Celebrating 20 years of Start Software—and looking ahead at World Summit AI!

What better way to celebrate 20 years of Start Software than a trip to explore what the next few years might bring?  We're having a full week of celebrations and events to mark our 20th birthday (watch out for another blog post next week), starting with a trip abroad for some of our team.

Our team headed to World Summit AI in Amsterdam (@WorldSummitAI #WSAI) this week, swapping our usual surroundings for conference stages, demonstrations and a chance to explore the latest developments in artificial intelligence.

And we certainly made ourselves easy to spot!

The Start Software team at World Summit AI, sporting our special 20th anniversary T-shirts

AI is already an important part of how we work at Start. We use it to help develop software, explore ideas and improve customer support.  AI is being used within Alpha Tracker now and customers are using AI to work with Alpha Tracker.  Taking time together to see what’s happening across the wider industry helps us think about where we can take that work next.

A packed auditorium at World Summit AI—plenty of interest in where AI is heading!

For our customers, the opportunities are practical: reducing repetitive tasks, making information easier to find and giving people more time to do the work that needs their expertise.

Our own AI-powered Helpdesk is one example. It helps us resolve queries more quickly and flag recurring problems, so we can track whether their underlying causes have actually been addressed.

Of course, with a team of software developers at a technology conference, the laptops were never going to stay closed for long…

There’s always time to open a laptop—even between conference sessions! Dan & Judy featured

The visit was also a chance to get the team together - from the UK, Australia, Indonesia and Kosovo, share ideas and look beyond our day-to-day projects. This unusual view captures the gathering rather well!

A different perspective on the team—and a memorable photo from our Amsterdam visit.

And then there were the robots. A humanoid robot with its robot dog companion is certainly a change from the people you normally meet at a software conference!  Physical AI was a big topic at the conference showing how far the AI world has come over the last decade.

Twenty years ago, we began building software to help people run their businesses. The tools available to us have changed enormously, but that purpose remains the same.

Here’s to bringing fresh ideas into our next chapter—and perhaps leaving the robot dog in Amsterdam for now!

PS This was the back of our celebration t-shirts...

All smiles (nearly) at NORAC! Kim & Jamie are ready to talk Alpha Tracker and our new software platform... codename "Elements"

Kim & Jamie are at the NORAC Conference in Manchester today, and their photos give us a little flavour of the day: a room full of asbestos professionals, our Alpha Tracker stand ready for visitors, and two smiling faces (well, one... that's as close as we get to a smile from Jamie!).

Kim & Jamie

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, they’re there to answer your Alpha Tracker questions, hear your ideas and give you a look at our brand new software platform.

Kim at the Alpha Tracker stand — coffee and chocolates at the ready!

Whether you already use Alpha Tracker in your asbestos consultancy or want to find out how it could help your consultancy, pop over for a chat. Bring along that “how do I…?” question, tell us about a task you’d love to make easier, or ask for a quick demonstration. Kim & Jamie can also arrange a longer live demo for you in October.

Delegates gathering in the conference room

Events like NORAC are a valuable chance to listen to the people using our software and hear about the challenges facing asbestos consultancies. Those conversations help shape what we develop next.

If you’re at NORAC today, come and say hello — and don’t leave without asking to see what’s new!

Support Desk Performance: September 2026

Our Support Desk team solved 881 support requests during September 2026. This represents a return to typical volume following the quieter month of August, and is consistent with the number of tickets resolved in the same period last year.

Across the Start Software product family—including Alpha Tracker, Greenfield, and ecoScribe—we completed 89.78% of all requests within their target response and resolution times. For high-priority requests, this figure was 94.19%.

Our year-to-date performance is as follows:

• 8,076 total requests solved.
• 7,433 completed within target response and resolution times.
• 1,423 high-priority requests completed within target times.

Compared with August, the team handled a significantly higher workload, resolving 141 more requests than the previous month. Despite this increase in volume, our efficiency improved, with the percentage of requests completed on time rising from 87.28% to 89.78%.

The majority of requests this month related to Alpha Tracker, which accounted for 629 of the solved tickets. We also saw steady activity across our other products, including Greenfield. From a regional perspective, the UK desk handled 695 requests, while our Australia and New Zealand teams resolved 174.

The most common themes for support this month involved data queries and server disk space management. We have also focused on document production queries and addressing software bugs identified during use. Our team added 13 new articles to the knowledge base this month to assist with self-service and identified 106 further opportunities to improve our documentation and automated help systems.

We would like to thank our Support Desk team for their hard work during a busy month and our customers for their continued feedback and cooperation.

If you require technical assistance, please contact the Support Desk in the usual way or visit our support page: Start Software support.

Heading to NORAC? Look out for Kim & Jamie from Alpha Tracker!

Kim and Jamie are heading to the NORAC Conference tomorrow, Thursday 1 October, at the Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel. If you’re going too, make sure you say hello!

Jamie & Kim at NORAC 2026

Whether you’re already an Alpha Tracker user or simply curious about what our software could do for your asbestos consultancy, they’d love to chat.

Ask them anything about Alpha Tracker. Bring your questions, share your ideas, or tell them about that everyday task you’d love to make easier. It’s a great opportunity to talk through how you work and what you need from your software.

And if you’d like a sneak peek at what’s new, ask Kim and Jamie to show you our brand new software platform! We’re excited to give you a look and hear what you think.  They can also book you in for a live demo in October.

We always enjoy catching up with clients and meeting new people from across the asbestos industry. Those conversations help us understand your challenges and shape what we develop next.

See you at NORAC — and don’t be shy about asking for a demo!

AI and Alpha Anywhere: Robin shares practical tips in latest Alpha Software webinar

Can AI help you understand an unfamiliar Alpha Anywhere component, improve your Xbasic code or check the design of a running application?

Start Software’s Robin Bennett has just presented a webinar with Alpha Software showing how to put AI to work on real Alpha Anywhere projects. The recording will be available on YouTube in a few days, so keep an eye out if you missed the live session.

Robin ready to present

Robin started with a look back at his June 2023 webinar, in which he demonstrated creating a universal database generator with ChatGPT and Alpha Anywhere.

Three years ago! Back when Alpha webinars were 50 minutes long and we were experimenting with free AI tools. These days, Start Software’s monthly AI spend runs into four figures — a reflection of how much these tools have become part of our everyday work.

Robin even wondered whether that early demonstration meant he could claim to have invented “vibe coding”. We’ll leave that debate to the historians!

This time, the focus was on practical ways Alpha developers can use AI, including:

• Planning an application: turning an idea into suggested screens and a database structure, using a travel and memories app for a 30th wedding anniversary as an example.

• Improving Xbasic: asking AI to review code, suggest optimisations and help investigate errors, including errors supplied as screenshots.

• Reviewing API code: exploring improvements to an existing REST API, including authorisation with a separate API key for each operation.

• Understanding a component: supplying an Alpha Anywhere UX component saved in JSON format and asking AI to explain its behaviour and identify possible bugs.

• Checking design consistency: using ChatGPT’s agent capabilities to navigate a web application and review its screens.

These are useful starting points for anyone maintaining or developing an Alpha application. AI can help you investigate unfamiliar code, explore an idea and spot things that deserve closer attention. Developer review and testing remain essential.

At Start Software, that work builds on experience with Alpha Anywhere stretching back to 2011. We develop and support business applications worldwide, working across Alpha Anywhere, Alpha TransForm and Alpha Cloud.

UPDATE: The webinar is now on YouTube for you to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqxx2qGed9E

Microsoft Edge fix released for Alpha Tracker browser issue

Good news for Alpha Tracker users affected by the recent browser issue: Microsoft has released a fix in Microsoft Edge version 153.0.4234.48. The issue could cause Alpha Tracker to become unresponsive or stop responding to clicks.

If you use Edge, enter edge://settings/help in the address bar to check for updates. Install any available update and restart Edge to complete it. If your organisation manages browser updates centrally, your IT team may need to make the update available.

Google Chrome’s fix was already available when we first reported the issue. If Alpha Tracker still becomes unresponsive after updating and restarting your browser, please contact Alpha Tracker Support so we can investigate.