When did you last check your backups?

Our Quality Manager Kim and I realised at our last Quality Meeting that we hadn't done a backup/restore rehearsal lately to check that our main office server backups were working as we thought they were.

We have a professional daily backup routine (as you'd expect from an IT business!) and we check the backup logs weekly at least to see that everything is running as we expect.  We even have redundant backup drives and a spare server ready for the worst case situation - a complete server failure or theft/fire.

Well, to cut a long story very short...

• YES the backups have been running
• YES the spare server is ready and waiting
• YES we know how to restore the server backup, but
• NO the procedure we'd documented and rehearsed previously no longer works!

The problem is that Microsoft have changed their backup software recently and so backups taken with the older software can't be restored using the new one.  Despite trying all sorts of fixes, workarounds and Microsoft-suggested procedures the backup refuses to restore properly.

We've now changed backup software so that we don't have this problem again but thank goodness we'd tried the rehearsal now (when we weren't in crisis with a server down) rather than later when we were!

This underlines a truism in IT - backups are not worth anything until you've actually tried to restore data from them.  If you (or your IT manager/support company) haven't run a trial restore lately don't delay or else you too could find that you too have a useless backup when disaster strikes and you need it.

March 2013's support stats at Start Software

We answered 206 customer queries in March and 95% of them were answered before the deadline agreed with the customer.  That's not quite as high as normal but still pretty good for another busy month.

We've also been analysing how many problems we solve "stay solved" as we know how annoying it is when we say that a problem is fixed and you find that it isn't:

Finally, we also record the root cause of the problem to see how we can reduce the number of issues that you have to call us about and improve the underlying quality of our software:

 

 

If you would like any more information about our support service performance and how well we do for your support & maintenance contract, please do let us know.

** SNOW DISRUPTION 22/3/2013 **

Some members of staff have not been able to reach our offices today so please bear with us if you find that our support service is not as responsive as normal.

Our call handlers are working normally so please log calls on 0845 612 2402 and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

Many thanks for your understanding.

It's all about "4" this week! Samsung launches the Galaxy S4

Samsung launched their new Galaxy S4 smartphone last night at the Radio City Music Hall with a whole raft of new features including "smart scroll" and "smart pause" which enable you to control your phone just by looking at it.

Also launched yesterday was our "4" offer for discounted programming time with not quite the marketing budget or razzmatazz!

• 443 - 4 programming days for the price of 3
• 845 - 8 programming days for the price of 5!

You need to place your order in March 2013 (see this blog for full conditions) so contact Robin now to reserve your discounted time and make your IT budget go further.

Microsoft Office 2013 now officially available

The latest version of Microsoft Office - Office 2013 - is now officially available with a version available to install on a Windows PC and a "cloud" version accessible via a web browser.

Our own testing has not been particularly positive, see this blog entry for an example of the results!

However, most of our customers will be switching to Office 2013 at some point and so we've been checking that our standard products (which all use Office to a lesser or greater extent) are 100% compatible.

The good news is that they are, so you're safe to upgrade to Office 2013 if you use Tracker, Toy Tracker or any of our other systems.

100% urgent problems solved on time in December

Kim & I have just analysed our problem stats for December and we've had another excellent month.

All urgent problems logged were solved on time - 100% - and we're on track to deliver the same performance this month too.  Looking across all problems (including low and medium priority), we were in time 96.31% of the time which is still very good especially when you consider that we had 163 calls for assistance logged last month.

If you want to see the analysis for yourself, go along to http://www.start-software.com/support/performance-charts/.

Snow news - 21 Jan 2013 - please read

We're still suffering from snow-related travel problems here in the Midlands today so please bear with us.

We have phone cover on the support line - 0845 612 2402 - so please call problems and queries in as usual.  You can also log them via the Start Software client portal.

Thanks for your understanding.

Robin presenting at Microsoft HQ

I've been presenting at Microsoft UK's HQ in Reading today for the Microsoft Access User Group.

Microsoft's UK HQ

The topic of the presentation was how to package Access applications into saleable systems and I focussed on our successful "Toy Tracker" application (see www.toy-tracker.co.uk for more info).

Ready to present Toy Tracker to the Access User Group

I travelled by train and had to battle floods around Oxford which meant that I was an hour later arriving and missed some of the Access 2013 presentation from Kevin Bell, Microsoft Seattle.  Access 2013 looks interesting for "information users" who are wanting to create simple databases accessible over the web, but of less interest to Access developers building desktop apps.  Looks nice though!

New client "portal" now live

I don't know if you've noticed our new-look web site at http://start-software.com?

It has lots of new content and many new sections with even more to come.  One of the most important new sections already live is our new "portal" for customers to log in and:

• tell us about a problem or ask us a question
• chase up open problems
• search old problems and queries
• monitor work we are doing for you.

Click where I've highlighted (on the left-hand side) to log in to the Start Software client portal

Your existing "extranet" user ID and password should work - if it doesn't or you want a hand logging in, give Elaine a call on 0845 612 2402 or email support@start-software.co.uk as normal.

We're testing Microsoft Office 2013

Office 2013 is soon to be released to the public and our Microsoft Partner status has given us early access so that we can check that Tracker and our other products are going to be compatible.

The staff here at Start Software have given it a luke-warm reception so far but there are some nice features in it for sure.

Also - it looks like Microsoft might be developing something for iOS (iPhones and iPads) as well as Android phones and tablets to allow Office docs to be viewed or edited... that might be interesting?  I don't expect to see that being launched until Spring 2013 at the earliest.  See http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/281676/scitech/technology/ms-office-for-ios-android-due-march-2013 for more info.

Best keyboard for Android smartphones?

I was reminded about "Swype" the other day by a magazine article listing the top 10 downloads for Android devices.

Swype lets you enter text onto an Android smartphone much faster than typing  by letting you run your finger to trace each word on the keyboard.  It doesn't sound fast but it is!  Blindingly quick and very clever too as you can be really inaccurate and it always seems to guess the right word.

Really worth a go if you do a lot of data entry on your phone (so especially good for Tracker Mobile users).

Start Software exhibit at UKITA AGM

Last night Elaine & I attended the UK IT Association (UKITA) Annual General Meeting.

Very conveniently, it was held at the University of Wolverhampton's Telford campus, just across the car park from our office at the e-Innovation Centre.

Here are some of the photos from the event:

Have you got a problem with our software? Help us to help you

I saw this blog post yesterday and can't believe I haven't come across the facility before! http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HelpYourUsersRecordAndReportBugsWithTheProblemStepsRecorder.aspx

Users often call us with problems but struggle to explain how they got the issue in the first place and - more importantly from our point of view - how we can reproduce the problem and so fix it for them.

There is a Microsoft tool built into Windows 7 and Windows 8 which is designed to make this really easy.  It is called the Problem Steps Recorder.

To fire it up:

1 Press the Start button then Run

2 Type "psr"

3 Press Start Record and then do whatever you need to do to show us the problem...

and when you've finished, you can email us the file and we'll be able to see exactly what you were doing and so we'll be able to fix it for you!

Prices held for 2012/13

We're really pleased to announce that we will be holding our prices across the board for 2012/13.  We will not be increasing any of our prices this coming year.

Our focus on overheads and costs means that we are able to offer clients some of the best software prices and labour rates in the industry and this directly benefits all of our clients.

Please note: In order to keep our prices low, we have strict cash chasing procedures and customers needs to keep to our 30 day terms in order to avoid late payment charges and interest.

Financial results for Start Software 2011-12

I've just "done the numbers" for our financial year 2011-12.

Despite the economy being flat we've increased turnover by 12% and profit by 2.5% which means that this has been our best ever year here at Start Software.  This is all due to the hard work and dedication of the team here and the loyalty of our customers - thanks to you all.

During the year, we've invested over 25% of our income into new software product research and development and we expect this investment to deliver results on the bottom line this coming year and next.

Thanks again to you, our customers, for your support this year.  You are the reason we come to work and we will continue to strive to deliver the software and services your business needs this coming year.

Latest problem solved analysis statistics

Kim and I have just done our monthly analysis of the time it has taken us to resolve queries and problems raised by customers and here is the latest graph showing the results:

We've got data going back to 2003 as you can see... and what's clear from the results is that we have got better and better over the years at meeting the deadlines set by our customers.  The blue line is the analysis for *all* problems and queries raised; the red one shows the results for problems marked as high priority.

I'm really proud of these results and I enjoy showing them to customers who have long memories and remember the days when we were less professional about our call logging!

First support video posted on YouTube

We've previously posted support videos on our own web site here: http://start-software.com/support/help-videos/

For most clients, this has worked fine but some (especially those with iPads) have struggled to get the videos to play.  One such client had a problem this week and needed us to show him how to restart Mobile Data Studio (Tracker Mobile) if surveyors were struggling to send their data in.

YouTube turned out to be the solution!  Uploading the video to YouTube put it into a format which his iPad was happy to display... problem solved!

If you would like to see a support video relating to any of our software packages, contact the office (support@start-software.co.uk) and we'll upload a video to YouTube for you.

Every suggestion made will get you a box of chocolates so get suggesting!

ISO 9001:2008 "surveyance" visit successfully negotiated!

Our new ISO9001:2008 assessor spent Wednesday with us to check our processes and performance meet the rigorous ISO9001:2008 standards.

We're a small business and so spending the time and effort to meet the standards can be a strain on us all, but it has been worth it, and he seemed impressed with what we do and - more importantly - the impact it has had on our customer satisfaction scores.

We're awaiting the final report but it does look like he only found a single minor issue so congratulation to Quality Manager Kim and the team.

Customer satisfaction results in for 2011/12

I always hold my breath when the results come in for our customer satisfaction survey... but I can breathe again!  2011/12 was an improvement on 2010/11 with the results in each category showing that customers are more pleased with us than they've ever been.

On average we're up about 5% on last year (and last year's scores were good) so - thanks to all of the hard work from the Start Software team - our customers are generally really pleased with us.

We scored 10/10 from more customers than ever but we also had a few concerning scores where customers felt that either we didn't have enough time to spend with them during training, for example, or development work took longer than we anticipated.  These are fair comments and we'll do our best to address them.

Thanks for your feedback and keep it coming.  You still have chance to send in your questionnaire by clicking this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dExhUExOZnVjUC1oaFFocVNRcXRoMlE6MQ#gid=0

Cycling finished - back to reality...

The week's cycling was hot, wet and hard work at times, but also great fun.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me so far.  I was hoping to raise £400 (£1 for each mile cycled from Paris to Much Wenlock) but thanks to your generosity I'm approaching £1000!

If you haven't sponsored me already, it isn't too late and every penny will go to Cancer Research:

https://www.justgiving.com/paris2muchwenlock

Thanks again,

Robin