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.