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Out on site with Acorn Asbestos – troubleshooting and improving Tracker Mobile face-to-face
There’s nothing quite like getting out from behind a desk and onto site.
Last week, Zac from our Alpha Tracker Support team did exactly that—joining the asbestos surveyors from our partners at Acorn Asbestos for a day in the field. The goal? To see first-hand how surveys are carried out, how our software performs in real-world conditions, and—most importantly—where we can make things even better. We've had some repeat tickets from an asbestos surveyor and wanted to see the issue live - supporting our wonderful customers is *so* much easier in person.
Why site visits matter
We spend a lot of time building and refining Alpha Tracker and Tracker Mobile but the real test is always on site.
Asbestos surveying isn’t done in ideal conditions. It’s tight spaces, awkward access, poor signal, and the constant need to work quickly and accurately. That’s exactly why Tracker Mobile has been designed to work offline, capture detailed data, and sync reliably later.
But no matter how much experience we have, there’s no substitute for standing alongside surveyors and watching the process unfold.
A day in the life of a surveyor
Zac spent the day following Acorn’s team as they carried out a live asbestos survey.
From logging into site, reviewing previous records, and planning the inspection route, through to capturing samples, photos and notes—it was a full walkthrough of the survey lifecycle.
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| Nice tats, Zac! |
In the photo above, you can see Tracker Mobile in action—being used on-site to capture survey data in real time. This is exactly how the system is designed to be used: simple, structured, and reliable, even in less-than-ideal environments.
Tracker Mobile plays a central role here. Surveyors are using it to:
Record asbestos samples and suspected materials
Capture photos and link them directly to items
Log “no access” areas and site observations
Work through structured forms designed around their workflow
All of this is done on a phone or tablet, often with no signal, and synced back to the main system later.
If you’re new to Tracker Mobile, you can read more about how it supports asbestos surveying on our website:
👉 https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/asbestos
The small details that make a big difference
One of the most valuable parts of the visit was spotting the little things.
Not big feature requests—but small, practical improvements:
Reducing the number of taps needed for common tasks
Making key fields easier to access on-site
Improving visibility of important information in bright or awkward environments
Streamlining workflows when moving quickly between rooms or areas
These are the kinds of refinements that only come from real-world use. And they matter—because when you’re on site, every second counts.
This kind of continuous improvement is something we’ve talked about before—particularly in how user feedback shapes development.
Working with great partners
It was also a great opportunity to spend time with the team at Acorn Asbestos.
Their experience, professionalism, and willingness to share honest feedback are exactly what make partnerships like this so valuable. Open conversations about what works (and what doesn’t) help us continuously improve.
At Alpha Tracker, we’ve always built our software in collaboration with the industry—and days like this are a perfect example of that in action.
Feeding back into Tracker Mobile
Tracker Mobile is already widely used across the asbestos surveying industry and has been refined over years of real-world use.
But we never stand still.
The insights from Zac’s visit are already feeding into discussions with the development team—helping shape future updates and improvements. Whether it’s performance tweaks, usability enhancements, or new features, it all starts with understanding what happens on site.
If you’d like to explore more about Tracker Mobile and how it supports asbestos surveying teams, take a look here:
👉 https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/asbestos
Final thoughts
A big thank you to Acorn Asbestos for having us along.
Getting out on site, asking questions, and seeing the reality of asbestos surveying is invaluable. It keeps us grounded, focused, and motivated to keep improving.
And for Zac… not a bad day at the office.
We have a new Calendar Sync module available. Get in touch with Support to organise your system update
Jack has published a new Calendar Sync update for Alpha Tracker.
This is a bug-fix update which will help busy asbestos consultancies especially. Jack has fixed a couple of bugs which affected appointments which were scheduled/deleted/rescheduled within a few seconds of being created - something that doesn't happen very often but does happen occasionally.
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| Busy, busy, busy! |
Calendar Sync is an Alpha Tracker feature which synchronises Alpha Tracker diary appointments into Microsoft (Outlook/Exchange) diaries or Google Calendar, so that site staff know their schedule simply by looking in their normal diary phone apps.
Get in touch with Alpha Tracker Support (UK or Australia/New Zealand) to organise your update.
"Office Hours" drop-in session on Wed 25 March 12:00-12:30. We'll be showing the new AI-powered Alpha Draw
We’re excited to announce that next week we will be starting our first series of Alpha Tracker “Office Hours” sessions. We hope you can join us.
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| Click this link to join the session from 12:00-12:30 on Wed 25 March |
To explain what “Office Hours” are (confession... most of us here at Start Software weren’t aware, either!), the term originally referred to academic help sessions in the US, where students could get personalised assistance outside of class. Our Alpha Tracker Office Hours sessions will be short, informal, half-hour drop-in sessions providing the opportunity for support, discussion, clarification, demonstration, advice – all sorts of help with any area of Alpha Tracker.
The Office Hours are live and interactive; we’ll be led by the topics you want to discuss. These are “cameras on” sessions for everyone, we’ll be on camera and so will you. To make you feel more comfortable, we won’t record the sessions.
Join Robin and Kim for the first session on Wednesday 25 March 2026 at 12:00. No need to pre-register, simply click the link between 12:00 – 12:30 on the day to join: https://whereby.com/alpha-tracker-office-hours
See you Wednesday!
Experimental AI tools published for asbestos consultancies - try them now! Free to use, please experiment and give us feedback
We’ve published a set of experimental AI tools designed for asbestos consultancies to explore and test.
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| There are six tools altogether (although one only applies if you're Norwegian!) |
These tools are currently being evaluated and refined. Once they have been thoroughly tested, the most successful features will be integrated into our asbestos software, Alpha Tracker, as part of our 2026 development roadmap.
Although the tools are being developed alongside Alpha Tracker, consultancies using other asbestos software are very welcome to try them and share feedback.
There are currently six tools available, including one developed specifically for the Norwegian asbestos industry.
The tools were previewed at the FAMANZ ASBESTOS 2026 conference in Sydney, and they are now available for anyone to try.
Photo Analyst
Analyses a photo of suspect materials and provides an AI-powered assessment of whether asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) may be present.
https://asbestos-photo-analyst.start-software.ai/
Building Analyst
Evaluates whole-structure photos to identify areas that may contain asbestos-containing materials.
https://asbestos-building-analyst.start-software.ai/
Asbestos Report QC
Checks asbestos survey reports for potential errors, omissions, and inconsistencies.
https://asbestos-report-qc.start-software.ai/
AI Asbestos Scanner (Norway)
Developed for the Norwegian asbestos industry and aimed primarily at contractors working in Norway.
Don’t worry if you don’t speak Norwegian! The tool includes an English/Norwegian toggle.
Asbestos Prompt Engineer
Helps you build reliable AI prompts for asbestos-related tasks when using tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude.
https://asbestos-prompt-engineer.start-software.ai/
Asbestos Report Extractor
Extracts key information from asbestos reports and allows the data to be downloaded into Excel and other formats.
https://asbestos-report-extractor.start-software.ai/
You can access the full set of tools here:
UK:
https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/ai-tools
Australia and New Zealand:
https://alpha-tracker.com.au/ai-tools
Please do try them and send us your feedback.
These tools are still experimental, and your feedback will help shape how AI is integrated into asbestos software Alpha Tracker in the future.
MASSIVE congratulations to the whole FAMANZ team for a wonderful Sydney conference - ASBESTOS 2026
ASBESTOS 2026 by FAMANZ has been an amazing event - 300+ attendees (most of whom seemed to know Judy!) - with Alpha Tracker asbestos consultancy clients everywhere we looked.
Robin's AI talk demo'd some of the experimental tools we've been building - and you can try them all for yourselves on our Australian/New Zealand Alpha Tracker or UK Alpha Tracker websites.
Ben from our fabulous Alpha Tracker asbestos consultancy Forensic Specialists won our bottle of South Australian champagne (from Penfolds) in our "have your photo taken and win the bottle" competition. Congrats Ben!
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| Judy, Ben & Robin (and the bottle) |
We collected so many photos over the 3 days of the conference that we actually ran out of printer paper!
Many of the discussions we had with our users (and prospective users) was around the use of AI Agents inside Alpha Tracker and outside, too. It's a good job we'd published our Alpha Tracker Roadmap before we came - it shows, in detail, what our plans are. We also picked up a whole load of great ideas along the way - conferences are great for that!
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| What a location, and what a venue (and view!) |
With the conference winding down, we had the "fun" job of packing up our stand. We did it in 10 minutes - just - not bad when Judy was suffering after picking up a netball injury, and Robin was still in a timezone somewhere between Sydney and Shanghai!
Thanks again to the organisers and all of our wonderful Alpha Tracker asbestos software users from Australia & New Zealand who have made the conference so much fun for us. See you again next year!
ASBESTOS 2026 has started! Alpha Tracker is a proud exhibitor and supporter of FAMANZ's 5th asbestos conference
Judy & Robin have arrived at Sydney's stunning Darling Harbour for FAMANZ's 5th asbestos conference called "ASBESTOS 2026" (see what they did, there!).
Our Australian business, Alpha Tracker Pty, based in Adelaide, is one of the exhibitors - and we're proud to say that we've been a sponsor and/or exhibitor at every one of the five FAMANZ asbestos events. We're here to talk to our amazing Australian & New Zealand asbestos consultancy clients, and also to meet other partners and potential partners including PAS and MPAR.
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| Robin (jetlagged!) and Judy with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance |
The event is really well attended, again, with more than 350 delegates. They represent the whole asbestos industry as well as organisations managing asbestos in buildings and asbestos software companies, like Alpha Tracker. Robin is going to be showing off the experimental Alpha Tracker AI tools for asbestos consultancies in his talk on Wednesday.
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| The welcome drinks always attracts a crowd! |
Our stand is busy, as usual with clients and prospective clients coming to say hello. To encourage new people to visit, we're running a competition this year to win a bottle of South Australian "champagne" from the mighty Penfolds. There is a lovely connection here for Judy & Robin - they visited Penfolds back in 2018 to help them with some on-site data capture technology, see https://blog.start-software.com/2018/05/software-meeting-at-penfolds-magill.html.
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| Instant prints - Polaroid-style - from a digital camera (the TimTam is for scale!) |
Visitors to our Alpha Tracker stand are offered the chance to have their photo taken and an instant print produced... with all photos going into a hat to win the bottle at the end of the conference.
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| The photo printer has been busy! |
Judy has been busy all day, right from the start at 08:00, and tomorrow and Wednesday are likely to be even busier with more delegates arriving.
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| Judy talking to an interested asbestos surveying company owner |
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| Come and find us - we're easy to spot! |
Lunch breaks give us a chance for some fresh air and to take in the stunning view over the harbour. What a venue and what a city!
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| Judy with Brett from Agon Environmental |
Come and find us again tomorrow - if you can squeeze through the crowds.
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| Robin has managed to avoid being in the photos (so far) |
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| Not a drone photo! Robin was up a staircase |
Congratulations to the event organisers at FAMANZ for putting on such an amazing conference and for encouraging so many interesting (and interested) people to attend. We're going to have a really productive and stimulating three days.