Would you like a new "Dead" status on Alpha Tracker enquiries & quotations?

We currently support four different statuses on our enquiries & quotations within Alpha Tracker.

The statuses are:

• Enquiry (no financial information logged, it's just a record of first contact)
• Open (an quotation in discussion with the prospect or client)
• Won (a quotation where the client has said yes)
• Lost (they said no - perhaps based on price, need, or the business went to a competitor)

The four quote statuses currently in Alpha Tracker

Would you like to see another, called "Dead"?  This is where the quotation hasn't officially been lost but, instead, the prospect/client has stopped responding.

Please do let us know what you think - click here to email us.  Thanks!

Call volumes to our Support Desk are coming down. November tickets were 23% fewer than October

Ticket numbers are finally dropping on our Support Desk.  In November, we received 896 calls for help, down 23% compared to October.

ChatGPT invented the image - it's getting better!

Why the reduced number?  Our new clients have now settled into their routines and so the number of "how do I?" calls has dropped considerably.  We've also been focused on performance for a number of clients, changing our cloud setups so that documents produce more quickly and system response is better.

Response times were good, too, with 19 out of 20 calls being resolved in the timescale needed by the caller.

Catherine is the captain of our ISO ship! Quality and Information Security re-certifications complete

Our ISO9001 (Quality) and ISO27001 (Information Security) certificates have arrived, following our successful week-long re-certification audits (see https://blog.start-software.com/2024/11/its-our-iso9001-and-iso27001.html).

Nice hat! Catherine is our Quality & Information Security captain

Thank you Catherine for your hard work.  This isn't a easy process but it is worth it, and our success demonstrates our commitment to quality and information security.

Click https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/legal to see all of our certifications, insurance certificates and trading terms and conditions.

Alpha Tracker/FLS webinar on Thursday 5 December at noon. Join Simon Spriggs (FLS) and the Alpha Tracker team

If the news that Alpha Tracker & FLS are working together has your "productivity boosting" juices flowing, you're in for a treat.  

We're co-presenting a webinar on Thursday 5 December (at noon) to show how we are bringing the power of the FLS scheduler optimiser to work within the Alpha Tracker framework.

Simon Spriggs from FLS will be co-presenting our webinar

Simon Spriggs from FLS is joining our normal Alpha Tracker webinar team to show how the two products work together, and how this can drive huge productivity gains into your business.

The webinar is at noon and will only last 20 minutes or so.  Register here for free: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cNr2w1-MRfCYWHDl_xzNFw#/registration

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Focused Alpha Tracker training workshop delivered

This week, our Alpha Tracker specialist, Kim, conducted a focused training workshop with the team at Acorn Analytical Services. The session aimed to enhance their proficiency with our asbestos management software, Alpha Tracker.

Kim with some of the Acorn scheduling team

Acorn Analytical Services, known for their dedication to asbestos consultancy, has been utilising Alpha Tracker to streamline their operations. Kim's workshop provided practical guidance on advanced features and best practices, covering topics such as optimizing survey workflows and scheduling.

The interactive format allowed Acorn's team to engage directly, ask questions, and gain insights tailored to their specific needs. By the end of the session, participants felt more confident in leveraging Alpha Tracker to improve efficiency and accuracy in their jobs and projects.

We appreciate Acorn Analytical Services for hosting this workshop and look forward to supporting their continued success with Alpha Tracker.

For more information about asbestos software Alpha Tracker, visit our website: https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/asbestos. To learn more about Acorn Analytical Services, visit: https://www.acorn-as.com/. 

Can we help your team to become more efficient with their use of Alpha Tracker?  Do get in touch.

We're here to help you with Invitations to Tender. APIs, other asbestos software, and more

Are you tendering for asbestos surveying or management work?  Have you seen references to Alpha Tracker, APIs, or other asbestos software systems in the Invitations to Tender?  

Here's a brief guide to help you - our "Alpha Tracker in tenders FAQ".

Alpha Tracker is a requirement

There are some large tenders circulating at the moment where asbestos software Alpha Tracker is mentioned as a requirement (because the client already has their own copy of the Alpha Tracker system).

If you are an Alpha Tracker user already, this is obviously fine and you can simply go through the process as normal.  If you don't already have your own copy of asbestos software Alpha Tracker at your consultancy, you can either get in touch and ask for a quote for your own licence, or you can have a discussion with us about whether your existing software can generate files in a format that Alpha Tracker could import.

There is a requirement to interface with another API

First, what is an API?  An API is a means for one software system to talk (exchange data and documents) with another.

The organisation looking for an asbestos consultancy might already have a system in place (for example, one of the housing management platforms) and they may have specified that their new asbestos consultancy of choice needs to be able to interface with that API.  Is that possible with Alpha Tracker?  Absolutely!

Alpha Tracker is the most open asbestos software system on the market with 10 ways to import and export data, including the use of APIs.  See https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/integrations for an overview.  We are also very happy to quote for new API integrations.  Typically, we estimate that an API-based integration with a system we haven't interacted with before can take 3-4 days of our time for us to develop and test.

Each API is different so it is always best to get a firm quote from us (for the Alpha Tracker API integration) before you incorporate it into your quote.

Another asbestos system is specified

What happens if the tender specifically mentions another asbestos software system?  Can an Alpha Tracker consultancy still apply to win the business?  The short answer is "it depends".  Here are some options:

• if the other software system is from a company interested in connecting and working with the asbestos software industry (for example, Flow Mobile), then data exchange is normally possible via OpenAsbestos or other methods.  However, some other asbestos software companies are not open to work with the rest of the industry (no names required, I'm sure you know who we mean!), so... 
  
  
• ...if the other system is a closed system, then it is more difficult.  An option is to use your potential client's own licence or to negotiate a licence direct with the software supplier.

Hope that helps, we're here to help you to win business.