Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – Check In
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Marlcliff Security Services · 18 May 2026 15:30
Sharon Tilley, Head of Customer Operations, said on 18 May 2026 she wants to continue on Growth, citing a Sunday incident story. She cannot commit budget alone, and the renewal price is not yet confirmed in writing.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Sharon Tilley, Head of Customer Operations, said on 18 May 2026 she wants to continue on Growth, citing a Sunday incident story. She cannot commit budget alone, and the renewal price is not yet confirmed in writing.
What happened: Sharon described a weekend warehouse alarm where B-Viz gave the account manager the full picture before the client rang. Daniel Okafor then reviewed usage, support and the renewal dates with her alone.
Customer view: Sharon said she wants to continue and uses the incident story to explain the purchase to the board. She wants more account managers using it, and the paperwork in good time after a late scramble last year.
Commercial: She cannot commit budget on her own, so a short summary must reach the budget holder. Daniel would not guess whether the figure will rise and promised written confirmation. The dashboards builder, included in Growth, and monthly incident summaries are open opportunities.
Watch: A few heavy users ask most questions, and a change of incident log would threaten a connector. The term ends on 4 Jun 2026.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Growth renewal intent, adoption
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor sends options for two training sessions by Wednesday after the 18 May 2026 call.
- Daniel sends Sharon a short renewal summary by the end of that week and confirms the commercial position in writing.
- Sharon asks the budget holder how they want the paperwork and gives Daniel a finance contact.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Sharon Tilley cannot commit budget, and the budget holder was not on the call and is not named.
- She asked whether the figure will jump and Daniel Okafor had not yet confirmed the renewal price.
- A few heavy users ask most of the questions, and a move to a different incident log could stop a connector loading.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Growth dashboards builder could give the control room an incidents-by-site-and-shift view, built by a shift supervisor Sharon will name.
- Monthly client incident summaries drafted by B-Viz for account managers to sign off were raised as a wish list item.
- Territory training for account managers who have barely logged in could raise usage within the existing licences.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Sharon, good afternoon. Can you hear me all right?
Sharon TilleyLoud and clear. Afternoon, Daniel. Sorry, I'm two minutes in and still eating a sandwich. It's been that sort of Monday.- Daniel OkaforNot at all, eat. Thank you for making the time, I know the control room doesn't stop for check-ins. It's just the two of us today, is that right? I wasn't sure whether anyone from the account management side was joining.
- Sharon TilleyJust me. I did think about dragging a couple of the account managers in, but they're out on site visits this afternoon. Which is sort of the point, actually, I'll come back to that.
- Daniel OkaforGood, I'd like to hear it. How was the weekend, by the way? Did the weather hold for you in Bristol? It looked miserable further up the country.
- Sharon TilleyWet, then bright, then wet. Typical. But the weekend was not quiet at work. We had an alarm activation at a client's warehouse early Sunday, and I want to tell you about it because it's the first time I've seen the thing work the way I pitched it.
- Daniel OkaforGo on, please. I'm always glad to hear the real stories, they help me far more than any number does.
- Sharon TilleySo. Door alarm trips, about four in the morning. The control room operator picks it up, and instead of flicking between three screens, she asks B-Viz what's been going on at that site. It pulls the last incidents, the patrol notes, the client's recent calls to us, even a note about a contractor who had keys changed the week before. Whole picture in one go.
- Daniel OkaforMm. And it was the contractor, or not?
- Sharon TilleyTurned out to be a faulty contact on the door, nothing sinister. But that's not the point. The point is the account manager had the full story before the client had even rung us. Which site, which shift, who attended, what we'd found. And when the client's operations manager did call mid-morning, she could say, we already know, here's what happened. What did the client hear from us? Everything, before they asked.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what I hoped you'd say when we first talked about the control room use. Just to close the loop on something from the kickoff, I remember you saying that your worst moment was a client hearing about an incident from somebody else. So this is the opposite of that.
- Sharon TilleyExactly the opposite. I don't let an incident report sit, you know that. Now there's less of a gap between something happening and the account manager knowing.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely. Right, let me share my screen, and I'll walk you through what we're seeing on our side. Tell me if you can't see it. Can you see it?
- Sharon TilleyI see a page with your logo and a lot of lines. Yes, that's fine, a bit small.
- Daniel OkaforI'll make it bigger. Better? Good. So this is your usage summary for the quarter so far. Starting with the headline, you're on Growth, forty licensed users, and over the last month or so you've had around ten people active on an average day. That's up noticeably on the previous quarter, which is the part I'm pleased about.
- Sharon TilleyTen. Out of forty. Is that good or is that embarrassing?
- Daniel OkaforIt's good, because of the direction. A year ago nobody was here, and it's climbing, not drifting down. I'd always rather see that than a big number that's flat. But it does mean three quarters of your licences are not being used on a typical day, and I'd like to talk about whether that's an opportunity.
- Sharon TilleyRight. Because that's my next thing. Go on.
- Daniel OkaforWell, who are the ten? From what I can see it's mostly the account managers and a few in the control room, and credit control dip in around invoice runs. Does that sound right?
- Sharon TilleyThat's about it. Credit control love it, actually. Before, if a client rang up cross about a late guard, our collections people had no idea. Now they see the incidents and the calls next to the invoice and they can decide whether to chase or to leave well alone. We've had fewer awkward conversations.
- Daniel OkaforThat was the thing you wanted from day one, wasn't it, seeing sites, incidents, calls and invoices together.
- Sharon TilleyIt was. And I'll be honest, I wasn't sure we'd get there. The first few weeks I thought, oh no, this is another system nobody opens.
- Daniel OkaforI remember. You were quite direct with me. I took it on board. How is the team finding it now, the ones who were sceptical?
- Sharon TilleyThe sceptical ones are the loudest fans, funnily enough. There's one account manager, I won't name him, who used to keep everything in his own spreadsheet. He now asks it things in chat before he visits a client. Which site had trouble last month, who complained, is anything unpaid. He walks in prepared.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the best kind of adoption, the kind that changes how someone prepares. Mm. Is he one of the heavier users, would you say?
- Sharon TilleyHe's up there. Why, is that a problem?
- Daniel OkaforOnly a small one, and it's something I say to everyone. When a few people ask most of the questions, it's lovely while they're there, but if one of them moves on or goes on a long leave you lose a lot of habit overnight. So spreading it is healthy. It's a thing to keep an eye on, not a worry.
- Sharon TilleyFair. That's actually my next thing again, so you've set me up. I want the rest of the account managers on it. There are people who've barely logged in. They keep saying they haven't got time.
- Daniel OkaforRight. And what would help? Would it be a session, or something more like a quick guide for their day?
- Sharon TilleyA session, I think, but short and with real clients. If you do generic demos they glaze over. If you show them their own site list and the last incident on their biggest client, that's different. Let's get the account manager on it, as I say, in their own territory.
- Daniel OkaforI can do that. I'd suggest we do it by territory, so the South West team see their own clients and the South Wales team see theirs. We can use the questions that are already working for your heavier users as the starting point. Would that be useful?
- Sharon TilleyVery. Can you do it before the end of the month?
- Daniel OkaforLet me check my diary before I promise anything. I'll come back to you by Wednesday with some options for times, rather than guess now. Does that work?
- Sharon TilleyThat works. Don't make them too early, half my lot are on the road until ten.
- Daniel OkaforNoted, afternoons or late mornings. Now, while I've got the screen up. Support. I looked and there's nothing, not a single ticket in the last month. Nothing high priority, nothing at all. Is that as quiet as it looks, or have people just stopped telling us things?
- Sharon TilleyHa. It's both, probably. It's been genuinely smooth. Refresh has been there in the mornings, the control room don't complain, and if something's odd they tell me, and I tell you. But I take your point, silence can be a warning.
- Daniel OkaforIt can, though when I put it next to rising usage I read it as health. People who stop using the product go quiet. People who use it more and still don't raise tickets are usually just getting on with it. The data's refreshing on time and records are still coming in, so I'm comfortable.
- Sharon TilleyGood. And finance would tell you we pay on time, I hope.
- Daniel OkaforThey would. Nothing overdue, and what we've invoiced matches the order form. Contracted and invoiced are the same figure, thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds a year, so there's no mismatch to untangle.
- Sharon TilleyGood. I hate surprises on invoices. I get enough of them from other suppliers.
- Daniel OkaforWhich brings me to the thing I wanted to be sure we covered, and that's the renewal. You joined on 5 June 2025, so it's very nearly a year. The current term ends on 4 June 2026, and the renewal date is 5 June 2026. I wanted to raise it with you properly, face to face, not just as an email with a form attached.
- Sharon TilleyYes. It's been on my list. I didn't want to be the one to bring it up in case it sounded like I was shopping around.
- Daniel OkaforNot at all. It's my job to bring it up. So, in plain terms, how do you feel about continuing? Please be frank, I'd rather hear it now.
- Sharon TilleyFrankly, I want to continue. The incident story from Sunday is the kind of thing I use when I explain to the board why we bought it. And contracts kept, that's how I run things. But I can't commit budget on my own. Anything that changes the figure goes to the person who holds the budget.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood, and that's completely right. What I can do is put together a short summary that you can forward, just the facts. What the term covered, how usage has moved, what's been invoiced, and what the renewal paperwork looks like. Would that help you take it upstairs?
- Sharon TilleyYes, please. Keep it short, nobody reads anything long. And put the Sunday incident in if you can, in a line.
- Daniel OkaforI will. I'd want you to check the wording, though, because it's your story and I don't want to get a detail wrong about the client. I'll send you the draft by the end of this week, and then you can tell me what to change.
- Sharon TilleyPerfect.
- Daniel OkaforOne more thing on that. Pricing. I don't want to get ahead of myself because I don't want to say anything I don't own yet. What I'll do is make sure the renewal paperwork reflects what your order form says, and I'll confirm exactly what that means for your figure in writing, not off the top of my head on a call. Is that all right?
- Sharon TilleyThat's all right. I'd rather have it in writing too. Is it going to jump?
- Daniel OkaforHonestly, Sharon, I don't want to guess in either direction, and that's why I'd rather check with the team who sign off the commercial side before I say. You'll have it from me in writing, with the reasoning, well before the renewal date. You won't be hearing it for the first time the week it lands.
- Sharon TilleyFine. That's fair. I appreciate you not winging it.
- Daniel OkaforThank you. Right. Back to the more fun stuff, if you've got a few minutes. You mentioned wanting more account managers on it. Let me show you something that might help with that, because there's a view that a couple of your people haven't found yet. Give me a second to load it.
- Sharon TilleyTake your time. I'm just finishing the last of my lunch.
- Daniel OkaforSorry, it's thinking. This is your sites page. If I pick one of your bigger clients, you see their sites on the left, and on the right it pulls recent incidents, call summaries and the invoice position. All on one page. And if I type a question into chat, say, has this client raised any concerns in the last month, it answers from the calls and emails.
- Sharon TilleyThat's the one my account managers need to see. If they open that before a client meeting, they're ahead of the client.
- Daniel OkaforExactly. And look, here's the thing I'd flag. This is a page, built from the records, so you don't have to maintain it. If you wanted something more tailored, say a dashboard for the control room showing incidents by site and shift, the Growth tier includes the dashboards builder. Have your team looked at that?
- Sharon TilleyNot really. We've talked about it. Which site, which shift, that's the question I ask every morning, so a view of that would be genuinely useful. Who builds it, you or us?
- Daniel OkaforYour people can build it, it's designed for that. I can sit with whoever you nominate and help them make the first one, and after that it's theirs. Is there someone in the control room who likes tinkering?
- Sharon TilleyAlways. There's a shift supervisor who loves a spreadsheet. I'll ask her. She'd be thrilled, though she'd never admit it.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. Put her name forward and I'll include her in the session with the account managers, or do a separate one, whichever suits. Whatever's easier for the rota.
- Sharon TilleySeparate. Control room can't leave the desks at the same time as anyone else. They have a rota you could frame.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Two sessions then, one for the account managers by territory and a smaller one for the control room dashboard. I'll put both in the options I send on Wednesday.
- Sharon TilleyGreat. Now, can I ask you something a bit different?
- Daniel OkaforOf course.
- Sharon TilleyIf I did get a lot more people using it, say most of the account managers and the whole of credit control, would we run out of licences? Forty sounds like plenty now, but I don't know how many people I'd end up with.
- Daniel OkaforGood question. At the moment you're nowhere near the limit, you've got room for a good many more people before it becomes an issue. If you did grow into it, there's an add-on for extra users, and I'd talk it through properly with you then. But I wouldn't want you to worry about that now. Let's get the people you already have using it more, first.
- Sharon TilleySensible. I just didn't want to promise people access and then find out we were capped.
- Daniel OkaforNo, that's a fair thing to check, and I'm glad you did. You've got headroom. And the connectors, how are those feeling? Anything you've changed on your side recently, a new phone system, a change to the accounting system, anything the data comes from?
- Sharon TilleyNothing that I know of. IT would have told me, they usually do, because it's me they complain to. Let me think. No. Same CRM, same call recorder, same accounting system. We talked about a different incident log at one point, but that's all it was, talk.
- Daniel OkaforRight. If that moves from talk to a real plan, please tell me early. A change to a source system is the most common reason a connector quietly stops loading, and I'd rather plan it with you than discover it three weeks later when someone asks a question and the answer's stale.
- Sharon TilleyNoted. I'll put you on the list. You'll be the first person I tell, after my own team.
- Daniel OkaforHa, that's the right order. Thank you.
- Sharon TilleyCan I raise one more thing? It's a bit of a wish list item. Clients. Some of the bigger ones keep asking us for incident summaries, monthly, something tidy. Right now an account manager writes them by hand, and it takes ages.
- Daniel OkaforMm. That sounds like exactly what the platform could draft for them, from the incident records, the patrol notes and the call history. The account manager would still read it and sign it off, of course, because it's their relationship, but it takes the first draft off their plate.
- Sharon TilleyThat's all I'd want. Never let a report go out that nobody's read. But a good first draft, yes.
- Daniel OkaforLet me do this. I'll try a couple of your real clients with you in the training session, if that's okay. Then you can judge whether the wording sounds like Marlcliff or not. If it doesn't, we'll adjust the question until it does.
- Sharon TilleyYes. And please don't use the biggest client as the guinea pig. Pick a friendly one.
- Daniel OkaforFriendly one it is. You can choose which, I'll leave that to you.
- Sharon TilleyI'll send you a name. Actually, let me think about who. Right, I'll send you a name with my reply.
- Daniel OkaforPerfect. Okay. So, I want to come back to the renewal for a moment, if you'll indulge me, just to be certain I've heard you correctly. You'd like to continue on the Growth tier as it stands, you'd like more of your account managers using it, and you'd want a clear written summary to take to whoever holds the budget. Have I got that right?
- Sharon TilleyYou have. And I'd add one thing. I want the paperwork in good time. Last year's was a bit of a rush at the end, and I'd rather not do that again.
- Daniel OkaforThat's fair, and I'll make sure we're not leaving it to the final week. The term ends on 4 June 2026, so there's not an enormous amount of runway, but there's enough if we move now. I'll aim to have the summary with you this week and the renewal paperwork soon after, subject to the commercial team confirming it.
- Sharon TilleyFine. Anything I need to do on my side before then?
- Daniel OkaforTwo things, really. Check with the budget holder how they'd prefer to receive the paperwork, and tell me if anyone else needs to be copied, procurement or finance or whoever signs. That saves a lot of back and forth later.
- Sharon TilleyWill do. I'll ask this week. I know it'll be our finance team who want to see the invoice side, so I'll get you a contact.
- Daniel OkaforThank you, that's really helpful. Is there anything that's been bothering you that we haven't touched on? Anything about how we work with you, the way we communicate, how quickly we answer, anything at all?
- Sharon TilleyNo, honestly. You're good at picking up the phone, which is more than I can say for most suppliers. The one thing I'd say is, when your people change, tell me. I've had account contacts at other suppliers vanish and nobody told me.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a very fair point and I'll hold myself to it. If anyone on our side changes, you'll hear it from me first, not from an email bounce. And you can always come straight to me.
- Sharon TilleyGood. That's all I ask.
- Daniel OkaforRight, let me take you through the rest of the page quickly, because there are a couple of things in the questions view that I think you'll like. Hold on, I'll scroll.
- Sharon TilleyMm. Go on, I'm watching.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is the list of questions asked across your users this quarter. You can see the kinds of things people ask. Most of them are about sites, incidents and invoices, which matches what you said about the account managers. A few are about calls, what a client said about response times. And look, there's one near the top, someone asking which clients have raised a complaint and have an unpaid invoice.
- Sharon TilleyThat'll be credit control. That's the one they use before every chase. I'd bet money.
- Daniel OkaforI think so too. It's a very good question to be asking, because it's two systems at once, and that's the whole reason we exist. Nobody should be matching those by hand.
- Sharon TilleyNo. I used to have a person who did that every Friday. Retyping from one screen to another. I'm glad that's gone.
- Daniel OkaforDid she move on to something better?
- Sharon TilleyShe did, yes. Account management, funnily enough. She's one of the ten, now, in fact.
- Daniel OkaforI love that. That's the kind of outcome that makes this work worth doing. Right, shall I stop sharing?
- Sharon TilleyYes, go on, I've seen enough. I've got what I wanted.
- Daniel OkaforStopped. Okay, so let me run through what we've agreed, and tell me if I've missed anything. First, I'll send you options for two training sessions by Wednesday, one by territory for the account managers and a smaller one for the control room dashboard, with the shift supervisor you're going to name.
- Sharon TilleyYes. And I'll send you the supervisor's name and a friendly client to try the monthly summary on.
- Daniel OkaforThank you. Second, I'll send you a short renewal summary by the end of this week, with the Sunday incident in a line for you to check, usage, what's been invoiced, and where we are on the dates. Third, I'll confirm the commercial position in writing, including what the renewal means for the figure, once I've checked it with the right people. I won't guess.
- Sharon TilleyAnd I check with the budget holder how they want to receive it, and get you a finance contact.
- Daniel OkaforExactly. And if the incident log idea becomes a real plan, I hear about it early.
- Sharon TilleyYou'll be the first. After my team.
- Daniel OkaforHa, yes, after your team. Is there anything I've missed?
- Sharon TilleyNo, I think that's it. Oh, actually, one thing. If the board asks me what we've got out of it, is there a line you'd give me? Something I can say in one breath.
- Daniel OkaforGood one. I'd say something like this. Your account managers, control room and credit control now see each client's sites, incidents, calls and invoices in one place, usage has grown steadily through the year, and clients are being told about incidents before they ask. I'll put a version of that in the summary, and you can reword it into your own voice.
- Sharon TilleyThat's good, that's what I'd say anyway. I'll steal it.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do. It's yours, you earned it. You did the hard part, which was getting people to open it in the first place.
- Sharon TilleyHa, I nagged them. Nagging works, I'd recommend it.
- Daniel OkaforI'll write that in the notes. So, I think we're in a good place. Anything else you'd like to ask before I let you go back to the control room?
- Sharon TilleyNo, I'm happy. It was useful, thank you. Better than I expected for a check-in. Usually these are a bit of a tick-box.
- Daniel OkaforI hope they never feel like that with me. I'd much rather hear about a door alarm on a Sunday than read a dashboard. Thank you for your time today, Sharon, and for being so candid.
- Sharon TilleyAnytime. Speak Wednesday, then?
- Daniel OkaforWednesday, yes, with the session options. And the renewal summary by Friday. Best wishes, Sharon, and enjoy what's left of the afternoon.
- Sharon TilleyThanks, Daniel. Bye for now.
- Daniel OkaforBye, Sharon.
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