Training complete for Morecroft Group - new Alpha Tracker asbestos clients

Judy has completed her "virtual" Alpha Tracker training for Morecroft Group - industrial leaders in asbestos, hazardous materials and more!

Alpha Tracker for Morecroft Group

Morecroft specialise in most aspects of asbestos detection, management and removal...

visit Morecroft at https://www.morecroft.co.nz/ for more info

... and they are a proud family business.  We're proud to be working with them, too!

"We’re a family business, founded in 1991. What makes us special? Our commitment to excellent service, innovative solutions and a total commitment to providing you with a perfect result, on time, every time.

Based in Auckland, we serve residential, commercial and government clients nationwide. We’re very proud of our highly skilled team, many of whom have been with us for 20 years or more. You can always rely on us to provide you with an outstanding outcome."

Welcome to the Alpha Tracker family, we're looking forward to a long and productive working relationship. If we can help your asbestos consultancy with asbestos software systems, do get in touch (UK or Aus/NZ).

New "Tracker Filer" available - great new feature!

The latest version of Tracker Filer is now available for download.

Tracker Filer is an automatic link between your email system and your Alpha Tracker document folders - it is utter genius, even if we say so ourselves!

Tracker Filer has always read the subject line and body of emails to look for quote references or project numbers, but it now also looks in the attachment filenames too - really useful if you're forwarding on a quote, for example, and you forget to put the reference in the email itself.

Here is an example email with a quote attached:

I've cc'd the special Tracker Filer email address as usual (1) but haven't put the quotation reference anywhere in the email itself.  Previously, this would have caused Tracker Filer a problem.  Not now! The updated Tracker Filer can now read the attachment filename (2) and see that the quote is BQ21-0104 and file the email and attachment correctly for you.

If you'd like help to update your system, please do get in touch.

New Alpha Tracker water clients come "on stream"

Apologies for the rubbish water joke - on stream for goodness sake! I could have said "on board" but that would have been equally bad!

Water NSW are the latest Alpha Tracker users

It's great to see more water companies using Alpha Tracker.  Water NSW is the latest to join us.  Judy has just started their remote training and we're really looking forward to them getting fully up-to-speed.

Welcome on board, Water NSW! Oh dear, I did it again...

Legacy Legal partnership with Alpha Legal grows stronger

Our partnership with Legacy Legal, one of the UK's leading estate planning consultancies, continues to grow with 40 of their specialist will writing consultants now using Alpha Legal to communicate securely with clients.

Legacy Legal and Alpha Legal are working together in partnership

Matthew Mitchell, the dynamic head of Legacy Legal, was keen to stress how Alpha Legal is helping Legacy Legal to develop and grow:

"Legacy Legal have a network of estate planners who offer estate planning through our bespoke software. 

We have been working with the team at Alpha Legal for many years and have always been impressed with their innovation.  They they are ahead of the game in helping make things easier for the client and the salesperson. 

We would strongly recommend them if you are look to streamline your systems and processes."

We love working with companies like Legacy Legal.  Can we help your will writing or estate planning business, too?  Get in touch! 

New "Download" option for Alpha Legal forms

We've added an extra option to enable you to export forms from Alpha Legal.  

This means you now have 3 export choices - you can send a form to Countrywide Legacy, you can send it to Legacy Legal, or - new - you can download straight to your device (PC, laptop, tablet or mobile).

Here's the new menu option:

New "Download Files" option on an Alpha Legal form

One word of warning - do take care if the information you are downloading is sensitive or private - once you've downloaded it to your device, it is outside of the secure Alpha Legal environment.

Will hits the headlines! Congratulations on a successful apprenticeship

Well done Will!  Our former support apprentice William Price has been offered and has accepted a full-time position here at Start Software.  

Congratulations Will - it's been a pleasure to see you develop in the role.  You're a credit to the team.

The article about Will in the Shropshire Star

Read all about Will's journey here: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/business/ladder-for-shropshire/2021/04/14/telfords-start-software-delivers-on-apprenticeships/

Alpha Tracker Release 34.2 available and Release 35 in beta

We have some exciting news for users of our asbestos software platform, Alpha Tracker.

Performance release 34.2 is now publicly available with some bug fixes, performance enhancements and minor changes.  You can install this yourself or ask our support desk (see https://www.start-software.com/support/) for help.

Our Spring update, Release 35, is now in early beta with some interesting and important new features.  Improved hot-spotting has made it through to this build and we're trying to cram more features and changes into this under-used sub-system before Jack finalises the build.

Release 35 sees improved hot-spotting in Alpha Tracker

Do you want to see a new feature in Alpha Tracker?  Get in touch and tell us what you want.  Jack is leading the Alpha Tracker build process and would love to hear from you.

Digital ID checks - why Alpha Legal is part of a new identity checking future

April 12 was another COVID milestone here in the UK.  You might have had a haircut yesterday or even a drink in a pub garden (if you were wrapped up warm)!  The relaxation of measures we all felt yesterday was another sure and steady step towards normality.  But will everything be as it was pre-COVID?

Here at Alpha Legal, we don't believe that verifying a client's ID will ever be the same again.  The days of asking clients to bring in passports, driving licences and bank statements to be checked and photocopied are numbered.  The future is electronic ID verification using Alpha Legal or similar systems to capture & transmit ID documents easily, safely and securely without the need to examine a physical document.

The government are now recognising that the world has moved on.  The important UK government document "How to prove and verify someone's identity" (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing-and-verification-of-an-individual/how-to-prove-and-verify-someones-identity) lists the ways you can check.  Electronic is now top of the list!

The UK government now recognise "digital" as the first ID checking option

HM Land Registry is also exploring new ways of working.  They are looking to encourage digital identity checking in conveyancing (see https://hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk/2020/11/17/encouraging-digital-identity-checking-in-conveyancing/) and here at Alpha Legal we will be ensuring that our processes are compatible and compliant with every new standard that is issued.

Finally, is asking for a digital ID check a barrier to dealing with the older generation?  Should that be a concern?  Not any longer.  Take a look at this blog post showing how the older generation's use of the Internet has flourishing during the COVID outbreak as they have found new ways to keep in touch with friends and family.

Countrywide introduce Alpha Legal to their consultants

Our partners at Countrywide Tax & Trust have been introducing and promoting Alpha Legal to their 1000s of consultants across the UK in a special webinar.

We had the chance to watch it too - what a great introduction to the benefits of using Alpha Legal whether you're a will writer, estate planner or solicitor.

Some screen-grabs from the Countrywide Alpha Legal webinar

Some of the benefits that Countrywide showed off were

• secure requests for ID documents including passports, driving licences & "it's me" videos
  
  
• simple and secure document sharing
  
  
• a fully-branded client portal
  
  
• electronic signatures for one signatory or multiple - so easy to set up and use.

Want to watch the webinar yourself?  Get in touch with Countrywide here.

Is Alpha Legal only for young people? How do older folk manage with electronic ID checks?

One of the questions we're often asked here at Alpha Legal is How do older people react when asked to send their ID documents electronically?  Do older people manage OK or do they struggle with technology?

In our experience, senior citizens are just as capable as younger generations when using technology.  A year of social distancing has been the game-changer here.  Smartphones, tablets and laptops have all been grasped with open arms in order that grandparents (in particular) have been able to keep in touch with children and grandchildren.  

Don't assume that grey hair means that users will struggle with Alpha Legal, because, likely as not, they won't!

Here is an article from today's Guardian newspaper which really backs up that claim: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/06/britons-aged-75-and-over-using-internet-nearly-double-in-seven-years?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Let us know your experience with electronic ID checks in Alpha Legal and other products.  Have you found that older users are generally comfortable?  Comment below!