TESTIMONIAL & Case Study

Interview with ROBIN BENNETT,
Director
START SOFTWARE

ABOUT START SOFTWARE

The Start Software team is passionate about transforming ideas into software solutions. As a multi-award-winning software development and consulting business, they create desktop software and mobile applications for organisations of every size and industry. With a team comprised of software designers, developers, testers and technical authors, Start Software aims to create easy-to-use software that enables organisations to be more efficient, organised and profitable.

Spanning nearly two decades, Start Software is a global organisation with offices based in the UK, Indonesia and Australia. Start Software has been globally recognised for its asbestos management and environmental tracking software – Alpha Tracker and Tracker platforms.

The Alpha Tracker and Tracker platforms are software systems designed for smart devices and the cloud to automate asbestos surveying and asbestos registers. The software platforms have been highly successful in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, saving asbestos surveyors and consultants thousands of dollars a month.

The CHALLENGE

Start Software prides itself on transforming clunky processes into more streamlined, more efficient methods using smart technology. Initially, the process of identifying, analysing and collating asbestos data in buildings was a paper-based activity.

Robin Bennett the Director of Start Software, explains, “it was very much a paper process – people were taking out clipboards, paperwork and forms and, in some cases, film cameras, not even digital cameras. We were looking to try and revolutionise that business so that it became a paperless business”.

“We knew we wanted to capture data onsite. We knew that handheld data capture devices were becoming more mainstream, and were increasingly becoming better understood and better used by people. So we were looking for some software that would enable us to capture information onsite and remove the double handling of information” explains Robin.

The SOLUTION

With the shift in user behaviourand handheld devices, Start Software looked to streamline daily activity using the software.

“Previously, people going out on site to capture data about asbestos in buildings would take a range of paperwork with them to complete a day’s work. They would return to their office with a stack of paperwork, and at some point, typically, an admin person would key that information into a system. Once the information was finalised, a report would be produced and forwarded to the client” said Robin.

Start Software wanted to change how the surveying and consulting industry operated and organised information. Using Mobile Data Studio (MDS), Start Software was able to build easy-to-use data capture applications.

Mobile Data Studio (MDS) is a fully integrated mobile forms design studio that enables data to be captured onsite by field staff. The information collected is sent to central servers via WiFi or any internet connection. Information is then stored in SQL Server databases, Access files, HTML, XML and many other formats.

Established in 2001, MDS is now used in over 50 countries due to its user-friendly interface and ability to drag and drop points of the process into data capture forms.

“We were looking to change the way the industry worked. With the MDS product, we’ve been able to help a lot of large consultancies move away from paperwork, clipboards, old fashioned cameras to using a handheld device to capture live data. This has enabled industries to become a great deal more efficient” continued Robin.

The SERVICE

Using Mobile Data Studio, Start Software has created applications for a multitude of businesses and industries not limited to:

Surveying including asbestos, general condition, air and water quality
Asbestos consultancies, asbestos consultants and asbestos surveyors (Tracker Mobile)
Driver collections and deliveries
Mileage and expense recording
Quality checks on the rail network
Audits on repairs to gas, electric and water networks
Equipment inventories
Legionella risk assessments
Air quality
Fire risk assessments

With over 25 million data items collected for a range of industries, Start Solutions is proud to have delivered innovative, reliable and robust applications for their clients.

“MDS has provided continuous product development solutions and that’s one of the reasons we’ve continued to use them over the years. Despite there now being alternatives on the market, we’ve had a good relationship with the development team. We’ve been able to ask for new features and their team has delivered on these requirements” said Robin.

The OUTCOME

Start Solutions is a pioneer of the industry and a leading asbestos software provider in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

“Mobile Data Studio played a big part in our asbestos software. We’ve captured nearly 70 million items of asbestos data on the MDS platform. This makes us the world’s biggest database of asbestos information, something we’re very proud of” advises Robin.

With the development of onsite data capture technology, clients can provide improved service delivery and accuracy of information. “What it meant for the clients that took on our solution was it was able to change their business completely and offer a much faster turnaround and improved service delivery” Robin added.

Robin explains that the software transformed the industry, “It really took off, and asbestos consultancies started to switch to capturing live data onsite. Everybody followed very quickly because those who didn’t use this technology were left behind”.

“As MDS has developed over the years, and obviously, we moved on from the old PDAs to Android and Apple devices, it meant that the software became increasingly easier to deploy. Now the process and software are just an embedded part of the industry. So these days, it’s expected that the site data capture would be on a mobile device. It’s really a testament to MDS” noted Robin.

The FUTURE

Start Software continues to look to the future with innovation and continually improves its client application delivery. “Over the last 18 months, we’ve been moving more and more to serverless technologies. We’re almost at the point now with our system that we don’t require a server per installation and we can use cloud services” explains Robin.

The recent merger of Mobile Data Studio with Australian-based Mobile Data Anywhere is catapulting the MDS solution into a new era that dovetails with Start Software’s digital innovation.

It is a move that will help to accelerate the transition of Start Software and other MDS clients from an on-premise solution to a completely cloudbased solution.

The switch from on-premise to serverless technologies will offer greater scalability, more flexibility and improved speed. In addition, the Mobile Data Anywhere product is feature-rich and easily tailored to individual needs.

CONCLUSION

“We’re always looking for a niche. We want to establish and build products that meet our clients’ requirements and make our team industry leaders. For asbestos, we realised that it was underdeveloped, and there was a lack of technology being used. The product was so successful that we really didn’t need to advertise because people would come to us as they’d heard of the revolution”.

“Over five or six years, most of the consultancies in this market switched from being paperless to using our system, because they knew if they didn’t, they would be left behind in their market. So that gave us a really strong market position” concluded Robin.

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