Marlcliff Security Services / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Marlcliff Security Services · 29 Jul 2026 12:30
On the 29 Jul 2026 QBR the Finance Director questioned paying for a Growth tier with well under half the seats active. He wants a usage trend and a value figure before next June, and will not sign without them.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On the 29 Jul 2026 QBR the Finance Director questioned paying for a Growth tier with well under half the seats active. He wants a usage trend and a value figure before next June, and will not sign without them.
What happened: Daniel Okafor reviewed usage, questions asked and two high priority tickets with Sharon Tilley, Nigel Fairbrother and Jade Vowles. Nigel opened by asking who is actually using it.
Customer view: Nigel called it "a lot of empty chairs" at £44k a year. Sharon says the control room uses it every shift, while most account managers have not made it a habit.
Commercial: Nigel wants a trend before the renewal and a value measure in pounds. He declined the on-site training add-on because he is not adding spend to a tool he is still questioning.
Watch: Jade raised both tickets and Daniel promised the timestamps against the one business hour Growth target, plus any service credit, in writing by the end of the week. Questions asked also lean on a few control room people, a key-person risk.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage and value case
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 Okafor to send the two tickets with times and the service position in writing by the end of that week.
- Daniel and Jade Vowles to run a dashboard training session and then an account manager session that Sharon Tilley opens.
- Agree one measure with Nigel Fairbrother, credit control queries cleared, with a base, before the autumn check-in.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The Finance Director says he will not sign the renewal next June if usage and value figures are not shown.
- Most account managers do not use B-Viz and questions asked come from a small group, so usage depends on a few control room people.
- Two high priority tickets and reports of stale Monday data could lead to a service credit query.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A dashboard built with Jade within the Growth subscription could replace the weekly spreadsheet and show account manager usage.
- A value measure such as credit control queries cleared, with a base, could give the Finance Director the figure he wants.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforGood afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me all right? I think I'm coming through on the speakers, but shout if not.
Sharon TilleyLoud and clear, Daniel. Afternoon. Sorry, I've come straight off a call, we had an alarm-monitoring incident overnight and I wanted the client told before they heard it from anyone else.- Daniel OkaforNo, that's absolutely fine, thank you for making the time. Is the client all right?
- Sharon TilleyThey are now. Which site, which shift, what did we say, all sorted. Let's not start there or we'll be here all day.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Nigel, Jade, are you both with us?
Nigel FairbrotherI'm here. Camera's off, the connection in this building is poor. Before we start, who is actually using it? That's what I want out of the next hour.- Daniel OkaforThat's a fair place to begin, and I'll come to it properly, I promise. Jade, hello, lovely to see you. I think the last time we spoke properly was when you were getting your feet under the table.
Jade VowlesHi, yes, hello! I've got a list, if that's okay. Sorry, I know that's how I always start. Mostly questions about how things are built, because I'd like to be able to explain it all to the account managers myself.- Daniel OkaforPlease do, that's exactly what this is for. So, just to set the shape of the hour. I'd like to look at usage over the last quarter, what people are asking, the two tickets you raised last month, and then where we go from here, including the renewal next June. Does that work?
- Nigel FairbrotherMm. Usage first, then. Go on.
- Daniel OkaforRight. Let me share my screen. Can you see the usage page? Tell me if it's too small.
- Sharon TilleyBit small. Yes, that's better.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is Marlcliff over the last quarter. You're on Growth, which gives you 40 users and eight connectors. Active users are up on the previous quarter, which is the right direction. But I want to be straight with you, it's still a minority of the 40 seats.
- Nigel FairbrotherUp by how much? Up from what? A percentage without a base tells me nothing.
- Daniel OkaforQuite right. The base was lower than I'd have liked, so the rise looks healthier than it feels. On an average day it's a modest group of people, well under half of what you're licensed for. I'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.
- Nigel FairbrotherWell under half. At £44k a year. So I'm paying for a lot of empty chairs.
- Sharon TilleyNigel, hang on. It's not empty chairs. The control room team use it every shift. It's the account managers who've been slower, and that's on me as much as anyone.
- Nigel FairbrotherI'm not blaming you, Sharon. I'm asking what that is per contract. If the people who touch client renewals aren't in there, what are we getting?
- Daniel OkaforCan I add something on that? The people who are in there are asking more questions than they were. The questions asked are the best single measure of value, and that's moved the right way too. But I'll be honest, a good share of them come from a small number of people.
- Jade VowlesIs that me? I did ask quite a lot while I was learning the data. Sorry.
- Daniel OkaforHa, no apology needed, and you're certainly in the list. But it's mostly Sharon's control room people. It's a good problem in one sense and a risk in another. If one or two people leave, the usage drops away.
- Sharon TilleySo we spread it. Get the account managers asking. That's the point of buying it.
- Nigel FairbrotherThen show me before the renewal that they are. Not a promise. A trend.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's reasonable, and I'd like to build it with you. Let me come back to how in a minute. Can I show you what people are actually asking first? I think it helps.
- Nigel FairbrotherGo on.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is a list of the most common questions from the last quarter, grouped by theme. The biggest group is incidents by site. People asking, what happened at this client's sites this week, and which shifts were covered. Then there's a cluster on calls and emails with a particular client, which the control room uses when a client rings in upset.
- Sharon TilleyThat's the one I like. A client rings, the operator can see what we said last time, the incident, the invoice. They're not guessing.
- Daniel OkaforExactly. And the third group is invoices and overdue accounts, which is credit control. Nothing overdue on your account with us, by the way, so thank you, that's a tidy ledger.
- Nigel FairbrotherWe pay on terms. That's not a favour.
- Daniel OkaforNo, understood, and it's noted with thanks all the same.
- Jade VowlesCan I jump in with the first of my questions? On that incident view, can you show me how that's built? Is it a page, or is it a dashboard?
- Daniel OkaforGood question. The incident view is a page, so it reads straight from the indexed data and updates after the nightly refresh. A dashboard is something you build yourself with the dashboards builder, and that's included in Growth. I'll open one so you can see the difference.
- Jade VowlesOkay, so the page is the finished thing and the dashboard is where I'd put the numbers the account managers want every week?
- Daniel OkaforThat's it, yes. Which report do they actually use today? I think you asked that of yourself last time.
- Jade VowlesI did. Honestly, they open a weekly sites-and-incidents spreadsheet from the CRM, and I don't think many of them have been in B-Viz for it. I'd like to replace that, but I don't want to switch anything off without telling them.
- Sharon TilleyDon't switch anything off. Run them side by side. Let's get the account manager leads on it.
- Daniel OkaforI think that's the sensible way in. Run the dashboard next to the spreadsheet for a few weeks and see which one they open. If it's the dashboard, you've your usage story. If it isn't, we learn why.
- Nigel FairbrotherAnd who builds it? Because if the answer is you and a bill, I'm not interested.
- Daniel OkaforNot a bill, no. It's within your subscription. I'd sit with Jade and walk her through it, and she'd own it afterwards. I'm only suggesting a training session, not a project.
- Jade VowlesI'd really like that. I'll write it up for the team as we go, so it isn't stuck in my head.
- Daniel OkaforLovely. How is the team finding it generally, Sharon? Beyond the numbers.
- Sharon TilleyMixed, if I'm frank. Control room, love it. Account managers, a few love it, most haven't made it a habit. And a couple of them told me last month that it felt out of date on a Monday morning.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful to know. Do you remember which data they thought was out of date? Was it incidents, or invoices?
- Sharon TilleyIncidents, I think. Don't hold me to it. It was a conversation in the corridor.
- Daniel OkaforNo, that's helpful anyway. The refresh should be complete by seven in the morning on business days, so if something looked stale on a Monday I'd want to look at it properly. Is that connected to the two tickets, do you think?
- Jade VowlesIt might be. I raised both of them. Both were marked high priority because I wasn't sure how long the account managers would put up with it.
- Nigel FairbrotherTwo high priority in a month. That's not nothing. How quickly did you respond?
- Daniel OkaforOn Growth the first response target for a priority one is one business hour, and I've looked at the timestamps rather than the wording. I'm not going to guess at them from memory on a call. I'll come back to you by the end of the week with exactly what happened on each, and what we changed.
- Nigel FairbrotherFine. In writing, please. If there's a service credit due I'd like to hear it from you before I find it myself.
- Daniel OkaforThat's fair, and you'll have it in writing. Just to close the loop on that one: I'll send the two tickets with times, the response against the Growth target, and whether anything is owed.
- Sharon TilleyGood. I don't want a repeat in front of a client. If the control room had a stale view during an incident, that's the worst moment.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. And I'll say, I'd rather you tell me about the stale view in a corridor than not at all.
- Jade VowlesCan I ask the connectors question? I wasn't sure which sources are feeding it. I inherited the setup and I don't want to pretend I know it all.
- Daniel OkaforThank you for saying that, honestly. Let me show you the connectors page. Growth allows eight, and you're using the ones you set up at the start, the CRM, the call recorder, the helpdesk, the accounting system and so on. Records indexed have been steady, which is fine as long as the business is steady, but I'll watch it.
- Jade VowlesSo if records were flat for weeks, that would mean something's stopped loading?
- Daniel OkaforIt can, yes. Usually after somebody changes something in the source system. That's why I'd like to know before you change anything on the CRM side.
- Jade VowlesNoted. I've got a few CRM changes planned. I'll tell you first.
- Nigel FairbrotherCan we get to what I actually need? Renewal's next June. I'm not deciding anything today. What do I need to see between now and then?
- Daniel OkaforI think three things. First, spread of usage, meaning account managers in as well as the control room. Second, the ticket picture, clean and explained. Third, a short value case on a couple of contracts where having sites, incidents and invoices together changed an outcome. Sharon, do you have an example?
- Sharon TilleyA couple. One where we raised an invoice query with a client and the account manager already knew about an incident the week before. Saved an awkward call. I'll write it up, but I'd rather not name the client in anything that goes round.
- Nigel FairbrotherI want it in pounds, not anecdotes. What's it worth per contract?
- Sharon TilleyI can't always put a pound on a call that didn't go badly, Nigel.
- Nigel FairbrotherThen try. Credit control must have something. Days to collect, queries cleared. Something.
- Daniel OkaforCould I suggest we pick one measure together, rather than all of them? Credit control queries cleared, say, because that's already in your data and Jade could pull it. Then you'd have a base to compare against, which I know you like.
- Nigel FairbrotherHm. That I can work with. Base first, then the change.
- Jade VowlesI can do that. Is that a page or a dashboard?
- Daniel OkaforA dashboard, I think. We'll build it on the training session.
- Daniel OkaforSorry, I was just looking at something. Let me share the list of who's asked questions this quarter, without the content, just the roles. You'll see the spread I was talking about.
- Sharon TilleyRight. That's control room, control room, control room, me, Jade, one account manager, control room. Yes. I see it.
- Nigel FairbrotherOne account manager. Out of how many?
- Sharon TilleyMore than one, Nigel. I'll not pretend otherwise. That's the gap.
- Daniel OkaforAnd it is a gap, but a fixable one. Honestly, most customers I work with have this same pattern a year in. One team takes to it, and the others need a reason and a bit of help.
- Nigel FairbrotherWe are a year in. Not much longer to find the reason.
- Daniel OkaforI hear that. So, can I propose something specific? A working session with Jade in the next couple of weeks, then a short session for the account managers that Sharon opens, and I'd join. Then a short check-in in the autumn to look at the same usage page again.
- Sharon TilleyYes. Do it. I'll get the account manager leads in a room. Let's make them bring a real client.
- Jade VowlesCan I ask about the on-site training day? I saw it in the paperwork. Is that extra?
- Daniel OkaforIt's an add-on, so it would be priced separately. I'd rather not guess at it on the call. Let's see how the remote sessions go first, and if it feels worth it, I'll ask Lewis for a proper quote.
- Nigel FairbrotherDon't. Not yet. I'm not adding spend to a tool I'm still questioning.
- Daniel OkaforCompletely understood, and I wasn't pushing it. It was only an answer to Jade's question.
- Nigel FairbrotherGood. Then one more thing. Is anything changing on price I should know about before next June?
- Daniel OkaforNot today. Your contract runs to the start of June next year, you're invoiced at £44k a year, and it matches the order form. When we get closer, I'll be in touch about the renewal in good time, and Lewis will talk to you about anything commercial. I'd not want you hearing about price from anyone but us.
- Nigel FairbrotherHm. Good. Show me before the renewal, as I said. If the numbers aren't there, I won't be signing it.
- Daniel OkaforI appreciate you saying it straight. It helps me. I'd rather know now, when we can do something about it.
- Sharon TilleyFor what it's worth, Nigel, I'm not going to let it drift. I'll get the account managers going or I'll tell you it's not working.
- Nigel FairbrotherThat's all I ask.
- Jade VowlesSorry, one more from my list, then I'll stop. The search feature, is it only for the control room, or can the account managers search their own clients?
- Daniel OkaforAnyone with a seat can. It searches across everything you've connected, so an account manager can type the client name and get sites, calls, emails and invoices in one place. Do you want me to show it on a test client?
- Jade VowlesYes please. Then I can record what I see for the notes.
- Daniel OkaforSo there, one search, and it brings the lot back. Notice it shows where each result came from, so nobody has to take it on trust.
- Sharon TilleyThat's what I'd show the account managers. Not a lecture. Just that.
- Nigel FairbrotherFine. Is that everything?
- Daniel OkaforNearly. Let me play back what I think we've agreed, and tell me where I've got it wrong. I'll send you the two tickets with times and the service position by the end of the week. Jade and I find a slot for the dashboard session. Sharon gets the account managers together, and I join. Jade runs the dashboard next to the spreadsheet. And we agree one measure with Nigel, credit control queries cleared, with a base.
- Sharon TilleyThat's it. And I send you a short write-up of the example.
- Jade VowlesAnd I'll write up the training notes for the team afterwards.
- Nigel FairbrotherAnd I'll look at the figures when they land. I decide nothing today.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Thank you all for your time, and thank you for being frank with me, it's more useful than a polite hour. I'll follow up in writing today.
- Sharon TilleyThanks, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Jade VowlesThanks all, bye!
- Nigel FairbrotherGoodbye.
- Daniel OkaforBye for now, take care.
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