Customer story: Strensall Merchants
Documentfinal Strensall Merchants · success plan · final · 24 Feb 2026
Final version 1 success plan, approved on 24 Feb 2026 by Neil Craven, Richard Lazenby and Daniel Okafor. It covers using Strensall's housebuilder story as a reference. It states no availability, P1 response time or price commitments.
What it says
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Final version 1 success plan, approved on 24 Feb 2026 by Neil Craven, Richard Lazenby and Daniel Okafor. It covers using Strensall's housebuilder story as a reference. It states no availability, P1 response time or price commitments.
What it is: a reference arrangement for Strensall Merchants' Enterprise deployment. It records the approved housebuilder story and how BG-Demo may use it: website, proposals, reference calls and peer introductions.
Commits: Neil and Richard see any new wording before use. It also says "Contract detail and pricing are not part of the story."
Unusual: the customer may stop the story's use at any time by telling Daniel. Pricing conversations go through Strensall's finance lead, and Neil will not discuss price without her.
Not settled: the current term ends on 27 Feb 2026, and the document does not say how it was handled. It says it "does not change the order form or any commercial terms", so the executed order form remains the record. The account health snapshot dates from the approval and is stale.
As found in this document
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Date end27 Feb 2026Source: the AI read of this record
- Date signed24 Feb 2026Source: the AI read of this record
- Date start28 Feb 2025Source: the AI read of this record
- Wording reviewNeil and Richard see any new wording before it is used.Source: the AI read of this record
- Customer control of storyStrensall may withdraw the story at any time by telling Daniel.Source: the AI read of this record
- Pricing conversationsPricing conversations go through Strensall's finance lead, and Neil Craven will not discuss price without her.Source: the AI read of this record
The document
Body
Customer story: Strensall Merchants
Status: Final, version 1. Approved by the customer on 24 Feb 2026. Prepared by: Daniel Okafor, Customer Success Manager, BG-Demo Customer contacts: Neil Craven, Director of Trade Customers; Richard Lazenby, Chief Executive
1. At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Customer | Strensall Merchants, York |
| Industry | Building materials distribution |
| Footprint | A builders' merchants group with branches across the North of England and the Midlands |
| Tier | Enterprise |
| Customer since | 28 Feb 2025 |
| Licensed users | 160 |
| Annual recurring revenue (contracted) | £114k |
| Current term ends | 27 Feb 2026 |
| BG-Demo account owner | Lewis Kerr |
| BG-Demo CSM | Daniel Okafor |
2. Why this story matters
Strensall Merchants is the kind of business that B-Viz was built for: many sites, many people, and one trade customer who deals with all of them. The housebuilder accounts are the clearest example. A single housebuilder can buy from dozens of branches, and each branch used to see only its own slice of that relationship.
Read the whole document (5,881 characters)
This document records the story that Strensall Merchants has approved for use as a customer reference, and the plan for how BG-Demo will use it.
3. The challenge
Before B-Viz, three groups at Strensall each held part of the picture of a trade account:
- Branch teams knew what had been ordered and delivered locally.
- Trade-credit teams knew the credit position and what had been paid.
- Key-account teams knew the relationship, the calls and the commitments made at group level.
When a large housebuilder rang, the person who picked up the phone rarely had all three views. Neil Craven's question in these moments is always the same: which branch, which account, and what is the builder actually seeing? Answering it meant phoning round colleagues and reconciling systems by hand.
4. What Strensall chose
Strensall Merchants bought the Enterprise tier of B-Viz, built and run inside its own Snowflake account. Enterprise suited a company-wide rollout with a large user base, and it brought the executive sponsor role and single sign-on with SCIM user management that a group of this size expects.
The aim was simple: let branch, trade-credit and key-account teams see each trade account's orders, deliveries, calls and credit together, in one place, and ask questions of it in plain language.
5. The result
The approved story centres on the housebuilder accounts that buy from dozens of branches. Those accounts are now seen in one view by the branch, trade-credit and key-account teams, so that:
- A branch manager taking a call can see how the same builder is being served elsewhere in the group.
- Trade credit and sales look at the same account picture, so they agree on a customer before a conversation starts rather than after it.
- Key-account teams can tie what was said on calls to what was delivered and what was paid.
- Trade customers are served the same way at every branch, which is the outcome Neil Craven set out to achieve.
Richard Lazenby puts the point in the way he usually does: good merchants know their customers, and growth comes through service rather than price. He has said he is happy to tell peers what B-Viz has done for his teams.
6. Account health at the time of approval
The account was healthy when the story was approved.
| Signal | Position |
|---|---|
| Usage | Active users are up on the prior quarter |
| Support | One ticket in the last 30 days, none of them high priority |
| Invoices | None overdue |
| Relationship | A named champion and an engaged chief executive |
Usage is rising, support demand is light and payments are on time. The evidence does not show any concern about value or price, and it does not say how the contract term will be handled beyond the end date above.
7. How the story will be used
| Use | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Written customer story for the website and sales proposals | Daniel Okafor | Uses the housebuilder example in section 5 only |
| Reference call for prospects in building materials and distribution | Daniel Okafor, with Neil Craven | Neil to confirm each call in advance |
| Peer introductions | Richard Lazenby | He has offered to put BG-Demo in touch with other merchants he respects |
Ground rules agreed with Strensall
- No competitor's numbers will be shared or discussed in anything published.
- Contract detail and pricing are not part of the story. Pricing conversations go through Strensall's finance lead, and Neil Craven will not discuss price without her.
- Neil and Richard see any new wording before it is used.
- Strensall may withdraw the story at any time by telling Daniel.
8. Next steps
| Action | Owner | When |
|---|---|---|
| File the approved story and share the final wording with Neil Craven and Richard Lazenby | Daniel Okafor | This week |
| Brief Lewis Kerr on the approved reference so that commercial conversations are consistent | Daniel Okafor | This week |
| Agree which reference calls Neil is comfortable taking | Daniel Okafor and Neil Craven | Next check-in |
| Take up Richard's offer of introductions | Daniel Okafor | After the first reference call |
| Review the account plan ahead of the end of the current term on 27 Feb 2026 | Lewis Kerr and Daniel Okafor | Before the term end |
Just to close the loop: this is a reference arrangement and does not change the order form or any commercial terms. The executed order form remains the record of what Strensall has contracted.
9. Approval
| Name | Title | Organisation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neil Craven | Director of Trade Customers | Strensall Merchants | 24 Feb 2026 |
| Richard Lazenby | Chief Executive | Strensall Merchants | 24 Feb 2026 |
| Daniel Okafor | Customer Success Manager | BG-Demo | 24 Feb 2026 |
Unusual terms
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Story can be stopped at any time
- No competitor numbers in anything published
- Pricing only via Strensall's finance lead