About Start Software
Start Software is an award-winning developer and leading publisher of asbestos software, systems for the legal services industry and more.
Want to know more about asbestos software Alpha Tracker? Alpha Tracker is the most used asbestos software in the UK, Australia & New Zealand with more than 60m items of asbestos data stored.
Our legal services software Alpha Legal helps will writers, accountants, solicitors, IFAs and estate agents to communicate securely with clients. Read about developments here on the blog.
Or need help with Alpha Anywhere or Alpha Transform projects or software development? You'll find useful info here.
We've had lots of follow-up questions from asbestos consultants following this blog https://blog.start-software.com/2020/05/report-templates-within-alpha-tracker.html. In that post we talked about how report templates work in asbestos software Alpha Tracker and how we make use of Word and Excel to automatically create reports which are exactly like your hand-written ones... clients will not tell the difference!
Here are some of the best of the questions sent in - keep them coming!
Q: What type of report change can I do myself, and which do you (Start Software) need to do?
A: Our report templates are Word documents in the main (some are Excel) and so, in theory, any change can made by anyone able to use Word. In practice, cosmetic changes are very easy to do but changes affecting the structure of the report may be best done by the Start Software support desk. For example, if you want to include a new type of exec summary or a new chart showing a colour-coded view of the asbestos found on site - these changes would be best made by us.
Q: You said in the video that most changes are done for free - is that right?
A: Yes, the Alpha Tracker support contracts and Tracker Mobile subscriptions pay for your 24x7 personal support including report changes if they are straightforward and relate to the templates we originally set up for you. If the report changes are difficult or relate to brand new templates, we may quote you for the time needed.
Q: Can signatures be included on reports? At the moment my surveyors are physically signing printed copies of reports and then scanning them back in
A: Yes! Alpha Tracker has a feature whereby you can store a surveyor's signature in the system and then automatically include it on reports without her/him ever having to sign a physical document again! Naturally, the signatures only appear on final reports, not drafts
Q: Why does Alpha Tracker use a document queue to produce reports? Why not produce them instantly?
A: Virtually all of our asbestos consultant clients hold hard-earned accreditations and have a controlled process to generate a draft report, have it checked, then issue as an authorised final document to clients. The queue enables that process to happen in a controlled way as well as enabling consultancies with 100s of surveyors to manage their workload. For smaller consultancies only producing one or two reports at a time, the queue is normally empty anyway - so the reports are generally produced "instantly" anyway
Q: We've been told by your competitors that report changes take weeks to complete - is that fair?
A: NO! We pride ourselves on our ability to turn around work in the timescales that work for our clients. We don't always manage to do this, of course, we're not perfect and nor is any business! However, our ability to work "around the clock" via our staff in Australia and Indonesia mean that we have taken instructions at 5pm in the UK and have had new report templates produced by 9am the following morning!
Popular posts from this blog
Three emails just arrived one after the other - and each put a smile on our faces and a spring in our step! Feedback #1... "We smashed our audit! Thank you so much for your help" from a new customer where we have been providing Alpha Five support and mentoring to help them to develop an Intranet quality & audit system Feedback #2... "hi Tom. It looks fantastic! Very well done" from a client reviewing the latest changes to a web data analysis system we have written using Alpha Anywhere , SQL Server and JavaScript Feedback #3... " The launch of Alpha Tracker here is going really well ... thank you so much" from an asbestos consultancy feeling the benefits of their Alpha Tracker asbestos software installation. We really appreciate it when customers take the time to send us feedback like this - it makes the hard work seem worthwhile!
Alpha Validator update released
The automated survey data checking feature within asbestos software Alpha Tracker (known as "AlphaValidator") has been updated again. This follows on from the update released on 11 December (more info here ). an example of AlphaValidator's data check output This update - v1.0.74 SVN25 - is ready now to download from our website and improves the way photos of asbestos samples are validated . Please do contact the Start Software Support Desk (available 24x7!) if you would like help installing the update.
Christmas Arrangements 2009
We are open for business as usual throughout the Christmas and New Year period. Thursday 24 December: Office closes at 4pm Friday 25 December: Closed Monday 28 December: Closed Tuesday 29 December: Open with reduced staffing levels Wednesday 30 December: Open with reduced staffing levels Thursday 31 December: Open with reduced staffing levels Friday 1 January: Closed As usual, we are not sending Christmas cards to clients but instead we are donating to our favourite charity, the RNLI . We wish all of our customers a Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Blog Archive
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- Asbestos consultancies are branching out with Coro...
- Another useful "asbestos management during the Cor...
- Jack is now Cyber Security trained & certified - c...
- Useful BOHS blog post about how to return to work ...
- Alpha Tracker Legionella users - Public Health Eng...
- Dan needs a bonus?!
- More Alpha Tracker report template questions answe...
- Are virtual asbestos courses the post-Coronavirus ...
- Highly recommended - the Asbestos Knowledge Empire...
- New Alpha Tracker system goes live at NZAS - New Z...
- New Tracker Air (asbestos air monitoring) features...
- Report templates within Alpha Tracker - your quest...
- Another new Alpha Tracker system goes live: West Y...
- COVID-19 updates from ISO for environmental consul...
- Guide available from Alpha Tracker user Tetra Cons...
- UKAS has published their latest Coronavirus update
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