South Wales Police and Gwent Police Purchase Symphony Bluelight From Aligned Assets

After due consideration, both South Wales Police and Gwent police have opted for the corporate gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce both South Wales Police and Gwent Police as the latest customers of their AddressBase Premium compatible Symphony Bluelight corporate gazetteer management system.

South Wales Police is an established user of the Niche Records Management System and following a decision by Gwent Police to adopt the same system, ground-breaking work has been undertaken to create a single common Niche platform, hosted by South Wales Police, and accessible to both Forces.

An early requirement was for a common gazetteer service that underpinned the collaborative system and allowed migration to Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium product – the UK’s most accurate and up to date address dataset. Through the use of Symphony Bluelight, the two Forces will both have access to AddressBase Premium and will be able to easily integrate it into both frontline and back office systems, including a dedicated web service into their collaborative Niche Records Management system.

The Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer, which sits at the heart of the system, will give the two Forces complete control over the address data they use. This will ensure that their address management processes, undertaken by Gwent Police's ICT collaborative provider, the Shared Resource Service, is not only structured and standardised, but also intuitive to use.

Populated with AddressBase Premium, the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer will enable them to quickly import updates to this dataset, as well as build upon it with ‘local records’ such as motorway marker posts and other non-addressable locations. Each record can then be extended using Aligned Assets’ new Xtended Data Module (XDM) Police Template, which allows each property record to be appended with information such as the presence of a gun license, as well as bringing GIS layers into the gazetteer, so that each record can be enhanced with information such as the associated police beat.

Data integration will be achieved via Symphony Bluelight iExchange and Symphony SinglePoint, both of which are designed to enable all people, departments and systems within an organisation to access and use the address data from the shared, corporate gazetteer.

Through these products, the two Forces have the option to give access to the gazetteer via the SinglePoint web services, which is the preferred option of Niche, and also automated updates through iExchange, which is ideal for systems such as command and control that require an additional level of resilience.

In addition to the corporate gazetteer system, South Wales and Gwent Police have also purchased Aligned Assets’ business database, which will complement AddressBase Premium by providing information on the names of business premises i.e. the sign above the door.

Speaking of the new system, Martin Smedley, Assistant Director of Information Services at South Wales Police said, “After identifying the requirement for a corporate gazetteer management system, we studied the market and the software available from Aligned Assets was the clear industry leader.”

“They were the only company that could fulfil our requirements and we have been highly impressed with both the software and support services.”

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

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, 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.

Aligned Assets Announce AddressBase Webinar For Ambulance Services

On Thursday 28th November 2013, Aligned Assets will be hosting a webinar for the UK Ambulance Services on the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have announced an upcoming webinar that is to be held in association with the Ordnance Survey and North West Ambulance Service.

Focusing on the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium addressing product, the webinar will cover what it is, how to use it and how it is currently be used within the UK’s ambulance services. It is to be held on Thursday 28th November at 11am and although open to all, has been written for those working in the ambulance service.

As the most detailed of the product range, 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 companies who will benefit greatly from the prebuild, provisional addressing information.

Within the ambulance service, AddressBase Premium can be integrated and used in all frontline and back office systems including 999 and 111 computer aided dispatch systems and patient transport systems. Not only will it mean that operators and paramedics will be accessing the most accurate and up to date address data, but through the use of the UPRN (unique property reference number), data can be linked together to provide easy access to additional, vital information.

Speaking of the webinar, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird, said, “We already work with a large number of the emergency services in the provision of AddressBase Premium compatible gazetteer management systems, and along with the Ordnance Survey and North West Ambulance Service are looking forward to passing this knowledge onto to all people who can benefit.”

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

Aligned Assets Customers Win Again at the 2013 Exemplar Awards

Aligned Assets customers have once again had a day to remember after collecting three of the major awards at the 2013 Local Government Exemplar Awards.

The big winners of the day were Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council who won the Local Government Association sponsored Improvement and Efficiency Award. The winning project involved a review of their internal business processes to ensure that they were maximising revenues ahead of the implementation of the Business Rates Retention Scheme that sees local authorities directly retaining up to 50% of all business rates revenue.

A key component of the project was the introduction of the Aligned Asset Business database, which they used to identify potentially unbilled properties, which could then be sent to the Business Rates team for investigation.

Also picking up major awards were Martin Laker of Bath and North East Somerset Council who won the Custodian of Year Award and Keith MacBean of Inverclyde Council who collected the Scottish equivalent.

Both Martin and Keith were nominated by their fellow Authority Address and/or Street Custodians and were recognised for their contributions to the community and achievements within their respective local authorities.

In addition to the major awards, Aligned Assets customers received 45% of the ‘Best in Region’ Awards and over one quarter of all councils awarded Gold Status were users of the Aligned Assets gazetteer management system.

Speaking of the success, Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets said, “We provide market leading gazetteer management software, but these awards reflect the hard work and determination by the users of that software.”

“I’d like to take this opportunity to personally congratulate each and every winner and thank them for continuing to show what those in the public sector can achieve.”

To find out more, visit Aligned Assets

Two Dorset Councils See Cost Savings and Efficiency Gains Through Shared Service Gazetteer Management From Aligned Assets

West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have recently moved to a shared service platform using a gazetteer management system supplied by Aligned Assets.

Remaining as two sovereign councils whilst utilising one staffing structure, the councils are taking advantage of Aligned Assets’ Symphony iManage, which is the only gazetteer management system with components specifically designed to enable shared services in the creation and management of address data.

In addition to Symphony iManage, the two councils have elected to also use Symphony iExchange from Aligned Assets, which will enable them to integrate their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) data into other council systems, and through that recognise additional savings and gains in efficiency.

Although working within the one team, each council will retain a dedicated LLPG custodian whose local expertise will be essential in ensuring all addresses are accurately created and maintained. However, by utilising Symphony iManage’s shared service functionality, all staff, irrespective of which councils’ gazetteer they are accessing, will be working through one system, seamlessly switching between gazetteers via a simple drop-down menu.

Not only will this reduce infrastructure costs and allow the team to work in a more efficient manner, but has the additional advantage of enabling team members to easily cover each other’s work during holiday periods or when site visits are required.

Whereas Symphony iManage will dramatically improve the gazetteer management functionality across both councils, Symphony iExchange will see these benefits shared across council departments. Previously having to manually update other systems with the latest address data, Symphony iExchange will automate this process, whilst its intuitive data transformation process will allow for many more systems to be integrated.

This will enable departments from council tax to refuse and recycling to access the most up to date address data and begin to utilise the UK’s definitive property identifier – the UPRN (unique property reference number).

“We are delighted to welcome West Dorset and Weymouth and Portland Councils onto our shared service platform,” said Andy Hird, Managing Director at Aligned Assets. “As local authorities continue to try and find savings where they can, Symphony iManage is ideally placed to allow these savings to be recognised within gazetteer management.”

To find out more about how Aligned Assets shared service software can help, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imanage

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, 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.

ABOUT WEST DORSET DISTRICT COUNCIL AND WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND BOROUGH COUNCILS SHARED SERVICE
The Shared Services Partnership between West Dorset District Council and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council has created a single workforce serving two sovereign councils covering 165,000 residents. Over the past two years a new staff structure has been agreed, senior management appointed and over 600 staff transferred to a single host employer. New office accommodation has been built in Dorchester to facilitate new ways of working and a similar approach taken in Weymouth. The partnership has already enabled over £2.0m of savings to be realised and was key to the successful hosting of the 2012 Games Sailing Events at Weymouth and Portland.

Aligned Assets Announce Autumn Events Schedule

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are looking forward to an event filled autumn with the announcement of both their Symphony User Group meeting and a Street Naming and Numbering training course scheduled for September.

The Symphony User Group is on Wednesday 18th September and the ever-popular ‘Law of Street Naming and Numbering’ training course will be held the week after on 25th September.

The Symphony User Group, or SUG as it is affectionately known, has been running since 2006 and is open to all local authority users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony Suite of gazetteer software. In order to maximise user participation and to offset the limits on travel caused by public sector austerity, this meeting is to be held as a webinar.

The primary focus of the user group will be the on-going development of the software and, as in previous years, will be set up to allow for attendees to feed directly into the development priorities. A central component of Aligned Assets policy, it is felt that the users are best placed to influence development and the SUG’s agenda will duly reflect this.

Like the SUG, the Law of Street Naming and Numbering training course is also focused on the needs of the attendee and is 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 registration of electors. 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.

For the opportunity to register or to find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, 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.

Two More Fire and Rescue Services Select Aligned Assets’ Symphony Bluelight

Wiltshire and Dorset Fire and Rescue Services have both decided to procure the Symphony Bluelight Suite of gazetteer management software from industry leader Aligned Assets.

The system, which has been developed specifically for use in the emergency services, is designed to enable the creation of corporate gazetteers that can feed all frontline and back office systems with the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium – the Country’s most accurate and up to date address data.

Both Wiltshire and Dorset Fire and Rescue Services will be using the software as part of the Networked Fire Control Services Partnership (NFCSP) that will see collaboration between Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Services.

The four brigades will each maintain their own local control rooms, but are working together to create a greater level of resilience through the ability to be able to take emergency 999 calls for other Control Rooms within the partnership and mobilise appliances for them if necessary. As a consequence, they have all moved to using Symphony Bluelight in order to facilitate a greater level of interoperability.

“We now have over 30% of all English Fire and Rescue Services using products from the Bluelight range of gazetteer solutions,” explained Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets. “With the only gazetteer software on the market designed specifically for, and in collaboration with the emergency services, we look forward to many more joining the Aligned Assets family.”

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

Shared Service Gazetteer Management From Aligned Assets Is Benefitting Two Oxfordshire Councils

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils are using the Symphony iManage gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets to drive forward efficiency savings via its new shared service module.

By enabling easy access to multiple local authority gazetteers through the one user interface, one team can manage more than one authority's gazetteer data without the need for multiple applications.

The two councils have been able to merge their previously disparate gazetteer teams, simply selecting which gazetteer to manage via a drop-down menu within the software. In doing so they are able to save time, increase efficiency and dramatically cut both capital and revenue costs due to shared licensing, reduced infrastructure requirements and lower consultancy fees.

In addition to Symphony iManage, the councils are also using Aligned Assets’ Street Naming and Numbering module, enabling them to quickly and simply manage the complete lifecycle of naming a street or numbering a property. Symphony SNN comes complete with a shared service option to allow any street naming and numbering officer to move seamlessly between cases, irrespective of which authority they come from, and easily customise the software to allow the user to follow almost any working methodology they so choose.

“We looked at a number of different gazetteer suppliers, but the combination of price and quality made Aligned Assets the obvious choice,” explained Sally-Anne Worsley, Data Monitoring Manager for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

“Aligned Assets have proved to be more than just a software supplier and have consistently demonstrated their willingness to work as partners to our two councils. The software is under constant development and importantly, this development is overwhelmingly driven by customer needs and requirements.”

The Aligned Assets pricing structure for shared services has been designed to better represent the economies of scale that shared services are intended to achieve. The pricing is no longer a flat fee per authority, but instead reflects the number of authorities involved.

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

Aligned Assets To Develop GeoStore Spatial Data Warehouse

Aligned Assets and Pitney Bowes Software (PBS) are pleased to announce the technology transfer of PBS’s GeoStore Spatial Data Warehouse to the Woking-based gazetteer specialists.

As of March 2013, all support, account management, billing and future development passed to Aligned Assets, who have expressed their intention to invest extensively in the product.

GeoStore is a geographical data store that enables users to share geographical information across departments and with external organisations. It simplifies the administration, management and the import/publishing of spatial data, allowing this data to be easily integrated into both desktop and browser-based applications.

It is able to import, store, manage and publish common spatial formats such as Shapefiles, DWG and MapInfo TAB, as well as GML, XML and CSV.

Speaking of the transfer, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird said, “We are delighted to add the GeoStore application to our existing range of gazetteer solutions.”

“We have always focused on the corporate use of data in order for customers to make gains in efficiency, and through that save money whilst delivering a better service to the customer. What GeoStore can offer is exactly in line with this philosophy.”

“For existing GeoStore customers this is a very positive development as we are able to draw on our vast experience in developing industry leading software products, an experience from which GeoStore can only benefit.”

James Buckley, Senior Vice President & General Manager Customer Data and Location Intelligence at Pitney Bowes Software added, “We are thrilled to now have a solid future for GeoStore and our GeoStore customers. Aligned Assets brings a wealth of expertise in the spatial data management space and we too believe it is a great fit within the Aligned Assets portfolio”.

Aligned Assets will be engaging directly with every GeoStore customer to determine a development priority list and plans to hold the first user group meeting within the next few months.

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

Aligned Assets Business Data Helping to Locate Unbilled NNDR Properties

Due to the change in legislation surrounding the retention of business rates, Aligned Assets are set to make their business database available to business rates teams across local government.

The new legislation will see local authorities retaining up to 50% of all business rates collected and the Aligned Assets database can assist in locating unbilled businesses and thereby generating new revenue.

Containing over two million records and updated daily by a call centre of 65 people making in excess of six million validation calls each year, the business database is currently used by emergency services to assist in locating 999 calls made in commercial areas, and is also the source of directory information for organisations such as 118 118 and Bing.

Announced on 21st November 2012, the new policy will come into effect on 1st April 2013. According to Brandon Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:

“The business rates retention scheme will enable local authorities to retain a large proportion of locally collected business rates to help fund the services they provide, thereby creating a direct link between business rates collected and local authority income, and reducing local authorities’ dependency on central government grants. The scheme will give all councils a strong incentive to go for growth and could add approximately £10 billion to the wider economy by 2020.”

“In 2011/12 there was over £21 billion in business rates after billing reliefs collected from approximately 1.8 million businesses,” explained Managing Director of Aligned Assets Andy Hird. “This equates to an average of £11,500 per business, which means that even if a council was to use our data and locate only one unbilled business, the return on investment would be almost 100%.”

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

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, 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.

Aligned Assets Present a Practical Strategy for Adopting AddressBase Premium

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have released guidance to assist both public sector and private sector organisations in implementing AddressBase Premium from the Ordnance Survey.

With the majority of existing datasets such as AddressPoint, AddressLayer 2 and the NLPG being withdrawn in 2014, the document draws on the necessity for organisations to act sooner rather than later in their migration to AddressBase Premium.

Titled ‘A Practical Strategy for Implementing AddressBase Premium’, the document demonstrates how any organisation can start using AddressBase Premium without the immediate need to change their existing systems over to AddressBase-compatible versions.

It is these existing systems that present the main obstacle to change as they are often large, complex and critical to the organisation, yet will be based on older address datasets or sometimes no structured dataset at all. It is this issue that the document looks to address.

Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, explained more, “The process described involves initially bringing AddressBase Premium into an organisation and access being given to it via a browser based search engine. With this, technical staff can begin to familiarise themselves with the format and structure of the data, whilst non-technical staff can begin to adapt to elements such as UPRNs and property classifications.”

“Once in place, the process would move to using Aligned Assets’ data conversion software, Symphony iExchange, which can take AddressBase Premium and convert it into standard and non-standard formats. In doing so, changes to the AddressBase Premium data can be exported to the non-AddressBase systems, thereby keeping them updated.”

“This gives an organisation the benefits of AddressBase Premium but in a staged and controlled manner that does not result in major upheaval, and buys time for other suppliers to modify their systems to take native AddressBase data.”

‘A Practical Strategy for Implementing AddressBase Premium’ is available as a free download via the Aligned Assets website and is relevant to the emergency services, local and central government, the NHS and organisations across the private sector such as insurance, utilities and banking.

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk or email solutions@aligned-assets.co.uk.