Aligned Assets Customers Excel at the NLPG Exemplar Awards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.