Sharon, Nigel, Lorraine and Jade. Lovely, that's everybody.
Sharon TilleyAfternoon, Daniel. Yes, loud and clear. Before we start, quick incident of the week, because it ties in. Overnight alarm at a retail client, and the account manager heard about it from the client before our report went out. What did the client hear from us? Nothing, for the best part of an hour. Not good.- Daniel OkaforOh dear. Is that sorted now?
- Sharon TilleySorted, report went, client's fine. But it's exactly why I wanted everybody looking at one picture. Anyway, that's me. Over to you.
Nigel FairbrotherCan I ask first, who is actually using it? That's really all I want from the hour.- Daniel OkaforHa, fair, Nigel, and that's where I wanted to start anyway. So the headline for the quarter: twenty-two active users over the last month. Back in December, when Jade had just joined and we did the health check, it was eleven. So it has doubled, more or less.
- Nigel FairbrotherTwenty-two out of what? You're licensed for how many?
- Daniel OkaforForty. So a little over half the seats are in regular use, which is a healthy place to be at this stage of a Growth rollout. Just to close the loop on your question, though: it's not one enthusiast. It's spread across account management, the control room and credit control.
- Nigel FairbrotherSpread how? Give me the split.
- Daniel OkaforI'd rather not quote a split off the top of my head and get it wrong. I'll come back to you by the end of the week with the breakdown by team. What I can say is that the account managers are the biggest group, and the control room has picked up since Sharon's team had their session.
- Sharon TilleyThey have. The shift supervisors were the sceptics. Now they open the client page before they ring anyone. Which site, which shift, it's all there.
- Nigel FairbrotherMm. Supervisors opening a page isn't margin.
- Sharon TilleyNo, Nigel, but it's the difference between us finding out first or the client finding out first. That's worth something.
- Nigel FairbrotherWorth something. I'd like to know what. Carry on, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Let me say the other things quickly, then we'll get to the part I think you'll care about. No tickets raised in the last month, nothing high priority, and your invoices are all up to date on our side. The data is refreshing every night, so what people see in the morning is current. Questions asked in B-Viz are up too, and that's the measure I trust most.
Jade VowlesCan I jump in with a couple of questions on that? Sorry, I wrote a list. First, is the nightly refresh the same for every connector, or does the alarm monitoring source run on a different schedule? Second, when you say questions are up, is that per person or in total?- Daniel OkaforGood questions, Jade. On the first, every connector is in the same nightly run, so if one ever looks late, tell me and we'll look at it together. On the second, it's in total, but I can show you the per-person view afterwards. It's helpful for you to see who is asking what.
- Jade VowlesGreat, thank you. I'll write it up for the team.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. Now, Lorraine, I think you've got something to show us. I was told you'd done a client review this week using the client page.
Lorraine CoombesI did, yes. I'm a bit nervous showing it, to be honest, it's not polished. Hang on, let me share my screen. Can you see it? It says Marlcliff at the top?- Daniel OkaforWe can see it, yes. A little bigger if you can, but that's fine.
- Lorraine CoombesOkay. So this is one of my retail clients, a chain with lots of small sites. I had a review with them on Monday. Normally I would spend a morning pulling things together: the incident log from one place, the call notes from another, the invoice history from credit control, and then I'd paste it all into a slide deck and hope I hadn't missed anything.
- Sharon TilleyAnd usually you had missed something.
- Lorraine CoombesUsually, yes. Last time I forgot a false alarm trend at one of their stores and they brought it up before I did. This time I opened the client page and it's all on one screen. Here are the sites down the side, here are the incidents by site over the last few months, here are the calls we've had with them, and here, at the bottom, the invoices.
- Nigel FairbrotherInvoices are in there as well?
- Lorraine CoombesThey are, yes. Credit control asked for that when we set it up. So when the client asked about a disputed line, I could see straight away it had been credited, rather than ringing someone.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely to see. How did the client find it, Lorraine?
- Lorraine CoombesThey liked it. Honestly, the buyer said it was the first review where we knew their sites better than they did. I didn't build the deck at all. I talked through the page, and then I asked B-Viz a couple of questions live, like which of their stores had the most out-of-hours call-outs.
- Jade VowlesCan you show me how that's built? The client page, I mean. Is it a template, or did you set up each section yourself?
- Lorraine CoombesOh, I didn't build it, it came with the account page. I just chose which sections to keep open. I'm not clever enough to build things, Jade, that's your department.
- Jade VowlesI'm still learning it myself! But I'd like to understand it properly, so I can explain it. Daniel, could we do a session on that?
- Daniel OkaforOf course. I'll put something in for next week, an hour or so, and we can go through the client page and the dashboards builder together. How is the team finding the builder so far?
- Jade VowlesFiddly at first, but I think I've got the hang of it. Which brings me to what I wanted to show Nigel, if that's alright?
- Nigel FairbrotherShow me what?
- Sharon TilleyBe nice, Nigel. She's been working on it since January.
- Nigel FairbrotherI'm always nice. I'm just brief.
- Jade VowlesRight. So, Nigel, you mentioned a while back that contracts are priced by the guarding hour, and that it's hard to see margin per contract without someone in finance spending days in spreadsheets. So this is my first go at a contract margin dashboard. Let me share. Lorraine, can I take over the sharing?
- Lorraine CoombesStopping mine now. There you go.
- Jade VowlesThanks. Okay. Each row is a contract. The columns are the hours we deliver, the hourly rate we're paid, what the hours cost us, and the margin that's left. I've put a filter at the top for client type, so you can look at retail on its own, say, or the alarm monitoring contracts.
- Nigel FairbrotherWhat's that per contract? The margin. Show me a number.
- Jade VowlesSo this one, at the top, shows a margin percentage, and next to it the base it's calculated on, so you can see the pounds, not just the percentage. I know you like the base.
- Nigel FairbrotherI do. A percentage without a base is decoration. Which hours are you using? Scheduled or worked?
- Jade VowlesWorked hours, from the rota data. I wasn't sure, to be honest, so I checked with one of the schedulers and she said worked is the one finance uses. If that's wrong, tell me, and I'll change it.
- Nigel FairbrotherWorked is right. Overtime in there?
- Jade VowlesOvertime is in the cost, yes, but I haven't split it out yet. That's on my list. I'd rather tell you what's not done than have you find it.
- Nigel FairbrotherGood. That's better than most of what I'm sent.
- Daniel OkaforIf I may add something. What Jade has done there is use the dashboards builder, which is part of Growth, and the data sits in your own Snowflake account, so nothing is being copied out. The hard part was getting the rota and the contract rates into the same place, and that's what you have now.
- Nigel FairbrotherAnd the rates. Where do those come from?
- Jade VowlesFrom the contract records in the accounting system, matched to the client. A couple of older contracts have no rate recorded, so they show blank rather than a guess. I've flagged those in grey.
- Nigel FairbrotherHow many are grey?
- Jade VowlesA handful. I can count them properly and send you the list, rather than quote a number now.
- Nigel FairbrotherDo that. Right. Scroll down. What's the bottom of the list?
- Jade VowlesSorted by lowest margin, these three at the bottom. They're all large guarding contracts with a lot of night shifts. I haven't drawn conclusions from them, I just wanted you to be able to see them.
- Nigel FairbrotherI know those three. I didn't need a dashboard to tell me that. But I couldn't have told you how far down they were without a week of work. That's the point, isn't it.
- Sharon TilleyThat's a compliment, Jade. Take it. He doesn't give many.
- Jade VowlesThank you! I'll take it.
- Nigel FairbrotherI said it's better than a spreadsheet. I didn't say I'm convinced. I want to see it run for a few weeks, with the real month-end numbers, and see whether the finance team trust it.
- Daniel OkaforThat seems entirely reasonable, and I'd suggest exactly that. Jade can keep refining it, and your team can compare it with their own month-end figures. If the two agree, you've saved yourselves real time. If they don't, we want to know why.
- Nigel FairbrotherShow me before the renewal. That's June, isn't it?
- Daniel OkaforYes, the contract runs to the start of June. You're on Growth at £39,600 a year, and the paperwork and the invoices agree with each other, so there's nothing untidy on our side. I'll be in touch well ahead of that so we're not rushing the conversation.
- Nigel FairbrotherFine. I'm not deciding anything today, just so we're clear.
- Daniel OkaforNo, absolutely, and I wouldn't ask you to. This is just the checkpoint.
- Sharon TilleyCan I come back to adoption for a second? Because the people who are using it are the ones who were told to, mostly. What worries me is the account managers who haven't touched it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a sensible thing to raise. Forty seats, roughly half in use. Who do you think is missing, Sharon?
- Sharon TilleyThe account managers covering the smaller commercial clients. They're out on the road, they do everything on their phones, and they say it's another system. Lorraine, you've been telling them it's not.
- Lorraine CoombesI have, but I think they need to see what I just showed. Telling them doesn't work. If I show them a client review that took ten minutes instead of a morning, that's different. Could we do a lunch and learn, something short, and I present it?
- Jade VowlesI'd love to help with that. I could write a one-page guide as well, so they have something to look at afterwards. I always do training notes anyway.
- Daniel OkaforThat would be a great combination. Lorraine presenting from real experience carries far more weight than me, and Jade's note gives them something to keep. I can join to answer questions if you'd like, but I wouldn't lead.
- Sharon TilleyGood. Let's get the account managers on it. Lorraine, you and Jade pick a date, and I'll tell the team it's expected, not optional.
- Nigel FairbrotherExpected, not optional. Fine by me. A tool nobody uses is a cost.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is a good reason to measure it, so we'll keep the same view next time and you can see the line moving. Jade, would it help if I set you up with the usage view, so you can see it yourself between our reviews?
- Jade VowlesYes please. Is that something I can share with Sharon and Nigel, or would they need to ask you?
- Daniel OkaforYou can share it. It's your account to run, as the admin. I'll show you where it lives in the session next week.
- Jade VowlesPerfect. Another one while I think of it: we have a new starter in credit control next month. Do I add her myself, or do I ask you?
- Daniel OkaforYou can add her yourself, and you've plenty of room under the forty. If it ever got close, you'd tell me and we'd talk about it, but that's a long way off.
- Jade VowlesGreat. And the reports the account managers open every week, if I change one, how do I make sure it doesn't break what they're used to?
- Daniel OkaforHonestly, the best habit is the one you've already got: tell the account managers before you change anything. If you want a safety net, copy the report first, work on the copy, and swap them once you're happy.
- Jade VowlesThat's what I'll do. I'll write it up.
- Lorraine CoombesDaniel, can I ask something a bit different? On the client page, can it show the credit control chasers as well? Sometimes a client is cross because they've had a payment reminder the day before my review, and I look daft.
- Daniel OkaforI think so, if the reminders are emails going through your mailbox connector, they'd be picked up already. Let me check how yours are sent, rather than promise. I'll come back to you by Friday.
- Lorraine CoombesBrilliant, thank you.
- Sharon TilleyThat's a good catch, Lorraine. Clients hate being chased the day before a meeting. What did the client hear from us, and in what order? That's what the page should tell you.
- Nigel FairbrotherCredit control will not enjoy being watched.
- Sharon TilleyThey'll cope. It's for the same clients, Nigel. We should all see the same story.
- Nigel FairbrotherMm. Fine.
- Daniel OkaforShall I recap what I've heard, just to close the loop? Then we can see whether I've got the owners right.
- Sharon TilleyGo on.
- Daniel OkaforSo, one: I send Nigel the usage by team by the end of this week. Two: I'll check whether credit control reminders show on the client page and tell Lorraine, also by Friday. Three: Jade and I do a working session on the client page and the dashboards builder next week. Four: Lorraine and Jade run a short session for the account managers who aren't using it yet, with Jade's one-page note. Five: Jade sends Nigel the list of contracts with no recorded rate, and keeps refining the margin dashboard against month-end. Six: Nigel looks at it again before the renewal. Have I missed anything?
- Jade VowlesI think that's everything. I'll also split out the overtime, if that's alright, Nigel. It'll make the night shift contracts clearer.
- Nigel FairbrotherYes. Do that first. And put the base next to every percentage, wherever it appears.
- Jade VowlesAlready done on this one, and I'll check the others.
- Sharon TilleyOne more from me. When the control room supervisors run a question, and the answer is wrong or odd, who do they tell? I don't want them just ignoring it.
- Daniel OkaforThey should tell Jade first, as admin, and if it looks like a data problem Jade raises it with us. We'd rather hear about an odd answer than have someone quietly stop trusting it. You've had no tickets lately, which is nice, but silence isn't always a good sign, so please do tell us.
- Sharon TilleyGood. I'll tell them. Jade is the first call.
- Jade VowlesHappy to be. I'll set up a shared inbox so it's not just me, and I'll note down each one so we see patterns.
- Nigel FairbrotherDaniel, a question on the contract. If we add users, what happens to the price?
- Daniel OkaforThere's room within the forty at the moment, so nothing changes. If you ever outgrew that, there are add-on blocks of users, and I'd bring you a proper quote rather than guess. I don't think we're anywhere near that conversation.
- Nigel FairbrotherGood. I don't want to hear about more seats until the ones I've got are used.
- Daniel OkaforEntirely fair. And I'd say the same.
- Lorraine CoombesCan I show one more thing? It's quick. I asked B-Viz a question yesterday, which retail sites had repeat alarm activations in the same week, and it gave me a list I'd never have found by hand.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do.
- Lorraine CoombesSharing again. Right, so I typed the question in plain English. And here's the answer. Four of the sites on my list have had it more than once. Well, that's what it says. I'd want to check against the incident reports before I told the client, obviously.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is exactly the right instinct. It points you to the sites, and you confirm with the source. Every answer links back to the records it used, so you can click through.
- Lorraine CoombesYes, I did that. It matched, which pleased me.
- Sharon TilleyThat's the one for the lunch and learn. A real question, a real answer, a real client.
- Lorraine CoombesAgreed. I'll use that.
- Jade VowlesCould you send me the exact wording of the question, Lorraine? I'd like to put it in the guide.
- Lorraine CoombesWill do, after the call.
- Daniel OkaforWhile we're all here, is there anything that's frustrating you about it? I'd rather hear the grumbles now.
- Lorraine CoombesOnly that search sometimes gives me too much. I type a client name and I get every email since the dawn of time.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful. A tip: add the site or the month to the question and it narrows quickly. We can go through some habits like that in the session with Jade.
- Nigel FairbrotherNothing from me, other than what I've said.
- Sharon TilleyAnd nothing from me. It's better than it was. Let's keep it that way.
- Jade VowlesOne last list item, sorry. Is there a user group, or a place where other customers share dashboards? I'd love to see what others have built.
- Daniel OkaforNot a formal one that I'd want to promise you. What I can do is show you the sorts of things other teams have built, in general terms, when we do our session. Nothing that identifies anyone, of course.
- Jade VowlesThat would be brilliant, thank you.
- Daniel OkaforRight. I think we're in good shape. Thank you, all of you. It's a real pleasure to see this being used so well, particularly Jade, coming in new in December and getting stuck in.
- Sharon TilleyShe has. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks, everyone. Back to the control room.
- Nigel FairbrotherSend me that breakdown. Cheers.
- Lorraine CoombesThanks all. Speak soon.
- Jade VowlesThanks everyone! I'll send the notes round this afternoon.
- Daniel OkaforBest wishes, all. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.
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