Our next free Tips & Tricks webinar is on Tuesday @ 12:30

It's our next Alpha Tracker Tips & Tricks Tuesday webinar on Tuesday 28 March.  We're running them on the last Tuesday of the month right through 2023.

Click to register

Join us at 12:30 for a 30-minute deep dive into:

• the Wallboard and how it gives you automatic financial and resource forecasts, and 
  
  
• the map scheduler - our super-efficient way to fill site staff diaries.
  

We'll have the Alpha Tracker team on hand to answer questions and reply to comments.  It's free and will only take 30 minutes of your time - so join us if you can!

Click here to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aS6dJ0j5QCycZ65VbHgBow

Robin meets Dr Terri-Ann Berry and Leonie Metcalfe of the Mesothelioma Support & Asbestos Awareness Trust

Inspirational asbestos disease campaigner Mavis Nye has friends, contacts and influence all around the world.  

Mavis asked Robin (he's a Trustee of her Foundation) to look out for New Zealand mesothelioma campaigners Dr Terri-Ann Berry and Leonie Metcalfe of the Mesothelioma Support & Asbestos Awareness Trust whilst he was at the Auckland FAMANZ conference.

Not only did meet up with them - they gave him t-shirts and chocolates to take back to Mavis!

Robin with Terri-Ann & Leonie and then modelling the MSAA t-shirts with Alpha Tracker's Judy!

Follow and support the work of these two wonderful campaigns here:

• Mavis Nye Foundation: https://www.mavisnyefoundation.com/
• Mesothelioma Support & Asbestos Awareness Trust: https://www.msaatrust.org.nz/

"Asbestos & You" - meet the new campaign from the HSE's Work Right initiative

The HSE has an initiative called Work Right, helping UK workers in smaller businesses to be safe when doing their jobs.

Work Right has just launched "Asbestos & You" - an important campaign about working safely around asbestos.

"Asbestos & You" - helping workers in smaller businesses to be safe around asbestos

Start Software and Alpha Tracker fully support the HSE and all of their asbestos-related activities.  Read more about Asbestos & You from Work Right here: https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/campaigns/asbestos/

FAMANZ Asbestos Conference 2023 underway! Collaboration is key

It's great for Alpha Tracker to be part of FAMANZ 2023, with a theme of "Collaboration is key".  

Held this year in Auckland, New Zealand, FAMANZ brings together the best and brightest minds in asbestos management (as well as Robin & Judy!) to share expertise and hear the latest from industry experts.

What an opportunity to meet the asbestos community of Australia & New Zealand

Leanne & Judy will be following up all of the new contacts made when Judy returns to Alpha Tracker's Adelaide office at the beginning of next week.

Big C visits the e-IC! Great for the team to meet Andrew, Paul & Mike and to see Big C up close

Andrew Bedwell brought his Big C boat to our e-Innovation Centre offices last week.  Andrew's world record Atlantic crossing attempt is even more inspiring when you are able to see the size of the vessel up close.

It was great for the team to see (and sit in!) Big C

Andrew brought awesome project photographer Paul (see www.paullarkinphotography.com) together with Mike who helped the late Tom McNally with his own world record attempt.  Tom is one of the main inspirations behind Andrew's attempt at the record.

Great to see Alpha Legal mentioned by the FT Adviser

Jamie on our Support Desk spotted this: https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry/2022/11/07/managing-risk-in-virtual-client-meetings/?page=2

Alpha Legal gets a mention in the FT

In truth, it was actually Jamie's Dad - he's an IFA and was researching material for his CPD.

The write-up was great:

Services such as Alpha Legal now offer a safe and secure electronic solution for obtaining client ID, onboarding documentation, and communication throughout a client’s journey.

This service provides for the secure, encrypted transfer of documents, correspondence, and client data supported by two-factor authentication.

 Can we help you to communicate securely and share documents with your clients?  Get in touch!

AEC busy with the new Water Hygiene module in Alpha Tracker

We have been working with leading environmental consultancy AEC to build a new Water Hygiene module for Alpha Tracker.

A big thank you to AEC for sharing their expertise

AEC water hygiene staff have now captured more than 10,000 site records using the updated Alpha Tracker Mobile app (available for Android or Apple devices).  The app works online and offline helping staff to be productive on sites even where there is no mobile signal or WiFi.

We've been careful to make the Water Hygiene features as customisable as possible with every type of water job available including Legionella risk assessments, temperature monitoring, shower cleans and every other option you can think of!

The Water Hygiene module will be available in Alpha Tracker Release 39, available in beta now.

Elaine, Kim & Catherine at Mesothelioma UK's Ladies' Lunch to celebrate International Womens' Day

Elaine, Kim & Catherine are all in Manchester to support Mesothelioma UK's Ladies' Lunch charity event.

Great event, Meso UK!  Thanks for the invitation

The event is being held today to coincide with International Women's Day.  There are not enough women working in asbestos!

Family wins settlement in claim over teacher’s asbestos cancer death

This could be a landmark case.  The family of a teacher who died of cancer after coming into contact with asbestos fibres has won a settlement, prompting warnings for teachers and children who remain at risk in older buildings.

We'll be publishing our research into the state of asbestos in UK schools very soon

This is a timely story for us here at Start Software.  We've been analysing some of the 60 million+ asbestos records which have been captured using Alpha Tracker (with agreement from our asbestos consultancy users) to understand the condition of asbestos within UK schools.

We'll be publishing that research very shortly - watch this space.

You can read the whole story here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/03/family-wins-settlement-in-claim-over-teachers-asbestos-cancer-death?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Our software partners Alpha Software have posted about the Big C Atlantic Challenge

A big thank you to our US software partners Alpha Software who are helping us to promote Andrew Bedwell's Big C Atlantic Challenge.

Read all about the Big C Challenge on Facebook

See https://www.alphasoftware.com/blog/sailor-attempts-world-record-crossing-the-atlantic-in-smallest-boat

Webinar #1 recording now available on YouTube. Catch up with Alpha Tracker Tuesday Tips & Tricks

The recording of our first Tips & Tricks webinar is now available on YouTube.  Here it is!

We covered a lot of ground - possibly too much!

• the new search box and the favourites bar
• all of the basic diary operations (adding, moving, marking appointments)
• mapping and routing within an appointment
• better ways to schedule lots of jobs - including repeating schedules
• filling diaries from a map (great for domestic surveying)
• syncing your diary to Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange
• skills and how to prevent the wrong person going to the job!
• the Wallboard - one of the best features in Alpha Tracker
• new options in the Wallboard to forecast up to 6 months ahead
• looking at your plan by client, project, type of work or staff member.

Congrats Zeynep for winning this month's t-shirt by asking the best question!

Watch out for next month's webinar which will be on Tuesday 28 March at 12:30 (UK time).

Another Start Software wedding! Congratulations Ferry & Vera

What lovely photos! 

Our developer Ferry has just shared these with us after marrying his beautiful wife Vera last week in Bandung, Indonesia.  Many of you will know Ferry for his work on Alpha Tracker, OERCA, Greenfield, Trucker and more. 

Ferry & Vera on their special day

Many congratulations Ferry & Vera!

See how we built award-winning Alpha Legal using the Alpha Anywhere development environment

We've just presented a webinar for Alpha Software showing how we built the award-winning Alpha Legal system using the Alpha Anywhere development environment.

Here's the YouTube video - enjoy!

Can we help your business by developing an incredible piece of software for you?  Get in touch!

Big C on the Irish Sea! Robin visits Andrew and the Big C Atlantic Challenge boat for sea trials off Whitehaven

Andrew Bedwell is finalising the "Big C" boat for his World Record Atlantic Challenge. He is setting off in May - not long now!

On Friday, he took the tiny 1m long vessel into the Irish Sea off Whitehaven for sea trials, and Start Software's director Robin went out on the support boat to help. 

The Big C performed well on a choppy Irish Sea

Robin likes an adventure himself and said that he was green with envy - but mainly with seasickness!

Watch a video of the day's action by clicking above and be sure to like and follow Andrew's Facebook page, too.

Are you super-secure in Alpha Legal? Enable 2FA on your account, now

Have you enabled "two-factor authentication" (known as 2FA) in your Alpha Legal profile?  We suggest you do it now so that your account is super-secure.

You'll find the security settings in your Profile

Click your profile pic (top right of your Alpha Legal homepage) and then click "Security settings" to enable.

Need help?  Contact our award-winning Support Desk on 0333 301 1010.

Free webinar! Alpha Tracker Tips & Tricks Tuesday (try saying that quickly)

It's our first Alpha Tracker Tips & Tricks Tuesday webinar on Tuesday 28 February.  We're running them on the last Tuesday of the month right through 2023.

Click to register

Join us at 12:30 to see how to:

• make the most of the Alpha Tracker diary
  
  
• link your diary to Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange
  
  
• plan routes from home, office or anywhere! 
  
  
• use our new planner to look 3 months or 6 months ahead
  
  
• quickly fill diaries using the map scheduler
  
  
• forecast income by client, job type, project or staff member.

We'll have the Alpha Tracker team on hand to answer questions or reply to comments.  It's free and is only 30 minutes of your time - so join us if you can!

Click here to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aS6dJ0j5QCycZ65VbHgBow

New Wallboard features are on the way - view by Client, by Project, by Project Type... and look further into the future

Tom has just finished some new features in the amazing Alpha Tracker Wallboard.

Wallboard is already a brilliant planning tool - and it's just got better!

The Wallboard shows you data live from your Alpha Tracker diary.  It's a fantastic way to plan and forecast future income for your business.

Tom's latest features are these:

• group and total by Client, Project or Project Type
  
  
• look ahead 3 months or 6 months or even further if you want to.

The Wallboard is blindingly fast - and can show you totals in working hours or in terms of income to your business.

These new Wallboard features will be available in Alpha Tracker Release 39, coming very soon.

The Start Software pods are on! Andrew Bedwell's "Big C" boat is really taking shape

Andrew's boat - the Big C - is really taking shape.  And it's great to see the Start Software pods looking so good.  They are designed to be super-visible helping the 1m long vessel to be visible by other shipping mid Atlantic.

Andrew Bedwell is a true inspiration

Follow all of the Big C news on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082612007911

New versions of Tracker Filer and Tracker Document Maker available

We've released two important software updates and they are ready to download and apply to your system.

The two updates are:

• Tracker Filer v1.3.2
  
  
• Tracker Document Maker v1.0.311

Both updates contain feature improvements, security enhancements and bug fixes.

If you need any help applying the updates, please do get in touch (UK or Aus/NZ).

Support stats for January plus reminder to *call* if you need help

Performance was up on across the board in our Support Desk in January 2023 despite being particularly busy.

High priority calls and other categories all had a good response in January

Our support desks in the UK and Australia/New Zealand operate 24x7 with all calls being answered in person, no matter what time of day or night you need us.  

Please *call* rather than email if you need us out-of-hours - the phones are monitored but emails may not be, so please pick the phone up rather than messaging if you need help.  Thanks!

Blue sky thinking at Anglian!

We had an excellent meeting at Alpha Tracker user Anglian Demolition & Asbestos on Monday.

Blue skies for a blue sky meeting!

The team at Anglian have lots of software ideas and we'll be taking them forward.  We love it when our clients bring ideas to improve existing systems and build new ones.  Do get in touch if you have ideas of your own!

Andrew has been to see Hugo Vihlen's boat - the current World Record holder - and other Big C Atlantic Challenge news!

Our director Robin had a blast catching up with Andrew Bedwell today, hearing about his World Record attempt's latest news.  Robin grabbed busy Andrew for a 3-minute update from a service station on the A14... 

Start Software is sponsoring Andrew in his attempt to cross the Atlantic (unsupported!) in a sailing boat that's only 1m long - yes that's 3 foot 3 inches, give or take!  Andrew's Big C Atlantic Challenge is raising money for cancer charities and he hopes to shave nearly two feet (60cm) off the existing record held by American Hugo Vihlen (read about Hugo's crossing here).

Andrew's boat will carry Start Software, Alpha Tracker and Alpha Legal/Alpha Portal branding on the side pods.  All of the Start team will be travelling up to meet Andrew and see the boat in action next month during the sea trials.

Follow Andrew's news as he nears the start of his voyage in May by liking and following his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082612007911 or subscribe and follow our blog, here https://blog.start-software.com/search/label/BigCAtlanticChallenge.

Can we help Colette and NORAC with an air monitoring information gathering exercise?

Colette Willoughby has pinged us a question here at Alpha Tracker.

Colette 

She is gathering information as part of her role at NORAC to see if the absolute requirement for analysts to undress after an asbestos clearance job is always justified and reasonable, based on the risks associated.  Colette has had a long-held and personal interest in protecting vulnerable analysts at work, especially female staff.

We would like to help Colette to gather summarised, anonymous data from Alpha Tracker systems to send to her and help her to understand the number of clearances failing at each stage, and the type of asbestos material being removed.

Please get in touch with Robin if you are happy for your data to be included.  It will be fully anonymised before collating with data from other consultancies.

Follow Colette on Twitter at https://twitter.com/asbestos_lady

New Legionella book available from Alpha Tracker users Acorn Safety Services

Leading health & safety experts Ian Stone & Neil Munro of Acorn Safety Services have published their new book which delves into the hidden dangers of Legionella bacteria.

Click to read more - or buy the book!

Read more here: https://legionellarisks.co.uk/legionella-bacteria-2/

PS our brand new Alpha Tracker water hygiene module incorporating online and offline data capture for all types of legionella risk assessment and monitoring jobs is demoing nicely... contact us to find out more or to arrange your demo

Another Alpha Legal milestone... 10,000 documents have now been securely shared

We've hit another Alpha Legal milestone.  10,000 documents have now been shared securely with clients!

Alpha Legal's Jack, Dan, James, Zac & Tom holding up bits of paper!

Can we help your business with the industry's most secure and easiest-to-use client portal?  Get in touch!

Lots of activity at the Big C Atlantic Challenge. Our Start Software pods are nearly ready

Andrew Bedwell has been busy finishing his boat for his world record attempt.  He'll be setting off to cross the Atlantic in the shortest vessel ever - it's only 3 feet long! - in just a couple of months.

We're proudly sponsoring Andrew to help him to achieve his goal and raise much-needed funds for cancer charities.  The pods on the boat will be carrying the Start Software logo along with those for our Alpha Tracker and Alpha Portal products.  The designs for the pods are nearly complete.

We're doing all we can to support the incredible Andrew Bedwell and his Big C Atlantic Challenge

Follow Andrew's story on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082612007911

Tracker Filer can now add your Microsoft Teams meetings to your diary!

The latest version of Tracker Filer has a fantastic new feature.  It can automatically add your Microsoft Teams meetings to your Alpha Tracker diary!

How does it work?  

(a) If you are creating the meeting from within Microsoft Teams, simply add Tracker Filer as a meeting attendee and it will do the rest.

Add Tracker Filer to the list of attendees and the Teams meeting will appear in Alpha Tracker

(b) If you are invited to a meeting, forward the meeting invitation email to Tracker Filer and the meeting will appear in your Alpha Tracker calendar.

Forward any Microsoft Teams invitation to Tracker Filer

How do I get the new Tracker Filer on my system?

Call support (UK or Aus/NZ) and they will organise that for you.

Another great job from our developer Tom.  Nice one, Tom!

EMS Asbestos have started using Tracker Air - the Alpha Tracker Air Monitoring module

Another asbestos consultancy has switched over to Alpha Tracker's Air Monitoring module, Tracker Air.  Welcome EMS Asbestos!

Some of the EMS Asbestos asbestos analytical team based in Hereford

EMS Asbestos offer the full range of asbestos air testing and monitoring services.  Find out more here: https://www.ems-asbestos.co.uk/asbestos-air-testing-monitoring-landing/

Forgot your password? Need to reset it? Simple instructions here!

We've all done it... you come into work, have a mental block and can't remember your Alpha Tracker password.  Or perhaps your password expired while you were on holiday?

Here are step-by-step instructions so you can reset it:

1 Type your user name into the login box and then...

2 ... click "Forgot Password"

3 Check your Inbox for a password reset email.  Don't forget to check your Junk Mail or Spam folders, too.  You'll find a link and clear, detailed instructions.

Still stuck?  Give us a call or drop us an email and we'll be able to help.  Our support links are here: UK or New Zealand/Australia.

"Write a Will" feature arriving next week! Join Monday's webinar to find out more

Robin has just presented on a CTT Group webinar to launch the new Alpha Legal "Write a Will" feature.

Where did Spencer from CTT get that photo of Robin from?!

Want to know more?  We're repeating the webinar on Monday.  Why not join, it's free!

Here's the link: https://ctt-group.co.uk/training-event/superhero-webinar-97-estate-planning-how-to-maximise-the-potential-of-your-client-base/

Support Desk performance stats for December 2022

We saw reduced numbers of calls to the Support Desk in December.  We had 650 requests for assistance which is nearly 300 fewer than in November.  Hopefully January will be similar!

Overall, performance was good with 91% of high priority queries being resolved within 2 hours and nearly 85% of all calls being sorted within the timescales agreed with the caller.

December performance was slightly up compared to November

We're available 24x7 on our local rate numbers (UK or Aus/NZ) to help you with anything at all.  Call and you'll always be answered by a human being, never a machine... we don't own one!

Asbestos analysts NAS Laboratories switch to Alpha Tracker

It's great to welcome another asbestos laboratory to the Alpha Tracker family so early in 2023.

Channel Islands-based NAS Laboratories has chosen Alpha Tracker to automate their busy asbestos lab.

NAS Laboratories has chosen Alpha Tracker to run their operation

NAS offers its clients the full range of asbestos testing services, training, and asbestos surveying.

Contact NAS here - they will be pleased to hear from you.

Merryhill go live with Alpha Tracker

Welcome Merryhill to the Alpha Tracker family!

Kim training the Merryhill staff today (remotely, from our Telford office!)

We announced in December that Merryhill were switching over to Alpha Tracker and they are one of a number of asbestos consultancies choosing our asbestos software platform to power their business.

Can we help your environmental consultancy to improve quality, streamline your operation and reduce your costs?  Get in touch!