Support Desk Performance: June 2026

June was another strong month for the our Support Desk, with the team solving 953 tickets and maintaining a high level of responsiveness across the board.

Overall, 94.44% of tickets were solved in time, our best result so far this year. High-priority tickets also performed very well, with 98.33% solved in time.

Good result from Zac and the team

That means that, despite June being one of the busiest months of 2026 so far, the team continued to deliver a reliable and responsive service for asbestos software Alpha Tracker, Greenfield, ecoScribe and other Start Software system users.

June at a glance

Support Desk Performance: January to June 2026

Month	Tickets solved	In time, all tickets	In time, high priority
June 2026	953	94.44%	98.33%
May 2026	803	94.27%	96.07%
April 2026	869	93.21%	97.92%
March 2026	996	92.67%	97.93%
February 2026	926	92.33%	98.81%
January 2026	904	93.58%	98.86%

June saw a noticeable increase in ticket volumes compared with May, rising from 803 tickets solved in May to 953 in June. Even with this increase, our in-time performance improved slightly, which is a real credit to the Support Desk team.

Looking beyond the numbers

Support performance is not only about how quickly we respond. It is also about understanding why issues happen in the first place.

During July, we are focusing heavily on root cause analysis. This means looking more closely at repeat problems, recurring support themes, and areas of the software where customers are seeing the same kinds of issues more than once.

The aim is simple: to reduce avoidable tickets and give our customers a smoother, more reliable software experience.

Where we identify repeat issues, we will be working with the wider development team to improve processes, update guidance, enhance training material, and, where needed, make changes to the software itself.

Release 42 is now live

We have also recently completed and deployed Release 42 of Alpha Tracker.

This release includes a wide range of improvements and should help reduce ticket volumes over time, particularly in areas linked to performance. We know that software speed and responsiveness have a direct impact on day-to-day user experience, so this has been an important focus for the team.

As more customers move onto Release 42, we expect to see fewer performance-related support requests and a better overall experience for users.

Thank you

As always, thank you to our customers for continuing to work with us, report issues clearly, and provide feedback. Your input helps us improve Alpha Tracker and our other systems month by month.

And thank you to the Support Desk team for another excellent month, especially during a busy period.

We are pleased with June’s results, but we are not standing still. July is about digging deeper, fixing repeat problems, and continuing to improve the experience for everyone.

Welcome Keith to the Support Desk!

We have a new member of staff on our Support Desk - welcome Keith!

Keith Saunders taking a call on the Support Desk

Keith has extensive experience of supporting software users and has mainly worked in large organisations such as HRMC.  Working in our smaller team will be a change of pace and approach - and hopefully won't be too "taxing" (see what I did there...).

Alpha Tracker asbestos software users have already been talking to Keith as he starts his training - and they have already benefited from his server and technical expertise.  We'll really pleased to have Keith board - do say hello when you next call.

Support Desk Performance Update: February 2026

Time for another look under the bonnet of our Support Desk covering Alpha Tracker (UK and Australian/New Zealand support), Alpha Legal and ecoScribe.

We like publishing these updates for a simple reason. If you are trusting us to run systems that matter to your business, you deserve to know how we are performing. Not just the good months. All of it.

Here are the latest figures covering September 2025 through to February 2026.

The headline numbers

Over the last six months we have:

• Resolved 5,149 support tickets

• Delivered an overall 92 to 94 percent on-time resolution rate each month

• Achieved between 97 and 99 percent on-time performance for high-priority issues

That is not a small volume. It represents consistent, steady demand from clients using Alpha Tracker, especially, and the wider Start Software ecosystem every day.

We track Support Desk performance monthly - and weekly - and daily!

Monthly breakdown

A quick snapshot of the last six months:

• February 2026
  926 tickets resolved
  92.33 percent on time overall
  98.81 percent on time for high-priority

• January 2026
  904 tickets resolved
  93.58 percent on time overall
  98.86 percent high-priority

• December 2025
  685 tickets resolved
  91.09 percent on time overall
  99.30 percent high-priority

• November 2025
  808 tickets resolved
  92.08 percent on time overall
  99.37 percent high-priority

• October 2025
  947 tickets resolved
  92.40 percent on time overall
  97.16 percent high-priority

• September 2025
  879 tickets resolved
  94.20 percent on time overall
  98.38 percent high-priority

Across the period we resolved 4,772 standard priority tickets and 992 high-priority tickets within SLA.

What the numbers tell us

A few observations.

1. Volume remains high and steady

We are consistently resolving between 800 and 950 tickets per month, with December being the natural seasonal dip. That level of activity reflects a growing user base and more organisations embedding our software deeply into their workflows.

Busy is fine. Uncontrolled is not. The consistency shows the team is absorbing the load without performance dropping off a cliff.

2. High-priority issues are handled exceptionally quickly

When something is genuinely urgent, we treat it that way. High-priority SLA performance has stayed around 98 to 99 percent. That is where it needs to be.

If a system underpins field operations, compliance, billing, or reporting, delays are not just inconvenient. They cost money. Our focus is always to protect business continuity first.

3. Overall SLA performance is stable

Overall on-time performance has remained comfortably above 91 percent every month, peaking at over 94 percent.

Of course we would like that to be 100 percent. Real life occasionally intervenes. Complex issues take deeper investigation. Some require third-party involvement. Some involve careful data repair rather than a quick patch.

What matters is that the trend is stable and predictable, not volatile.

What sits behind these figures

Support performance is not just about answering tickets quickly. It depends on:

• Well-structured, documented software

• Clear release management

• Robust hosting infrastructure

• Experienced developers who can step into escalations

• And clients who provide good information when raising issues

We are fortunate on all counts.

As Alpha Tracker and our other platforms continue to evolve, we invest heavily in stability, monitoring, and preventative fixes. The best support ticket is the one that never needs to be raised.

A quiet thank you to the team

Support work is rarely glamorous. When things run smoothly, nobody notices. When something breaks, everyone notices.

Sustaining over five thousand resolutions in six months with consistently high SLA performance takes focus, discipline, and care. We are quietly proud of the team.

Zac keeping his eye on a ticket - and the Support Team

If you are a client

Please keep raising tickets through the proper channels. It helps us track, prioritise, and measure properly. Emails sent to individual developers may feel faster, but they make it harder to maintain this level of visibility and accountability.

And if you are considering working with us and want to understand how we operate, transparency like this is part of the culture.

We build software that supports operational businesses. That means our Support Desk has to perform, month in, month out.

If you would like to talk about how Alpha Tracker or our wider solutions could support your organisation, just get in touch.

We will keep publishing these updates. Quiet consistency beats loud promises every time.

🚨 High Priority Under Pressure: Delivering When It Matters Most

When we talk about Support Desk performance, it’s easy to focus on overall SLA percentages. But some tickets matter more than others — and that’s where the real story lives.

Our Support Desk - performing Under Pressure

High-priority (H) tickets are often time-critical, business-impacting, and unpredictable. Looking back over the last six months, these tickets show just how consistent and resilient the Support Desk has been when the pressure is on.

---

📊 Consistency where it counts

Between August and January, the Support Desk resolved 992 high-priority tickets. Throughout that entire period, the in-time rate for H tickets stayed impressively high — between 97% and 99% every single month.

January is a strong example:

• 🔴 174 high-priority tickets solved

• ⏱️ 98.86% completed within SLA

That level of performance doesn’t happen by chance. It shows clear prioritisation and a strong focus on what matters most.

---

💪 Pressure doesn’t mean compromise

Ticket volumes naturally rise and fall. Over the same six-month period, total tickets solved ranged from 685 to 947 per month.

Even during busier months like October and January, high-priority performance remained consistently strong. When demand increases, the desk doesn’t trade quality for speed — it adapts.

That’s a key indicator of a mature and reliable support operation.

---

🧠 What helps make this possible?

Behind the numbers are some important habits:

• Clear triage and prioritisation

• Strong ownership and handovers

• Experience handling complex and urgent issues

• A shared understanding of what “high priority” really means

Together, these keep critical issues moving — even when things get busy.

---

🔮 Looking ahead

High-priority tickets will always be unpredictable. What is predictable is how the Support Desk responds.

As we move into the next quarter, the challenge isn’t just maintaining these results — it’s understanding what helps sustain them at scale, and where we can push even further.

Because when it really matters, performance under pressure is what counts most ⭐

Our Start Software Support Desk handles issues for asbestos/water/fire software Alpha Tracker, legal services portal Alpha Legal/Alpha Portal and environmental reporting software ecoScribe.

The 0333 301 1010 phone line is working again. Sorry for any inconvenience

Further to the blog post this morning https://blog.start-software.com/2026/01/telephone-service-issues-alternative.html we're happy to say that our 0333 301 1010 phone line is now operational again.

Sorry for the short outage this morning

Do keep a note of the alternate number +44 (0)1952 288 316, just in case.  You'll also find the number on our websites.

Telephone Service Issues – Alternative Contact Information

Service Update

We are currently experiencing issues with our main telephone number:
+44 (0)333 301 1010

This may mean you are unable to get through, experience call drops or similar.

You can still call us or email us for support

How to Contact Us in the Meantime

While our primary number is affected, please use one of the following alternatives:

• Alternative telephone line: +44 (0)1952 288 316
• Email support: support@start-software.com

Both options are fully operational, and our support team is ready to assist you as normal.

What You Can Expect

• All support requests will be handled with our usual priority and service levels.
• Once our main number is restored, we will provide an update.
• No action is required from you—simply use the alternative contact routes above.

We appreciate your patience while the telephone provider resolves the issue. If you need anything urgently, please don’t hesitate to reach out using the working contact channels listed.

 

Support Desk performance report – December 2025

As the year drew to a close, our Support Desk stayed reassuringly steady. December is traditionally a month of distractions, deadlines and diaries full of festive commitments, so maintaining strong response times is always a good test of both systems and people. We are pleased to say the results held up very well.

Adam helping a caller on the Christmas Support Desk

December at a glance

• 91.1% of all tickets were resolved within SLA

• 99.3% of high-priority tickets were resolved within SLA

• 685 tickets solved in total

• 142 of those were high-priority issues

High-priority performance in particular remains excellent, with virtually every urgent issue handled on time despite reduced availability around the Christmas period.

How December compares

Looking back over the last six months, performance has been consistently strong:

Month	In time (%)	In time (H) (%)	Tickets solved
July 2025	91.40%	97.88%	977
August 2025	90.97%	97.08%	831
September 2025	94.20%	98.38%	879
October 2025	92.40%	97.16%	947
November 2025	92.08%	99.37%	808
December 2025	91.09%	99.30%	685

While overall ticket volume dipped in December, which is typical for the time of year, SLA performance stayed firmly in line with previous months. The slight variation in overall percentage is largely explained by reduced staffing over the holidays combined with a smaller pool of tickets, where a handful of slower resolutions have a bigger impact on the headline figure.

End-of-year summary

To close out the year, it is worth stepping back and looking at the broader picture. Across the six-month period shown above, the Support Desk handled:

• 5,127 tickets in total

• 1,003 high-priority tickets

• With consistently high SLA compliance for urgent issues every month

Maintaining over 97% on-time performance for high-priority tickets across such a sustained period is a strong result, particularly given the mix of routine queries, complex issues and time-critical incidents that come through the desk.

Just as importantly, ticket volumes have remained high throughout the year without any significant drop in service quality. That combination of throughput and reliability reflects the experience of the team, clear escalation processes, and a continued focus on resolving issues efficiently rather than simply closing tickets quickly.

Looking ahead

January usually brings a return to higher volumes, along with new projects and system changes. Our priorities going into the new year remain unchanged:

• Keep high-priority responses fast and dependable

• Maintain clear, timely communication

• Use support trends to identify and reduce recurring issues

Thank you to everyone involved for another solid year of support delivery. Keeping things running smoothly, even during the busiest and quietest months alike, is no small achievement.

Support Desk performance for the last six months (June - November 2025)

Our Support Desk has had another busy period and the team continues to work hard to keep responses quick and solutions on track. Here is the latest six month snapshot of how we have been doing.

We track two key measures:

• tickets solved within our target time (the yellow line)
• high priority tickets solved within target (the blue line)

Support Desk - June to November 2025

Here are the headline figures:

November 2025

• 91.97% of tickets solved in time
• 99.37% of high priority tickets solved in time - this might be a record!
• 809 tickets solved in total

October 2025

• 92.40% in time
• 97.16% of high priority in time
• 947 tickets solved

September 2025

• 94.20% in time
• 98.38% of high priority in time
• 879 tickets solved

August 2025

• 90.97% in time
• 97.08% of high priority in time
• 831 tickets solved

July 2025

• 91.40% in time
• 97.88% of high priority in time
• 977 tickets solved

June 2025

• 90.45% in time
• 97.40% of high priority in time
• 838 tickets solved

Overall, performance has stayed consistently strong, especially for high priority issues where the team is regularly clearing more than 97 percent within the SLA window.

Thank you to every client who has contacted the helpdesk this year.  If you ever need support with Alpha Tracker or any of our other systems, you can reach the team through the Support Portal or by emailing us at any time.

Celebrating Our Living Wage Anniversary at Start Software

We’re proud to share that it’s our Living Wage Anniversary at Start Software!

If we didn't pay such good wages, Robin could afford a razor!

For another year running, we’ve maintained our commitment to being a Living Wage Employer, ensuring that everyone on our team earns a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.

Doing business "right" - fairly, decently, ethically - is at our core 

The Living Wage movement has always been close to our hearts. It’s about recognising the real cost of living and supporting people to thrive, not just get by. We believe that fair pay is the foundation of a happy, motivated team — and that benefits everyone: our clients, our community, and our company.

If you’re an employer who hasn’t yet joined the movement, we’d encourage you to take a look. It’s a simple but powerful step towards building a fairer economy and a stronger workplace culture.

You can learn more here: https://www.livingwage.org.uk

Here’s to another year of doing business the right way — with fairness and respect at the core of what we do.

Another strong month for our UK and Australian Support Teams 💪

October was another excellent month for our Support Teams, with 92.4% of tickets resolved within their target time and an impressive 97.2% of high-priority issues handled on time.

That’s 876 tickets completed within SLA (and 171 high-priority ones), from a total of 948 issues logged and solved in October. It’s a busy workload — and the consistent high standards show just how hard our team works to keep our clients happy.

Thanks ChatGPT for the graphic - but why the mix-and-match on decimal points and commas?!

Here’s how our “in-time” performance has looked over the past few months:

Month	In-time %	High Priority In-time %	Total Solved
Oct 2025	92.41%	97.16%	948
Sep 2025	94.20%	98.38%	879
Aug 2025	90.97%	97.08%	831
Jul 2025	91.40%	97.88%	977
Jun 2025	90.45%	97.40%	838
May 2025	92.14%	95.42%	852

We’ve now kept performance above 90% for six months running, proving that reliability is more than just a number — it’s part of how we work.

If you ever need to log a support ticket, you can do so anytime (24x7, literally).  We look forward to being of service.

🎉 Celebrating Our 100,000th Support Ticket!

We’ve just hit an incredible milestone — our 100,000th support ticket has landed!

That’s 100,000 times our customers have reached out with questions, ideas, or requests — and 100,000 opportunities for our support team to help, learn, and make Alpha Tracker, Alpha Legal, ecoScribe and all our other systems even better.

1,000,000 grateful customers (well, most of them...)

A huge thank you to our customers

Every ticket tells a story: a new project getting started, a clever feature being used in a new way, or a challenge that helped us improve our software. We’re genuinely grateful for every message, call, and support request that’s come our way over the years. Without your feedback and patience, we couldn’t keep making our systems as powerful and reliable as they are today.

And an even bigger thank you to our support team

Our support heroes handle everything from “how do I…” to “help, it’s all on fire!” - and they do it with professionalism, good humour, and an impressive amount of coffee. Reaching 100,000 tickets is a testament to their dedication and the relationships they’ve built with customers across the UK and beyond.

Looking ahead

If 100,000 tickets got us here, we can only imagine what the next 100,000 will bring. More innovation, faster responses, smarter systems — and, no doubt, the occasional head-scratcher that keeps things interesting.

At this rate, we might even start placing bets on when ticket number 1,000,000 will arrive…

Thank you for being part of our journey — here’s to the next big milestone! 🚀

Birmingham Tech Week: Robin & Andrew exploring the AI frontier

Birmingham Tech Week was buzzing with ideas, innovation and some very clever uses of artificial intelligence — so of course, we couldn’t resist joining in. Andrew and I spent the day at the ICC for the AI Symposium, part of this year’s Quantum Leap series of events, learning from industry leaders and sharing how AI is already shaping the work we do at Start Software and CTT.

Our day began at Birmingham New Street, where the ever-impressive Ozzy the Bull (fresh from the Commonwealth Games) gave us a suitably dramatic welcome. I couldn’t resist giving him a new accessory — my Birmingham Tech Week badge. He wore it with pride.

Ozzy pre-AI modification

Ozzy with his pass!

The city itself looked fantastic under autumn skies — from the sleek curves of Grand Central to the golden crown of the Library of Birmingham, Birmingham’s mix of heritage and modern design made a great backdrop for a week celebrating technology.

The Town Hall

The sun was shining on the event

Birmingham Library

Inside the ICC, the energy was palpable. The exhibition area showcased everything from VR headsets to cutting-edge data visualisation tools, and the AI Symposium featured some genuinely insightful discussions. It was standing-room-only at times, with experts debating the ethics, opportunities and challenges of machine learning in the workplace.

Agentic AI again was a key focus - as was security - themes repeating from the World Summit AI in Amsterdam two weeks ago.

Inside the impressive ICC

Should have gone to Specsavers

For us at Start Software, AI is more than just a buzzword. It’s already integrated into our products — helping clients work smarter and faster:

• Alpha Tracker uses automation and smart data processing to simplify compliance and asbestos management.

• Alpha Legal keeps legal professionals secure and efficient with AI-driven document checks and smart communication tools.

• ecoScribe harnesses speech recognition and natural language processing to turn complex survey data into structured reports in seconds.

Seeing so many companies exploring AI’s potential was inspiring — and it’s clear that the Midlands is fast becoming a real hub for innovation.

The panel gathers

Andrew front-and-centre (as always!)

We left Birmingham Tech Week with plenty of ideas (and a slightly sore neck from looking up at Ozzy). Huge thanks to the organisers for such a well-run and thought-provoking event.

If you’d like to learn how AI is already improving workflows in Alpha Tracker, Alpha Legal or ecoScribe, get in touch — we’d love to show you what’s possible.

(post by Robin Bennett)

Support Desk Performance - August 2025

August was another busy month for our support team, with 832 tickets solved in total. Of these, 166 were high-priority – the kind of issues our clients really need us to resolve quickly.

We’re pleased to report that:

• 97.08% of high-priority tickets were solved within the timescales set by our customers.

• Across all tickets, 90.99% were solved on time.

Although August’s overall performance dipped slightly compared to earlier months, our handling of urgent issues remained consistently strong. Clients can be reassured that when a critical problem arises, we act swiftly and effectively.

Good performance over the last 6 months

Looking back over the last six months, a few trends stand out:

• High-priority tickets are always given the attention they deserve – month after month, we’re above 95%, peaking at an excellent 99.2% in April.

• Ticket volumes have eased slightly since the spring (down from 1,080 in March to 832 in August). That gives us some breathing space, but we’ll keep working to bring overall “on time” performance back up towards the mid-90s.

• Consistency is key – even with fluctuations, we’ve handled around 800–1,000 tickets every month, showing the reliability and resilience of the team.

In short: August showed that we can be relied upon when it matters most, and we’ll be focusing on lifting our overall response rates back up as we head into autumn.

Another 90%+ month for the Support Desk! Congrats Zac & team

Our Support Team resolved 977 tickets in July 2025.  

We ask each caller "When do you need this resolved by?" and that's how we measure our performance.  In July, 91% of all tickets were resolved in the caller's stated timescale, and 98% of high priority tickets were solved on time.  That's quite a performance!

Zac and Melika reviewing a sticky ticket

We're improving our automatic ticket emails this month so watch this space!

Support Desk performance - June 2025

Our Support Desk team in June resolved 761 tickets across all of our software systems.  We helped... 

• asbestos surveyors (Alpha Tracker)
• water hygiene technicians (Alpha Tracker)
• legal advisors and will writers (Alpha Legal/Legacy Portal)
• ecological consultants (ecoScribe)
• CleanUpBritain supporters (RoadVlog)
• and many, many more!

Here's Dan & Lucas helping a caller earlier today:

Dan & Lucas (pretending to answer the phone)

97.4% of callers were happy with their ticket response in June, let's hope that Lucas's caller will be another happy customer when we look at July's statistics!

Our Support Technicians are learning to become ecological consultants... for good reason!

If you regularly call our Support Desk, you'll know Zac and his wonderful team - Melika, James & Lucas.  They are normally busy helping our environmental consultancies with questions about Alpha Tracker, but they are now finding themselves talking to ecological consultants following the successful launch of our ecoScribe service.

To help the team deliver the best service to our new clients, ecological specialist Dan from our client Estrada Ecology came on site today to give our team some basic ecological training - what a great day for it in the Telford sunshine!

Can we help your ecological consultancy to become more efficient and effective?  Get in touch!

Consistency is key on our Support Desk

This chart underlines how consistent our Support Desk is.  It is showing 6 months of data back to August 2024.

The blue bars show % of tickets solved on time; the red bars are the High Priority problems

We resolved 904 tickets in January and met the caller's required timeframe 89.2% of the time (for all tickets) and 93.5% for urgent problems.  From the chart, you can see how consistent this has been with only minor variations each month.

It's our ISO9001 and ISO27001 recertification week where we focus on Quality and Information Security

It seems like Catherine has been preparing for months for our ISO9001:2015 and ISO27001:2013  recertifications.  This week, she's been working non-stop with ISO assessor Chris and our ISO consultant Kieran alongside our Telford team to provide evidence of our conformance to the standards.

Catherine, Chris and Kieran

Keeping our ISO certifications is a long and costly process, so why do we put ourselves through it?

ISO9001 has been the bedrock of our business since we started trading.  ISO9001 is a measure of an organisation's Quality Management System, essentially a guarantee that a company will work in an orderly, consistent and measured way.   Our software is used by hundreds of organisations every day and they rely on us to provide a consistent service.  Our Support Desk has never been busier, handling more than 1,000 tickets each month and we aim to deal with each one in a timely and professional manner.

ISO27001 ensures that we treat data and information within our custody with appropriate care and diligence.  It is an internationally recognised standard relating to Information Security specifically and there are not many companies of our size who have spent the time and money necessary to obtain the certification.

We won't know until the end of the week whether any non-conformances have been found, so please do wish us luck!

Meet Melika! She is half-way through her work experience with Start Software

We're giving Melika a month's work experience to help start her career in software development.

Team Leader Dan helping Melika

Melika is based in Glasgow, but has taken the leap to move to Telford for the month to embed herself in our team, and see how we build software for our clients.  She's been looking at asbestos software Alpha Tracker, ecological report-writing system ecoScribe and some of our other software products.

She is also helping out on Support, too, so do say hello and make her welcome if you call in and Melika picks up the phone.  She's the only one in our office with a Scottish accent so won't have a problem spotting her!

Productive meetings with Alpha Software in Boston

We're just back from a productive day with our partners, Alpha Software, in Boston.

The UK technical team from Start Software travelled to the USA to meet the Alpha Software developers.  The main topic was the roadmap for Alpha Anywhere and Alpha TransForm, two of the most important platforms used by the Start team, and critical for our Alpha Tracker, ecoScribe and Alpha Legal platforms.

The Start and Alpha technical teams in discussion

It was great to catch up in person with our key software partners (Start Software is the UK professional partner for Alpha Software), renewing business and personal relationships.