Places going fast for Gazetteer Best Practice Day

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

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Gee, Commercial Director at Aligned Assets, about the need at Cardiff Council to bring in a new system to replace their outdated Estates Management System.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

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

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

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

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

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