October was another excellent month for our Support Teams , with 92.4% of tickets resolved within their target time and an impressive 97.2% of high-priority issues handled on time. That’s 876 tickets completed within SLA (and 171 high-priority ones), from a total of 948 issues logged and solved in October. It’s a busy workload — and the consistent high standards show just how hard our team works to keep our clients happy. Thanks ChatGPT for the graphic - but why the mix-and-match on decimal points and commas?! Here’s how our “in-time” performance has looked over the past few months: Month In-time % High Priority In-time % Total Solved Oct 2025 92.41% 97.16% 948 Sep 2025 94.20% 98.38% 879 Aug 2025 90.97% 97.08% 831 Jul 2025 91.40% 97.88% 977 Jun 2025 90.45% 97.40% 838 May 2025 92.14% 95.42% 852 We’ve now kept performance above 90% for six months running , proving that reliability is more than just a number — it’s part of how we work. If you ever need to log a support ticket...
Posts
Heathrow, Natwest, Minecraft all sorted... and so is Alpha Tracker document production
Microsoft has resolved their "Azure" issues from yesterday and all systems are back online.
 |
| Microsoft have resolved all of their Azure cloud problems |
Sorry if you had issues producing some documents - we are looking at ways to make ourselves more resilient when Microsoft's Azure cloud has problems in the future.
Some of our Alpha Tracker services are being affected by the Microsoft outage - we are waiting for them to resolve
Some of our Alpha Tracker services are being seriously affected by the Microsoft outage as reported by the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3rj45n4x5eo. Heathrow, NatWest and Minecraft are among some of the sites and services experiencing problems.
 |
| We're in good company, many organisations are being affected |
Our affected services include document production for asbestos and water clients. We apologise for the outage and are waiting for a resolution from Microsoft.
🎉 Celebrating Our 100,000th Support Ticket!
We’ve just hit an incredible milestone — our 100,000th support ticket has landed!
That’s 100,000 times our customers have reached out with questions, ideas, or requests — and 100,000 opportunities for our support team to help, learn, and make Alpha Tracker, Alpha Legal, ecoScribe and all our other systems even better.
 |
| 1,000,000 grateful customers (well, most of them...) |
A huge thank you to our customers
Every ticket tells a story: a new project getting started, a clever feature being used in a new way, or a challenge that helped us improve our software. We’re genuinely grateful for every message, call, and support request that’s come our way over the years. Without your feedback and patience, we couldn’t keep making our systems as powerful and reliable as they are today.
And an even bigger thank you to our support team
Our support heroes handle everything from “how do I…” to “help, it’s all on fire!” - and they do it with professionalism, good humour, and an impressive amount of coffee. Reaching 100,000 tickets is a testament to their dedication and the relationships they’ve built with customers across the UK and beyond.
Looking ahead
If 100,000 tickets got us here, we can only imagine what the next 100,000 will bring. More innovation, faster responses, smarter systems — and, no doubt, the occasional head-scratcher that keeps things interesting.
At this rate, we might even start placing bets on when ticket number 1,000,000 will arrive…
Thank you for being part of our journey — here’s to the next big milestone! 🚀
Faster report production with our Cloud Document Maker update
Jack and the team have deployed a new version of Cloud Document Maker which means that some Alpha Tracker clients - water hygiene users in particular - will notice that their documents are generated much more quickly.
 |
| Yet another AI-generated blog image |
There is also an update coming soon which will increase the speed of asbestos report generation - so watch out for that.
Alpha Software roadmap review with Selwyn and his development team
Jack, Dan & Robin held an Alpha Software roadmap review with CEO Selwyn and his development team today.
 |
| Jack, the Alpha Software team (via Teams), and Dan |
Start Software are Alpha Software's UK professional partners with specialists working in Alpha Anywhere, Alpha TransForm and Alpha Cloud. We build and support apps and web systems using the Alpha Software development framework.
During the two-hour review, we covered a huge range of topics, including:
- the "free threading" performance improvements in the Alpha app server
- alternative deployment platforms (including Linux)
- use of better code editors and alternative debugging options
- automated testing tools
- upcoming improvements and changes to the Alpha Cloud deployment platform
- and - finally - AI.
It was a really useful call - and one we'll repeat in a few months.
If you need help with your Alpha-based system, get in touch.
PS it was great to include the UK Alpha legend Glen Schild from gjstats.co.uk on the call, too!
Birmingham Tech Week: Robin & Andrew exploring the AI frontier
Birmingham Tech Week was buzzing with ideas, innovation and some very clever uses of artificial intelligence — so of course, we couldn’t resist joining in. Andrew and I spent the day at the ICC for the AI Symposium, part of this year’s Quantum Leap series of events, learning from industry leaders and sharing how AI is already shaping the work we do at Start Software and CTT.
Our day began at Birmingham New Street, where the ever-impressive Ozzy the Bull (fresh from the Commonwealth Games) gave us a suitably dramatic welcome. I couldn’t resist giving him a new accessory — my Birmingham Tech Week badge. He wore it with pride.
 |
| Ozzy pre-AI modification |
 |
| Ozzy with his pass! |
The city itself looked fantastic under autumn skies — from the sleek curves of Grand Central to the golden crown of the Library of Birmingham, Birmingham’s mix of heritage and modern design made a great backdrop for a week celebrating technology.
 |
| The Town Hall |
 |
| The sun was shining on the event |
 |
| Birmingham Library |
Inside the ICC, the energy was palpable. The exhibition area showcased everything from VR headsets to cutting-edge data visualisation tools, and the AI Symposium featured some genuinely insightful discussions. It was standing-room-only at times, with experts debating the ethics, opportunities and challenges of machine learning in the workplace.
Agentic AI again was a key focus - as was security - themes repeating from the World Summit AI in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
 |
| Inside the impressive ICC |
 |
| Should have gone to Specsavers |
For us at Start Software, AI is more than just a buzzword. It’s already integrated into our products — helping clients work smarter and faster:
-
Alpha Tracker uses automation and smart data processing to simplify compliance and asbestos management.
-
Alpha Legal keeps legal professionals secure and efficient with AI-driven document checks and smart communication tools.
-
ecoScribe harnesses speech recognition and natural language processing to turn complex survey data into structured reports in seconds.
Seeing so many companies exploring AI’s potential was inspiring — and it’s clear that the Midlands is fast becoming a real hub for innovation.
 |
| The panel gathers |
 |
| Andrew front-and-centre (as always!) |
We left Birmingham Tech Week with plenty of ideas (and a slightly sore neck from looking up at Ozzy). Huge thanks to the organisers for such a well-run and thought-provoking event.
If you’d like to learn how AI is already improving workflows in Alpha Tracker, Alpha Legal or ecoScribe, get in touch — we’d love to show you what’s possible.
(post by Robin Bennett)