Aligned Assets Planning and Prioritisation To Play A Key Role At The Next Symphony User Group

The next meeting of the Symphony User Group, which is a biannual meeting held by users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony products, is scheduled to be held at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton on 23rd September 2010.

This meeting, in addition to best practice, case studies and new product demonstrations will see the users taking part in development planning and prioritisation sessions.

These sessions will involve the attendees actively discussing, debating and ultimately deciding on the key functionality to be included in the Symphony range of gazetteer software solutions.

The Symphony User Group was started in 2005 and has grown steadily ever since, providing an important forum between user and software provider. It is open to all users of Aligned Assets’ Symphony products including local government, the fire & rescue service, the police force, national parks and passenger transport executives.

Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director explained, “All too often, companies presume to know what it is that their customers want and at Aligned Assets we have always endeavoured to buck this trend.”

“There is simply no denying that the customer knows best, so at the forthcoming meeting of the Symphony User Group, we are going to listen to our users and most importantly, we are going to do what they say.”

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

Aligned Assets release Symphony iMatch 5.4

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can announce today the release of Symphony iMatch 5.4, which will be made available through Software By Subscription.

Symphony iMatch is their flagship data matching and geocoding product, which has played a key role in many organisations across the public sector achieving synchronisation to the NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer).

With Symphony iMatch the user is able to match legacy address data to the NLPG and so tag these addresses with UPRNs (Unique Property Reference Numbers). In doing so, organisations can create definitive links between systems and ensure a consistently high level of inter-departmental accuracy.

In addition to address matching, Symphony iMatch can be used to geocode legacy address data so that it can be used in GIS, as well as enabling departments to quickly identify any gaps or errors that might exist in their data.

Speaking of the release, Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Symphony iMatch 5.4 will see an even higher level of address matching accuracy and an improvement in search logic, which makes it the most intuitive data matching product ever released by Aligned Assets.”

Because it available on a subscription basis, the power of iMatch 5.4 is now available for less than £2,000 per annum so to find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imatch or email sales@aligned-assets.co.uk.

Aligned Assets to offer Software By Subscription

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce a revolutionary shift in their business model that will significantly change software procurement across the public sector.

From today, they will offer ‘Software By Subscription’, which will allow users to pay a simple, annual subscription fee for the ongoing use of their software, without incurring any initial software costs.

This annual subscription will entitle them to regular updates of their software, ongoing legislative compliance and complete support.

Aligned Assets are suppliers to over 100 local authorities, police forces, fire & rescue services and national parks. Software By Subscription will usher in a method through which public sector procurement will be easier, software usage more flexible and the costs of purchase will be significantly reduced.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam explained the move, “The public sector has been particularly badly hit by the recession and it seems likely that budgets are going to continue to be squeezed.”

“By moving to Software By Subscription, we have completely scrapped up front software fees and as a consequence have be able to lower our year-one pricing by an average of 60% across our entire product range.”

Gazetteer management systems, web services, data matching and integration tools for local government, the emergency services and beyond, are all now available as Software By Subscription from Aligned Assets.

To find out more about Software By Subscription, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/software_by_subscription

Aligned Assets hold another successful Gazetteer Best Practice Day

Best Practice in focus, as everything from NLPG integration to the INSPIRE Directive are debated at the latest Aligned Assets event

Woking, Surrey 16th June 2010 – On Thursday 10th June 2010, Bolton Council played host to yet another hugely successful, Aligned Assets sponsored Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

Fifty attendees from across the public sector came together to hear best practice presentations ranging from the use of web services for NLPG integration at Kent Fire & Rescue Service to a hugely well received presentation on the INSPIRE Directive.

Also included on the day were presentations on LLPG integration at Stockport Council, the work the British Transport Police are doing to combine the NLPG with the OSG (One Scotland Gazetteer), Cheshire East Council’s amalgamation of three gazetteers in one and the Strategic Alliance between High Peak Council and Staffordshire Moorlands.

The event was summed up by Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam, who explained to the delegates, “Today is not about dictating how to do things, but rather to offer ideas, thoughts and suggestions that can be taken away to create what might best be termed, ‘better practice’.”

This sentiment was positively received by the delegates with Marc Davies of Isle of Anglesey Council saying, “The day was very useful for myself, as a newly appointed custodian, to see the work being undertaken across the UK”. This was reiterated by Darren Butler of Peak District NPA who described the day as, “A good opportunity to discuss with like minded individuals from other organisations the methods of tackling the same or similar issues.”

If you would be interested in attending or presenting at a future best practice day, please email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

New method of saving money in local authorities

With public sector budgets being dramatically slashed, gazetteer-specialists Aligned Assets can provide a quick, simple and very cost-effective solution to enable large savings in council expenditure.

With its SinglePoint product, it can allow local authorities that currently hold numerous, disparate address databases to have all departments access their local land and property gazetteers (LLPG) via easy to use web services.

The considerable savings are made through the removal of the excessive licensing costs that come from holding many separate datasets, with the reduction in the time it takes to manage one database as opposed to many leading to further cost savings.

SinglePoint was originally designed for use in the British Transport Police to give them sub-second access to the full 32 million records of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), but is now available throughout the public sector. Departments from customer services and education, through to waste management and revues & benefits can all benefit from access to the council’s most definitive and accurate source of address data.

In addition to the direct savings that will come from the removal of unnecessary licensing, by enabling all departments access the LLPG as the single source of addresses, significant gains in efficiency will also be seen. Not only will the misidentification of properties between departments be a thing of the past, but all changes in the address data, such as new developments, will be instantly accessible to all.

This latter point becomes ever more critical when one considers that in some instances up to two thirds of a council’s net expenditure will be covered by council tax revenue. With the average council tax bill standing at over £1200, the ability to identify and invoice ALL new properties is clearly an advantage. Since it is a statutory requirement for all new properties to be entered into the LLPG, the advantages of linking to it are clearly evident.

SinglePoint can also be used to give corporate access to the full NLPG, enabling ‘out of area’ searching, which is crucial for those council departments who work with people coming into their area such as leisure and tourism.

One local authority who is using SinglePoint to give corporate access to the full NLPG is Cardiff Council. Matthew Seymour, Senior Gazetteer Officer explained, “By using the NLPG corporately, Cardiff stand to save approximately £40,000 in licensing costs over the next 12 months and it’s SinglePoint that has facilitated this.”

He went on to say, “SinglePoint has three main benefits – firstly it compiles the entire NLPG into one, single database. Secondly it easily receives change only updates from the National Hub, which means all departments have new address data far quicker than then did through previous suppliers. Thirdly, the web services mean that our corporate ICT team can very quickly create links into new systems using approved ICT standards.”

Speaking of SinglePoint, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Almost one in ten local authorities already use our web services to give corporate access to the LLPG or NLPG. Each local authority spent considerable sums of money to create their gazetteers and through SinglePoint, they can start to see a real return on that investment.”

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

UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day Announced for 10th June 2010

The date for latest UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day, which is to be held in Bolton, has been announced as 10th June 2010.

It will be the third meeting of this best practice community, with previous meetings in both Cardiff and London being hailed successes.

The event is sponsored by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets and held in association with GEO:connexion UK. Being held at the offices of Bolton Council, it is designed for all people involved in either gazetteer management directly or those who use gazetteer data such as GIS specialists.

The UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day is an opportunity for people from across the public sector to come together to share ideas and hear presentations on all facets of best practice. Both the speakers and the audience will encompass the creators of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), as well as the end users of that data such as the Fire & Rescue Service and the Police.

Jayne Hewstone from Arun District Council was a delegate at the last Best Practice Day in London. She described it as, “Well presented, well run and what can I say but well done! A really informative and interesting day, well worth a day away from the office”.

These sentiments were reiterated by Michael Binns of London Fire Brigade, who succinctly described it as, “Informative thinking – The big picture"

Attendance is completely free of charge and organisations that will benefit include local authorities, Fire & Rescue Services, Police forces, ambulance services, national parks, and passenger transport executives – indeed anyone who has involvement with gazetteers.

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events or call Carl Hancock on 01483 717950

New data source for Housing Associations and NROSH

NLPG data is now available for use by Housing Associations for gaining UPRNs and for more accurate use of GIS

Woking, Surrey 19th April 2010 - A new source of high quality address data is now available to Housing Associations across England that enables compatibility with the National Register of Social Housing (NROSH).

Through address management specialists Aligned Assets, data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) can now be quickly and easily purchased in subsets right down to District and Borough Council level.

This will enable all Housing Associations to attribute Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) from the NLPG to each of their housing stock records and thereby fulfil one of the core requirements for submissions to NROSH.

In addition to easy access to the UPRNs, the NLPG data gives a precise, standardise method of address recording, which is in line with all Local Authorities, and enables the regular updating of the data.

With the increasing importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Housing Associations, the NLPG data has another key advantage in that each record contains an accurate geographic reference, which allows for precise plotting of housing stock in GIS.

Speaking of the geographic component, Mike Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets said, “The use of GIS opens up a wealth of information to Housing Associations such as flood risk, housing need against supply, the mapping of energy efficiency and decent homes standards, analysis of rent arrears and the dispersal of dwelling size/type.”

He concluded by saying, “Using data from the NLPG allows for each property to be mapped individually, which gives a far higher level of value to the use of GIS. With regards the analysis of flood risk for example, mapping by postcode will lead to huge inaccuracies since two properties could be mapped together, yet one is at the top of a hill, the other at the bottom. The NLPG completely removes this.”

Whilst other commercially-available address data can only be purchased in large, regional areas, the NLPG prices start from as little as £660 per District Council. What this means is that the NLPG data is not only the best available, but through Aligned Assets, is now the most cost effective.

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