Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting / BB-Demo – Proposal
Callcompleted
Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting · 2026-09-24 11:30
Imogen Hartley, Chief Data Officer, wants the Enterprise expansion to bring claims and compliance into the brain, not more seats. She will sponsor it, is unsure about Premium support, and calls the 14 Nov 2026 signing target tight.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Imogen Hartley, Chief Data Officer, wants the Enterprise expansion to bring claims and compliance into the brain, not more seats. She will sponsor it, is unsure about Premium support, and calls the 14 Nov 2026 signing target tight.
What happened: Tom Ashdown and Imogen Hartley discussed the expansion proposal on 24 Sep 2026. Imogen said the brain works but is used by a small group, so she wants it to reach claims and compliance.
Customer view: Around twenty people are active against 150 licensed, so seats are not the constraint. She wants the on-site training day and the Sandbox, and has not decided on Premium support.
Commercial: The Enterprise annual figure of £125k runs to 30 Jun 2027, with renewal on 1 Jul 2027, and additions are to be co-termed. No add-on price was quoted; Tom will confirm figures in writing.
Watch: Imogen needs about a week to name operational owners in claims and compliance. Procurement and legal pace, not her own approval, is the risk to signing on 14 Nov 2026.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Enterprise expansion to new teams
Importance
upsell
Sentiment
positive
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Tom Ashdown to send a written proposal with checked add-on prices, co-termed to 30 Jun 2027.
- Imogen Hartley to name the claims and compliance owners and give a view on Premium support.
- Tom Ashdown to introduce a BB-Demo executive sponsor and hold a short catch-up at the end of October.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Wider adoption is thin: around twenty active users against 150 licensed, with most of the business not yet in the habit.
- Premium support is not yet wanted, as the customer has had little reason to lean on support.
- Signing by 14 Nov 2026 depends on procurement and legal, and on operational owners not yet named.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- On-site training day and Sandbox add-ons fit the customer's wish to reach claims and compliance.
- Premium support could be taken if the claims team starts working in the evenings.
- A fourth finance group may follow later if a sponsor can be found.
Transcript
Tom Ashdown NoneImogen, hello. Can you hear me alright? I've got a little green bar moving on my side, so I think we're good.
Imogen Hartley NoneI can, yes. Hello Tom. Sorry, give me a second, I'm just getting this headset to behave. Right. That's better. Can you see me?- Tom Ashdown NoneAye, all there. How's your week been? Anything exciting, or is it just meetings?
- Imogen Hartley NoneMostly meetings, I'm afraid, though some of them have been rather good ones. We've had a run of capacity provider conversations this week, which is why I'm slightly hoarse. And you? You sound as though you've been on the road.
- Tom Ashdown NoneHa, no, just a bad line earlier on. Been at my desk mostly. Trying to get through a pile of paperwork I've been promising myself I'd sort since August. No drama, just dull.
- Imogen Hartley NoneWe all have that pile. Mine has a name and it lives in my inbox.
- Tom Ashdown NoneRight. Well, thanks for making time. So the plan for today, as I understood it, is that we sit down on the proposal for the expansion. Before I write anything up properly I'd rather hear it from you, in your words, what you want the next phase to do. Then I can tell you honestly what I think fits and what doesn't.
- Imogen Hartley NoneGood. Let me set the business context first, because I think it frames everything else. The real question for us at the moment is how quickly we can answer an oversight question from a capacity provider without somebody disappearing for two days to assemble it. When we bought the brain, that was the whole point: one view of submissions, bordereaux queries, claims tickets, CRM activity. And it has done that. I've seen this work, and it works.
- Tom Ashdown NoneMm. That's good to hear.
- Imogen Hartley NoneBut, and this is the honest bit, it's being used by a fairly small group. The people who found it early love it and ask it everything. Most of the wider business hasn't got into the habit. So when I think about what I'd want from an expansion, it isn't more of the same. It's making it count for the people who haven't touched it yet.
- Tom Ashdown NoneYeah. That matches what I see on the usage side, actually. Can I share a couple of things?
- Imogen Hartley NonePlease.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSo you've got around twenty people active on an average month now, and that's gone up quite nicely on the previous quarter. Which is the right direction. But you're licensed for a hundred and fifty. So seats are nowhere near your constraint. If I came to you with a proposal that said buy more users, you'd be right to laugh at me.
- Imogen Hartley NoneI would have laughed, yes, politely. We have a huge amount of headroom. That's rather the problem, in a way. I've paid for a hundred and fifty and I can see twenty of them.
- Tom Ashdown NoneFair. And I'd not dress it up as anything else. It's a good problem to have, though, compared with the opposite one. People are asking it things, and they're coming back.
- Imogen Hartley NoneAgreed. So where I'd like to get to is, if I'm in front of the board, or frankly in front of a syndicate, I can say that the underwriting operations team, the claims handlers and the people who field the oversight questions are all working from the same place. Not three groups reconciling by hand on a Thursday.
- Tom Ashdown NoneRight. And is that three groups, or is it more? I want to be sure I've got the shape of it.
- Imogen Hartley NoneThree to start. I think. Underwriting operations are already in, so that's really the claims side and the compliance people who answer the capacity providers. There may be a fourth, a finance group, later, but I don't want to promise something I can't get a sponsor behind. I've seen expansions drift because nobody owned them, and I'm not having that here.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, quite right. That's the bit I'd have raised anyway. So can we talk about what actually helps people get started? Because I think it's less about the licence and more about three or four things around it.
- Imogen Hartley NoneGo on.
- Tom Ashdown NoneFirst one's training. We do an on-site training day as an add-on. Somebody from our side comes to you, gets people in a room, and they work through real questions on your own data. Not a slide deck. It tends to be what turns a team from curious into regular.
- Imogen Hartley NoneI like that. People here behave differently when somebody is physically in the room. Teams wait to be shown. They don't read the help pages, I'm sorry to say.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNobody does. Second thing is the Sandbox. Since you're Enterprise and you're on the newer version of the service, you can have a separate space where your data team tries out a new connector or a change before it goes anywhere near the live brain. If I'm right, that's something your team have mentioned wanting.
- Imogen Hartley NoneThey have, quite insistently. Especially when we change how bordereaux are coming in. At the moment we're a bit nervous about touching anything. I'd want that, yes.
- Tom Ashdown NoneGood. And the third is Premium support. A named engineer, seven in the morning till eight at night, UK time. For a business where you've got capacity providers asking you things at all hours, I'd say it's worth a serious think.
- Imogen Hartley NoneMm. Though I should say, honestly, we haven't had much reason to lean on support. Daniel has been very good, and we've had a couple of tickets this month, nothing urgent. So I'd want to understand what Premium gives us that we're not already getting.
- Tom Ashdown NoneThat's a fair challenge. And I'd rather you asked than took it on trust. Part of it is the named person, so you're not explaining your setup afresh every time. Part is the hours. If your claims team starts relying on it in the evenings, that's when you'd feel it. But if that's not where you're heading, I'd not push you into it.
- Imogen Hartley NoneThat's helpful. Let's leave it on the table and I'll come back to you once I've talked to the claims lead about when they'd actually be working in it.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSounds sensible. Leave that with me and I'll write it up so it's easy to take it out without breaking the rest.
- Imogen Hartley NonePerfect. Now, I'm going to ask the awkward question, and I expect you'll tell me you can't answer it. What does this cost? Roughly. I don't need it to the pound.
- Tom Ashdown NoneHa. You know me too well. I'm not going to say a number off the top of my head, because I'll get it wrong and then we'll both be annoyed in a month. Let me confirm the figures for each of those add-ons against your contract and put them in the written proposal, each one separate so you can see what each is doing.
- Imogen Hartley NoneFine. I'd prefer that, frankly. I just wanted to know whether we were in the realm of sensible or the realm of fantasy.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSensible, I'd say, as a shape. But I'm not quoting. Can I check the contract side while we're here? Because it affects how I write it up.
- Imogen Hartley NonePlease.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSo you're a customer since 1 Jul 2024, you're on Enterprise, a hundred and fifty users, and the annual figure is £125,000. Order form and invoices agree, which is lovely, I don't often get to say that. The term runs to 30 Jun 2027, and the renewal falls on 1 Jul 2027.
- Imogen Hartley NoneThat's what I have as well. Good.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWhat I'd suggest is that anything we add now runs to the same end date, so you're not carrying two renewals. One conversation, one date, and it's easier for you to take to finance.
- Imogen Hartley NoneI'd much rather that. My finance director has a strong dislike of things that renew at different times. Honestly, it's one of the few things she feels strongly about.
- Tom Ashdown NoneThen she'll be pleased with me. And it means that when we get to the renewal next summer, it's a clean review of the whole thing, including whether the extra bits earned their keep.
- Imogen Hartley NoneWhich is the right way to look at it. The real question next summer will be whether the other teams are in there asking questions. If they are, the rest is easy.
- Tom Ashdown NoneYeah. Which brings me to the sponsor point you raised. Because it's your word, not mine, and I think it's the most important thing we've said so far.
- Imogen Hartley NoneIt is. Let me be direct. I'll sponsor it. It's my programme and I'll put my name to it. But I need an operational owner in claims and one in compliance, people who'll actually show up to the training day and nag their own teams. I'll name them. I just need a week or so to settle who.
- Tom Ashdown NoneThat's all I'd ask. And on our side, with Enterprise you get an executive sponsor from BB-Demo. I'd like to put a name against that properly rather than leave it vague. I'll sort an introduction so it's somebody you can ring, not a box ticked on a form.
- Imogen Hartley NoneI'd welcome that. Sponsors who show up are the whole game.
- Tom Ashdown NoneCouldn't agree more. And Daniel stays your day-to-day, naturally. I'll make sure he's in the room when we plan the training day, because he knows how your people actually use it, and I don't, not to that level.
- Imogen Hartley NoneGood. I trust Daniel. He tells me when something isn't working, which is rarer than you'd think.
- Tom Ashdown NoneI'll pass that on. He'll go a bit pink.
- Imogen Hartley NonePlease do. Right. Timing. Where are we?
- Tom Ashdown NoneSo I've got us pencilled for 14 Nov 2026 as the target to have it signed. It's a Saturday, so realistically I'd say the end of that week. Does that feel achievable at your end, or is it tight?
- Imogen Hartley NoneIt's tight but not silly. My own approval isn't the difficulty. It's the paperwork afterwards, procurement and legal, and they move at their own pace. If your proposal reaches me by the end of next week I think we can make it. Don't hold me to it until I've spoken to them.
- Tom Ashdown NoneNo, that's fine. I'd rather be realistic and early than promise something and slip. If it moves a week or two, it moves, and nobody's hurt. Let's get something in the diary for the end of October, just a short catch-up, so we're not drifting.
- Imogen Hartley NoneYes, let's. I'll have the two names by then. And I'll have had my conversation with the claims lead about Premium support.
- Tom Ashdown NoneBrilliant. So let me play it back, make sure I've got it. I'm writing the proposal with the on-site training day and the Sandbox as the core, Premium support as a separate option you can take or leave, everything co-termed to 30 Jun 2027, and prices confirmed in writing, not from my memory. I'll introduce your executive sponsor from our side, and I'll bring Daniel in on the training plan. You come back with the two operational owners and a view on Premium. Did I miss anything?
- Imogen Hartley NoneI don't think so. Maybe one thing. In the proposal, could you say plainly what the extra teams would be able to ask, in terms of the questions? Not features. Something I can put in front of the board and say, this is what claims will be able to answer on their own that they couldn't before.
- Tom Ashdown NoneYes, I can do that. I'll work it up with Daniel so it's real examples from your own data and not me guessing. Make it count, as you say.
- Imogen Hartley NoneThank you. I'm glad we did this by call rather than trading emails. It's much easier to think aloud.
- Tom Ashdown NoneSame here. Anything else before we let you go and rescue your inbox?
- Imogen Hartley NoneNo, I think that's everything. Send it over when it's ready and I'll read it properly.
- Tom Ashdown NoneWill do. Have a good rest of the week, Imogen. Speak soon.
- Imogen Hartley NoneAnd you, Tom. Best of luck with the paperwork. Goodbye.
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