Major update! Alpha Tracker Release 35 is now available

We're so pleased to tell you that Alpha Tracker Release 35 is now available.

Release 35 is our Spring 2021 Alpha Tracker update with 200 new features, updates and bug fixes crammed into it!  Jack has been the driving force and has collated ideas from our asbestos consultancy users, building managers, estates departments, NHS Trusts and others who have all had their input into this major new release.

Some of the highlights are:

• a massively improved hotspot editor so plans can be marked up easily and effectively
  
  
• a new user import feature to help our client portal users
  
  
• improved auditing of changes to surveyed items to explain what was changed, when and by whom
  
  
• a fantastic feature so you can email documents direct from the document folders
  
  
• a new look to the system (with more cosmetic changes coming in Release 36)
  
  
• better diary searching
  
  
• and much, more more!

We've started planning Release 36 now - why not get in touch with Jack directly with your ideas?  We'd love to hear from you!

Welcome Direct Hazmat Consultants! Another new Alpha Tracker asbestos consultancy

A big Alpha Tracker welcome to the asbestos specialists at Direct Hazmat Consultants!

Direct Hazmat Consultants has chosen Alpha Tracker to manage their asbestos consultancy

Judy from our Adelaide office has completed the initial training for the asbestos staff.  Some had used Alpha Tracker at other asbestos consultancies and so were familiar with the operation of the system.  It was new to others and so there was a good mix of trainees for Judy to talk to!

Direct Hazmat Consultants offer a full asbestos service to their clients, including asbestos surveying and delivering asbestos training courses.  They welcome contact from new clients via their website here https://directhazmat.co.nz/contact-us or via their easy-to-remember NZ telephone number 0800 1 HAZMAT. 

If we can help your asbestos consultancy business to run more smoothly, more efficiently and offer an even better service to your clients, do get in touch.

Asbestos consultancy Assessment Corp goes live with Alpha Tracker

Another new asbestos consultancy client has made the switch to Alpha Tracker and has received their "virtual in-person"(!) training.  Welcome Assessment Corp!

Assessment Corp, based in Erina, New South Wales, specialises in asbestos and related environmental services, including:

• asbestos and hazardous material consulting
  
  
• occupation hygiene consulting
  
  
• microbial consulting
  
  
• Methamphetamine consulting
  
  
• contaminated land management
  
  
• environmental management.

Since the economy has started to wake up post-lockdown(s), we are seeing a constant stream of asbestos consultancies asking to swap from their existing systems to Alpha Tracker.  If we can help you, please do get in touch!

Alpha Legal protects you and your clients - ransomware is a nightmare!

Alpha Legal secures your client communications and protects you and your clients.  

Emails are not secure and are the most common way for a business to be infected with ransomware - a horrible attack by hackers which encrypts your files and forces you to pay a ransom.  But should you actually pay a ransom to get your files back?

Emails are not secure! Use Alpha Legal to protect you and your clients

Here is a great article which explains how the ransoms work (or don't!):

https://cybernews.com/resources/when-you-should-not-pay-ransomware-ransom/

Here at Alpha Legal, we are in the job of helping you to communicate securely with your clients.  Do contact us at any time to find out how can help.

Alpha Tracker Release 35 is available this week

Our latest Alpha Tracker (asbestos software) update is available this week.

Alpha Tracker Release 35 is available this week

We'll post more information tomorrow, including a video summarising the new features.  Look out for

1. a new hotspot editor
   
   
2. direct emailing of documents to your clients (straight from the document folder!)
   
   
3. better diary searching.

Thanks to all our wonderful clients for the new feature ideas - we've added 200 new features into this release!

Great feedback from an NHS Trust Alpha Tracker asbestos specialist

We've had just this amazing feedback from an Alpha Tracker asbestos software user working at an NHS Trust. 

Alpha Tracker is used in several NHS Trusts to manage asbestos

 (I've trimmed it a bit for the blog but it has certainly made us blush and feel a little proud!)

"I have been using Alpha Tracker for over 10 years ... as surveying software (consultancy-side) and then implementing Alpha Tracker's portal into my Trust (client-side) for our Estate’s asbestos compliance.

This is a great tool for compliance which can be accessed very easily across your workforce to view up-to-date asbestos information across your estate.  It is even better if you are using a consultancy that uses Alpha Tracker for asbestos surveying.  They can uploaded surveys (Management, Refurbishment/Demolition, Reinspections & Analytical reports/data) to your Portal with minimal input. So I would highly recommend using a surveying company who uses Alpha Tracker, rather than T***S or similar software.

Alpha Tracker’s support is also second-to-none and are always happy to help.

I cannot recommend Alpha Tracker highly enough and it would be a great asset for your compliance with your organisations Duty to Manage with regard to the Control of Asbestos Regulation 2012."

Can we help your asbestos consultancy or NHS Trust to solve your asbestos problem?  Alpha Tracker is the solution! Contact us here (UK or Aus/NZ).

One week left to secure the best Alpha Legal prices!

Still thinking about Alpha Legal and what it could do for your business?

Are you an Estate Agent, Will Writer, Accountant or Solicitor needing access to:

- ID verification for your clients
- secure document sharing

- e-signatures

- a client portal to enhance your brand and secure your client communications?

Register this week (before 1 June) to get the best subscription prices - don't delay!

Alpha Legal - best prices!

New Alpha Legal features discussed with user panel

We showed off the latest Alpha Legal features this week during a Zoom panel of some of our key users.  Countrywide Tax & Trust hosted the panel and there was plenty of lively discussion!

The software panel of key users

We talked about:

• the more friendly ID data capture - no more countdown timers!
  
  
• faster uploading of ID documents, photos and videos
  
  
• our partnership with Legacy Legal
  
  
• the Client Portal available in the Branded subscription.

We didn't get around to talking about the new download option for ID forms or another 10 or so new features we've recently introduced!

The next big update to Alpha Legal is coming soon... keep an eye on the blog for more info.

Irish asbestos consultancy Asbestos Safe chooses Alpha Tracker

Welcome Asbestos Safe and thanks for choosing Alpha Tracker!

Asbestos Safe has chosen asbestos software Alpha Tracker

Dublin (Ireland) based Asbestos Safe carry out asbestos surveys, asbestos air monitoring and other asbestos consultancy work.  They are keen to offer their clients the best possible service using technology to differentiate their offering from that of their competitors.  They even offer 3D virtual tours of buildings they have surveyed!

Can we help your asbestos consultancy with our range of asbestos software? Get in touch! 

Lovely comment from asbestos surveyor "impressed with Alpha Tracker"

An asbestos surveyor switching asbestos consultancies has just emailed in this lovely comment.

"By the way it's my last day with ***** today so that’s it from me. Thank you for all your super quick assistance over the last few years I’ve always been impressed with Alpha Tracker and the support we get from you guys, **** is already loving the system too, so you have a committed client here!"

Lovely email from asbestos surveyor impressed by Alpha Tracker

What a lovely comment and good luck in your next job... perhaps we can bring Alpha Tracker to that asbestos business, too!

Sign up to Alpha Legal this month! Price rises from 1 June

May 2021 is a great time to subscribe to Alpha Legal!  You'll lock in the best possible prices for Alpha Legal.

We're increasing prices from 1 June for our Branded & Growth Subscriptions. 

Sign up before 1 June for our best prices

If you want our introductory prices (£20/month for Branded & £30/month for Growth), sign up now!

Australian Mesothelioma researcher recognised with International prize

Here at Start Software, we have always been acutely aware of the damage that asbestos can cause.  We are proud of the positive impact that our asbestos software Alpha Tracker has had on the asbestos industry.  We support asbestos disease charities including Mesothelioma UK.

Alpha Tracker has a strong presence in Australia thanks to Judy and her team working out of our Adelaide (South Australia) office, so we were pleased to read this story this week:

An internationally recognised researcher from The University of Western Australia who has helped improve the lives of mesothelioma patients has been awarded the world’s most prestigious prize for mesothelioma research – just the second time in its near-20-year history that the award has been won by an Australian.

Professor Anna Nowak, UWA’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Health and Medical Research) has won the Wagner Medal for her extraordinary contribution to research into mesothelioma. 

The prize honours pioneering South African research pathologist, John Christopher Wagner, whose 1960 paper in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine first linked asbestos with pleural mesothelioma, and recognised mesothelioma as a separate entity. 

Congratulations Professor Nowak.  You can watch a short YouTube video about her work here:

We've listened to you - no more form timers!

Alpha Legal users and their clients have never liked the timers that encouraged forms to be completed in a set amount of time. 

We extended them from 60 minutes to 2 hours in the last update, but that still was inconvenient for many users.  We've listened to you and scrapped the timers completely!  

This change will make the whole process of uploading ID documents easier and less stressful for your clients (and, don't worry, just as secure as before).

Dan and the Alpha Legal team are listening!

If you have any more ideas to improve Alpha Legal, get in touch.  We love to hear from you.

Faster uploading of ID photos, documents and videos

We've updated Alpha Legal so that ID photos, documents and videos all upload much more quickly.

Faster uploads of ID photos, documents and videos in Alpha Legal

This change also helps clients with slower Internet speeds who, previously, may have not waited for their form and ID documents to upload before cancelling and trying again.

There are more updates coming along this week... watch this space! 

Another reminder - email is *not* secure. Use Alpha Legal instead

Are you still doubting whether you have a need to use a secure communication system such as Alpha Legal?

Are you sending sensitive and confidential documents by email and thinking that the risks are not worth worrying about?

Worse still, are you asking your clients to send copies of ID documents (driving licences, passports, bank statements) by email to you for checking and filing?

Email is not secure!  Alpha Legal is.  Here is yet another report of an email server being compromised and an organisation suffering as a result: https://grahamcluley.com/merseyrail-ransomware/

Another 3,000 secure ID requests in Alpha Legal

Another week, another 3,000 secure ID requests have been processed by Alpha Legal!

Secure ID document requests are just one aspect of Alpha Legal

Have you tried Alpha Legal yet?  It makes onboarding your client so easy and it been designed from the ground up to be safe and secure.

Click here to register and you'll receive 500 credits absolutely free worth up to 100 ID document requests!

More Alpha Tracker asbestos users are live

Water NSW is the latest organisation to go live with asbestos software Alpha Tracker.  We blogged about New South Wales' water supplier coming on board with Alpha Tracker here.

Water NSW and Alpha Tracker working together

Judy has completed the virtual training sessions for the asbestos consultants working inside and alongside Water NSW.  Great job, Judy!

95% of high priority calls solved within 2 hours - April was a good month on the Support Desk

April was a good month on the Start Software (Alpha Tracker/Alpha Legal) Support Desk.

95% of the 79 high priority calls taken were resolved within 2 hours - a very good performance.

Start Software Support Desk - April 2021

Overall, the team answered 453 calls from software users needing help, and 86% of calls were resolved within the timescales set by our clients.

Well done Jess, Will & Jack and thanks for your hard work!