Thanks for visiting our Start Software blog. Follow the blog to keep in touch with news and developments from Start Software, the developers of Alpha Tracker, Alpha Legal and more!
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| Join our free Alpha Tracker Tips & Tricks webinars |
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| July 31 is the big day for Alpha Tracker Release 41! |
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| Watch the webinar on YouTube |
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| Blue-haired Tom supporting Action Mesothelioma Day |
Our Support Desk recorded 732 tickets in June 2024. This was slightly up compared to May (700), but lower than April (830).
89% of all calls were resolved within the timeframe requested. Looking at High Priority tickets specifically, 95% of calls were resolved on schedule.
Remember, our Support Desk is available 24x7 to support you - so get in touch whenever you need our help. That's what we're here for!
Our old friend and founder of the Airtight on Asbestos campaign, Charles Pickles, has just published an article in the Daily Mail to explain the asbestos situation facing the next government.
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| Read Charles' article on the Mail Online website |
Here at Alpha Tracker we support Airtight on Asbestos and the tireless work that Charles does to promote the objectives of the campaign. Our OpenAsbestos initiative aims to make asbestos data more readily available to everyone who needs it.
Please do what you can to keep asbestos at the forefront of government thinking and to help shape future policy.
We're putting the finishing touches onto our new quotation "auto-chase" feature in Alpha Tracker. This will be a huge time-saver for sales teams wanting to follow up on open quotes without manually writing individual emails to each prospect.
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| Preview of our quotation auto-chase feature |
You filter the list of open quotes to select the ones you want to follow up. Once you have the list ready, you can select all or a selection and press the new "Chase" button. This will give you a customisable email template before you click to send. Each quotation will then be followed up with the emails copied into your Tracker Filer address.
Our beta-tester consultancies will be the first to see the feature and give us feedback. If you'd like a sneak preview, too, get in touch.
We've just reached another milestone with another 700 subscribers now live on the Alpha Legal, Legacy Portal and Alpha Portal platforms.
We're an award-winning secure client portal for will writers, IFAs, accountants and other professionals and we welcome new subscribers. Find out more on our websites.
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| Zac, Kim, Andrew Paten (UKNAR) and Wayne Bagnall MBE |
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| Dan outside Peter Posh Warwick |
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| Robin & Dan |
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| Kim & Catherine |
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| Today's Alpha Tracker training for Norse Infinity |
Want to know more about "similarity searching" in Alpha Anywhere? Check out Tom's webinar - "from sounds like to is like" on our website or YouTube.
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| Watch Tom's webinar on our website or YouTube |
If we can help you with any Alpha Software-related queries, do get in touch.
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| We wish our client well in their retirement |
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank the whole team at Start Software for your assistance in setting this system up for us, for fine tuning it to suit our needs and for the excellent support given throughout the 7 years we have been with you – I see our first payment to you was back in May’17!
It’s been a pleasure dealing with you all throughout this time, thank you."
We are truly blessed to have such lovely clients!
We use Alpha Tracker to run our own business. Does that seem odd, considering most Alpha Tracker users are asbestos consultancies or water hygiene specialists and we are a software business?
You might be wondering why a software company like ours uses Alpha Tracker, a tool typically designed for asbestos consultancies, water hygiene specialists, and environmental consultants. The answer is simple: we believe in practising what we preach. By using Alpha Tracker ourselves, we're constantly on the lookout for new features and performance improvements. If something in Alpha Tracker bothers us, it's likely to bother you too, and this motivates us to fix it quickly!
Whenever a client requests a new feature or asks us to modify their asbestos report templates, for instance, we log that task as a project in our own instance of Alpha Tracker. This method not only helps us track our work but also ensures that we experience the software just like our clients do.
We're excited to share that we've recently hit a significant milestone: the 10,000th project booked in Alpha Tracker! This achievement underscores our commitment to continuous improvement and our dedication to providing the best possible experience for our users.
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| We've recorded 10,000 jobs here at Start Software |
Keep the feedback coming and we'll keep improving Alpha Tracker! Get in touch here.
PS the 10,000th job was from our friends at Hampshire Country Council... a box of chocolates is on its way to them!
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| We can deliver training via Microsoft Teams/Zoom as well as face-to-face |
"Training session was excellent. Kim was very clear and knowledgeable and we learnt how to use the forms easily"
"Was a great training session, got lots out of it"
"I thought the training was excellent and entertaining enough to keep everyone's interest. I would definitely recommend your software and training to other companies"
"No issues need highlighting. Kim was very professional in answering questions, working through the stages on setup & usage and helped troubleshoot issues we had initially."
"Training was amazing, Judy was clear and answered all of our questions with ease and clarity."
Reviewing other post-training comments, some clients have asked for follow-up training, others would like us to improve Alpha Draw to add more features, and others have asked for more information on QR codes. We take all feedback seriously and try to act upon it.
If you'd like to book some refresher training or extra training for your staff, get in touch.
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| Click the YouTube video below to watch how to do it |
Welcome Lindsay and the whole of the Almond Environmental asbestos team!
Kim has just completed the virtual Alpha Tracker training session and Almond's asbestos lab is ready to go.
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| Kim talking to Lindsay, configuring Alpha Tracker for their asbestos lab |
We're introducing some exciting (possibly revolutionary) new features for asbestos labs in the next release of Alpha Tracker. Want to know more? Get Get in touch!
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| The Norse-Infinity training room |
Our fabulous support team took 701 calls from clients in May 2024.
We've been analysing the reasons why people have needed to speak to us. The most common are:
Remember the incredible Andrew Bedwell and his World Record "Big C Challenge" attempt at crossing the Atlantic in the shortest boat ever? Start Software/Alpha Tracker were key sponsors and we also built an app for Andrew to use on the crossing.
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| Andrew in our Telford office |
Andrew is working towards another crossing attempt in 2025 and just dropped in to see us and let us know how his plans are progressing. With a new all-aluminium boat design (which is 6cm longer internally - positively spacious!) and even better preparation, we're sure attempt #2 will be successful.
Watch this space!
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| Watch all previous Alpha Tracker webinars on our website |
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| John and Sam from TCL Asbestos |
We've just delivered another Alpha webinar with our US software partners, Alpha Software.
This time, Jack showed how to build Cordova apps using several techniques in Alpha Anywhere including AppFlow and Docker.
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| The Alpha webinars page on our website at https://start-software.com/alpha-software |
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| Three new asbestos consultancies will be online next week |
Remember when your diary was just a little black book in your pocket? Now most people have multiple calendars for home, for work, for clubs... and it is complicated to look across all of these at the same time.
Alpha Tracker's diary can link to Google, Outlook and Microsoft Teams so you can see all your work appointments with your other commitments.
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| Having multiple diaries is complicated! |
Join Dan & Jack on our free webinar on Thursday 30 May at noon (UK) to see how you can link Alpha Tracker diaries to your other calendars. Take this opportunity to streamline your life!
Dan joined Dave from Alpha Software last week to host a webinar on debugging techniques within our preferred software development platform, Alpha Anywhere.
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| Dan delivering the webinar from our Telford (UK) office |
You can watch the webinar on YouTube here:
You can find all of the webinars we have hosted with Alpha Software on our website, here: https://start-software.com/alpha-software. This page also outlines the range of services we offer to fellow Alpha developers, including:
Apologies for the problem yesterday afternoon. Our main UK telephone number, 0333 301 1010, is now working again.
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| The datacentre problem was resolved overnight |
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| We're sorry that our phones are not working |
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| Support Desk performance - November 2023 to April 2024 |
What an event and what a venue!
The Best Foundation's latest conference was held under the wings of Concorde in Manchester, yesterday. We were part of the CTT Group team there to discuss our AI innovations with and for the UK Estate Planning industry.
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| CTT were the networking sponsors |
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| Robin & Mickey in the Concorde flight deck |
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| A Concorde-eye view of the CTT table and stage |
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| CTT director Clive and the Tech Panel |
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| The conference was literally under the wings of Concorde! |
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| Clive discussing the latest AI innovations on the Tech Panel |
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| Clive discussing industry innovations with the conference delegates |
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| See our flexible integration options at alpha-tracker.co.uk/integrations |
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| Mark & Todd at their conference desk |
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| We're always improving Alpha Legal - watch out for new updates soon |
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| Some of the asbestos professionals at ESSS |
Another Alpha Tracker asbestos consultancy is live. This time it is Lancashire County Scientific Services!
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| Kim has spent the day training the asbestos surveyors and administrators |
Lancashire County Scientific Services will be using asbestos software Alpha Tracker to survey buildings across the county for asbestos, analysing samples and producing asbestos reports for their internal and external customers.
Using a variety of handheld devices, asbestos surveyors will be capturing site data, taking photos and updating plans electronically, and then sending this over mobile data or WiFi - all with one click! Once asbestos samples are analysed, reports will be produced automatically to match the current Lancashire County formats. All asbestos reports in Alpha Tracker are created from custom templates to ensure that the output is perfect.
Can we help your asbestos consultancy to improve efficiency and the service you provide to your clients? Get in touch! We have demo slots available in May, and software trials are also available. If you are switching from competitor systems, we can also offer healthy discounts during 2024.
Jack has published an update to our Alpha Tracker Mobile app into the Google & Apple app stores.
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| Alpha Tracker Mobile in the app stores |
The new version has several useability improvements for users of our Forms and Water Hygiene features, including:
Watch the recording of the latest Alpha Tracker Tips & Tricks Webinar to help you get the most out of your system.
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| Webinar #11 is now available to watch online |
Robin, Dan & Jack explain how the new Forms feature works within Alpha Tracker. You can design your own data capture forms for literally anything... risk assessments, mileage claims, accident reports, vehicle checklists... literally anything you want your site staff to complete whilst out and about.
Follow us at blog.start-software.com to make sure you don't miss the latest Alpha Tracker news and register for upcoming webinars here: https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/webinars.
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If you are an Alpha Legal subscriber who also uses the Legacy software from CTT Group, you will have received an email from CTT explaining an upcoming improvement to the service being provided.
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| A change is coming in May! |
At the same time, any unused Alpha Legal credits will be transferred to the equivalent number of Legacy credits (or higher) so that you can still request ID from Legacy without needing to buy credits within your Alpha Legal subscription.
Finally, you will also notice that the Alpha Legal service for Legacy software users will be rebranded as Legacy Portal. This change reflects the new Legacy Portal app and the close connection between our two companies.
Don't worry, there will no interruption in service. Our two companies are working closely together to make the transition seamless for you.
If you are concerned, or have any questions, you can contact CTT Group's partnership team via partnershipteam@ctt-group.co.uk. You can also call the Alpha Legal Help Desk on 0333 301 1010 or email help@alphalegal.co.uk.
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| AIC Data Extract report is now available |
