Ovenden Software / BG-Demo – Renewal
Callcompleted
Ovenden Software · 2 Apr 2025 09:15
Renewal call on 2 Apr 2025. The chief executive agreed to keep Growth for another year but questioned paying for forty seats with under seven daily users. The seat count is to be settled separately.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Renewal call on 2 Apr 2025. The chief executive agreed to keep Growth for another year but questioned paying for forty seats with under seven daily users. The seat count is to be settled separately.
What happened: Marcus Bell showed usage before terms. Duncan Greenwood said to keep Growth as it is for another year, with seats to be looked at separately. Tom Ashdown is to send the draft renewal order form by Friday.
Customer view: Duncan pushed on value, asking what he is paying for with so few daily users. Louise Sutcliffe defended the seven as the right people but accepted they may not grow to forty by spring.
Commercial: Tom quoted £40k from the order form and said he would confirm it in writing. Deborah Cockcroft said invoices are paid and she needs the renewal to match the order form figure.
Watch: Tom said the seat count was his to sort, so a reduction is possible and was not agreed. Marcus also admitted he would have liked to look at the sync issue sooner.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Tom Ashdown to send the draft renewal order form by Friday.
- Tom and Marcus Bell to hold a thirty-minute seats review the following week.
- Marcus to send Louise the note on the sync issue.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Duncan questioned paying for forty seats with under seven daily users, so the seat count may be cut.
- The £39,600 figure is not yet confirmed in writing and must match the purchase order.
- Louise doubts the user base will grow, which weakens the value case.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Active users are up about a quarter on the quarter before, and Growth is agreed for another year.
- Invoices are paid with nothing overdue, so the issue is value rather than payment.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning all, can you hear me? Marcus here. Sorry, my connection's been rubbish all morning, so if I drop out just shout.
Louise SutcliffeHi Marcus, loud and clear. Morning Tom.
Tom AshdownMorning Louise! Hope your week's been alright. Oh, Duncan's on too, lovely.
Duncan GreenwoodMorning. Deborah's still hunting for her headset so she'll be a minute. I've got a board call at half ten, so can we keep this tight?- Marcus BellAbsolutely. I'll share my screen. I've pulled the usage numbers so we can see what's actually happening before we talk about terms, if that's alright?
- Duncan GreenwoodGo on then.
- Marcus BellSo, headline: active users are up about a quarter on the quarter before. We're averaging just under seven people a day in the tool, out of the forty seats we licensed. I know, I know. I want to come back to that.
- Duncan GreenwoodSeven out of forty. That's what I'm paying for?
- Louise SutcliffeIt's the right seven though, Duncan. It's my customer success leads and the two ops people who actually live in the tickets. The rest of the seats are there for the odd search, that's all.
- Tom AshdownYeah, and that's really the point of this conversation, isn't it? Nobody wants seats sitting there doing nothing. Leave the shape of the seat count with me, I'll sort out what makes sense.
- Duncan GreenwoodFine. What about the tickets, Marcus? Louise says they're the bit that matters.
- Marcus BellTwo tickets in the last month, neither of them high priority. One was a how-to, and one was a sync question that got sorted the same day. Nothing I'd flag to you, honestly.
- Louise SutcliffeMarcus, go back to the sync one for me. I just want to know the team won't be stuck with that every week.
- Marcus BellYeah. It was a one-off. One of the systems had renamed a field and the connector took a bit to catch up. I'd have liked to look at it sooner, to be fair. Shall I put that in the notes?
Deborah CockcroftSorry, sorry, I'm here. Have I missed anything? Hello Tom.- Tom AshdownDeborah! No, you've missed nothing, Marcus was just doing the good news. The order form says £39,600, and I'll confirm that properly in writing, but that's the number I've got.
- Deborah CockcroftRight, great. From our side the invoices are all paid, nothing overdue, so nothing's stopping us. I just need the renewal to match the figure on the order form so the purchase order lines up.
- Duncan GreenwoodKeep Growth as it is for another year. We'll look at the seats separately, once Marcus and Tom have worked out the numbers.
- Tom AshdownThat works for me. No drama. I'll get the draft renewal order form over by Friday and we can see where we are.
- Louise SutcliffeGood. Can I ask, Marcus, is there anything in the usage that says the seven people are going to grow? Because if it's only us, we're not going to need forty in the spring.
- Marcus BellHonestly, the trend is the right way, up on last quarter. But I'd rather not promise you a number. Shall we book thirty minutes next week to go through the seats properly?
- Tom AshdownLet's get something in the diary. I'll send an invite, and I'll bring the order form draft so we've got it in front of us.
- Duncan GreenwoodFine. Send it over. I need to go, I'm already late for the board.
- Marcus BellThanks Duncan, I appreciate the time. Thanks all.
- Deborah CockcroftBye everyone, thanks Tom.
- Louise SutcliffeBye all. Marcus, send me that sync note too, please.
- Tom AshdownCheers everyone, speak soon.