Stanedge Healthcare / BG-Demo – Discovery
Callcompleted
Stanedge Healthcare · 15 Jan 2026 14:30
Caroline Westby described a day of manual stitching per insurer query. Jeremy Platts, the CFO, pressed on whole-life cost and a build-it-yourself alternative. Tom Ashdown gave a ballpark of around £140k, not a quote.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Caroline Westby described a day of manual stitching per insurer query. Jeremy Platts, the CFO, pressed on whole-life cost and a build-it-yourself alternative. Tom Ashdown gave a ballpark of around £140k, not a quote.
What happened: First discovery call. Caroline said insurer relations and patient services spend about a day stitching authorisations, email, helpdesk and finance data together, weekly at least.
Customer view: Jeremy asked early about cost, said it is a tight year and that he needs something the board can see. He asked for whole-life cost and a do-it-yourself comparison.
Commercial: Tom pencilled Enterprise at around £140k in total, including one-off implementation, and said he would confirm it in writing. Scope is not agreed, and a decision around 12 May 2026 is a placeholder only.
Watch: Clinical systems are out of scope without information governance sign-off. Graeme Outram runs their Snowflake account and was not on the call.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Discovery, cost and value
Importance
neutral
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- Tom Ashdown to send a written note with the whole-life view and the confirmed figure.
- Caroline Westby to prepare an anonymised insurer case.
- Tom Ashdown to arrange a technical call with Graeme Outram.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Jeremy wants a whole-life cost and a build-it-yourself comparison, and calls it a tight year.
- The £140k figure came from Tom's notes and is unconfirmed, so it could be relied on too early.
- Clinical systems need information governance sign-off and could limit scope.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Enterprise fits two teams with governance needs, with a couple of dozen users to start.
- An anonymised insurer case could give a costed value case the board can see.
Transcript
Tom AshdownHello, hello. Can you hear me alright? I've got the little bars moving so I think we're live.
Caroline WestbyYes, good afternoon Tom. I can hear you. Jeremy is just joining, I think he's in the lobby.
Jeremy PlattsGood afternoon. Apologies, I was finishing something with the board papers. Can you both hear me?- Tom AshdownLoud and clear. Thanks for making the time, both of you. How's your week been? Properly manic, or just the usual kind of manic?
- Caroline WestbyThe usual, I think. We've had an insurer query come in this morning that's rather eaten the day, actually. One of the larger insurers is disputing how we've recorded authorisations on a run of diagnostic referrals.
- Tom AshdownRight. And is that the sort of thing that's a pain to pull together? Where does the answer live?
- Caroline WestbyWell, that's rather why we're talking. The authorisation sits in one system, the correspondence is in email, the patient complaint, if there is one, is in the helpdesk, and the invoice side is with finance. So someone, usually me or one of the team, spends a day stitching it together. And then I ask myself, what does the insurer see? Because it's not always what we see.
- Tom AshdownMm. Yeah. That's pretty much the story we hear. So just so I've got it straight, it's insurer relations first, and then patient services, who get the complaints.
- Caroline WestbyCorrect. Patient services answer complaints and they need evidence, not recollection. At the moment they ask us, and we ask the hospitals. Which hospital, which date, which clinician. It goes round in circles.
- Jeremy PlattsIf I might. Before we go further, could I ask where we are commercially? I would rather know the shape of it early.
- Tom AshdownFair enough, no drama. So we're at the very start, scope isn't agreed, so take this as a ballpark and not a quote. For what Caroline's describing, two teams and some governance needs, we'd be looking at Enterprise. The figure we've pencilled for the deal is around £140k in total, and that includes the one-off implementation, it isn't an annual price. I'm saying that from the notes, so I'll confirm it properly in writing before anyone leans on it.
- Jeremy PlattsUnderstood. Thank you. I will not negotiate on a call, and I would not accept a list figure without looking at it. What is the whole-life cost, though? Not only the first year.
- Tom AshdownGood question, and I'll set that out so you can see the implementation separate from the subscription and what happens at renewal. Leave that with me.
- Jeremy PlattsPlease. And I should say plainly, what else could we do with that money? It is a tight year. I need to see something the board can see.
- Tom AshdownTotally. Which is why I'd like to spend today on what hurts, so we can say whether it's worth it. Caroline, you were saying the stitching takes a day. How often?
- Caroline WestbyWeekly, at least. More when an insurer audits. And I'd say the real cost is not even my time, it's that sometimes we answer late and an insurer assumes the worst.
- Tom AshdownAnd the systems underneath. Without me naming anything, what are we talking about? CRM, mailboxes, a helpdesk, finance, anything clinical?
- Caroline WestbyA CRM that insurer relations use, a helpdesk for patient services, the mailboxes, a finance system. The clinical systems are a separate matter. I would not want those touched without information governance signing off, and I'd want to be careful not to promise anything there.
- Tom AshdownNo, quite right, and we wouldn't. One thing worth knowing is that the whole thing runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't go off to us. That tends to be the first thing governance teams ask.
- Caroline WestbyIt is the first thing I'd ask. We have a Snowflake account already, run by our business intelligence team. Graeme Outram looks after it. He isn't on today but he will have views.
- Tom AshdownGreat, I'd love to get Graeme on a later call. He'll be the one who tells us if I'm talking nonsense.
- Caroline WestbyHe will, gently.
- Jeremy PlattsCan I ask something about the savings? Where would they come from? Fewer staff hours? Fewer disputed invoices?
- Tom AshdownHonestly, probably a mix, and I don't want to overclaim before we've seen your data. Hours is the obvious one. Disputed claims and faster complaint answers are the other. What I'd suggest is we pick one insurer case like today's and work out what it cost you start to finish. Then you've got a real number rather than mine.
- Jeremy PlattsThat would be more useful than a brochure.
- Caroline WestbyI can do that with the authorisation case. Though I'd want to anonymise it before it goes anywhere.
- Tom AshdownAbsolutely, anonymised is fine, we only need the shape. How many people are likely to use it, roughly? Not exact.
- Caroline WestbyMy team, patient services, a few in finance. Perhaps a couple of dozen to start, and it might grow if it works.
- Jeremy PlattsWhich is why I would want a comparison. Is there another route to this? Doing it ourselves in the warehouse, for instance.
- Tom AshdownThere is, and I'd never tell you it's impossible. Building it yourselves is a real option. What it tends to cost is the time of someone like Graeme for a long while, and then keeping it alive. We can put that side by side for you, honestly, including where we lose.
- Jeremy PlattsThat is the right answer. Thank you.
- Caroline WestbyTom, can I ask about timing? We would not want to start anything that collides with the insurer renewals cycle.
- Tom AshdownSure. At the moment our working view is a decision around 12 May 2026, but that's a placeholder in my diary, not a promise on your side. If it needs to move, it moves.
- Jeremy PlattsI would not want to commit to a date either. Let us see the comparison first.
- Tom AshdownFine by me. So next steps. I'll send a short note with what we heard today and the commercial picture, including the whole-life view and the figure I've confirmed. Caroline, you'll look at an anonymised insurer case. And let's get something in the diary with Graeme and someone from our side on the technical bits.
- Caroline WestbyThat's fine. I'll speak to Graeme this week.
- Jeremy PlattsThank you both. I need to drop off now.
- Tom AshdownCheers, Jeremy, and thanks Caroline. Speak soon.
- Caroline WestbyThank you, Tom. Kind regards.
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