Alpha Tracker Support Desk Update: July 2026

Our Support Desk team solved 982 support requests during July, making it our second-busiest month of 2026 so far.

Despite the high volume of enquiries, 93.18% of all requests were completed within their target response and resolution times. For high-priority requests, the figure was even stronger, with 97.41% completed on time.

During the first six months covered by our latest figures, the team has now:

• Solved 5,528 support requests

• Completed 5,159 requests within their target times

• Completed 985 high-priority requests within their target times

July’s overall performance was slightly below June’s figure of 94.43%, but the team continued to provide a consistently high standard of support while handling nearly 1,000 completed requests.

Thank you, as always, to our Support Desk team for their hard work, and to our customers for the positive feedback, patience and cooperation they give us.

If you need help with Alpha Tracker, please contact our Support Desk (UK or Aus/NZ) in the usual way. We are always happy to help.

Thanks for joining the Release 42 Webinar for Alpha Tracker. Watch the recording here

Our new webinar technology (Whereby) wasn't quite as slick as we'd have liked, but it was a fun Alpha Tracker webinar, anyway! We had a good turn-out, thank you - there's always lots to show and discuss.

Kim, Jack & Zac on our live webinar

You can see all of the Release 42 highlights on our website https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/latest-release and you can watch the recording of the webinar below.

Dan & I tried to join the webinar from the road to say hello, from our 300 Miles in One Day challenge.  We managed to join (with ropey signal from a Welsh mountain) but apparently no-one could hear us!  Here's a video we recorded just before the webinar, instead:

Thanks again for joining the webinar and keep an eye on the Alpha Tracker roadmap to see upcoming new releases during 2026.

We made it! 300 Miles in One Day for Cancer Research UK

We're so proud of the UK Start Software team!  Between us, we cycled 300 miles in one day for Cancer Research UK, a charity very close to our hearts.

Some of the photos from the day

Dan & Robin cycled to the Welsh coast together, while the rest of the UK team peddled on a static bike, relay-style, on the balcony outside our Telford office.  Lucas brought us over the line with Adam adding a final flourish!

You can replay the day, and add your own donation (thanks in advance!) here: https://300-miles.start-software.ai/

Click to replay the day

New Alpha Tracker Document Maker ready to deploy. Faster, more robust, better all around

CTO Jack and the team have completed the new version of the Alpha Tracker Document Maker (ATDM)—the workhorse behind report production for most asbestos consultancies using Alpha Tracker.  

The new ATDM is part of Alpha Tracker Release 42.1 per the 2026 roadmap: https://alpha-tracker.co.uk/roadmap with more to come in the next few weeks.

Jack & Jamie testing asbestos report production

The changes include:

• faster document production
  
  
• the ability for ATDM to recover from a server crash without needing to start a document from scratch 
  
  
• a new mechanism to produce the survey pages making it much more reliable for large (>1,000 page) survey reports.

Zac & the Support Team will be rolling out the upgrade to systems over the next few weeks.  Early reports from beta testing clients are very positive.

What's new in Alpha Tracker Release 42? Is it the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything?

42 is famously the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.  Take a look at The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy if you don't know the reference!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a work of genius

Alpha Tracker Release 42 is not quite that, but it is still a huge update, with the usual hundreds of improvements, new features, performance enhancements and bug fixes.

Important! It will probably also be the final major update to the core Alpha Tracker system before we begin rolling out our complete rewrite, built using a new technology stack, later in 2026. You can read more about our plans on the Alpha Tracker roadmap.

Jack, Ferry, Judy, Kim and the rest of the team have had a lot of fun creating this release. As always, we have also worked hard to implement ideas and suggestions from our wonderful customers.

Release 42 highlights

• More than 600 improvements and updates across every area of Alpha Tracker

• Major Water Hygiene enhancements, including clearer risk logic to improve how water risks are presented on the Client Portal

• A new LRA Review water project type, making it easier to revisit, review and update information from previous Legionella Risk Assessments

• Instant AI analysis of survey items from photographs, helping surveyors assess materials more quickly and consistently

• Further support for Australian asbestos material assessment scoring, helping asbestos teams work in line with updated Australian requirements

• A new Report Dashboard on the Home screen, giving teams a clearer overview of report production across their projects

• Improved Alpha Tracker performance, thanks to an updated version of the underlying software framework

• Faster imports using the Alpha Tracker Work Queue, improving the speed of some of our most popular data imports

• Improved site-sharing visibility, making it clearer which sites have been shared and helping teams manage access more confidently

• Enhanced site register controls, including a new hidden-items tab and site-level QR-code password protection for greater control over site information

Update on the new software framework

We have received a small number of reports of instability following the framework update. As of 25 July 2026, we believe we have identified and fixed the issue, and deployment of the fix to affected systems is under way.

More Info & Webinar

Full details of Alpha Tracker Release 42, including the Release Notes and Highlights document, are available on our latest release page.

You can also join us for our Release 42 webinar on Tuesday 28 July at 11:30am.  Find out more and register for the Release 42 webinar

300 miles. One day. One team. Please help us support Cancer Research UK

On Tuesday 28 July, the Start Software and Alpha Tracker UK team will be taking on an ambitious office challenge for Cancer Research UK.

Together, we are going to cycle 300 miles in a single day.

Thankfully, we aren’t expecting everyone to squeeze onto one bike.

Telford to the Welsh coast

Dan and Robin will set off from our Telford office and cycle approximately 75 miles each to Aberdyfi on the Welsh coast.

Looks like Robin needs to practice wearing his helmet

Back at Base

Meanwhile, back at Start Software HQ, the rest of our UK team will complete the remaining 150 miles as a relay on a static bike outside the office.

Kim spinning her wheels

That means the pedals will need to keep turning throughout the day, whatever the weather and however tired everyone’s legs become!

Please visit our Cancer Research UK fundraising page and make a donation

Why we are doing it

Cancer has affected several members of the Start Software team.

Some of us have lost people we love. Others are currently experiencing cancer first-hand, trying to carry on with everyday life while undergoing treatment, attending appointments and living with continual tests and monitoring.

It is something that touches almost every family, friendship group and workplace.

We wanted to do something positive together, while raising money to support Cancer Research UK’s vital work to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.

Watch us live during the Release 42 webinar

Because cycling 300 miles in a day apparently isn’t enough of a challenge, we are doing it on the same day as our Alpha Tracker Release 42 webinar!

The webinar takes place on:

Tuesday 28 July 2026
11:30am–12:15pm UK time

You will be able to see how the challenge is progressing live during the webinar, including the office relay team pedalling away in the background. We are also hoping to bring you updates from Dan and Robin as they make their way towards the coast.

Alongside the cycling, we will still be showing you the highlights of Release 42, what has changed in Alpha Tracker and some of the exciting developments coming next.

Register for the Release 42 webinar on LinkedIn

You can also find information about the webinar on our Alpha Tracker webinars page.

Please help us reach our target

Every donation, large or small, will encourage the team and help Cancer Research UK continue its life-saving research.

Please donate through our official fundraising page:

Donate to the Start Software Cancer Research UK challenge

You can also help enormously by sharing the page with your colleagues, friends and family.

Thank you for supporting us. We will keep the pedals turning, and we hope you will join us online to cheer everyone on!

300 miles. One day. One team. Together, we can help beat cancer.

24 July update: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/robins-giving-page-2044?feed=56da40e4-fd8c-40d2-84e8-dc66543336b2

Serious faces - serious business! We've completed our next Traction/EOS Away Day

We've been in Birmingham for our leadership team Away Day.  We follow the Traction/EOS process - it's brilliant - and each quarter we set our goals (rocks) and plans and review where we are.

Catherine, Dan, Jack, Robin in planning mode

This was a serious day where we made significant changes to the shape of our business, introducing AI into our support process and planning the next AI-powered version of Alpha Tracker.

We're sharing the plans with our team first, then we'll be communicating with our wonderful clients.

Release 42 Webinar - Tues 28 July @ 11:30 - 12:15. It's time to register!

Join us for our Alpha Tracker Release 42 Webinar on Tuesday 28 July @ 11:30 - 12:15.

Join Kim, Robin & the team

We'll show you what's new, what's changed, and what's coming up next in the Alpha Tracker Roadmap.

Click here to register https://www.linkedin.com/events/7482403111265996800?viewAsMember=true  - or join on the day at whereby.com/alpha-tracker-webinar.

Cloud issue affecting Alpha Tracker has been resolved

We are pleased to confirm that the cloud issue affecting Alpha Tracker users in the UK earlier today has now been resolved.

Cloud issues are now resolved

The incident caused slow access and, for some users, difficulties connecting to or logging into Alpha Tracker during the morning of Friday 10 July 2026.

Our team worked closely with our cloud technical support specialists to investigate the problem and restore normal service. Alpha Tracker is now available again and systems are operating normally.

We are continuing to monitor the service closely and will review the incident to understand what happened and whether any further steps can be taken to reduce the risk of a similar disruption.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused, particularly to teams who rely on Alpha Tracker throughout their working day.

Thank you to everyone affected for your patience and understanding while the problem was being resolved.

Cloud issue affecting Alpha Tracker ** Friday 10 July 2026 **

Friday 10 July 2026 11:50.

We are sorry but an issue in the cloud has affected Alpha Tracker for many UK users throughout the morning.

The Alpha Cloud cloud has a major issue this morning

Symptoms will include slow access or difficulties connecting or logging in.

We are working with our cloud technical support to diagnose and resolve.  We will update affected clients as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

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.

Two more asbestos consultancies are trialling Alpha Tracker. Did you know we can offer trials and pilots?

Two asbestos consultancies are trialling asbestos software Alpha Tracker to see how it would work for their businesses.

AI had fun creating this image for me!

These two well-established and successful UK asbestos consultancies are coming to us for different reasons.  One is thinking of switching from our main competitor, fed up with their attitude to support and their generally unhelpful stance on making data available to them.  The other has been wrestling with an internal software development for years and is checking out the market to see what's available off-the-shelf.  Here at Alpha Tracker, we pride ourselves on our support and our attitude to openness and integrations.

We're happy to offer trials and pilots - even creating custom Alpha Tracker report templates in some cases - so don't be afraid to ask!

Zac and Kim at the races! Great afternoon spent supporting Mesothelioma UK

We were delighted to support Mesothelioma UK's first Race Day at Leicester Racecourse.  Meso UK has long been Alpha Tracker's nominated charity - they do such an incredible job supporting people with asbestos-related disease.

Some photos from the event

In terms of the gambling, Kim said it was "up and down" whereas Zac and his girlfriend Alicia seemed to back a series of winners!  Great fun, great cause, bring on the next one!

Andrew is away! Keep your fingers crossed for fair winds over the next few days while he gains distance from the treacherous shoreline

I can hardly believe that I'm writing this... Andrew Bedwell has finally set off on his 3-month world-record breaking trip across the Atlantic! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w3jgqj0nno

Andrew alongside his tow boat

Andrew's boat Big C was towed out of Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, and then he set off on an almost unimaginable journey of a lifetime.

You can read all about our connection to Andrew and Big C including the apps we have built so that he can send updates from the boat and everyone can follow his progress.  We have used AI development tools and Alpha TransForm to build the apps.

Scan this QR code to view our web app https://big-c-atlantic-challenge.app and follow Andrew's progress! 

Scan and register to follow Andrew's progress - https://big-c-atlantic-challenge.app

Alpha Tracker support performance update for May 2026

We have updated our monthly support performance figures for May 2026 and, once again, the Alpha Tracker support team has delivered a strong month for our clients.

May was a good month on the Support Desk

During May, we solved 804 support requests, with 758 completed within our target response times. That means 94.28% of all support requests were resolved in time.

For higher priority support requests, the results were even stronger. We solved 171 high-priority requests within target, giving us an in-time performance of 96.07% for those more urgent cases.

Six months of consistent support performance

Looking across the last six months, from December 2025 to May 2026, the team has now resolved 5,184 support requests.

Of these:

• 4,816 were completed within target

• 936 high-priority requests were completed within target

• The overall in-time performance has remained consistently above 91% every month

• High-priority in-time performance has remained above 96% every month

That consistency matters. Support performance is not just about having one good month. It is about being reliable month after month, especially when clients are relying on Alpha Tracker to help manage asbestos, legionella, fire, water hygiene and other compliance work.

May in context

May was another busy month, with more than 800 support requests solved. The overall in-time figure of 94.28% was the best result of the last six months, which is particularly pleasing.

It was also good to see high-priority support remain strong at 96.07%, even with a higher number of urgent requests than in April.

As always, we are grateful to our clients for the clear information they provide when raising support requests. Good detail at the start helps us investigate faster, respond more accurately and keep things moving.

Thank you to the support team

A big thank you to the Start Software support team for another excellent month.

Reliable support is a big part of what makes Alpha Tracker different. Our clients need practical help from people who understand both the software and the industries they work in. These figures show the team continuing to deliver that help quickly, consistently and professionally.

We will publish the next support performance update once the June figures are available.

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.

April 2026 Support Desk Performance: A Busy Month Supporting Alpha Tracker Users

April was another strong month for the Start Software support desk, with the team continuing to deliver a fast and reliable service for customers using Alpha Tracker.

It was also a particularly busy month for calls from asbestos and water hygiene technicians, reflecting the continued day-to-day reliance on Alpha Tracker in the field. Whether technicians were logging site information, updating records, managing jobs, or needing help while out with clients, the support desk was on hand to help keep work moving.

Strong response and resolution performance

In April 2026, the support desk solved 869 problems in total. Of those, 810 were solved in time, giving an overall in-time resolution rate of 93.21%.

High-priority support remained especially strong. The team solved 141 high-priority issues in time, achieving an excellent 97.92% in-time rate for high-priority tickets.

This continues the consistent performance seen throughout the year so far:

Month	Total solved	In time	In time %	High-priority in time %
January 2026	904	846	93.58%	98.86%
February 2026	926	855	92.33%	98.81%
March 2026	996	923	92.67%	97.93%
April 2026	869	810	93.21%	97.92%

A busy month for technician support

April’s figures show that the support team handled a substantial number of requests while maintaining a high standard of service. With Alpha Tracker being used heavily by asbestos and water hygiene technicians, many calls required practical, timely support for people working in live operational environments.

That kind of support is especially important when technicians are on site and need quick answers. The April results show the team continuing to respond effectively, helping users resolve issues and get back to their work with minimal delay.

Thank you to the support team

A big thank you goes to everyone on the support desk for another month of hard work, patience, and professionalism.

Solving 869 problems in April, while keeping more than 93% of all tickets and almost 98% of high-priority tickets within target, is a strong achievement and a great reflection of the team’s commitment to Alpha Tracker customers.

Join adventurer Andrew Bedwell and Robin talking about apps and the Big C Atlantic Challenge on the Alpha Software webinar

Andrew Bedwell (from the Big C Atlantic Challenge) will be joining the Alpha Software Wednesday Webinar on 22 April.  Andrew will be talking to Alpha Software's Dave McCormick and Start Software's Robin Bennett to discuss the challenge of sending data live from a 3ft (yes, 1m long!) boat as he attempts to break the world record for the shortest boat to cross the Atlantic unaided.

Start Software is the lead sponsor for Andrew's world record attempt

Andrew & Robin will be creating Alpha TransForm forms live in the webinar which will be used by Andrew to collect and send data during his crossing.

In advance, why not register to follow Andrew's journey on our web app at https://big-c-atlantic-challenge.app - it's free!

Start Software will be competing in the Coracle World Championships 2026. We've improved year-on-year, this time could be the one!

A team from Start Software's Telford HQ will be competing in the Coracle World Championships 2026!

Could 2026 be our year, finally?! Stranger things have happened (just)

Our previous entries into the competition have resulted in disgrace, a soaking, a near disqualification and general mayhem.  This year is unlikely to be any different.

Having had staff members affected by cancer this year, it is fitting that we'll be fund raising for cancer charities when we race in September.  Watch out for fund-raising links and thanks in advance.

You can now have an instant video call with our Support Team

Need help?  Want to show us a problem you have on your screen?  You can now launch an instant video call with our Support Team straight from our website.

Instant video call! No Teams, no Zoom, just one click!

Click https://whereby.com/start-software-support to launch your call - but do call us first so we're expecting you!