Support Desk Performance: September 2026

Our Support Desk team solved 881 support requests during September 2026. This represents a return to typical volume following the quieter month of August, and is consistent with the number of tickets resolved in the same period last year.

Across the Start Software product family—including Alpha Tracker, Greenfield, and ecoScribe—we completed 89.78% of all requests within their target response and resolution times. For high-priority requests, this figure was 94.19%.

Our year-to-date performance is as follows:

• 8,076 total requests solved.
• 7,433 completed within target response and resolution times.
• 1,423 high-priority requests completed within target times.

Compared with August, the team handled a significantly higher workload, resolving 141 more requests than the previous month. Despite this increase in volume, our efficiency improved, with the percentage of requests completed on time rising from 87.28% to 89.78%.

The majority of requests this month related to Alpha Tracker, which accounted for 629 of the solved tickets. We also saw steady activity across our other products, including Greenfield. From a regional perspective, the UK desk handled 695 requests, while our Australia and New Zealand teams resolved 174.

The most common themes for support this month involved data queries and server disk space management. We have also focused on document production queries and addressing software bugs identified during use. Our team added 13 new articles to the knowledge base this month to assist with self-service and identified 106 further opportunities to improve our documentation and automated help systems.

We would like to thank our Support Desk team for their hard work during a busy month and our customers for their continued feedback and cooperation.

If you require technical assistance, please contact the Support Desk in the usual way or visit our support page: Start Software support.

Heading to NORAC? Look out for Kim & Jamie from Alpha Tracker!

Kim and Jamie are heading to the NORAC Conference tomorrow, Thursday 1 October, at the Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel. If you’re going too, make sure you say hello!

Jamie & Kim at NORAC 2026

Whether you’re already an Alpha Tracker user or simply curious about what our software could do for your asbestos consultancy, they’d love to chat.

Ask them anything about Alpha Tracker. Bring your questions, share your ideas, or tell them about that everyday task you’d love to make easier. It’s a great opportunity to talk through how you work and what you need from your software.

And if you’d like a sneak peek at what’s new, ask Kim and Jamie to show you our brand new software platform! We’re excited to give you a look and hear what you think.  They can also book you in for a live demo in October.

We always enjoy catching up with clients and meeting new people from across the asbestos industry. Those conversations help us understand your challenges and shape what we develop next.

See you at NORAC — and don’t be shy about asking for a demo!

AI and Alpha Anywhere: Robin shares practical tips in latest Alpha Software webinar

Can AI help you understand an unfamiliar Alpha Anywhere component, improve your Xbasic code or check the design of a running application?

Start Software’s Robin Bennett has just presented a webinar with Alpha Software showing how to put AI to work on real Alpha Anywhere projects. The recording will be available on YouTube in a few days, so keep an eye out if you missed the live session.

Robin ready to present

Robin started with a look back at his June 2023 webinar, in which he demonstrated creating a universal database generator with ChatGPT and Alpha Anywhere.

Three years ago! Back when Alpha webinars were 50 minutes long and we were experimenting with free AI tools. These days, Start Software’s monthly AI spend runs into four figures — a reflection of how much these tools have become part of our everyday work.

Robin even wondered whether that early demonstration meant he could claim to have invented “vibe coding”. We’ll leave that debate to the historians!

This time, the focus was on practical ways Alpha developers can use AI, including:

• Planning an application: turning an idea into suggested screens and a database structure, using a travel and memories app for a 30th wedding anniversary as an example.

• Improving Xbasic: asking AI to review code, suggest optimisations and help investigate errors, including errors supplied as screenshots.

• Reviewing API code: exploring improvements to an existing REST API, including authorisation with a separate API key for each operation.

• Understanding a component: supplying an Alpha Anywhere UX component saved in JSON format and asking AI to explain its behaviour and identify possible bugs.

• Checking design consistency: using ChatGPT’s agent capabilities to navigate a web application and review its screens.

These are useful starting points for anyone maintaining or developing an Alpha application. AI can help you investigate unfamiliar code, explore an idea and spot things that deserve closer attention. Developer review and testing remain essential.

At Start Software, that work builds on experience with Alpha Anywhere stretching back to 2011. We develop and support business applications worldwide, working across Alpha Anywhere, Alpha TransForm and Alpha Cloud.

UPDATE: The webinar is now on YouTube for you to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqxx2qGed9E

Microsoft Edge fix released for Alpha Tracker browser issue

Good news for Alpha Tracker users affected by the recent browser issue: Microsoft has released a fix in Microsoft Edge version 153.0.4234.48. The issue could cause Alpha Tracker to become unresponsive or stop responding to clicks.

If you use Edge, enter edge://settings/help in the address bar to check for updates. Install any available update and restart Edge to complete it. If your organisation manages browser updates centrally, your IT team may need to make the update available.

Google Chrome’s fix was already available when we first reported the issue. If Alpha Tracker still becomes unresponsive after updating and restarting your browser, please contact Alpha Tracker Support so we can investigate.

Temporary Support Arrangements for Australia & New Zealand

We wanted to let our Australian and New Zealand Alpha Tracker clients know about a temporary change to our usual support arrangements from Tuesday 22 September to Monday 12 October.

Judy is on her travels - we're still here to support you 24x7

Judy will be travelling during this period. She will still be working, but not from her normal timezone, so Jaime in our Adelaide office will be taking the lead on day-to-day support for our Australian and New Zealand clients, supported by our wider overseas support team.

Please continue to contact us as normal

There is no change to how you should get in touch with Alpha Tracker Support:

Email: support@alpha-tracker.com.au
Call: 1300 946 130

Our support service will continue to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and all calls will be answered as usual.

During this temporary period, we would ask clients to allow for slightly longer resolution times than normal in some cases, particularly where an issue needs input from a particular member of the team.

Jaime and the wider support team will be working together to make sure queries continue to be handled promptly and that any urgent issues receive the attention they need.

Judy will return to her normal working arrangements from Tuesday 13 October, at which point our usual Australia and New Zealand support arrangements will resume.

Thank you for your understanding, and as always, please don't hesitate to contact the support team if you need us.

Recent Edge and Chrome updates may cause Alpha Tracker to become unresponsive

We are aware of a browser issue that may cause Alpha Tracker to become unresponsive or stop responding to mouse clicks for some users.

Microsoft has confirmed a known issue affecting Microsoft Edge version 153. The issue can cause web applications to become unresponsive during normal use. Because the problem originates in the Chromium browser technology, it has also affected Google Chrome version 153.

Check and update your browser

Enter the appropriate address below into your browser’s address bar:

• Microsoft Edge: edge://settings/help
• Google Chrome: chrome://settings/help

Google has released an updated version of Chrome containing a fix. Chrome users should install all available updates and then restart the browser.

A fix for Microsoft Edge is still pending.

Recommended workaround for Edge users

If Alpha Tracker becomes unresponsive while using Microsoft Edge:

• Refresh the page or restart Edge. This may restore access temporarily.
• Temporarily use the latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
• Contact your IT team or Alpha Tracker Support for advice if you cannot use another browser.

Organisations managing Edge centrally may also consider temporarily returning affected users to Edge version 152 until Microsoft releases the fix. Browser rollbacks should be performed by your IT administrator.

This is a confirmed browser-related issue rather than a fault within Alpha Tracker. We are monitoring the situation and will provide further guidance when Microsoft releases an updated version of Edge.

For further technical information, see Microsoft Edge known issues.

Welcome to the Alpha Tracker Family, Tetra Tech!

We’re delighted to welcome Tetra Tech as the latest UK consultancy to join the Alpha Tracker family.

Tetra Tech is a major technical, engineering and environmental consultancy, with more than 6,000 employees across its UK, Ireland and Netherlands operations and a much wider global presence.

Their UK health, safety and compliance teams have extensive expertise across areas that are particularly close to home for us at Alpha Tracker, including fire safety, asbestos management and legionella/water quality. Their services range from fire risk assessment and fire engineering through to asbestos and legionella consultancy and accredited training.

So, naturally, we’re very pleased that Alpha Tracker will now be supporting the Tetra Tech team in managing this work.

Training Underway

The project has now reached another important milestone, with Tetra Tech completing their first Alpha Tracker training session with Kim from the Start Software team.

Some of the photos from the first training session

As the photos show, it was very much a hands-on session — phones out, screens up and plenty of discussion around how Alpha Tracker will work in practice for the team.

For us, those first training sessions are always an exciting point in a new implementation. The software starts moving from being a project into something people will actually be using every day.

Another Major Consultancy Chooses Alpha Tracker

It’s particularly satisfying to see another multidisciplinary UK consultancy choosing Alpha Tracker to help manage its compliance work.

Alpha Tracker has been developed specifically around the workflows of asbestos, legionella/water hygiene and fire consultancies, bringing surveying, scheduling, field data collection, reporting and management information together in one system.

We’re looking forward to working with the Tetra Tech team as their implementation progresses and seeing Alpha Tracker put to work across another leading UK consultancy.

Welcome aboard, Tetra Tech!

And a big thank you to everyone involved in the first training session — particularly Kim for getting the team off to a great start.