Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Merseyside Fire & Rescue Choose Aligned Assets for their Corporate Gazetteer

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

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Aligned Assets Take NLPG Candidate Processing to the Next Level

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

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Surrey Police Select Symphony Bluelight From Aligned Assets

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