Aligned Assets

Aligned Assets Appoint New Managing Director

2012-02-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the appointment of Andy Hird as their new Managing Director.

Now in his tenth year with the company, Andy started as Professional Services Manager, adding the Software Development portfolio in 2009. During that time he has been recognised as driving forward the high standards that has earned Aligned Assets the reputation as the ‘go to company’ for anyone looking for gazetteer or address management software and services.

Andy gained a Degree in Geography from Middlesex University in 1997 and subsequently spent over five years working at a large Local Authority, joining Aligned Assets in 2003. He has been responsible for bringing the consultancy, support, development and testing teams together into one department, which has seen a higher level of integrated working, the result of which has been a far greater responsiveness to customer requirements.

The company, who provides gazetteer management systems into over 100 public sector organisations, including local authorities, police forces, and fire and rescue services, has seen considerable growth over the last few years and are at the forefront of developing intuitive software solutions for use with the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase products.

Speaking of his appointment, Andy said, “I’m delighted to have been given this opportunity and am excited about the future. Aligned Assets have always taken a customer first approach to the business and this will remain a core element moving forward.”

Outgoing Managing Director, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Andy has extensive hands-on experience and insight into the needs of the public sector. These facets, combined with his natural leadership and intuitive organisation skills, make him the ideal candidate to take over the reins at Aligned Assets.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

AddressBase Premium Gazetteer System Made Available To All Emergency Services

2012-02-01T02:09:00.001-08:00

Symphony Bluelight, the Country’s most advanced emergency service gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets, has been formally released to the UK market.

After four months of intensive development work and the successful live deployment at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, all police forces, fire, and ambulance services can start to integrate the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium into their frontline and back office systems.

Combining a corporate gazetteer management system, web services, data matching software and the ability to automate updates to all other systems, Symphony Bluelight is a comprehensive software suite, built in collaboration with the emergency services to address their specific needs and requirements.

It will enable them to hold AddressBase Premium, import change-only updates, build in and maintain local records, add access points, security classifications and high priority flags to addresses, plus incorporate a customisable list of abbreviations to make searching the data far more intuitive and user-friendly.

“For many, the transition to AddressBase Premium will be a lengthy process,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets. “Their existing address data will need to be matched to and built into AddressBase Premium, which is why matching and validation software is an integral part of Symphony Bluelight.”

“Once the corporate gazetteer database has been constructed, the Symphony Bluelight system allows for all changes to be automatically exported to Command & Control and other systems, whilst web services can be deployed to give access to addressing data throughout an organisation.”

Symphony Bluelight is the only gazetteer management system that was built specifically for the emergency services and is currently the only one that is compatible with AddressBase Premium.

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

ABOUT ADDRESSBASE PREMIUM
AddressBase Premium provides a complete view of an address or property, including its full lifecycle from creation to retirement. It contains all current addresses, alternative addresses, provisional properties and even historic property information where available. With an unprecedented level of detail, AddressBase Premium is most suited to the emergency services for whom this level of detail is essential, but also for the utility and telecom companies who will benefit greatly from the pre-build, provisional addressing information.

British Police Forces Set To Benefit From AddressBase Premium

2012-01-17T07:18:00.001-08:00

Police forces across Great Britain are set to benefit from a new source of address data from the Ordnance Survey.

AddressBase Premium will see the amalgamation of local government data with the Ordnance Survey’s existing products, plus addressing from the Royal Mail, the combination of which will see the Country’s most accurate and definitive database of addresses ever created.

Increased accuracy and the higher level of detail will be a significant improvement on existing sources, which will not only ensure a greater ability to mobilise to incidents, but can be used throughout police systems from crime and intelligence, to case and custody.

Every record in AddressBase Premium will contain a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), which will be key to linking up systems. Whereas an address can have multiple spellings, there will only ever be one UPRN, which means correctly linking property related data will be made a lot simpler.

Analysis and intelligence will be much improved by having this ‘golden thread’ linking all current and historic data about a property, whilst the ability to provide officers on the ground with accurate information about past incidents or intelligence such as firearm licenses has the potential to save lives.

AddressBase Premium will also enable police forces to make considerable financial savings by moving from the use of multiple sources of address data down to just one. Many of these existing sources have to be paid for, and the management and updating of the data is duplicated across departments. AddressBase Premium will be freely available to police forces under the terms of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and its use as a corporate resource will enable the redeployment of these currently duplicated workloads.

“We have been working with the police for almost five years in gazetteer and address management, and AddressBase Premium is the undoubtedly the most comprehensive database of addresses that’s ever been made available,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets. “The combination of the UPRN, historic data, alternative names, non-postal addresses and the fact that each record has precise geographic coordinates is set to make it one the most important developments in policing for years.”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/addressbase

Aligned Assets Launch AddressBase Survey

2011-12-09T08:25:00.001-08:00

Gazetteer and address management specialists Aligned Assets have launched a survey to find out peoples’ views on the new AddressBase range of addressing products.

Launched in September 2011, the AddressBase products have created much discussion in the gazetteer and address management world, and the survey is an attempt to quantify that debate.

With three different products available, AddressBase, Address Plus and AddressBase Premium, central to the survey is the question of which of the products people are planning on using and whether the difference between them is fully understood.

In these tough economic times, price is inevitably a factor and the survey will seek to find out what people think about the levels the AddressBase products are being pitched at. As well as price, value will also be looked at, with each of the products’ features being graded according to importance.

The AddressBase products have been created from the National Address Gazetteer, which is formed through the blending of three existing datasets – local government’s NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer), Ordnance Survey’s OS MasterMap® Address Layer 2 and the Royal Mail's PAF (Postcode Address File).

The AddressBase products will be free at the point of delivery to members of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA), which includes local and central government, the emergency services and the NHS.

They will also be available to the private sector as replacements for products such as the Ordnance Survey’s ADDRESS-POINT and AddressLayer 2, both of which will be gradually phased out over time. Key users of the AddressBase products will be the financial services sector, utility companies and those involved in the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Of the survey, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “We have received so many enquiries about the AddressBase products both from the public and the private sector. As with anything new and different there are many questions being asked, so this survey will serve to bring all those opinions together.”

To take part in the survey please visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/addressbasesurvey

Aligned Assets Gazetteer Management Systems Now In Use By Over 20% of English Fire and Rescue Services

2011-11-30T08:39:00.001-08:00

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is the latest emergency service to select Aligned Assets to supply its corporate gazetteer management system.

By opting for the Symphony Bluelight system they are joining an expanding group of emergency services, which includes the award winning Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and the British Transport Police, both of whom are using Symphony Bluelight to experience the very best in gazetteer technology.

As the only gazetteer system in the UK that is compatible with the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium, the UK’s first definitive address database, Symphony Bluelight will provide North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service with all the tools needed to create an operationally-ready corporate gazetteer.

Covering over 8,280 square kilometres, encompassing both the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will be using Symphony Bluelight to build on the AddressBase Premium data with many non-postal addresses that are essential to their work.

Examples of the additional data include moorland features, potholes and caves, whilst risk elements will also be written in such as premises with oxygen canisters. With this specific, local data, combined with AddressBase Premium, the gazetteer will contain data to cover every contingency.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service are already looking to the future with plans to integrate their corporate gazetteer into all frontline and back office systems through the use of Aligned Assets’ integration software. By using Symphony SinglePoint and Symphony iExchange, all systems, from mobilising to fire safety, will be accessing the most detailed, accurate and up to date addressing data ever available.

“We’re delighted to welcome North Yorkshire as the tenth Fire and Rescue Service to select Symphony Bluelight for their corporate gazetteer management system,” said Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets. “The plans they have for their gazetteer are very exciting, offering an ever improving service to the public. We look forward to supporting them every step of the way.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Customers Dominate National Awards

2011-11-17T02:05:00.001-08:00

Users of Aligned Assets’ gazetteer management systems have dominated this year’s National Gazetteer Exemplar Awards.

With entry open to public sector bodies across England and Wales, the Awards were designed to showcase best practice in the use of gazetteers, foster innovation, recognise and reward hard work in the local government community, and to provide a benchmark for quality and improvement.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council topped the winner’s rostrum by collecting two awards during the event in Nottingham. Their first award was as winner of the Financial category, with their ‘Big Bang’ project considered by the judges to be the best example of real financial savings through the use of the National Gazetteers.

Their second award was for the most improved Local Land and Property Gazetteer, which was an award that very much demonstrated the hard work and dedication of the whole team at Barnsley Council.

Also picking up an award was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service who won the Citizen Award for their ‘Risk Information Project’, which is having a direct and tangible improvement on both community safety and the ability to respond to incidents.

The Integration Award, was won by a partnership of public sectors bodies in the Greater Bristol area and included two Aligned Assets users, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset Councils, whilst also winning in the Integration category was Adur & Worthing Council who picked up the Best Practice award for their shared services, which is seeing substantial savings and a higher level of service to the public.

Other Aligned Assets winners included seven Best in Region Awards and 22 Gold Standard Awards, which led Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam to say, “It’s fantastic to see so many of our customers gaining the recognition they deserve. There have been so many examples this year of how efficient and effective use of gazetteers can make a real difference.”

The National Gazetteers 2011 Exemplar Awards were presented at the 'Everything Happens Somewhere' conference and exhibition organised by GeoPlace LLP and held at The Albert Hall in Nottingham on 3rd November.

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Achieve a UK First

2011-11-11T05:02:00.000-08:00

AddressBase Premium sees its first operational deployment at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service using software supplied by Aligned Assets

Woking, Surrey 10th November 2011 – Aligned Assets are proud to announce that having taken receipt of the latest Symphony Bluelight software, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service have become the inaugural user of the UK’s first ever centralised and definitive address database.

After the historic agreement between the Ordnance Survey and the Local Government Group that saw the amalgamation of all local government, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail address data into what is known as the ‘National Address Gazetteer’, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service are the first to start using ‘AddressBase Premium’, the most detailed of the products derived from this national database.

This data, the most advanced ever created and available to the entire public sector, will give them knowledge of every property, street and piece of land across the County, along with countless ‘non-addressable’ objects such as bus stops and park benches, all of which are designed to aid effective mobilising, target community safety and deliver focused risk reduction activity.

Because the bulk of the data in AddressBase Premium will come from local government, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service will be in receipt of information about proposed developments, so even before a property is occupied, they will know about it. Additionally, the wealth of historic information will help in finding buildings that are vacant, since these can still be located using their previous names.

One of the key elements within this new dataset are the UPRNs (unique property reference numbers), which are attached to each record upon creation. This will enable Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to create definitive links between all their systems, as well as with other organisations such as the police force, ambulance service, local, and central government.

Speaking about the use of AddressBase Premium, John Hinton, Community Risk Intelligence Data Manager at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said, “This development will allow us to operate with the most complete and data rich gazetteer available, update our community safety database, coordinate data flow and meet government expectations for data sharing”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

AddressBase Explained at Aligned Assets Event

2011-10-21T05:05:00.001-07:00

Woking, Surrey 18th October 2011 – On Thursday 6th October 2011, delegates from across the UK’s public and private sectors came together for a unique, information packed event providing more details on the National Address Gazetteer, plus further specifics on the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase TM range of addressing products.

Held at Hammersmith Town Hall in London, they were treated to a variety of presentations and debate, with the event split into two main sections. The first half of the day looked at what the National Address Gazetteer is, and how it is created and maintained. The second half focused on how the AddressBase products could be used, with real-world examples given by British Transport Police, the Ordnance Survey and Aligned Assets.

The day was started off with a presentation by given by Richard Duffield of GeoPlace, the custodians of the National Address Gazetteer, who gave an overview of how local government data in the form of the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) was being blended with the addressing products of the Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail.

This was complemented by Darren Spice, Information Systems Manager at Guildford Borough Council, who explained the significant contribution made by local authorities in ensuring the on-going accuracy and integrity of the data.

Nick Turner from the Ordnance Survey spoke extensively about how the National Address Gazetteer was forming the basis of the AddressBase range of products and how these products could be used, which was expanded on by Mike Wallace of British Transport Police, who for several years have been leading the way in the use of corporate address systems.

Finishing the day was the managing director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam, who gave a demonstration of software products that could be used to integrate the AddressBase products into any organisations’ systems and business processes.

“The day was very informative and it was useful to have speakers covering both those involved in the use and in the development of the National Address Gazetteer,” said Jennie Pitt, Control Project Support Manager at North Yorkshire FRS, who concluded by saying, “I now feel confident in the process moving forward.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public sector including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the private and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Aligned Assets To Be Ready With AddressBase Products

2011-09-26T07:40:00.001-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are proving themselves to once again be ahead of the competition by announcing today that their range of gazetteer and address management software will be compatible with the new AddressBase TM range of addressing products.

AddressBase will be the Country’s most definitive database of address and location data ever created, and will see the development of a process that will allow joined up working across the entire public sector and private sector.

Formally announced by the Ordnance Survey at the AGI Conference on 22nd September, AddressBase is the name given to the publicly available products formed from the merging of local government’s National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), Address Layer 2 from the Ordnance Survey and the Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF).

The compatible software from Aligned Assets will initially include the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer, which gives industry leading gazetteer management functionality to the fire service, police force and ambulance services.

Additionally, compatibility will be in place for Symphony iExchange that will enable the exporting of AddressBase data to both frontline and back office systems, and Symphony SinglePoint that will give corporate access via web services. This will allow the emergency services to have a level of addressing accuracy never seen before and the resilience that comes from every person and every system referencing the same data.

Symphony SinglePoint will also enable access for the NHS, local and central government, the national parks and many more across the public sector, for whom the AddressBase products will be available under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and to the private sector to whom it will be available under commercial licenses.

Intuitively able to ‘plug’ into a wide variety of systems from CRMs to GIS, Symphony SinglePoint will allow everyone to enjoy a level of addressing accuracy never before available.

“For all our customers in the emergency services and for all those in the private sector looking to use these AddressBase products, we’re invested considerable resources to ensure that their transition will be as seamless as possible,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.

“We’re entering a new era in addressing and with the AddressBase range of products offering the most definitive address data ever created, we are producing the most advanced and cost-effective software solutions to allow organisations, both large and small, to gain full value from it.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Two More Law of Street Naming and Numbering Training Courses Announced

2011-09-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Woking, Surrey 21st September 2011 – Aligned Assets are pleased to announced the scheduling of two more training courses in the ‘Law of Street Naming and Numbering’.

To be held in Bristol on 29th November and in Bolton on 6th December, the courses will be run by the UK's leading expert in the field, James Richardson, a solicitor in local government from 1982 until his retirement in 2004.

These one day courses are designed to equip the delegate with all the knowledge and skills required to legally fulfil their statutory duties in Street Naming and Numbering.

As an essential component of local government, Street Naming and Numbering plays a crucial role in everything from the collection of council tax to the collection of waste and recycling. Despite its importance to many of the modern functions within local government, the law governing it dates back to 1847 and in order for the process to operate correctly and within the confines of the law, understanding the legalities involved is of the utmost importance.

Items covered by the course include the Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847 and the Public Health Act 1925, plus explanations on how a council can adopt either of them. Also included will be the requirements in the Local Government Act 1972, how to investigate rule breakers and prosecute offences, plus the large amount of case studies to go through and discuss.

After attending one of the courses in London, Evan D. Jones, Senior Engineer for Highways at Isle of Anglesey Council said, “It was a very worthwhile and very helpful course. There were good presentations and excellent opportunities to interact, discuss and ask questions.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Powys Become the 13th Welsh Authority to Select Aligned Assets

2011-08-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Suppliers of gazetteer management solutions, Aligned Assets, now supply 60% of all local authorities in Wales after they come top of the list for Powys County Council

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce Powys County Council as the latest customer of their Symphony Suite of gazetteer solutions.

The Council, which covers a quarter of Wales in terms of area, has opted to use the advance gazetteer management system, Symphony iManage, for the management of their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) and Associated Street Data (ASD).

Additionally, they will be using Symphony iExchange to automate exports of their gazetteer data to their back office systems and Symphony SinglePoint to give everyone in the authority the ability to search and query the gazetteer via web services.

Cllr Liam Fitzpatrick, Cabinet Member for Change, Communication and Performance, explained the decision behind selecting Aligned Assets. “Our existing gazetteer management system was no longer suitable to meet out requirements so we sought alternatives”

“Aligned Assets are the biggest supplier in Wales, with a reputation for first-class software and also for involving and listening to the end users in terms of continual development of the product.”

“After a long process in which we considered functionality, price and the potential of shared services with a neighbouring authority, Aligned Assets came top of the list in all aspects.”

Managing director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam, said, “This process has shown yet again that in terms of gazetteer management, whether in local government or the emergency services, we remain number one.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Set the Benchmark As Two More Fire Services Select Symphony Bluelight

2011-08-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

Woking, Surrey 2nd August 2011 – Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service and Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service are the latest organisations to select Aligned Assets as the supplier for their gazetteer management systems.

Both have chosen Symphony Bluelight, the UK’s only gazetteer system built specifically for the emergency services and compatible with the National Address Gazetteer.

Built around the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer, they will benefit from direct consultation over several years with the emergency services and through that a wealth of functionality not available from any other supplier.

As users of Symphony Bluelight, they will be joining an extensive network of users across the country including Kent, Merseyside, Cumbria and Humberside Fire and Rescue Services, along with Surrey and British Transport Police, in addition to over 100 local authority Symphony Gazetteer users.

Dinesh Thanigasalam, managing director of Aligned Assets was quoted as saying, “Since the cancellation of the FiReControl project, the majority of fire and rescue services are recognising the need to equip themselves with corporate gazetteer management systems.”

“The need to be able to be ready for the National Address Gazetteer, integrate with existing systems and manage the candidate process are fundamental considerations that Symphony Bluelight can address, but it’s our network of contacts within local government, other emergency services and 3rd party software suppliers, which is proving an unrivalled factor in developing essential links between those that use gazetteer data and those that create it.”

“The FiReControl Project tried to achieve a level of resilience, though what we are finding is that this is better achieve though collaborative working and shared services, as opposed to enforced regionalisation. Common policies and procedures via partnership and joint working is the way forward and this is clearly best achieved by the Fire and Rescue Service using not only the best gazetteer system available, but the only one designed specifically for their needs”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public sector including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the private and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

National Address Gazetteer Event Announced For 6th October 2011

2011-07-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce a new, free of charge event designed to provide both the public and private sector with information about the National Address Gazetteer.

Scheduled for Thursday 6th October 2011 at Hammersmith Town Hall in London, the event will comprise two sections, with section one dealing with the question, ‘What is the National Address Gazetteer’ and section two looking at ‘How to use the National Address Gazetteer’.

There will be presentations from GeoPlace, who are the custodians of the National Address Gazetteer, explaining how this single, definitive source of national address data will be formed, what the data will comprise and it’s relevance to all public and private sector organisations.

There will also be a presentation from a leading local authority that will explain how the bulk of the address data is created. This will demonstrate how the National Address Gazetteer will be updated daily and benefit from hundreds of people in the local government community whose sole responsibility is to maintain its accuracy and integrity.

Presentations will then be given on ways that organisations can make use of the National Address Gazetteer, including examples of real-life situations in which its use as this single, definitive source, throughout an organisation, can facilitate real efficiencies, shared services and a far higher level of joined up working.

Also scheduled for the autumn is the latest in the series of Gazetteer Best Practice Days, which will be on 29th September in Stirling. It will see presentations and debate from across the Scottish gazetteer community including local government, the emergency services, Scottish Government and the private sector.

Speaking of the forthcoming events, managing director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “The National Address Gazetteer is probably the biggest thing to ever occur in the gazetteer community. It’s got the potential to create huge savings and far higher levels of efficiency, not just for public sector organisations such as the NHS, emergency services and central government, for whom it will be available free of charge, but also to private sector organisations such as the utilities, banking and insurance.”

“Our Scottish Gazetteer Best Practice Day will be focusing on the specific issues affecting organisations in Scotland. In addition to those surrounding the creation and use of the One Scotland Gazetteer, there will also be a discussion and debate about the National Address Gazetteer and how through it we might one day see a unified address source covering England, Wales and Scotland.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Rutland County Council Set to Make Savings with New Gazetteer Management System

2011-07-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Rutland County Council is set to dramatically increase efficiency with a new gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets.

Symphony iManage, the gazetteer management system in use by over 100 sites across the public sector, will be used by Rutland County Council for the management of their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) and Associated Street Data (ASD).

In addition to Symphony iManage, they have opted to taken the Aligned Assets’ integration module, Symphony iExchange, which will allow them to set up automated exports of their gazetteer data into their back office systems, as well as automate their exports to the national hub.

The first integration to be established using Symphony iExchange, and one regarded as a ‘key system’, was to their Northgate (iLAP) planning systems. By synchronising these systems with the gazetteer, Rutland County Council have created a scenario through which changes to their LLPG are automatically exported in DTF 7.3, enabling the planning, building control and land charges departments to all be using the most up to date address data available.

Symphony iExchange will allow Rutland County Council to establish an unlimited amount of integrations, with each one uniquely tailored to the recipient system/department. They will be able to set the frequency e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, the format e.g. DTF, XML, CSV, the type of data sent e.g. only approved LPIs or only those with Council Tax cross reference, and will even being able to select export types right down to level 3 of the BLPU classifications.

By centralising their gazetteer and ensuring other systems can feed from it, Rutland County Council will start to make considerable savings. This was demonstrated in the 2010 report from the Local Government Group titled ‘The Value of Geospatial Information to Local Public Service Delivery in England and Wales’, which showed average benefits for local authorities using a product like iExchange to be between £12,500 and £22,732 per service.

Better working practices will also be available to Rutland County Council through their use of the UK’s most advanced software for Street Naming and Numbering, Symphony SNN. Designed to manage the complete life cycle of naming a street or numbering a property, it automates processes such as sending out correspondence and keeps a full audit trail so that anyone can easily see what stage a case is at. It allows the SNN Officer to search and extract data from the LLPG, whilst new builds can be seamlessly sent to the gazetteer for acceptance and entry by the Custodian.

“We were looking for a system that would enable us to manage the LLPG, LSG and ASD through one interface and Symphony iManage was the ideal choice,” explained Ben Catton Corporate LLPG & GIS Custodian at Rutland County Council. “We needed to replicate the gazetteer links we already had established with the iLAP planning systems, which we could do using iExchange, but what really appealed to us was the ability to start integrating with many more systems, something we had not previously been able to do.”

“Aligned Assets have shown themselves to be experts in their field and I would be happy to recommend them and their software to anyone.”

For more information visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Merseyside Fire & Rescue Choose Aligned Assets for their Corporate Gazetteer

2011-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service is pushing forward in the post-FiReControl environment with a corporate gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets.

The Symphony Bluelight system will see them building on the work they did during the FiReControl project in matching their existing address data to the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) in order to create one definitive gazetteer that will be used throughout the F&RS.

The management component, the Bluelight Gazetteer, will allow them to complement the NLPG data with emergency service specific ‘local records’ and they will be using the Xtended Data Module (XDM) to create additional fields in the gazetteer to direct users to risk information held about a property.

In this phase of the project, all this data is being made available via SinglePoint, which will give every member of the F&RS the ability to search on the corporate gazetteer and show the results via a Geographical Information System (GIS).

This process will give all users the opportunity to become familiar with the NLPG, whilst the feedback gained will be used to enhance the gazetteer even further, with the ability to influence the NLPG directly through the candidate process. SinglePoint also allows easy access to UPRNs (Unique Property Reference Numbers), which are key to Merseyside F&RS’s Site Specific Risk Information process.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “We have always designed our software with the end user in mind so have ploughed considerable resources into Symphony Bluelight in order to make it the definitive gazetteer management system for the emergency services.”

“Merseyside F&RS has worked tirelessly to build on the NLPG to create a gazetteer database that is ideally suited for the needs of the modern fire and rescue service. By using the Bluelight Gazetteer to manage it, it will be fully compatible with the National Address Gazetteer and we look forward to working with them to integrate the data into their other systems.”

This second phase of the project will see links being created using Symphony iExchange, which will allow for exports of the gazetteer data into their Vision FX Command & Control system as well as a number of other frontline and back office systems, including Mobile Data Terminals. Key to this will be their ability to export changes within their entire gazetteer database – the NLPG and all their local records.

“Aligned Assets were selected to supply our corporate gazetteer management system following scoring against a rigorous procurement requirement specification,” explained Nicholas Cowley, Corporate Gazetteer Project Manager at Merseyside F&RS. “Our requirements were met through the functionality available in Symphony Bluelight, and their extensive experience of working with the emergency services gave us confidence in selecting them as a partner.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Take NLPG Candidate Processing to the Next Level

2011-06-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

The candidate process, which will see the emergency services of England and Wales able to send updates for inclusion in the Country’s most definitive address database, the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer), is set to be taken to the next level by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets.

Symphony Bluelight, the gazetteer management system that is already in use across the emergency services, will contain advanced functionality that is not available from any other supplier and with it the options that will prove essential to the day-to-day operations of the emergency services.

The procedure that other gazetteer management systems on the market will use involves the emergency service identifying an inaccuracy in the NLPG, at which point that inaccuracy will be sent to the National Hub as a candidate record. At that stage it will be checked before being sent to the local custodian, who will do further checks and then either accept or reject the change. It will then be returned to the Hub and made available to the emergency services the next time they take a download of the NLPG.

This entire process can take up to twelve days, during which time the emergency service has to wait for that inaccuracy to be corrected.

In Symphony Bluelight, at the same time that the inaccuracy is identified and the candidate record is created, the emergency service can override the NLPG record so that the inaccuracy is instantly corrected. The process of updating the NLPG will still proceed through the National Hub and the local Custodian, but those using Symphony Bluelight will no longer have to wait.

Once the candidate record has been formally processed, Symphony Bluelight will show which records have been accepted and which rejected giving the emergency service the option of accepting the change, or if the candidate was rejected by the Custodian, the override can be kept in place.

Speaking about the candidate process, managing director Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “By giving the emergency services the ability to forward address inaccuracies, it is providing another set of eyes and ears on the ground, which will help every user of the NLPG and when released, the National Address Gazetteer.”

“As Symphony Bluelight was designed and built specifically for the emergency services, in consultation with them, we made the decision that the current process was just too slow for their needs. No one would deny that change intelligence needs to be properly validated, but we were told that if an inaccuracy was identified, it needed instant remedying, so this is what Symphony Bluelight does.”

To find out more visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

Surrey Police Select Symphony Bluelight From Aligned Assets

2011-06-07T01:35:00.000-07:00

Woking, Surrey 6th June 2011 – Surrey Police have selected gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets to supply them with software from their Symphony Bluelight suite of emergency services products.

Similar to Aligned Assets’ SinglePoint solution that is well-established at British Transport Police, Surrey Police will be using the advanced web services in SinglePoint to act as a bridge between their gazetteer data and names data, pulling them together and giving access to both through their new enterprise-wide IT solution.

The new IT system, provided by Memex, a leading global provider of Public Security Solutions, will link all recorded information and intelligence across the force. Key for Surrey Police was the ability for existing data to become universally accessible and through SinglePoint they can have all gazetteer and names data accessible via a central source.

"At Surrey Police we were looking for a way of making our existing gazetteer investment available to a major new application,” explained Greg Brown, Application Lead for Surrey Police. “Aligned Assets SinglePoint solution was a clear fit for our business need and will allow us to add gazetteer access to other systems incrementally. Aligned Assets have been a pleasure to work with, they understand our needs and the cost of software as a subscription makes it all affordable."

“SinglePoint has been developed for one clear purpose,” said Dinesh Thanigasalam, managing director of Aligned Assets, “and that is ensure data is accessible to all whether in the Police, the Fire Service or indeed any public sector organisation. For Surrey Police, what this means is that they will be saving money by removing the need for multiple deployments and gain significantly from all officers using identical data.”

Surrey Police are the forth emergency service to select Aligned Assets’ gazetteer solutions in the past few months. On this, Thanigasalam went on to say, “Our Symphony Bluelight suite was built specifically for use in the emergency services and is designed to not only give full gazetteer management and integration functionality, but importantly, is available with a pricing structure that is reflective of an increased need for cost savings.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

Aligned Assets Release the UK’s First NAG-Compatible Gazetteer Management System

2011-05-11T08:37:00.001-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today confirm the development of a prototype of the UK’s first gazetteer management system to be fully compatible with the recently released alpha version of the National Address Gazetteer.

Officially launched at the Emergency Services Gazetteer Best Practice Day in Sheffield, the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer will enable Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and Ambulance Services to fully exploit this definitive, national database of addresses.

With this development, upon the formal release of the National Address Gazetteer BS7666 database, the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer with be capable of managing all 30 million records in the National Address Gazetteer and will provide a wealth of functionality to give real power to the data.

All the data can be accessed corporately either via web services or through the automated export into other systems, whilst the data itself can be expanded with additional information such as security classifications and access points.

The emergency services will also have the option to complement the National Address Gazetteer with their own records, which can also be accessed and utilised by other systems. Full management of the candidate process will also be made available so that the emergency services can influence the development of the National Address Gazetteer.

Dinesh Thanigasalam, managing director of Aligned Assets said, “High quality addressing is essential in the emergency services and it is the combination of the National Address Gazetteer with the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer that will provide this quality.”

“We understand that mobilisation is essential to the emergency services, but also that it’s not just about response. The Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer is designed to sit at the heart of an organisation, feeding both front line and back office systems with the most accurate and up to date address data available. Through this, the emergency services can begin to recognise greater efficiencies, cost savings and a reduction in error.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and National Parks. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Street Naming and Numbering Best Practice Days See Record Attendances

2011-04-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

Attendee levels for the Aligned Assets sponsored Street Naming and Numbering Best Practice Days have now passed 200.

With over 120 local authorities represented, the five events, being held across the country will see almost one third of all Street Naming and Numbering departments in attendance.

Presentations will be coming from a variety of different organisations, covering not only best practice, but the legal issues surrounding the street naming and numbering process and there will also be the chance to see how other local authorities work.

The Street Naming and Numbering Best Practice Days are part of a series of Best Practice Days run for the public sector community by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets. They are all free of charge and designed to bring members of the community together to network, and share ideas and experiences.

Speaking of the events, managing director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “These attendance levels show the importance of the street naming and numbering process, especially since the announcement of the National Address Gazetteer and role the process will play in its on going accuracy.”

“It is the Street Naming and Numbering Officers who are the driving force behind the creation of new addresses, which in turn drive processes throughout each council from the collection of council tax, through to the collection of waste and recycling. Beyond the council, it is these addresses that are feeding directly into the ability of the emergency services to accuracy mobilise their resources.”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and National Parks. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer Released for the Fire and Rescue Service

2011-03-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

With the cancellation of the FiReControl Project, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the release of the UK’s first corporate gazetteer designed specifically for the Fire and Rescue Service.

With over two years of research and development, the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer can provide unmatched levels of functionality that enable the fire and rescue services to create and maintain gazetteer data to feed all frontline and back office systems.

Currently fully compatible with the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer will also be fully compatibility with the forthcoming National Address Gazetteer (NAG) that will for the first time see all emergency services using the same source of address data.

The Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer will provide the opportunity for fire and rescue services to create an unlimited amount of additional fields to be stored against each NLPG/NAG record such as properties with thatched roofs, flood plain designations, colloquial property names or black powder storage. Unique to it is the fact that if the NLPG/NAG record is changed, or even deleted, the additional information is retained. This functionality is further enhanced by introducing the ability to store multiple free text notes against a property.

Speaking about the creation of candidate records that will allow the fire and rescue service to initiate changes in the NLPG/NAG, managing director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam expanded on the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer’s functionality.

“Currently, when the fire and rescue service discover an error in the NLPG/NAG, the systems in place allow for the national hub to be notified, who in turn notify the relevant local authority, who then ultimately decide if the change should be made. Assuming that they accept the change, it has to be returned to the national hub and then be downloaded by the fire and rescue service. In total the process can take up to two weeks.”

“In a situation when the inaccuracy of an address can cost lives, in consultation with the fire and rescue service, we decided to build in the option to override an NLPG/NAG record instantaneously so that as soon as an error in address data is discovered, it can be immediately rectified. The candidate process will proceed as normal, but the fire and rescue service will no longer have to wait.”

Dinesh Thanigasalam went onto expand on the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer’s ability to hold the entire NLPG/NAG database. “Most fire and rescue services will want to hold address data that sits outside of their area because, at the end of the day, their responsibility doesn’t stop simply because someone is on the other side of a boundary.”

”This requirement for ‘out of area’ data varies tremendously, so what we have created with the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer is the ability to handle the entire country’s address data. This means that a fire and rescue service has the ability to manage one million records or thirty million with the same simple, ease of use.”

Because the FiReControl project was to see regionalisation of control rooms, with the data management retained on a local level, Symphony Bluelight has been designed to operate under shared services whereby a single gazetteer database from one or more fire and rescue services can be managed separately by the individual services, with read rights accessible to all, yet change rights accessible only within a service’s area.

On this, Dinesh Thanigasalam was quoted as saying, “The merging of control rooms is still a hot topic in the fire and rescue service, yet even during the FiReControl Project it was acknowledged that regional control rooms had to be supplied with locally sourced data that utilised local knowledge.”

“For this reason, irrespective of whether modernisation of mobilising systems is performed by individual brigades or as a shared service, the management and maintenance of gazetteer data should still be performed locally, which is exactly why the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer is equally adept at gazetteer management for one individual brigade or for several working together in collaboration.”

Aligned Assets have ensured that the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer addresses other key areas vital to Fire Services not usually catered for by other NLPG compliant Gazetteers. These include the ability to maintain abbreviations for addresses and ensure any searching on the Gazetteer takes the abbreviations into account. The searching capability is also further extended by having an option to use fuzzy searching which helps minimise the effect of spelling mistakes when carrying out a search.

To find out more about the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and National Parks. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

National Address Gazetteer Consultancy Available From Aligned Assets

2011-03-08T07:44:00.001-08:00

Woking, Surrey 8th March 2011 – Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce that they are able to offer consultancy to both the public and private sector on the impact the National Address Gazetteer will have on their organisations.

Considered the most significant development in UK addressing for decades, the National Address Gazetteer will see all organisations given the chance for the first time to use address data from a single, definitive source.

This offers a huge opportunity for greater collaboration, shared services and interoperability, which in turn can create the chance to improve public services and significantly reduce costs.

Currently there is a division in the gazetteer world that sees central government, the ambulance service and the private sector using addressing products from the Ordnance Survey, with local government, the fire & rescue service and the police force having access to the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer).

This is due to change from April 2011 with the creation of the National Address Gazetteer, which will see the blending of the Ordnance Survey’s addressing products with the NLPG to create this single source. It will also be under one single agreement, the PSMA (Public Sector Mapping Agreement) that this data will be made available to the whole of the public sector.

Aligned Assets’ managing director Dinesh Thanigasalam, who will be personally overseeing the consultancy work, spoke of the announcement. “As the only UK company to specialise solely in gazetteer management, we work very closely with both the organisations that create gazetteer data, right the way through to those that use it in mission critical systems.”

“All organisations, both in the public and the private sector, need to be aware of the changes that are going to be occurring over the next months and years, but importantly need to understand how these changes can be converted into huge benefits.”

“Our experienced consultants have many years of gazetteer management experience and bring a unique understanding of not only the implications of the National Address Gazetteer, but also about business process, and how the two need to fit together.”

“In essence, our consultants can show what organisations need to know and how to implement the changes.”

To find out more visit: www.nationaladdressgazetteer.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and National Parks. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Super Unitary Selects Aligned Assets For Gazetteer Management

2011-02-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Cheshire East Council, one of the nine ‘Super Unitaries’ created in 2009, are set to develop an award winning land and property gazetteer using software from Aligned Assets.

After a long assessment period, they selected the gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets, called Symphony iManage, to manage their new central Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG).

This unified database of addresses was formed from the LLPGs previously held by Congleton Borough Council, Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council and Macclesfield Borough Council, and will drive efficiencies across the authority.

They now submit their LLPG regularly to the national hub for inclusion in the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), which is a national initiative that provides a definitive dataset for use in the emergency services. It is the NLPG that will form a key component of the new National Address Gazetteer.

“The iManage gazetteer was the perfect choice since it went along with everything the Unitary was established to achieve,” explained Mike Garrity, Spatial Data Manager at Cheshire East Council. “It helped us to centralise the previously separate datasets, it is efficient, user-friendly and cost effective, and ultimately, it helps to improve frontline services.”

“We went through a thorough review process and concluded that Symphony iManage was the best option in terms of standards and interoperability, ease of use, support and implementation, and of course LLPG management. Aligned Assets also supply a wide range of additional modules that will allow us to expand the use of the gazetteer in future.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Announce Best Practice Days for 2011

2011-02-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

Now in their third year, the latest dates for the Best Practice Days run by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have been announced.

In a change to the previous format that saw them based on the use of gazetteers across the public sector, these events have been split between the use of gazetteers in the emergency services and best practice in street naming and numbering.

The Emergency Services Gazetteer Best Practice Day is scheduled for 11th May in central Sheffield and is open to anyone within the emergency services who create, maintain or use address data. Attendance will also be advantageous for people in the wider public sector e.g. NHS, central and local government, who work closely with or supply data to the emergency services.

Topics to be covered include the National Address Gazetteer and how that will affect the emergency services, the use of corporate gazetteers to synchronise front line and back office systems, and using gazetteer data for the mapping of CCTV cameras.

Though only one date was originally scheduled, due to an unprecedented level of demand, five Street Naming and Numbering Best Practice Days have been scheduled, with venues in Oakham, Newcastle, London, Llandrindod and Taunton.

These events are designed to give a comprehensive introduction to Best Practice in Street Naming and Numbering through the first hand experiences those that regularly work in the process. Additionally, the legalities of the street naming and numbering will be presented on and discussed – everything from the adoption of the Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847 to the requirements of the Local Government Act 1972.

As well as the best practice days, Aligned Assets are running further AGI Accredited BS7666 training courses on both the introductory level and ones designed for developers. The courses are designed to combine theory with hands on experience and see 97% of trainees rating the courses as exceeding their expectations.

Of the best practice days, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Since we started running these events in 2008, the message of best practice has reached over 350 people from almost 250 different organisations. In this age of austerity, when efficiency savings are top of the agenda, we are pleased to continue providing these free of charge platforms for education and learning.”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Software by Subscription Gains Support Across The Public Sector

2011-01-20T09:24:00.001-08:00

Software by Subscription, the revolutionary new business model launched by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets in the summer of 2010, has today been declare a resounding success by Managing Director of the company Dinesh Thanigasalam.

It sees all upfront software fees scrapped and replaced with a simple, cost-effective annual subscription, which includes on-going updates to the software and unlimited support.

Software by Subscription was brought in to make it easier, more flexible and vastly more cost-effective for organisations in the public sector to procure products that can be used to drive an agenda of ‘invest to save’

It has resulted in large interest from local authorities looking to invest in new gazetteer management systems, back office integration and web services. Additionally, there has been an unprecedented amount of interest in Symphony SNN, which is software to automate and simplify the Street Naming and Numbering process.

“We have been contacted by people across local government interested in finding out about how Software by Subscription can help them,” explained Thanigasalam. “Because our software modules are all independent and stand-alone, they do not require a change in system, which means people can see the tremendous benefits, without any disruption.”

“We are particularly pleased about how many police forces and fire & rescue services want to understand more about our range of Symphony Bluelight products. Designed specifically for use in the emergency services to support both front line and back office systems, through Software by Subscription, Symphony Bluelight is now not only the best range of corporate gazetteer products on the market, but also the most cost-effective.”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/software_by_subscription

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police Forces and National Parks. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

WebEx Wednesdays Set to Increase Knowledge of Gazetteer Solutions

2010-12-09T08:57:00.001-08:00

Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the creation of ‘WebEx Wednesdays’.

From January through to March, every Wednesday, both morning and afternoon, WebEx demonstrations will be available, through which members of the public sector can watch, hear and interact with presentations on a range of innovative and powerful gazetteer solutions, all from the comfort of their own office.

Available without obligation and completely free of charge, there will be demonstrations on gazetteer connectivity software, Symphony iExchange, which gives the user the ability to share their gazetteer data throughout their organisation. As a standalone module, it has no limit to the systems they can send to – automatically and in a variety of formats.

Also available will be demos of Symphony SNN, which gives all Street Naming and Numbering Officers a method to speed up the entire process of naming a street or numbering a property. It allows multiple plots to be created with only a few clicks of the mouse, whilst the sending of notifications benefits from automation at every step of the way.

Demos will be available for SinglePoint, which gives access to both local and national address data via web services. Creating significant savings through reduced infrastructure costs and the removal of unnecessary licensing, SinglePoint allows for an organisation’s address data to be held centrally and accessed by all.

Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director at Aligned Assets said, “WebEx demos are an exceptionally effective and efficient method for people to see products, and considering the recent inclement weather, they’re significantly more convenient for all.”

He went on to say, “With the announcement of the National Address Gazetteer, addressing in the public sector has been placed firmly at the heart of the agenda. I’m pleased that we are able to offer these WebEx demonstrations to show how address management can be advanced and made more cost-effective through simple software solutions.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Aligned Assets Make Corporate Access to LLPGs Easy with iExchange

2010-11-25T01:14:00.000-08:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce that their LLPG (Local Land and Property Gazetteer) connectivity software, Symphony iExchange, is now available as a stand-alone module.

Previously only available to the users of the Symphony gazetteer management system, iExchange can now be used by everyone in local government to centralise their address data and give access to it across all departments.

By doing so, all local authorities can place their LLPG at the very heart of the organisation and through that enjoy huge gains in efficiency and quantifiable financial savings.

Examples of the savings that could be made through the greater use of the LLPG were demonstrated in a recent report produced by ConsultingWhere Limited and ACIL Tasman on behalf of the Local Government Association (LGA) entitled 'The Value of Geospatial Information to Local Public Service Delivery in England and Wales'.

Clear financial benefits are shown through an increase in tax revenue in both council tax and non-domestic rates through the identification of unbilled properties, whilst further financial savings come from the removal of multiple address databases and the expense incurred from having to maintain them all.

The gains are tangibly spelt out in the report with the assertion that the average benefit per linked system is £12,500 for district councils, rising to over £22,000 for Unitaries and London Boroughs.

Symphony iExchange works by allowing the user to export changes in their LLPG to other systems, where the data can be imported. For each separate system, the frequency can be set individually, as can the format used and the type of data sent e.g. only approved LPIs, only commercial properties etc.

Speaking about the announcement, Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “It’s fantastic to be able to offer the opportunity for all local authorities to share and integrate their LLPGs into their back office systems, without restriction.”

“Because all our solutions are open, iExchange has no limit to the systems you can send your LLPG data to – automatically and in a variety of formats. Many existing suppliers allow linkages between their own systems, but iExchange enables the sharing of data well beyond this, regardless of department, regardless of supplier.”

“We don’t charge based on how many systems you link to and iExchange is intuitive enough that if you have good internal ICT skills, you can make virtually all the connections yourself.”

He concluded by saying, “As with all our software solutions, iExchange is available via software by subscription, which means there are no upfront fees to pay and savings can be recognised almost instantly.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/iexchange.

One Wales – One Voice Declared a Resounding Success

2010-11-08T09:02:00.001-08:00

With over 60 delegates from 35 different organisations, the latest Gazetteer Best Practice Day from Aligned Assets has been declared a resounding success.

Held at the Media Resource Centre in Llandrindod on 2nd November, it saw six presentations focusing on best practice in gazetteers, all against the backdrop of unique complexities faced by the public sector in Wales.

The event started off with two presentations showing the diversity of addressing across the Principality. Phil Hall and Matthew Seymour from Cardiff Council spoke about the management of an urban gazetteer and how they work closely with other council departments such as non-domestic rates to maintain accuracy.

This was followed by Lynne Roberts from Gwynedd Council discussing the issues of running a bilingual gazetteer, an issue often underestimated by English custodians, yet essential to the commitments made by the Welsh Assembly Government.

After cups of tea and welsh cakes, the delegates were treated to a presentation from Dave Bennett of South Wales Fire & Rescue Service who spoke about poor quality address data, pointing out that joint working towards the full integration of the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) was the solution.

Sue Beetlestone from Powys County Council looked at how land & property gazetteers and the Location Wales programme have a mutually beneficial role to play in improving the quality and use of location information in Wales. She particular focused on collaborative working and data sharing, both of which would lead to far greater efficiencies.

The day was rounded off with two higher level presentations, firstly from Shaun Powell of the Welsh Assembly who gave a well-received presentation on efficiency savings and how to attain them. This was followed by Pete Roberts of the Ordnance Survey who spoke about the PSMA (Public Sector Mapping Agreement) and its implications for those present.

The event was best summed up by Marc Davies of Isle of Anglesey County Council, who described it as a, “Very informative day, which provided me with many ideas to take back and apply at Anglesey.” This was reiterated by Phil Mountain of Caerphilly County Borough Council, who said it was, “Becoming an important date in the annual addressing calendar.”

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Combined CRM and Gazetteer Creates Cost Savings Across The Public Sector

2010-10-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Front line staff across local government and the emergency services can now more effectively manage contact and address data through a new software offering from proven Microsoft Dynamics CRM reseller and integrator Optevia.

Optevia has joined forces with gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets to offer a CRM solution that not only offers a means of managing contacts and the information relating to those contacts, but sources all of its address data directly from an organisation’s locally held Land and Property Gazetteer data.

Currently, the sources of address data can vary tremendously with multiple departments relying on multiple legacy systems – Excel spreadsheets, membership databases and their own in-built address applications for example. This results in contact record duplication, mis-addressed mail and out of date and inaccurate information, which in turn leads to unnecessary costs through wasted effort and the need for unnecessary resources and money. This lack of accurate data also has a detrimental effect on the image of the local authority or emergency service.

To overcome the problems inherent in other CRM systems, Optevia and Aligned Assets are delivering a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM acting as the master system for contacts and Aligned Assets’ Symphony Gazetteer forming the master system for address data. Close working between the two companies has achieved a seamless integration that ensures contacts and their addresses are accurate, completely consistent across the entire organisation and constantly up to date.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service is an early adopter of the combined Optevia, Microsoft CRM and Aligned Assets solution and benefits are already clearly evident. Jon Chapman, Head of Community Safety at Kent Fire and Rescue Service explained:

“We are using the combined solution to enable the more effective delivery of Home Safety Visits (HSVs) to the 1.6 million residents of Kent. We had a number of address databases across the organisation which often resulted in data duplication. Now if a change is made in one source it will be reflected elsewhere in the organisation. As a result, we now have increased accuracy of our HSV marketing campaigns which enables us to more accurately target the most vulnerable members of our communities and help protect them from the risk of fires in their homes”.

“We can also now use the combined solution to add important information relating to an address, such as potentially hazardous materials located at a particular address and relate this to an individual associated with that property, so helping improve the safety of the public and our officers on the ground.”

Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets explained that, “Optevia has a proven track record and was the national launch partner for Microsoft CRM in the UK. They were the first organisation to successfully start integrating Microsoft CRM into UK local authorities and continue to be the preferred Microsoft CRM supplier across local government and the emergency services.”

He went on to say, “The benefits of an integrated Microsoft CRM and gazetteer solution will help public sector organisations quickly realise efficiency gains and cost savings through greater contact record accuracy and a reduction in processing errors.”

Tim Vernon, Managing Partner, Optevia Ltd comments, “Aligned Assets is one of the leading providers of Gazetteer Management Systems to local government and the emergency services.

“We have combined our expertise and best of breed products to develop a practical and cost effective solution to help organisations make the best use of their contacts and address data. Through our provision of one, central source of contact information and associated address data, there is simply no longer any need for the public sector to have multiple sources of address information.”

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities and Fire & Rescue Services as well as the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

ABOUT OPTEVIA
Optevia are a proven, CRM reseller and integrator, dedicated to the UK and Ireland’s public sector with a special focus on fire & rescue services, central government agencies and local authorities. Optevia also serves regulators and licensing & grant management organisations, including regional development agencies. Since helping launch Microsoft Dynamics CRM in January 2004, Optevia has evolved to become Microsoft’s premier Dynamics CRM public sector partner successfully completing over 60 deployments. Optevia has a range of value-add sector specific Optevia Essentials software products for all of the public sector markets it serves and a range of cross sector Optevia Dynamics software products – Optevia Dynamic Audit, Optevia Dynamic Decision, Optevia Dynamic Correspondence and Optevia Dynamic Portal. These help reduce the cost & timeframe for delivering high quality, low risk Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions. The Optevia Essentials and Optevia Dynamics software products are provided with a portfolio of supporting Optevia business analysis, design, development & deployment services, so helping ensure good end-user adoption, post implementation support, and a return on investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

ABOUT MICROSOFT
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

Saving Money Through The NLPG: Hot Topic At This Year’s Everything Happens Somewhere Conference

2010-10-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

At this year’s Everything Happens Somewhere conference on 20th October in Sheffield, efficiency savings and how to save money with the NLPG will be the hot topic of the day.

During the Solution Stream being held in the Main Banqueting Hall, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets will be chairing a forum in which all delegates will be able to hear three presentations on how they can make very real savings through the better use of the NLPG.

The first presentation will be from Stephen Gray of AXESS West Sussex, a partnership of county, district and borough councils, which has seen a streamlining of the process by which street cleaning service requests are received, processed and responded to. The work that Stephen and his team have done has seen an estimated saving of £20,000 per annum.

The second presentation will be from Richard Healy, GIS Manager at Monmouthshire Council, who will be focusing on specific ways in which the NLPG can be used to save money in the public sector. He will be discussing ways that NLPG data can be integrated throughout an organisation, looking at cashable savings that will be available to all.

The final presentation will be from Shaun Powell, who is the Access Transformation Delivery Manager at the Welsh Assembly Government. Shaun will be discussing efficiency savings across the public sector and primary to his presentation will be the ways in which joint working can receive very tangible savings and how these can underpin both regional and national initiatives.

Chairing the Stream will be Director of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee, who said of the event, “Everything Happens Somewhere is the premier event in the NLPG/NSG calendar and is a ‘must-attend’ for anyone involved with gazetteers in the public sector.”

“Finding ways to save money and develop greater efficiency in working practices is now an essential component for local government and the emergency services. This Solution Stream will provide a wealth of practical ideas that all attendees can take away with them to aid their own organisations.”

If you’ve not yet signed up to attend ‘Everything Happen Somewhere’, you can do so via the following link www.surveymonkey.com/s/EHS10.

PSMA and National Address Gazetteer to be Debated at One Wales – One Voice

2010-09-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

A presentation from the Ordnance Survey on the PSMA (Public Sector Mapping Agreement) is the most recent to be confirmed in the latest instalment of Gazetteer Best Practice Days: One Wales – One Voice.

Being held at the MRC in Llandrindod on 2nd November, the Ordnance Survey will present on what the PSMA means to the gazetteer community in Wales, with specific focus given to the National Address Gazetteer and any potential impact on the public sector.

This presentation is the fifth to be confirmed, with the other presentations from the Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff Council, the AGI and one from Gwynedd Council on bilingualism in addressing. Additionally there will be an open debate session chaired by Shaun Powell from the Welsh Assembly.

One Wales – One Voice is ideal for local government, the emergency services and indeed anyone working in address management in Wales. For those that create address data they will gain from being with the end-users and hearing their needs; whilst those end users will gain from the opportunity to influence the people who create and maintain addresses.

One Wales – One Voice is being hosted by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets who currently work with over 50% of local authorities in Wales. Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam explained the reason for the day, “Requirements in address data naturally varies depending on the organisation and it’s important for all these requirements to be heard so that we can all move forward with a greater understanding.”

“We already have 22 different organisations signed up to attend and I very much look forward to some constructive and worthwhile debate. It’s great also that all attendees will receive four AGI CPD points.”

The event is open to anyone who is involved in the creation, management or use of address data in Wales. For further information or to reserve a space email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities and Fire & Rescue Services as well as the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

How to Save Time and Money in Street Naming and Numbering

2010-09-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

Woking, Surrey 20th September 2010 – The new, subscription version of the Street Naming and Numbering module from gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets, has been released.

Known as Symphony SNN, it has been completely remodelled to make it a standalone product, which means Street Naming and Numbering Officers from Shetland to Cornwall can all enjoy the efficiency savings that it offers.

The main power of Symphony SNN to illicit efficiency savings is in the way that it can speed up the entire process of naming a street or numbering a property. For large developments, multiple plots can be created and edited with only a few clicks of the mouse, whilst the huge swathes of notifications that need sending out to organisations from the emergency services through to the post office can all be automated at every step of the way.

June Shobbrook of Pembrokeshire County Council gave an insight into why she uses it, “I could never go back to how it was before! Previously I had several access databases and volumes of paper work. I found it difficult to look up old historical issues, but I am now able with the assistance of Symphony SNN, to create entries in the summary console and look at outstanding historical issues. In the new version, I look forward to generating emails with location plans attached – it will be so much easier and will assist the utilities.”

Managing Director of Aligned Assets Dinesh Thanigasalam explained further, “Many local authorities are still using manual processes and a combination of spreadsheets, databases and pieces of paper. Symphony SNN not only brings all of this process into one place, but through its links to the LLPG (Local Land and Property Gazetteer), the double entry of data is significantly reduced.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/snn

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 100 Local Authorities and Fire & Rescue Services as well as the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Aligned Assets’ Events and Training Receive AGI Accreditation

2010-09-02T09:02:00.001-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce that both their upcoming
BS7666 training courses and November’s Gazetteer Best Practice Day, ‘One Wales – One Voice’ have been accredited by the AGI (Association for Geographic Information).

Attendance at either event will see the awarding of four AGI CPD points, which help those aiming to become a Chartered Geographer or are looking to keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date through Continuing Professional Development.

One Wales - One Voice is an event in the series of Gazetteer Best Practice Days hosted by Aligned Assets. It will see presentations and debate from across the Welsh gazetteer community including local government, the emergency services, Welsh Assembly Government and the AGI.

One Wales – One Voice seeks to bring these varying requirements together to discuss, debate and ultimately gain consensus, and will benefit anyone working in address management in Wales.

An Introduction to BS7666 is a one day training course being offered either onsite or from the Aligned Assets offices in Surrey. The course provides an introduction to BS7666 for those unfamiliar with its purpose but who will be affected by its implications. Those attending will gain an insight into all the important BS7666 legislation that is underpinning change within Local Authorities, the Police and the Fire & Rescue Service.

Managing Director, Dinesh Thanigasalam said of the AGI Accreditation, “By gaining AGI Accreditation and being able to offer CPD points, I believe this further demonstrates the core value and innate benefits that people gain from attending our training and events.”

“We are very proud to continue offering ways to help both the public and private sectors, and are delighted that this has been acknowledged by the AGI.”

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

One Wales – One Voice: Aligned Assets Announce Welsh Gazetteer Best Practice Day

2010-08-12T07:47:00.001-07:00

Following on from the success of previous events, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce the next date in its popular series of Gazetteer Best Practice Days.

Specifically for the Welsh Gazetteer community, this best practice day will be held at the Media Resource Centre in Llandrindod on 2nd November 2010 and will see presentations from local authorities, the emergency services and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Departing slightly from the structure of former events, One Wales – One Voice will see more opportunity for discussion and debate, and through this an opportunity to have a say on the future of addressing throughout Wales.

Wales has unique requirements when it comes to address management, going from the large metropolitan areas such as Cardiff and Swansea, through to the vast mountainous expanses covered by the County of Powys. This uniqueness not only affects the creation of address data, but has large repercussions for those relying on the data such as the police, fire and ambulance services.

Speaking of the latest addition to the Best Practice Calendar, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “With the recent licensing of the NLPG by the Welsh Assembly Government the landscape of addressing in Wales is changing.”

“We are moving toward a convergence and a time in which the whole of Wales will be using the same data source. With convergence though comes a need for greater understanding, which is why we are bringing so many diverse voices together to create One Wales – One Voice.”

The event is open to anyone who is involved in the creation, management or use of address data in Wales. For further information or to reserve a space email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.

NLPG-Based Property Management System Available By Subscription

2010-08-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Aligned Assets are pleased to announce that they have made their state of the art property and asset management system, Symphony PMS, available through Software By Subscription (SBS).

For less than £5,000 per year, users across housing associations and local government can now enjoy using property management technology that would normally cost in the tens of thousands.

Symphony PMS is a system designed for the complete management of a property portfolio and contains everything from asbestos and tenant management through to back office and GIS integration.

In local authority use, Symphony PMS is fully BS7666 compatible and can source all its address information directly from the Local Land and Property Gazetteer. For housing associations, Symphony PMS can be supplied pre-populated with data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), giving access to the UPRNs necessary for NROSH submissions.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “There are too many property management systems, which although functional, are perceived as old, cumbersome to use and having too many screens to enter data when only a small fraction of the fields are actually needed.

“Symphony PMS changes that and through Software By Subscription is now the most cost-effective property and asset management system available”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/pms

Aligned Assets bring NLPG affordability to smaller organisations through Software By Subscription

2010-08-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

With their new business model, Software By Subscription, Aligned Assets can now offer smaller organisations such as District and Borough Councils, National Parks and Passenger Transport Executives an affordable, yet powerful method to start making use of the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer).

Via the MSA (Mapping Services Agreement) these organisations are entitled to make use of the NLPG, but deployment was often prohibitively expensive with many suppliers charging tens of thousands of pounds for the necessary software.

This has changed dramatically with SinglePoint NLPG now available on subscription, which means organisations can hold the NLPG centrally and utilise advanced web services to give all users access to the NLPG data for a fraction of what this would previously have cost.

With SinglePoint NLPG, organisations can start to take full advantage of UPRNs (Unique Property Reference Numbers) for better joined up working, the NLPG’s geographical coordinates for more accurate use of GIS, BS7666 standardisation for ongoing consistency, and a creation methodology that allows for updates as frequently as required.

Speaking of SinglePoint NLPG, Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam explained, “The SinglePoint NLPG web services have seen uses from CRMs and box office ticketing systems, right through to police mobilisation.”

“Huge savings can be made through the wider use of the NLPG, but all these potential savings have to be off set against the up front cost of the required software. Since we’ve scrapped up front software costs, with SinglePoint NLPG, this is no longer an issue and the NLPG is now affordable for all.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/singlepoint or email sales@aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets Planning and Prioritisation To Play A Key Role At The Next Symphony User Group

2010-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

The next meeting of the Symphony User Group, which is a biannual meeting held by users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony products, is scheduled to be held at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton on 23rd September 2010.

This meeting, in addition to best practice, case studies and new product demonstrations will see the users taking part in development planning and prioritisation sessions.

These sessions will involve the attendees actively discussing, debating and ultimately deciding on the key functionality to be included in the Symphony range of gazetteer software solutions.

The Symphony User Group was started in 2005 and has grown steadily ever since, providing an important forum between user and software provider. It is open to all users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony products including local government, the fire & rescue service, the police force, national parks and passenger transport executives.

Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director explained, “All too often, companies presume to know what it is that their customers want and at Aligned Assets we have always endeavoured to buck this trend.”

“There is simply no denying that the customer knows best, so at the forthcoming meeting of the Symphony User Group, we are going to listen to our users and most importantly, we are going to do what they say.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

Aligned Assets release Symphony iMatch 5.4

2010-07-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can announce today the release of Symphony iMatch 5.4, which will be made available through Software By Subscription.

Symphony iMatch is their flagship data matching and geocoding product, which has played a key role in many organisations across the public sector achieving synchronisation to the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer).

With Symphony iMatch the user is able to match legacy address data to the NLPG and so tag these addresses with UPRNs (Unique Property Reference Numbers). In doing so, organisations can create definitive links between systems and ensure a consistently high level of inter-departmental accuracy.

In addition to address matching, Symphony iMatch can be used to geocode legacy address data so that it can be used in GIS, as well as enabling departments to quickly identify any gaps or errors that might exist in their data.

Speaking of the release, Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Symphony iMatch 5.4 will see an even higher level of address matching accuracy and an improvement in search logic, which makes it the most intuitive data matching product ever released by Aligned Assets.”

Because it available on a subscription basis, the power of iMatch 5.4 is now available for less than £2,000 per annum so to find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imatch or email sales@aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets to offer Software By Subscription

2010-07-06T03:52:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce a revolutionary shift in their business model that will significantly change software procurement across the public sector.

From today, they will offer ‘Software By Subscription’, which will allow users to pay a simple, annual subscription fee for the ongoing use of their software, without incurring any initial software costs.

This annual subscription will entitle them to regular updates of their software, ongoing legislative compliance and complete support.

Aligned Assets are suppliers to over 100 local authorities, police forces, fire & rescue services and national parks. Software By Subscription will usher in a method through which public sector procurement will be easier, software usage more flexible and the costs of purchase will be significantly reduced.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam explained the move, “The public sector has been particularly badly hit by the recession and it seems likely that budgets are going to continue to be squeezed.”

“By moving to Software By Subscription, we have completely scrapped up front software fees and as a consequence have be able to lower our year-one pricing by an average of 60% across our entire product range.”

Gazetteer management systems, web services, data matching and integration tools for local government, the emergency services and beyond, are all now available as Software By Subscription from Aligned Assets.

To find out more about Software By Subscription, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/software_by_subscription

Aligned Assets hold another successful Gazetteer Best Practice Day

2010-06-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Best Practice in focus, as everything from NLPG integration to the INSPIRE Directive are debated at the latest Aligned Assets event

Woking, Surrey 16th June 2010 – On Thursday 10th June 2010, Bolton Council played host to yet another hugely successful, Aligned Assets sponsored Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

Fifty attendees from across the public sector came together to hear best practice presentations ranging from the use of web services for NLPG integration at Kent Fire & Rescue Service to a hugely well received presentation on the INSPIRE Directive.

Also included on the day were presentations on LLPG integration at Stockport Council, the work the British Transport Police are doing to combine the NLPG with the OSG (One Scotland Gazetteer), Cheshire East Council’s amalgamation of three gazetteers in one and the Strategic Alliance between High Peak Council and Staffordshire Moorlands.

The event was summed up by Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam, who explained to the delegates, “Today is not about dictating how to do things, but rather to offer ideas, thoughts and suggestions that can be taken away to create what might best be termed, ‘better practice’.”

This sentiment was positively received by the delegates with Marc Davies of Isle of Anglesey Council saying, “The day was very useful for myself, as a newly appointed custodian, to see the work being undertaken across the UK”. This was reiterated by Darren Butler of Peak District NPA who described the day as, “A good opportunity to discuss with like minded individuals from other organisations the methods of tackling the same or similar issues.”

If you would be interested in attending or presenting at a future best practice day, please email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

New method of saving money in local authorities

2010-05-14T09:00:00.001-07:00

With public sector budgets being dramatically slashed, gazetteer-specialists Aligned Assets can provide a quick, simple and very cost-effective solution to enable large savings in council expenditure.

With its SinglePoint product, it can allow local authorities that currently hold numerous, disparate address databases to have all departments access their local land and property gazetteers (LLPG) via easy to use web services.

The considerable savings are made through the removal of the excessive licensing costs that come from holding many separate datasets, with the reduction in the time it takes to manage one database as opposed to many leading to further cost savings.

SinglePoint was originally designed for use in the British Transport Police to give them sub-second access to the full 32 million records of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), but is now available throughout the public sector. Departments from customer services and education, through to waste management and revues & benefits can all benefit from access to the council’s most definitive and accurate source of address data.

In addition to the direct savings that will come from the removal of unnecessary licensing, by enabling all departments access the LLPG as the single source of addresses, significant gains in efficiency will also be seen. Not only will the misidentification of properties between departments be a thing of the past, but all changes in the address data, such as new developments, will be instantly accessible to all.

This latter point becomes ever more critical when one considers that in some instances up to two thirds of a council’s net expenditure will be covered by council tax revenue. With the average council tax bill standing at over £1200, the ability to identify and invoice ALL new properties is clearly an advantage. Since it is a statutory requirement for all new properties to be entered into the LLPG, the advantages of linking to it are clearly evident.

SinglePoint can also be used to give corporate access to the full NLPG, enabling ‘out of area’ searching, which is crucial for those council departments who work with people coming into their area such as leisure and tourism.

One local authority who is using SinglePoint to give corporate access to the full NLPG is Cardiff Council. Matthew Seymour, Senior Gazetteer Officer explained, “By using the NLPG corporately, Cardiff stand to save approximately £40,000 in licensing costs over the next 12 months and it’s SinglePoint that has facilitated this.”

He went on to say, “SinglePoint has three main benefits – firstly it compiles the entire NLPG into one, single database. Secondly it easily receives change only updates from the National Hub, which means all departments have new address data far quicker than then did through previous suppliers. Thirdly, the web services mean that our corporate ICT team can very quickly create links into new systems using approved ICT standards.”

Speaking of SinglePoint, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Almost one in ten local authorities already use our web services to give corporate access to the LLPG or NLPG. Each local authority spent considerable sums of money to create their gazetteers and through SinglePoint, they can start to see a real return on that investment.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/singlepoint

UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day Announced for 10th June 2010

2010-04-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

The date for latest UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day, which is to be held in Bolton, has been announced as 10th June 2010.

It will be the third meeting of this best practice community, with previous meetings in both Cardiff and London being hailed successes.

The event is sponsored by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets and held in association with GEO:connexion UK. Being held at the offices of Bolton Council, it is designed for all people involved in either gazetteer management directly or those who use gazetteer data such as GIS specialists.

The UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day is an opportunity for people from across the public sector to come together to share ideas and hear presentations on all facets of best practice. Both the speakers and the audience will encompass the creators of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), as well as the end users of that data such as the Fire & Rescue Service and the Police.

Jayne Hewstone from Arun District Council was a delegate at the last Best Practice Day in London. She described it as, “Well presented, well run and what can I say but well done! A really informative and interesting day, well worth a day away from the office”.

These sentiments were reiterated by Michael Binns of London Fire Brigade, who succinctly described it as, “Informative thinking – The big picture"

Attendance is completely free of charge and organisations that will benefit include local authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police forces, ambulance services, national parks, and passenger transport executives – indeed anyone who has involvement with gazetteers.

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events or call Carl Hancock on 01483 717950

New data source for Housing Associations and NROSH

2010-04-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

NLPG data is now available for use by Housing Associations for gaining UPRNs and for more accurate use of GIS

Woking, Surrey 19th April 2010 - A new source of high quality address data is now available to Housing Associations across England that enables compatibility with the National Register of Social Housing (NROSH).

Through address management specialists Aligned Assets, data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) can now be quickly and easily purchased in subsets right down to District and Borough Council level.

This will enable all Housing Associations to attribute Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) from the NLPG to each of their housing stock records and thereby fulfil one of the core requirements for submissions to NROSH.

In addition to easy access to the UPRNs, the NLPG data gives a precise, standardise method of address recording, which is in line with all Local Authorities, and enables the regular updating of the data.

With the increasing importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Housing Associations, the NLPG data has another key advantage in that each record contains an accurate geographic reference, which allows for precise plotting of housing stock in GIS.

Speaking of the geographic component, Mike Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets said, “The use of GIS opens up a wealth of information to Housing Associations such as flood risk, housing need against supply, the mapping of energy efficiency and decent homes standards, analysis of rent arrears and the dispersal of dwelling size/type.”

He concluded by saying, “Using data from the NLPG allows for each property to be mapped individually, which gives a far higher level of value to the use of GIS. With regards the analysis of flood risk for example, mapping by postcode will lead to huge inaccuracies since two properties could be mapped together, yet one is at the top of a hill, the other at the bottom. The NLPG completely removes this.”

Whilst other commercially-available address data can only be purchased in large, regional areas, the NLPG prices start from as little as £660 per District Council. What this means is that the NLPG data is not only the best available, but through Aligned Assets, is now the most cost effective.

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/housing

Integration takes centre stage at UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day

2010-03-04T09:09:00.001-08:00

With over 60 delegates from more than 30 public sector organisations, the most recent Aligned Assets sponsored UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day proved to be the most successful yet.

Held at the offices of the London Borough of Southwark, themselves champions of Best Practice, there were six presentations, with themes ranging from web services at Cardiff Council, to the combining of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) with the One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG) by the British Transport Police.

The purpose of the Best Practice Day was to enable members of the gazetteer community to come together and share ideas and information. Through this, a better service can be offered to the public as well as improving efficiency that will ultimately save the tax payer money. This joint purpose was succinctly summed up by Ewa Platcha of the London Borough of Hackney who did a presentation on their award winning ‘Citizen Index’. “A Local Authority is a business in which the citizens are the customer, and therefore its success is determined by the quality of the interaction between them.”

The event as a whole was best summed up by Stella Morris of Canterbury City Council who described it as, “A very interesting day with a lot of useful information. I will certainly be taking back some ideas with me to have a go implementing.”

A full report of the event will be available in the April/May 2010 edition of the GEOconnexion UK magazine and information about the next Best Practice Day is available from www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.

Next Meeting of the Symphony User Group Announced

2010-03-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

The next meeting of the Symphony User Group (SUG) has just been announced for 21st May 2010 at Bath & NE Somerset Council, Keynsham Offices, Bristol, BS31 1LA.

The event is free of charge for all members of the Symphony User Group, whilst non-members can attend at a cost of £40 per person. If you are a member, you can bring along up to two colleagues for only £15 each.

The Symphony User Group focuses on your needs as an LLPG and/or LSG expert and is always a special event with opportunities to meet with other users of the Symphony Suite, see presentations of the latest products from Aligned Assets, hear about latest industry developments and quiz the AA team on all Symphony-related matters.

Southampton City Council joins with Aligned Assets

2010-02-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets are delighted to announce that Southampton City Council has chosen Symphony iManage for their street gazetteer management.

Symphony iManage is an industry leading gazetteer management system that will be used by Southampton City Council for the management of their Local Street Gazetteer and Associated Street Data.

Southampton had a requirement for a new system that was capable of exporting data in a DTF 7.1 format, and that was also fully compliant with the Traffic Management Act EToN 5 Technical Specifications. Not only was Symphony iManage an obvious choice because of its compliance with the standards, but because Aligned Assets have a well-earned reputation as a company that will always meet new standards on time.

With the new system installed, the next plan is to integrate Symphony iManage with other systems, including the Confirm® Street Works from Pitney Bowes MapInfo.

Mike Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets said of the agreement, “The management of street data is of vital importance, a fact that is reflected in the many standards that are needed to be met. In Symphony iManage we have a system that is not only consistently compliant to the latest standards but allows the user to save time and money, both in an intuitive and user-friendly way.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imanage

UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day proving the most popular yet

2010-01-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

Old Woking, Surrey 18th January 2010 – An unprecedented level of response has met the announcement of the forthcoming Aligned Assets/GEO:connexion UK sponsored Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

To be hosted at Southwark Council on 24th February 2010, the list of attendees already exceeds 45 organisations from across local government, the police force and the fire and rescue service.

Confirmed for the day are best practice presentations on the use of web services to centralise your gazetteer, the use of the NLPG for out of area working, overcoming the complexities of rural & urban addressing, preparations for Census 2011, placing the NLPG at the heart of a Citizen Index and a special presentation from the British Transport Police.

Speaking about the event, Carl Hancock of Aligned Assets said, “Everyone working with gazetteers, whether in local government or the emergency services knows the importance of their work. Address Management might not be the most glamorous aspect of the GIS world, but it remains one of the most important and this Gazetteer Best Practice Day will be placing that work at the heart of the debate.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day announced for 24th February 2010

2009-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

After a hugely successful event at Cardiff Council in October, the date for the second UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day has been announced as 24th February 2010.

The event, that is sponsored by Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets and held in association with GEO:connexion UK, will be hosted by the London Borough of Southwark and is designed for all people involved in either gazetteer management directly or those who use gazetteer data such as GIS specialists.

The Gazetteer Best Practice Day is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to best practice in gazetteering through the first hand experiences of those that regularly use gazetteers. With presentations from a variety of different organisations there will be an exploration of core management functions through to the linking of data within and between systems in order to deliver joined up services.

Those attending will gain the opportunity to explore best practice not only with the speakers but with a number of other gazetteer custodians from around the country.

Founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee spoke about the upcoming event, “When we were planning for the Best Practice Day in Cardiff, we had no idea how popular it would prove to be. Comments from attendees such as ‘…a welcome initiative and a useful addition to the usual practitioner events’ convinced us to hold another one. With the support of GEO:connexion UK, we are hoping that this one will be even bigger and better.”

Attendance is completely free of charge and suggested attendees include local authorities, fire & rescue services, police forces, ambulance services, national parks, passenger transport executives…indeed anyone who has involvement with gazetteers.

More information is available by emailing carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or by visiting www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

GEO:connexion UK Magazine available to readers in the UK bimonthly. It includes news, features and community pages devoted to the UK's GI industry. Its special focus areas are on E-Government, Health, Public Safety, Retail, Environmental, Utilities, Surveying, Location-Based Services, Transport/Logistics and Telecommunications.

To view the magazine go to www.geoconnexion.com

The first NLPG reseller unveiled as Aligned Assets

2009-12-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce the signing of an agreement with Intelligent Addressing that will see them become the UK’s very first reseller of National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) data.

Through this agreement, Aligned Assets will be bringing the huge benefits of accurate addressing and standardisation to the whole of the commercial sector, as well as public sector organisations looking to use England and Wales’ most authoritative and definitive address list.

User-friendly licensing terms for the NLPG have removed the restrictive costs associated with other datasets and has opened up accurate addressing to smaller organisations that might only require data for their specific area.

The NLPG data that is available for purchase from Aligned Assets ranges from small subsets covering local authority areas, up to regional subsets, right through to data for the whole of England and Wales. Regardless of size, all users will be in receipt of the NLPG’s greatest benefit –updates available every working day.

Unlike other address datasets, the NLPG is updated on a continual basis by every local authority in England and Wales - the bodies with statutory responsibility for street naming and numbering. What this means is that every new property built, every change of use and every demolition is filtered through the local authorities, and onto the end user.

Founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee spoke about their experience, “A core aspect of our business is address management within local government – the creators of the NLPG. This places us in the unique position of working directly with, and influencing those, that are responsible for the accuracy of the NLPG.

“Additionally, we work closely with emergency services that use the NLPG to support their mission critical and life saving work. Because of this we have extensive experience in providing fast, reliable solutions that we now look forward to providing to the wider market.”

Aligned Assets will be holding a series of events throughout 2010 to introduce prospective users of the NLPG to its benefits and potential applications. The first two of these events are for Housing Associations and will be held on the 20th & 21st January at their offices in Surrey.

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

LGIH Acknowledgement:
“The copyright in the NLPG is owned by LGIH”.
Royal Mail:
“The copyright in all PAF is owned by Royal Mail Group plc”
Ordnance Survey:
© Crown copyright 2009. License number 100044016.”

Aligned Assets users celebrate success at the Exemplar Awards

2009-12-01T08:16:00.001-08:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are delighted to announce that 12 of their customers were recognised across 15 separate categories at the 2009 Exemplar Awards.

The Awards, which celebrate achievements in public sector use of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and National Street Gazetteer (NSG), saw a total of nine wins by users of Aligned Assets’ gazetteer management system, Symphony, plus three runners up and three highly commended.

The London Area saw a clean sweep for Aligned Assets with Redbridge scoping the Award for Best NLPG in Greater London and Enfield for Best NSG. The Welsh also witnessed domination from Symphony users with Monmouthshire selected as Best in Wales for the NLPG and the Isle of Anglesey collecting the award for Best NSG.

Additional victories were seen with Exeter City Council winning Best in South West Region for NLPG and Wokingham, Walsall and North East Lincolnshire each winning their respective regions for Best NSG.

This is the fourth year in a row that has seen success for the users of Symphony. Speaking after the awards, founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee said, “What these awards show is the consistently high level of excellence amongst our user base. Key to achieving this excellence is dedication and hard work, so I applaud all our customers who realised success.”

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer software solutions. They supply over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. In addition to providing GIS and address management software they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke solutions and project management.

Visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Full list of Aligned Assets awards:

NLPG Best Business Process Transformation
- Highly Commended Exeter City Council
Most Innovative Use
- Highly Commended Canterbury City Council
NLPG FireControl Award for the Best Integration
of the NLPG by a Fire and Rescue Service
- Runner-up Kent Fire & Rescue Service
NLPG Ministry of Justice Award for the Best Implementation
of the Electoral Registration Data Standard
- Runner-up High Peak Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Strategic Alliance
NLPG Best in Greater London
- Winner London Borough of Redbridge
NLPG Best in South East Region
- Runner-up Adur District Council
NLPG Best in South West Region
- Winner Exeter City Council
NLPG Best in Wales
- Winner Monmouthshire County Council
NSG Most Improved
- Winner Isle of Anglesey County Council
NSG Best in Greater London
- Winner London Borough of Enfield
NSG Best in South East Region
- Winner Wokingham Borough Council
NSG Best in Wales
- Winner Isle of Anglesey County Council
NSG Best in West Midlands Region
- Winner Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
NSG Best in Yorkshire & Humberside Region
- Winner North East Lincolnshire Council
Best Integration of the NLPG & NSG
- Highly Recommended Monmouthshire County Council

Gazetteer Best Practice Day Hailed as a Success

2009-11-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

On Thursday 22nd October, at the offices of Cardiff Council, 40 delegates representing more than 20 organisations from across the public sector came together for the inaugural Aligned Assets sponsored Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

They were treated to eight presentations covering a wide range of topics on all things related to BS7666 gazetteers from using web services to increase efficiency, through to issues surrounding Welsh/English bilingualism. There was even a last minute presentation about the FiReControl project after the intended speaker on street gazetteers fell victim to swine flu.

Commercial Director at Aligned Assets, Phil Gee, who acted as compère for the day explained that, “Through working with so many different organisations, it is apparent how many different ways there are of achieving very similar tasks. We organised this Gazetteer Best Practice Day as a way to get these organisations together to share these experiences.”

One of those who gave a presentation was Andrew d’Andilly, Business Analyst at Barnsley Metropolitan Council. Speaking after the event he said, “With the need for local government to increase efficiency and reduce cost, events like this give the opportunity to share best practise and show that with the right support and planning we can achieve our target.”

The event was such a resounding success that another one is planned for early 2010 in London. Anyone who would like to attend or have a story about best practice that they would like to present is encouraged to email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

New address management systems for the emergency services

2009-11-02T03:14:00.000-08:00

There are many factors involved in the work of the emergency services, all of which play an essential role in their ability to not only respond to emergencies, but assist in reducing further risk.

A fundamental component underpinning all of their work is accurate address data, with the proper management and utilisation of that data equally vital. From mobilisation through to analysis, having an accurate address cannot only save lives but prevent risk long into the future.

Building on their vast experience of working within the FiReControl project, in addition to their work with the British Transport Police (BTP) and more recently with Kent Fire and Rescue Service, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have created three new address management solutions, designed specifically for use in the emergency services.

Collectively known as Symphony Bluelight, there are three distinct options available, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise, Symphony Bluelight Professional and Symphony Bluelight Search, each addressing the varying needs of the emergency services.

Symphony Bluelight Enterprise

Symphony Bluelight Enterprise is the complete corporate gazetteer system, which will support front line response, whilst all the while aiding in cost cutting and efficiency gains. It is based upon the gazetteer solution rolled out at Kent FRS, who had a requirement to implement a new system that placed accurate addressing at the heart of the Brigade.

In addition to being a secure, central depository of data, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise offers a complete, embedded Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to give the data a spatial component. This GIS enables full location analysis and is an important tool in strategic planning.

Importantly, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise allows for the synchronisation of all back office systems, enabling the user to ensure that each system contains identical address data. It creates direct links to these systems so that when updates to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) are received, these are automatically disseminated throughout the organisation.

It allows for all non-NLPG address data in other systems to be tagged with Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) so that these numbers can be used as a comprehensive system of cross referencing, giving confidence that all departments are using the same address. The same process also allows for back office data to be geocoded, by which geographical coordinates are attached to the address. This gives the data a spatial component, which in turn allows for that data to be analysed through GIS.

As well as being able to fully exploit the NLPG, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise allows for an infinite amount of user defined fields to be attached to each record within your corporate gazetteer giving the user a wealth of information essential in all emergency service activity.

Once the fields are populated, for example in the case of the Fire & Rescue Service you can see instantly if there is there a fireworks factory behind the 20ft fir trees; whether the house next door has an elderly lady who is dependant on her oxygen tanks or whether the building next door has a Black Powder or Gun powder license?

Through the use of the intuitive management console, the user has numerous options for creating and importing data from other systems and schemas, and including them alongside the NLPG. With Symphony Bluelight Enterprise, the user can derive data from a set of Oracle GIS Layers by spatial reference to a Property. This means that every time the Property geometry changes, the data created by spatial relationship is automatically updated.

Symphony Bluelight Professional

Designed for those services looking for a phased approach to implementation, at the core of Symphony Bluelight Professional is an industry leading BS7666 compliant gazetteer management system. It is a tried and tested solution used in both local government and the emergency services, is the gazetteer of choice for the FiReControl Project and is backed up by over twelve years of address management and GIS expertise.

It has been built to allow for the creation of local records, which are records that would not normally be included in the NLPG, but have significant value to the emergency services. They can be accessed alongside the NLPG data in supporting both back office analysis and frontline incident response.

To enable the further exploitation of the NLPG, Symphony Bluelight Professional is designed to allow for the validation of all your other address data against the NLPG through its address matching components. Just as with Symphony Bluelight Enterprise the geocoding functionality allows for your organisation to have a more complete usage of GIS as it will enable other department’s data to have an accurate spatial component.

Key to both Symphony Bluelight Professional and Symphony Bluelight Enterprise is the inbuilt method for creating and processing candidate records. This allows the user the ability to feedback changes in the NLPG data for future inclusions, which is yet another method by which the data can be constantly improved and kept up to date.

Symphony Bluelight Search

Irrespective of the data source and method of managing that data, the one thing that is absolutely essential to the emergency services is the need for fast and accurate. The quicker data can be accessed, the quicker it can be used and the better the emergency response.

Based on the solution designed and built for the BTP, Symphony Bluelight Search is a flexible, web-enabled search engine that allows the user to search their address database (NLPG, ADDRESS-POINT®, OS MasterMap® Address Layer 2) and return results in sub-second time.

With a look and feel that is similar to an internet search engine, Symphony Bluelight Search primarily consists of a simple, one line search bar in which the search terms are entered. It allows for ‘wildcard searches’ if the user is unsure of the complete search term and ‘fuzzy searches’ that means words will be found even if misspelt.

Symphony Bluelight Search provides a web service that gives complete, corporate access to your central address database, giving all departments access to the same, consistent data. It can be accessed via a web browser, embedded within your own application or even added as a customised search engine in Internet Explorer, so quite literally giving every member of an organisation access. All of this reduces costs, reduces the risk of errors caused by inconsistent data and ultimately allows the user to offer a safer, more efficient and higher level of service to the public.

More than just an address search engine, through the use of adaptor technology, Symphony Bluelight Search can index, compress and search a whole variety of data sources alongside your core address data. The most common use for this is to search a names database, alongside the address data, giving the user access to both names and addresses via one search, which was one of the primary requirements of the BTP.

With Symphony Bluelight Search, the user will have access to huge amounts of departmental data at the touch of button as well as a resource by which different address datasets can be search simultaneously e.g. ADDRESS-POINT®/NLPG/Bespoke Gazetteer. It could even be used to search the PRUFOS (Police Reporting UFO Sightings) database!

Conclusion

The needs of the emergency services vary from that of other organisations and they require specialist tools in order to function effectively and efficiently. The Symphony Bluelight systems have all been designed entirely with the Emergency Services in mind from a company who is the industry-leader in gazetteer software.

The three options are intended to give choice, with Symphony Bluelight Enterprise a full corporate gazetteer, Symphony Bluelight Professional an entry level solution to complement FiReControl and Symphony Bluelight Search giving complete corporate access to a variety of data sources.

If modernisation is key to your organisation visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight or call 0870 750 8750.

All three systems will be officially launched at this year’s Underpinning Transformational Government conference on 26th November at the Victoria Park Plaza in London. As Gold Sponsors for the event, Aligned Assets will be running a Masterclass with Kent FRS that will be exploring the use of the NLPG beyond FiReControl. This will be taking place at 13.45, whilst demonstrations of all Symphony Bluelight systems will be available by the Aligned Assets team on Stand 9.

Aligned Assets’ validation tool now contains over 1000 gazetteer checks

2009-10-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

With the release of Symphony iValidate v3.1, the gazetteer validation and reporting tool from Aligned Assets now contains in excess of 1000 separate checks.

Designed to ensure that local authorities are fully compliant with BS7666, iValidate is a valuable part of the QA process for Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) maintenance as well as performing a complete ‘Health Check’ on BS7666 gazetteers.

With the value of NLPG data stemming from its accuracy, iValidate is useful not only for performing a complete sweep of the data, but as this data changes, allows for the accuracy to be permanently maintained.

iValidate was originally developed by Aligned Assets consultants to ensure that the work they did was consistent for each of their clients and fully compliant with BS7666. It has evolved into a comprehensive COTS tool to assist in reviewing the LLPG & LSG and assisting in highlighting areas of either gazetteer that could be improved.

The release of v3.1 sees a complete new set of scripts for the LLPG and LSG Health Checks, plus new validation and reporting options. These scripts were created in response to errors/warnings that the NLPG hub were providing as part of the LLPG Improvement Schedules sent to Local Authorities in 2008/09 and are used to monitor LLPG Improvements for 2008/09.

It enables the users of LLPGs to have their database comply with the NLPG Validation and Health Checks v1.3, whilst LSG users can now easily comply with the LSG and ASD – DTF 7.1 Submission Compliance Check Specification v1.2.

Speaking of the release, Head of Professional Services at Aligned Assets, Andy Hird commented, “The release of iValidate v3.1 is a big step toward ensuring our customers can avoid the frustrations involved in rejected submissions to the hub. By having the peace of mind that their data is clean and compliant, they can free up more time to make full use of that data.”

For more information on iValidate, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/ivalidate.

Places going fast for Gazetteer Best Practice Day

2009-10-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

With only two weeks to go until the Gazetteer Best Practice Day in Cardiff, the list of attendees is continuing to grow.

Consisting of eight presentations on a wide variety of aspects covering the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and all things BS7666, there has been interest from both signatories and non-signatories of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA).

With the use of the NLPG expanding in both the public and private sector, it has become more important than ever to explore ways in which gazetteers at the local level can be enhanced and brought to the heart of organisational working.

Organising the event on behalf of Aligned Assets is Carl Hancock, who explained the purpose of the day. “I speak with so many people who work with gazetteers both in local government and the emergency services, and they all have a story to tell. The Gazetteer Best Practice Day grew out of the concept of having people come together to share ideas, discuss best practice and their varied ways of working.”

The full agenda is available online via www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events/Agenda_22nd_Oct.pdf and to reserve a place or request further information contact Carl at carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk.

The new generation of Property and Asset Management Software is released

2009-10-02T05:06:00.000-07:00

Symphony PMS, the new Property Management System from Aligned Assets was officially launched with a glass of champagne in Cardiff on Friday 18th September.

In the waterside setting of County Hall, those involved in the project gathered to celebrate the ending of a nine month development cycle, which has culminated in possibly the most comprehensive property management system available.

After a warming cup of tea, the guests, including representatives from other local authorities, were given a presentation by Phil Hall, Property information Manager at Cardiff Council and Phil Gee, Commercial Director at Aligned Assets, about the need at Cardiff Council to bring in a new system to replace their outdated Estates Management System.

Being at the forefront of Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) development, it was explained how it was an essential component to have Symphony PMS linked to the gazetteer. Having worked hard to achieve LLPG integration into back office systems and a wider acceptance of the LLPG as the council’s central address database, Symphony PMS was therefore designed to use addresses data directly from the council’s LLPG.

The importance of this was explained by Phil Gee, “With Cardiff’s LLPG being of such a high standard, it seemed nonsensical to build a property management system in which address data would have to be manually entered, when all that property information already existed.

“By sourcing the addresses directly from the LLPG, Cardiff can now enjoy tremendous gains in efficiency though BS7666 standardisation, the avoidance of double entry and the ability to be 100% certain of the accuracy of the address data used.”

Following on from the reasoning behind Symphony PMS, the guests were treated to a full demonstration of the system’s wide and varying functionality. They were shown how it is capable of the full management of a property portfolio including social housing, schools, commercial assets, investment property, leisure centres, industrial estates and parks – it was even shown to be capable of managing farms.

Complete management of all the sales, acquisitions, maintenance and legalities involved in property and asset management were shown and how all the management features are intuitively accessible using a simple graphical user interface. Feedback indicated that the audience were especially impressed by the way that Symphony PMS can link into any mapping engine making the entire property portfolio visually accessible, utilising either points or polygons.

Phil Gee concluded by saying, “Cardiff Council had huge specifications to go alongside their huge property portfolio, so Symphony PMS is an all encompassing system designed to meet all those requirements. With its official launch, we look forward to rolling it out to the wider market.”

To find out more visit the Symphony PMS Pages

Aligned Assets announce Gazetteer Best Practice Day

2009-08-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the date for their upcoming Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

On Thursday 22nd October at County Hall, Cardiff all signatories to the Mapping Service Agreement (MSA) including local authorities, fire & rescue services, police forces, national parks, conservation boards and passenger transport executives are invited to attend demonstrations on Gazetteer Best Practice.

With technology infusing every aspect of our working lives it has never been more essential to make sure that the software we are using is the very best available. Efficient software however is only part of the equation and it is the understanding and use of that software that lies at the very heart of 'Best Practice'.

The Gazetteer Best Practice Day is designed to give a comprehensive introduction to the Aligned Assets' suite of address management solutions through the first hand experiences of the people using it. With several presentations from different local authorities there will be an exploration of core management functions through to the linking of data within and between systems in order to deliver joined up services.

Those attending will gain the opportunity to explore best practice not only with the speakers but with a number of other multi-discipline, gazetteer custodians from around the country.

Phil Gee, Commercial Director at Aligned Assets explained the purposed of the day. “We have run demo days in the past and the feedback we received was that people wanted to hear real user stories. For this event we have asked our users if they would be happy to tell the audience about their experiences on how they have implemented and what they use our software for. I’m pleased to say that they all agreed.”

Speakers on the day include Phil Hall, Property Information Manager at Cardiff Council, Martin Laker, GIS Team Leader at Bath & North East Somerset Council and Richard Healy, GIS Manager at Monmouthshire County Council.

Attendance is completely free of charge and more information is available by emailing carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or by visiting www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.

Another local authority turns to Aligned Assets

2009-07-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are today pleased to announce the formation of a new working partnership with the supply of the Symphony Suite of gazetteer solutions.

With a focus on system integration and placing their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) at the very heart of the council, Barnsley MBC have chosen to implement the Symphony gazetteer management system (iManage), along with data matching module (iMatch), back office integration tool (iExchange) and authority-wide web services (iSearchWeb).

Due to the limitations of their previous system, Barnsley MBC found themselves with a requirement to carry out large amounts of data cleansing work. Because of this, the ease at which Symphony iManage can carry out bulk updates was a one of the key reasons for moving to Aligned Assets.

In addition to the tools within iManage, they will be using Symphony iMatch in order to check other address data (such as Council Tax) against the LLPG. Once the cleansing work is complete, iMatch can then be used to bring all departmental address data in line with the LLPG and ensure that they are all assigned a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN). It is through the use of the UPRN that every department can be assured that each and every time they are consistently referencing the same property.

The final piece to the jigsaw will be the use of Symphony iExchange, which will allow these departmental systems to be synchronised. Initial integrations that are planned are waste management, regulatory services and education services and with the links established, Barnsley MBC will then have a need to only ever update the one address database with those changes in the LLPG being automatically exported to the other systems.

By centralising the LLPG in this way they can achieve considerable returns on investment through the significant efficiency savings it will create in all departments using the data. To further these savings, Symphony iSearchWeb will allow for departmental users of address data to directly access the LLPG via web services and ensure they’re using the most up-to-date data.

“Our primary reason for choosing the Symphony Suite was to maximise the use of available resources in maintaining our LLPG, offering better value to the taxpayer. We therefore chose the system which offered the best functionality for updating the database,” explained Riley Marsden, LLPG Custodian at Barnsley MBC.

“We emphasised from the very start the desire to work in partnership with our supplier, seeking their input into the data management process. Aligned Assets were the only company whose focus was entirely on supporting us (and working with us) to improve our data. Furthermore, the Symphony Suite offers a level of interoperability which perfectly complements our corporate enterprise architecture.”

To find out more about how Aligned Assets can help your organisation visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk or call 0870 750 8750.

Aligned Assets release Advanced ASD Management Solution

2009-07-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce the new release of their Symphony Associated Street Data (ASD) management system.

Packed full of the latest technological features, including many that are not available in any other system on the market, this new version builds upon their EToN 5 compliant release from March of this year.

Called ASD Plus, and structured as an addition to the existing Symphony ASD module, the key to it is its highly advanced and flexible display options, designed to make the visualisation of all ASD data much simpler and user-friendly.

The user now has the ability to apply and customise the colours and patterns of their ASD layers in order to make street information more visually identifiable. These new identifiers can be used to pick out each Elementary Street Unit (ESU) and specifically show where restrictions apply.

This could be used to instantly see which streets are closed for a carnival, the location of all low bridges, privately maintained roads, the traffic direction of streets etc. In fact, with ASD Plus all ASD data can be assigned a visual identifier and simply turned on or off depending on what needs to be seen.

In addition to the display features, ASD Plus gives the user the opportunity to enter details about the height, width, and weight restrictions on streets (Type 64 records) and details of ‘One Way Exemptions’ (Type 65 records) i.e. which vehicle types can travel the wrong way down a street. Not only does this information provide valuable data to the emergency services and transport firms, but if the entry of these records became compulsory then ASD Plus users will have a distinct advantage.

“This new module is the biggest development in our product range since the migration to BS7666:2006,” explained Carl Nunn, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, “With it comes a suite of features we have been eager to introduce for some time now, including the ability to accurately display ASD on the map for short road sections and providing complete flexibility in terms of lines styles, thickness and colouring for each different type of ASD data.”

He went on to say, “Over two years ago we held a workshop to determine how ASD should be displayed and more recently contacted all our street gazetteer users to receive their input. Since there have been no central developments with display standards, we instead have provided complete display flexibility.”

“We have seen the richness of the data being managed truly lifting the NSG and ASD to a whole new level and I look forward to seeing the changes in the industry over the coming years. With the increasing usage of this important information we intend to continue to be at the forefront of producing industry-leading street gazetteer technology.”

To find out more about how ASD Plus can help your organisation visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/asdplus or call 0870 750 8750.

Herefordshire Council join the Aligned Assets family

2009-06-09T07:35:00.001-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce Herefordshire Council as the latest customer of its Symphony Suite of Gazetteer Solutions.

Birth place of the historic Lady Godiva, Herefordshire boosts a population of 178,000 covering 13,000 square kilometres and is one of the most rural and least densely populated counties in England.

As a Unitary Authority the council has responsibility for the management of both Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) data with a total of 108,000 records requiring maintenance.

To facilitate this, the council have replaced their old, inefficient gazetteer management system with Symphony iManage from Aligned Assets. This technologically advanced, yet user-friendly system provides them with all the tools they require to create, maintain and analyse their BS7666 compliant Street and Land & Property Gazetteer.

They will also be using Symphony iManage for the management of Associated Street Data (ASD) that will allow them to maintain information on the ownership of the streets, height and weight restrictions, streets with special surfaces and traffic sensitive streets. Importantly, the Aligned Assets ASD module will enable the council to be fully compliant with the Traffic Management Act EToN 5 Technical Specifications and avoid any fines that come with non-compliance.

Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) plays an important role in Herefordshire Council’s Building Control Department and requires close consultation with the Parish Councils. In order to achieve significant efficiency savings in this fee-generated process, the council have chosen to use Aligned Assets’ SNN module. Fully customisable to the user’s requirements, this flexible tool will allow them to manage the complete SNN lifecycle, including the automatic distribution of letters or emails, saving considerable amounts of time and so increasing productivity.

The final piece to the gazetteer jigsaw is the installation of one of Aligned Assets’ most recent developments call the Xtended Data Module, which allows the user to add additional user-defined fields to their BS7666 gazetteer.

In the case of Herefordshire Council, they had a need to hold addresses in a way that was both suitable for internal and external uses. The use of BS7666 addresses was ideal for the internal workings of the council, but as explained by Herefordshire Council’s GIS Team Leader, Duncan Trumper, “The BS7666 address is not suitable for public interaction in all cases. We had a need for postal addresses as well since they enable better efficiency with the data exchange from the public especially in the Social Care and CRM systems.”

To achieve this they added six additional fields to their LLPG using the Xtended Data Module, which held these postal addresses, enabling them to have ‘the best of both worlds’ – fully standardised BS7666 data, plus an easy-to-use postal address, all linked with a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN). By doing this they achieve not only the internal efficiencies that come from standardisation, but better data exchange with the public and so reducing unnecessary contact.

Speaking of their switch to the Aligned Assets system, Duncan went on to say, “We are very impressed with the level of service we have had from Aligned Assets and it makes me happy to know that I made the right decision, which was a big one to make! I look forward to a happy working relationship with Aligned Assets long into the future.”

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets boost their customer support with new recruit

2009-06-01T05:22:00.000-07:00

Continuing their ongoing commitment to providing first class customer support, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the appointment of Melvin Lindsay as Support Analyst.

Having graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology, Melvin’s previous experience includes working as an IT Project Manager and IT Analyst. His new role at Aligned Assets will see him working on issue prioritization and management for the support department, as well as providing first line support for all Aligned Assets products.

He will be working closely with the internal support team and also directly with Aligned Assets’ customers including those from local government, the Fire and Rescue Service and the Police.

Speaking of the appointment, Carl Nunn, Managing Director of Aligned Assets said, “We take our customer support very seriously and I strongly believe that investment in people is key to achieving this. Melvin is a determined, helpful and focused individual and will become a real asset in helping us to provide the highest quality support and customer service.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Symphony User Group turns out in force

2009-05-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

Thursday 21st May 2009 saw the latest meeting of the Symphony User Group (SUG) with forty users of the addressing solutions provided by Aligned Assets coming together at the historic Albert Halls in Bolton.

The delegates, who came from as far south as Worthing and as far north as Perth, were treated to several presentations throughout the day as well as an opportunity to help shape the future of the Aligned Assets products.

Simon Bailey, the NSG Custodian came from Intelligent Addressing to give an update on the new DTF 7.1 standard and answer questions related to street gazetteers, EToN 5 and the Traffic Management Act.

Representatives from EADS gave a well received presentation on the FiReControl Project, explaining how local authority gazetteer data was integral to the future of the English Fire & Rescue Service. They also demonstrated the new Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) from Imass that will give fire fighters access to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) whilst on call.

Showing the latest product from Aligned Assets was Cardiff Council who presented on the new Symphony Property Management System (PMS). This innovative new system that links directly with a local authority’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer allows users to manage the acquisitions, sales, maintenance and legalities involved in property management.

Phil Gee, Commercial Director at Aligned Assets speaking after the event said, “Each year the SUG goes from strength to strength and it was great to welcome some of the newest members to this Spring’s meeting. It is vitally important to us as a company to meet with our customers and hear their feedback. They use the software on a daily basis so no one is going to know better than them what we need to be doing.”

The Symphony User Group is open to all users of Aligned Assets products. They meet twice a year and are a vibrant, independent community that allows members to network, share hints and tips, and directly influence the direction of their gazetteer software.

To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets showcasing Gazetteer solutions at BAPCO

2009-04-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets invite members of the Police and Fire & Rescue Services to visit them on the EADS stand at the upcoming BAPCO 2009 Conference and Exhibition held between 21st and 23rd April 2009 at the Business Design Centre in London.

They will be available to demonstrate their advanced gazetteer management solutions that have been rolled out to all 46 fire services across England as part of the FiReControl project.

In addition to providing the Gazetteer solutions for FiReControl, Aligned Assets have been working closely with their clients at brigade level, including the two most recent implementations at Kent FRS and Humberside FRS, and continue to work with the British Transport Police in providing their national gazetteer solution.

Through their adoption of Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite they can be assured that all aspects of local, regional and national operations will be speaking the same language as well as the opportunity to utilise National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) data across their organisation.

The gazetteer management solutions offered by Aligned Assets allow for sub-second multi-gazetteer searching, the ability to add external data to your gazetteer, back-office integration, data matching and validation, and fully integrated web services.

All the solutions are designed to increase efficiency and save time by removing error and duplication, whilst all the while allowing the data to remain consistently accurate and constantly up to date.

To find out more, visit them on the EADS stand at this year’s BAPCO exhibition or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets bring enhanced gazetteer management to the South Coast

2009-04-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce Worthing Borough Council as their latest Symphony Suite gazetteer customer.

Representing a population of 100,000 people, Worthing Borough Council had the requirement for a robust, yet user-friendly gazetteer management system. After considering several options they decided that the solutions offered by Aligned Assets were clearly leagues ahead of the competition.

Speaking of the decision, Gill Van-Eetvelt, Corporate Information Manager at Worthing Borough Council said, “Once we had decided to bring in a new gazetteer management system we established our selection criteria including cost, integration, efficiency and expertise. Aligned Assets excelled in them all so our decision became easy.”

In addition to the iManage gazetteer management system, Worthing Borough Council also purchased iMatch to enable them to quickly and easily match all of the Council’s addresses to their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and assigned them all with a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).

iSearchWeb will offer authority-wide access to the gazetteer data, allowing people from across the council to all use the same address data. With iSearchWeb linked directly to the LLPG, changes in the gazetteer will automatically be reflected in the data being searched, resulting in it being consistently accurate and constantly up to date.

The use of iSearchWeb will also form the foundation of a Joint Working Partnership between Worthing Borough Council and Adur District Council. With the two councils working to provide more services together, the sharing of address information is critically important. iSearchWeb will facilitate this sharing by allowing both councils to access each other’s data via a simple, easy to use web service.

With a 15 - 20 year regeneration ‘Masterplan’ now in place for Worthing, accurate property information has never been more important. With the solutions provided by Aligned Assets, the Council’s LLPG can now be at the forefront of providing the essential addressing component to all of these plans today, tomorrow and long into the future.

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Kent Fire follow the FiReControl model and adopt Aligned Assets

2009-03-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the latest emergency service provider to embrace the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) with the announcement that they will be adopting the gazetteer solutions provided by Aligned Assets.

As the gazetteer provider into the new nine Regional Control Centres across England via the FiReControl project, Aligned Assets were the clear choice for Kent FRS to adopt at brigade level. This allowed them to use not only the same data with the NLPG, but also the same, fully compatible software from Aligned Assets.

The new system will allow for full data management with the ability to not only receive regular updates from the National Hub, but also to integrate the NLPG data into other internal systems. In addition to this, through the use of Aligned Assets’ Xtended Data Module (XDM), Kent FRS will have the ability to add additional, user-defined fields without losing BS7666 integrity, greatly enhancing the power of the data.

One of the most powerful tools to be implemented is Aligned Assets’ SinglePoint and will allow Kent FRS to search the entire 32 millions records of the NLPG in sub-second time. With the additional option to ‘plug in’ other gazetteers and its link into 3rd Party GIS applications, SinglePoint will enable the full exploitation of the data.

As one of the largest suppliers of gazetteers into local government, and as the only UK company to specialise in gazetteers solutions, Aligned Assets have both the knowledge and expertise to provide all gazetteer and GIS-related requirements. Its work with FiReControl has positioned it as an expert in providing data tools for the emergency services, keenly understanding the necessities required.

Aligned Assets offer a new way to achieve CORE compliancy

2009-02-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

With the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) deadline for the matching of Electoral Registers to the NLPG getting ever closer, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are offering a new service to help local authorities gain CORE compliance.

Their intuitive data matching software, Symphony iMatch, is to be made available for loan at a price lower than the funding offered by the MoJ. This will enable local authorities to not only run the automatic matching process themselves but also can use iMatch for the process of interactive matching.

Having been the first supplier of gazetteer solutions to be granted accreditation to the BS7666:2006 standard, Aligned Assets are well known as experts in the field of data quality and compliance. They have the experience of working with over 80 local authorities and are the suppliers to the FiReControl project in which their solutions are being used to ensure that mission critical address data is accurate.

Commercial Director at Aligned Assets Phil Gee said, “After speaking with many of our clients, there was a sense that offering automatic matching services wasn’t enough since it would still leave them with a tremendous amount of manual matching to do with no easy way to achieve it.”

“They wanted a way to have the automatic matching done but also tools to make the manual matching easier, all within the MoJ’s funding. That is why we are offering iMatch in this way.”

Available for £1700, Aligned Assets are able to not only offer iMatch on a three month loan, but the offer also includes a full day of onsite consultancy to offer advice and assistance.

To find out more call 0870 750 8750, email sales@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imatch.

Aligned Assets Customers Excel at the NLPG Exemplar Awards

2008-11-03T02:05:00.000-08:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets enjoyed yet more success at this year’s Exemplar Awards with seven of its customers recognised across six categories.

The winner of the ‘Best Business Transformation’ award was presented to South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council for their iShareMaps web solution provided by Astun Technology, whilst Monmouthshire County Council was placed as runners up for both ‘Best Integrated use of the NLPG and NSG’ and Most Creative Use of Level 3 NSG’.

Speaking of the award, GIS Manager at Monmouthshire Richard Healy paid this tribute to Aligned Assets by saying, “Your guidance and assistance in setting up sound data structures and cleansing our data has been invaluable, these exercises have allowed us to achieve the improvements we have made this year.”

He went onto say, “External independent acknowledgement at the national awards is confirmation we are moving in the right direction.”

Managing Director of Aligned Assets Carl Nunn said, “This has been an important year for Aligned Assets and this level of recognition is testament to the hard work and dedication of all our customers. I want to offer my congratulations to those that picked up awards and look forward to yet another successful twelve months.”

The complete list of winners is:

‘Best Business Transformation’ – Winner: South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council

‘Best Integration of the NLPG and NSG’ – Highly Commended: Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, London Borough of Brent, London Borough of Ealing

‘Most Improved NSG’ – Runner Up: Leicestershire County Council

‘Most Improved NLPG’ – Runner Up: Birmingham City Council

‘Best Integrated use of the NLPG and NSG’ – Runner Up: Monmouthshire County Council

‘Most Creative Use of Level 3 NSG’ – Runner Up: Monmouthshire County Council

Aligned Assets reinforces its sales team

2008-10-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets is pleased to announce the appointment of James Shean as its new Account Manager.

James’ appointment will help to strengthen Aligned Assets’ on-going commitment to its high levels of customer service and James will play a key role in developing the company’s work in both local government and the emergency services.

Prior to joining Aligned Assets James spent nine years working in local government as a GIS specialist at Bournemouth Borough Council and four years as a Commercial Manager in the construction industry.

Of his new appointment James remarked, “I’m really pleased to have joined such a forward thinking company and one that is the industry leader in gazetteer technology. Having worked for many years in local government I have a keen understanding of their requirements and hope to use this knowledge to help their relationship with Aligned Assets to be a highly positive one.”

Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets Mike Smith said of James, “We have been looking to appoint a new account manager for several months now but for such a key role we had to be sure to employ the very best. James’ acute knowledge of local government made him the perfect candidate and I’m very pleased to welcome him to the team.”

James will be taking over the promotion of Aligned Assets’ new Street Naming and Numbering module to demonstrate how this latest innovation from can help to improve council efficiency, and ultimately save them money. In addition to visiting customers, James will be holding a Street Naming and Numbering demo day at the Aligned Assets’ offices in Surrey on 27th November.

For more information call James on 0870 750 8750 or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

Authority wide access to the LLPG is given a boost

2008-09-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Now that each local authority in England and Wales has completed the lengthy process of creating their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs), more than ever they are now looking at ways to further the access to that data.

A simple way to facilitate this access is a web-based solution from gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets who have recently announced the latest release of their Symphony iSearchWeb product that creates an easy, yet highly efficient way of allowing authority-wide access to the LLPG.

Through the use of iSearchWeb, all departments can have access to the LLPG data via a web browser, with the ability to look up and copy addresses into any application. There are a variety of search options in addition to the standard address searches such as searching by Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) and by Cross References e.g. council tax cross reference.

Because LLPGs are updated with the cross references of many different departments, those departments can use iSearchWeb to locate an address and then access the department specific information about that property using that cross reference. Anyone wanting generic information about a property could therefore have access to a wealth of information about a property via these linked cross references.

As well as allowing inter-department access to the LLPG, iSearchWeb can additionally be integrated into any authority web service that can therefore allow public access to the address data. Having this information accessible to the public will greatly increase public service delivery as any online system with an address component will be given a significant boost.

Built into iSearchWeb is a feedback option that moves the use beyond the ability to search and retrieve data. If a user detects an error in any of the data there is an option to directly email the LLPG custodian with this information, who in turn can then make the necessary changes. What this effectively means is that via iSearchWeb, a local authority gains a personal validation service through its users.

Speaking about iSearchWeb, Commercial Director of Aligned Assets Phil Gee said, “The ability to quickly find and use the address information in an LLPG is what gives it true power. The fact that this information is accessible to all council employees and even to the public via iSearchWeb is moving the LLPG to another level.”

Data Matching Workshop for CORE Compliancy

2008-09-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors (CORE) is a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) project to standardise all electoral registers across the UK and amalgamate them into one national database.

Since address standardisation exists already within each authority’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) through the application of BS7666, the MoJ directive calls for the matching of each electoral register to the LLPG so that the same level of standardisation can be achieved.

To help facilitate this process, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets will be holding a free data matching workshop on 7th October 2008 to advise on the process and offer simple ways to achieve compliancy.

To be held in the historic Shakespeare Memorial Room at Birmingham Central Library there will be presentations on the CORE project, looking into the motives and reasoning behind it as well as a presentation from High Peak Borough Council who were one of the first local authorities to achieve CORE compliancy.

There will be a demonstration of Aligned Assets iMatch, which is an intuitive data matching software solution that will allow not only for the matching of the electoral registers but also the matching of all other council address data.

With CORE being just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to address matching, iMatch is software that can be used to create standardisation across all council systems.

The data matching workshop is available to all people with an interest in CORE or address matching generally. To reserve your place email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or call 01483 717951.

New appointments at Aligned Assets

2008-08-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

With its client base rapidly increasing, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the appointment of two new members of staff.

Demonstrating their dedication to producing the highest quality software available on the market and their on-going commitment to customer services, they have strengthened their development team by appointing Anil Poonia and their professional services team with Claire Marvin.

Having graduated with a Masters in Computer Science, Anil joins the nine-strong development team at Aligned Assets, having previously worked as a Corporate Trainer for Koenig-Solutions PVT Ltd. Anil is both a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer and a Microsoft Certified Application Developer, bringing with him extensive knowledge about the latest trends and technologies.

Claire brings a wealth of experience in the fields of GIS, Database Management and Digital Mapping & Analysis. Having spent four years at Tele Atlas as a Geographical Information Specialist and then three and a half years as a Crime Analyst with the Safer Kingston Partnership, Claire is a great addition to the professional services team.

Of the new appointments, Managing Director Carl Nunn said, “This is an exciting period for Aligned Assets with work continuing on the FiReControl project and an influx of new customers upgrading to our software solutions. We pride ourselves on employing only the very best people in the industry and both Anil and Claire personify this philosophy.”

For more information about Aligned Assets call 0870 750 8750 or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Another win for Aligned Assets

2008-08-12T08:38:00.002-07:00

Aligned Assets can announce today the winning of a significant contract to supply South Gloucestershire Council with their Symphony Gazetteer Management System.

Taking advantage of Aligned Assets’ competitive upgrade package, South Gloucestershire replaced their existing Northgate system with a complete package from Aligned Assets that will allow them to manage, validate and share their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG).

Aligned Assets iManage, combines power and usability with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it the one of the most highly regarded GMS in the industry. The first system to achieve BS7666:2006 compliance, iManage has continued to be at the forefront of gazetteer management that has seen their client base steadily grow within Local Government and now the Emergency Services.

Additional features that South Gloucestershire Council will now be able to take advantage of include automatic updates to the Hub via Symphony iExchange and the ability to protect the quality of the data using Symphony iValidate. The matching of their other address data to the LLPG with Symphony iMatch will enable them to comply with the CORE initiative and authority wide access to the LLPG will be available through Symphony iSearchWeb.

ICT Applications Manager at South Gloucestershire Matthew Toms said of the deal, “Aligned Assets have a strong reputation in the gazetteer sector. We found that not only were they the company that could best fulfill our requirements but also scored very highly with their customer service and on-going support. We feel they clearly provide the best solution on the market for our needs.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Software Aids in Electoral Register Compliancy

2008-07-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are helping to achieve the realisation of electoral modernisation through the provision of software that allows the matching of electoral registers to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG).

Reacting to a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) directive stating that all electoral registers must be formatted to UK address standard BS7666, Aligned Assets have issued the latest version of their Symphony iMatch software to facilitate this formatting.

The directive states that by 1st December 2009 Electoral Registration Officers in all local authorities must convert their address data to BS7666 standards and ensure the inclusion of a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) against each address.

Symphony iMatch allows for automatic matching of the electoral register against the authorities’ Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), which enables the process to be left without input whilst the vast majority of the matching is done. Once this process is completed an interactive mode can be activated for the manual matching of the remaining data.

Speaking of the MoJ directive, Commercial Director at Aligned Assets, Phil Gee explained, “We see this as the first movement toward the compulsory standardisation of all local authority address data. Rather than engaging expensive data matching companies, iMatch offers a solution that can be used time and time again for only one fee. It will allow for all local authority address data to be brought in line with the BS7666 standard quickly and easily.”

Alongside its powerful address matching capability, iMatch also facilitates the geocoding of address data and incorporates a user-friendly search engine for locating addresses within the LLPG.

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Friday the Thirteenth Proves Lucky for Aligned Assets

2008-06-17T08:37:00.001-07:00

Paraskavedekatriaphobia, as the fear of Friday the Thirteenth is known, appears to afflict no one at gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets as they achieved the remarkable feat of three software releases on the same day.

Always striving to provide the most up to date software that reflects both legislative changes and the needs of their customers, they have released new versions of the Symphony Suite gazetteer management system iManage, data matching module iMatch and data transfer module iExchange.

The main focus within the iManage v3.4 release is increased speed and efficiency, greater levels of automation and extended functionality to the Street Naming and Numbering module.

iMatch v5.2.2 builds upon the module’s position as the industry’s number one data matching tool with several improvements. It’s now even quicker and easier to match address data to BS7666 standards, fulfilling one of the primary aims of t-government initiatives.

iExchange v3.1.1 increases the Symphony Suite’s module’s capacity for sharing of gazetteer data with other systems as well as the transfer of Local Land and Property Gazetteer data to the national hub.

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Strengthens its Team

2008-06-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can announce the appointment of four new members of staff to their ever-strengthening team.

Working out of their Old Woking offices will be Tim Davies who joins the software development team, Eze Nbuduka who fills the role of software tester, Paul Barnes as technical support officer and Laura Boxall who becomes the new voice of Aligned Assets as admin assistant and receptionist.

Speaking of the new appointments, Managing Director Carl Nunn said, “People are at the very heart of Aligned Assets and are essential to the provision of the best possible service to our customers. These appointments reflect our commitment to being proactive in business, ensuring that we are always in a position to respond to the needs of our customers and the market at large.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Aligned Assets Achieve ISO 9001 Certification

2008-06-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Aligned Assets can announce that it has maintained its position within a select niche of UK companies to achieve ISO 9001 certification.

This is the second year running that they have achieved this prestigious award that recognises quality processes throughout all aspects of the business from its customer service through to employee advancement.

With only around 3% of UK businesses holding ISO 9001 accreditation, Aligned Assets can proudly claim to be at the forefront of quality service and customer care.

Quality Manager at Aligned Assets, Frances Young, said of the award, “We are delighted that our continued drive towards quality has once again been acknowledged as amongst the very best in the country. As a company we have always recognised the need to invest in people and training, and that it is through this that we are able to offer such an excellent service to our customers. We set ourselves the very highest standards possible and have procedures in place to make sure that we continue to meet them for many years to come.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Interview with IA's Gayle Gander

2008-06-11T05:55:00.000-07:00

With the commercialisation of the NLPG now a reality, our very own Carl Hancock spoke with Intelligent Addressing's Head of Marketing Gayle Gander to find out more...

Q: Hi Gayle. So what was the prime mover behind the commercialisation of the NLPG?

Hi Carl, licensing the NLPG wider afield than the local government community has always been the aim of local government and IA. The intention being to improve working practices with the other organisations that interface with local government, such as central government, the utilities, partners, who would also be able to share information using the NLPG’s UPRN.

To give you a bit of history, back in 1999, funds for the development of the NLPG were unavailable from central government and LGIH (Local Government Information House - a wholly owned company of the Improvement and Development Agency, IDeA), was tasked with leading the initiative for local government, and sought a partner from the private sector who would be able to provide both the necessary skills and funding to create the NLPG.

This led to LGIH approaching three firms with existing knowledge of BS7666 and IA was the only one prepared to invest and be reimbursed through future licensing revenue. At that time, government was encouraging the involvement of SMEs in public/private partnerships, supporting government’s efforts to modernise.

The public private partnership that emerged was based on IA bearing the development task and central costs of setting-up and managing the NLPG hub, whilst LGIH provided the coordination of local government contributors and worked to secure onward licensing arrangements with data contributors. This partnership, along with the development of local land and property gazetteers by local authorities, turned the NLPG into a reality. However, it is only in the last couple of months that local government has managed to secure a licensing agreement with Ordnance Survey to allow the NLPG to be used by the private sector and central government.

Q: Which industries do you plan on marketing it to, or do you think will be interested in the product?

We’ve always known that there is very wide sector interest in the NLPG. Over the past eight years we have averaged about 2 new enquiries each week regarding using the NLPG, in really interesting and innovative ways. That’s not a bad enquiry rate for a dataset that has not been marketed beyond the local government community!

Knowing where customers are, how to get to them and where assets are located is crucial to so many commercial organisations, therefore the NLPG has a role in utilities, banking, insurance, pensions, retail, direct marketing, property and housing, environmental reporting, satellite navigation, transport and logistics, demographics, mobile working and field services, healthcare, directory development, just to name a few in the private sector.

There is an equally wider application in central government from the Land Registry, to Revenue and Customs to MoD to Environmental planning. In short, anyone who needs to deliver a service to a location!

Q: How do you envisage the split between end-user/reseller purchasers?

This is a difficult question as its IA’s intention to become the NLPG wholesaler and for the retail activity to be largely undertaken by resellers. That said, particularly in these early days, IA is following up directly with a number of organisations that we have been talking to over the years and who wanted to be alerted when the NLPG became available to them. However, in the longer term, we do see the vast majority of sales to end users being made through resellers.

Q: Have you had serious expressions of interest yet?

Oh yes, from both end-users and resellers.

Q: Tell us about the benefits, what would a business or organisation gain from the NLPG?

The NLPG isn’t just a list of addresses, it’s an intelligent address – a process that provides constant improvement and updates as well as a robust framework for data management procedures.

Any organisation that needs up-to-date, comprehensive data will benefit from using the NLPG. The key benefits can be summed up by the 8 ‘C’s:

Currency – it comes directly from local government, the legal and authoritative source of new addresses

Completeness – local government has a duty to provide services to 100% of its citizens, and therefore has to have confidence in a rigorous process which guarantees that its activities have comprehensive underpinning data

Comprehensive – provides non-postally addressable objects and multiple address references

Connectivity – the use of the UPRN as the key identifier for a property enables systems to share information about the same entities without the need to match multiple datasets and hold multiway cross references

Consistency – the only address dataset compliant with BS 7666 Part 2 and underpinned by data entry conventions mandated for use under Local Government’s Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with each local authority in England and Wales

Change only updates – the NLPG offers updates at the user’s convenience, from daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly

Custodians – over 750 local authority staff are continually updating their local records and have a sense of ‘ownership’ of the data

Central hub – managed by Intelligent Addressing, providing expertise and robustness in the management and verification of the data.

Q: What about competition in the market place, how will you deal with this?

As the 8 ‘C’s above illustrate, the NLPG offers much more than any other addressing solution. The NLPG is already directly underpinning over £100 million of local government business, and indirectly some £20 billion, and is a proven solution for this sector. I don’t think that any other address offering can offer this sort of service, after all, an address dataset, developed, maintained and used at source by business users of the data has to have the highest level of currency and completeness possible.

So to directly answer your question, we will meet any competition in the market place head on, knowing that the NLPG is the best product and service available.

Q: Is your pricing going to be a factor? How do you plan on overcoming this?

The price is much higher than we want it to be. We envisaged a multitude of organisations from FTSE companies down to local charities being able to access and use the NLPG. We believe that this data is an essential part of the nation’s infrastructure and therefore didn’t want price to be a barrier. In the short term the pricing will not enable local government to achieve its objective of the NLPG supporting every address based application in the country.

However, each license sale of the NLPG has to include royalties to be paid to OS for two addressing and street related products - which aren’t cheap. That said, the potential efficiency savings that organisations can make through using the NLPG dwarf the license fee.

We will continue to lobby government for fairer and less restrictive licensing terms. OS as a Trading Fund has to meet revenue targets but it has a track record of reviewing and reducing its prices. Future price changes will be passed on to NLPG licensees and local government will review the constituent price for the NLPG at the same time in order to maximise use.

Q: How do you envisage the commercialisation to work for existing gazetteer management suppliers such as Aligned Assets?

The wider availability of the NLPG should expand the market for existing gazetteer suppliers and is a superb opportunity for companies like Aligned Assets to provide a complete solution to the market – software that already contains the NLPG and is ready to go.

Companies will want to incorporate the timeliness of the updates from the NLPG into their address lists. They will want to match their address lists to the NLPG to associate the relevant UPRNs. They will want to share information both with their organisations and with others using the power of the UPRN. All of these facilities are enabled by the current GMS suppliers such as Aligned Assets.

Q: Should the Local Authorities, who are the providers of your address data, have any concerns about this commercialisation?

No. As I mentioned earlier, local government’s aim has always been to make a financial return to the local authorities that have worked so hard to provide the data that makes up the NLPG. The authorities are aware that the aim has been to license their data commercially.

Q: Finally, where do you envisage the future direction of the NLPG?

I believe that the NLPG is the definitive address dataset of choice for anyone that needs to manage land and property or deliver services to a location. Definitive addressing is such a hugely important resource that the UPRN will become ubiquitous within the public and private sectors.

Local authorities have a programme of setting objectives for the future development of the NLPG. As users outside of local authorities start to become stakeholders in the NLPG, their requests will be fed into the objective setting process, which means that the NLPG will become responsive to the needs of an ever wider range of users. I’m a firm believer that being responsive to the requirements of the users of a product is key to achieving success and providing a solution that is genuinely valuable.

Birmingham City Council chooses Aligned Assets

2008-05-27T06:25:00.001-07:00

Aligned Assets can today announce Service Birmingham as their latest gazetteer customer.

Birmingham CC is the largest local authority in Europe responsible for nearly one million people and Service Birmingham is their joint venture with Capita Business Services through which is provided world-class information and communications technology (ICT) systems.

As the final authority to sign up to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), Service Birmingham will be using Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite software to construct their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG).

In addition to the iManage gazetteer management module, Service Birmingham will also be taking advantage of Symphony iMatch, which will allow them to match all other address datasets to the LLPG. This will allow for the BS7666 standard that is applied to the LLPG to be utilised for the electoral Roll, council tax and benefits – something that central government is pushing towards.

Symphony iExchange will allow them to share the LLPG data with internal and external sources, including the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), whilst full quality checking of their data will be made simple using Symphony iValidate.

Symphony iSearchWeb will allow them Authority-wide accessing of the LLPG data and built into their version of iManage will be the new Street Naming and Numbering module that will allow them to manage the complete lifecycle of naming a street or numbering a property.

“We are very excited by the prospect of working with Birmingham City Council,” said Aligned Assets’ Commercial Director Phil Gee, “In addition to over 80 local authority clients, we are also the chosen supplier to the British Transport Police, Transport for London and the FiReControl Project. With Birmingham as a client we are now truly recognised as being the number one for gazetteers.”

www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Transforming Local Service Delivery

2008-05-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

For several years now the emphasis within local authorities has been about treating members of the public as customers and what these customers want delivered are quality local services. This expectation only increases with all the stories of rising council tax bills splashed almost daily across the news; yet despite this, one would struggle to find a single council that does not have to make harsh decisions in order to balance its books.

So with less money for services yet an ever-increasing demand for them, what is a council to do? The answer is simple – get more from less; increase efficiency. However, with only a set number of hours in the day and council employees, like the majority of public sector workers, already pushed to the limit, this greater level of efficiency cannot be achieved through the people, but instead through the processes and systems that they use.

Efficiency drives are not a new thing though and all the major political parties squabble to be seen as the one that will bring efficiency back to the public sector. Lord Heseltine, former deputy leader of the Conservative Party even went so far as to suggest that his party saw it as “a bloated, badly run, inefficient impost on the taxpayers back.” Yet for all the political posturing, most of the time the politicians have little concept of how this desired efficiency will actually be achieved.

It is therefore not so surprising that one initiative that is achieving at a local level is doing so not because it was intended to, but as a consequence of its design.

Efficiencies Found

It was in 1990 that the Local Government Management Board devised the concept of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), later standardised through British Standard BS7666. This required all local councils to produce and maintain their own Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs), which were amalgamated to produce the national dataset. Now completed, the NLPG can be considered a ‘super gazetteer’, with uses being found in the emergency services and shortly in the commercial sector.

Though the LLPGs were initially conceived as feeders for the NLPG, the local authorities that created them are now also beginning to reap the rewards. The 2006 findings of the Centre for Economics and Business Research showed that:

- The NLPG could save local government in England and Wales alone at least £54.4 million per annum
- This saving only takes account of the benefits to the 376 local authorities in England and Wales that have responsibility for crating an LLPG [i.e. the total saving could be far higher].
- Project evaluation shows that over a ten year period, the benefit‐cost ratio of the NLPG to local government alone could amount to 3.3 : 1.

Though the average costs of setting up an LLPG were estimated to be £34,000 and the running costs will be £40,000 per annum, on the financial front there is clear evidence that significant savings will be made, despite the costs.

Money though is not everything and does not in itself lead to the efficiency benefits that are sought. A subsidiary effect of the LLPG was that it forced local authorities into a process of standardisation, which though initially conceived so that all data spoke the same language for the purpose of the NLPG, now means that internally each council has their own centralised address database.

Previously this data could have been stored across different departments, which could lead to duplication and inaccuracies, both of which, through the LLPG, are now things of the past.

Greater Integration

The LLPG might be up to date and accurate, but still it is currently only an address database. With roughly 85% of all council data having an address component, its use and importance is clear, but with different departments having their own unique data requirements, it is evident that something more is required.

These departments will maintain databases for their specific needs, often with their own address components, that may overtime become out of date. To maintain both the accuracy of these records in addition to their uniqueness their integration with the LLPG becomes hugely significant.

To create this integration many local authorities have teamed up with gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets, utilising a piece of software called iMatch. Working as the complete integrator of systems, iMatch acts as a bridge between the LLPG and other departments, allowing information between systems to be matched together and the accuracy of the LLPG then implanted into those other datasets.

Additionally, the unique property reference numbers (UPRNs) attributed to each property within the LLPG can then be linked within these legacy systems, removing the duplication of records and allowing all the council to be singing from the same hymn sheet. iMatch can then geocode the legacy systems giving what was a simple database of information a spatial component.

This joined up thinking, in turn leading to joined up systems all speaking the same language, enables existing tasks to be performed more quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy. Not only this but departments, through this greater integration, are now able to offer services that previously were not available.

Into the Future

Soon technology will be moving the LLPG into new territory as it soon will be able to move beyond simple geocoded address data with the introduction of the pioneering Xtended Data Module (XDM) from Aligned Assets. Originally designed for use within the new FiReControl Project, its uses within Local Government will start to become apparent with the imminent launch of it commercially.

What the XDM allows is the adding of an infinite amount of additional information to be held against each record within the LLPG, meaning that this data becomes only one click away. Such information can be the council tax band of the property, date of fire safety checks, flood risk level, even the bin day can be added. With this the LLPG has the potential of becoming the most powerful tool within a council’s artillery.

Conclusion

Efficiency can take on many forms and whilst the LLPG is not the be all and end all of efficiency it is certainly a large step in the right direction. Through its greater usage and integration into all council systems efficiency will be increased and local service delivery will be fully transformed.

Aligned Assets in the Media

2008-05-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

Aligned Assets has recently been featured in publications. To read the articles, please click on the links below.

Geoconnexion International May 2008

GIS Professional April 2008

Symphony User Group April 2008

2008-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

The 16th April 2008 in the grand, Georgian setting of Macclesfield town hall saw the first conference of 2008 for the Symphony User Group.

Now in its third year, the SUG as it is affectionately known yet again provided the opportunity for the users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite of products to come together from across the country to discuss and debate the world of gazetteers and GIS.

Presentations included ‘Harnessing the power of the UPRN’ by Matt Hodgskiss the LLPG Custodian for Macclesfield Borough Council, which was particularly well received as was the update from Intelligent Addressing. This update included information about the transition from DTF 6.3 to 7.3 as well as compliance to the Traffic Management Act.

Key to the proceedings was a presentation of Aligned Assets’ new Street Naming and Numbering module, a tool designed to manage the complete lifecycle of naming a street or numbering a property, which will allow local authorities to increase productivity and efficiency.

Present from Aligned Assets were members of the technical team who were invited to partake in a Q & A session, whilst Commercial Director Phil Gee was there to discuss future developments that are in the pipe line.

The event was found to be highly informative to all that attended an example of which came from Jane Taylor, GIS Manager at Sefton Council who said, “Firstly, thanks to everyone at Aligned Assets and Macclesfield for a very informative and enjoyable user group last week. Everything I heard reinforces the belief that we have chosen the right software, and we will be able to move forward with our LLPG.”

Aligned Assets show off their super powers for Sport Relief

2008-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 16th March twenty three members of the Aligned Assets staff braved the less than hospitable conditions to partake in the Sport Relief Mile.

Some ran, some walked, all got wet, but in the process succeeded in raising over £1700, which will go towards helping the poor and the vulnerable both in the UK and abroad.

Not content with rain and a bit of cramp, they decided to go dressed as super heroes so the Guildford Mile saw Batgirl, Superman, Thor and even John Rambo in attendance.

It is still possible to sponsor the team by visiting www.mysportrelief.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=32055.

To find out more about Sport Relief visit http://www.sportrelief.com/ or to find out more about Aligned Assets go to http://www.aligned-assets.co.uk/.

Numbers Swell at the Symphony User Group

2008-03-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Gazetteer Management Specialists, Aligned Assets can today announce that members of the Symphony User Group (SUG) Forum now stand at 250.

Established in summer 2005 for users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite gazetteer management solutions, the affectionately named SUG, allows its members to interact and discuss issues in a forum run independently of the company.

In addition to its online forum, the SUG – in order to promote communication and best practice within the LLPG community – holds regular meetings focusing on the needs of the LLPG and LSG expert.

The next two dates have been announced for Wednesday 2nd April 2008 at Bridgend County Borough Council and Wednesday 16th April 2008 at Macclesfield Borough Council.

These events will offer the opportunity to meet with other users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite as well as to hear about the introduction of new Aligned Assets’ support arrangements and the unveiling of the Street Naming and Numbering solution.

Also present will be Intelligent Addressing offering the attendees an opportunity to hear what they have to say and to ask them questions.

For more information or to join the SUG please contact Samantha Babister at Aligned Assets on 0870 750 8750 or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets Release Symphony Gazetteer Version 3.3

2008-03-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

Aligned Assets can announce today the release of the new version of its Symphony Gazetteer with the introduction of Symphony iManage version 3.3.

This major release incorporates the changes to Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) and Associated Street Data (ASD) in line with the updated Traffic Management Act (TMA) and revised Electronic Transfer of Notices (EToN4).

Issued to coincide with the 1st April 2008 EToN4 specification changes, the features of version 3.3 will include a new module for Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) and changes to the ASD Operational District Data (ODD) to include District, FTP, and Fixed Penalty Notice information fields.

Other enhancements within v3.3 sees a performance upgrade of the Symphony Import application, whilst functionality has been extensively improved.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets Carl Nunn said of the release, “We are always striving to improve our gazetteer solutions, not only to stay ahead of new standards but to respond proactively to our customer’s requirements.”

For more information call Aligned Assets on 0870 750 8750 or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/.

Aligned Assets are helping British Transport Police with their Enquiries.

2008-03-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

Who says that size does not matter? Eight Terabytes of base mapping, aerial imagery together with over 100 million names and addresses is now available to the British Transport Police (BTP) to help with their enquiries.

In order to fulfil the operational responsibilities of the BTP, Aligned Assets, in partnership with Spatial Technology AB of Sweden, have just completed the first phase of the integrated Spatial Database combined with a sub-second nationwide name and address search capability.

Divided into seven geographical areasthe BTP comprises over 4,000 staff covering 10,000 miles of track, more than 3,000 railway stations and depots.

This vast responsibility requires one centrally managed Geographical Information System (GIS) solution to support BTP’s GIS vision and the effective use and sharing of mission critical information.

This pioneering model provided by Aligned Assets ensures that all systems can now be integrated with common, centrally maintained and controlled spatial data held in an Oracle database, which is managed by ISM from Spatial Technology. This enables full use of OS MasterMap, high resolution aerial imagery from GetMapping and other operational map layers by staff throughout the organisation, irrespective of their physical location. Web delivery, using both WMS and WFS, is a key to such a widespread use of the data and costs are controlled by using open source technologies.

The model also provides a web application, Single Point Search, which is fully integrated gazetteer solution with sub-second query response based upon the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) together with the Name Trace Pro product supplied by QAS as well as other addressable and non-addressable gazetteer databases currently in use at BTP.

Said Andrew Watson, Chief Information Officer at British Transport Police;
“Aligned Assets have provided the spatial and address foundation for BTP; we will now be integrating it with our other systems to greatly enhance our capabilities at the same time as reducing our operational costs. A Win, Win situation for all involved”.

This is the first major use of the NLPG by the emergency services in the U.K. It will be a prime example of the open solutions benefits which would bring the best of breed integrated working and provide the paramount solution for the customer.

For more information on Aligned Assets call 0870 750 8750 or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.