UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day announced for 24th February 2010

After a hugely successful event at Cardiff Council in October, the date for the second UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day has been announced as 24th February 2010.

The event, that is sponsored by Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets and held in association with GEO:connexion UK, will be hosted by the London Borough of Southwark and is designed for all people involved in either gazetteer management directly or those who use gazetteer data such as GIS specialists.

The Gazetteer Best Practice Day is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to best practice in gazetteering through the first hand experiences of those that regularly use gazetteers. With presentations from a variety of different organisations 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 gazetteer custodians from around the country.

Founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee spoke about the upcoming event, “When we were planning for the Best Practice Day in Cardiff, we had no idea how popular it would prove to be. Comments from attendees such as ‘…a welcome initiative and a useful addition to the usual practitioner events’ convinced us to hold another one. With the support of GEO:connexion UK, we are hoping that this one will be even bigger and better.”

Attendance is completely free of charge and suggested attendees include local authorities, fire & rescue services, police forces, ambulance services, national parks, passenger transport executives…indeed anyone who has involvement with gazetteers.

More information is available by emailing carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or by visiting www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events


ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

GEO:connexion UK Magazine available to readers in the UK bimonthly. It includes news, features and community pages devoted to the UK's GI industry. Its special focus areas are on E-Government, Health, Public Safety, Retail, Environmental, Utilities, Surveying, Location-Based Services, Transport/Logistics and Telecommunications.

To view the magazine go to www.geoconnexion.com

The first NLPG reseller unveiled as Aligned Assets

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce the signing of an agreement with Intelligent Addressing that will see them become the UK’s very first reseller of National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) data.

Through this agreement, Aligned Assets will be bringing the huge benefits of accurate addressing and standardisation to the whole of the commercial sector, as well as public sector organisations looking to use England and Wales’ most authoritative and definitive address list.

User-friendly licensing terms for the NLPG have removed the restrictive costs associated with other datasets and has opened up accurate addressing to smaller organisations that might only require data for their specific area.

The NLPG data that is available for purchase from Aligned Assets ranges from small subsets covering local authority areas, up to regional subsets, right through to data for the whole of England and Wales. Regardless of size, all users will be in receipt of the NLPG’s greatest benefit –updates available every working day.

Unlike other address datasets, the NLPG is updated on a continual basis by every local authority in England and Wales - the bodies with statutory responsibility for street naming and numbering. What this means is that every new property built, every change of use and every demolition is filtered through the local authorities, and onto the end user.

Founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee spoke about their experience, “A core aspect of our business is address management within local government – the creators of the NLPG. This places us in the unique position of working directly with, and influencing those, that are responsible for the accuracy of the NLPG.

“Additionally, we work closely with emergency services that use the NLPG to support their mission critical and life saving work. Because of this we have extensive experience in providing fast, reliable solutions that we now look forward to providing to the wider market.”

Aligned Assets will be holding a series of events throughout 2010 to introduce prospective users of the NLPG to its benefits and potential applications. The first two of these events are for Housing Associations and will be held on the 20th & 21st January at their offices in Surrey.

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


ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software to over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. They are the UK’s first reseller of the NLPG, providing superior address management across the commercial and public sectors. In addition to software and data solutions they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

LGIH Acknowledgement:
“The copyright in the NLPG is owned by LGIH”.
Royal Mail:
“The copyright in all PAF is owned by Royal Mail Group plc”
Ordnance Survey:
© Crown copyright 2009. License number 100044016.”

Aligned Assets users celebrate success at the Exemplar Awards

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are delighted to announce that 12 of their customers were recognised across 15 separate categories at the 2009 Exemplar Awards.

The Awards, which celebrate achievements in public sector use of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and National Street Gazetteer (NSG), saw a total of nine wins by users of Aligned Assets’ gazetteer management system, Symphony, plus three runners up and three highly commended.

The London Area saw a clean sweep for Aligned Assets with Redbridge scoping the Award for Best NLPG in Greater London and Enfield for Best NSG. The Welsh also witnessed domination from Symphony users with Monmouthshire selected as Best in Wales for the NLPG and the Isle of Anglesey collecting the award for Best NSG.

Additional victories were seen with Exeter City Council winning Best in South West Region for NLPG and Wokingham, Walsall and North East Lincolnshire each winning their respective regions for Best NSG.

This is the fourth year in a row that has seen success for the users of Symphony. Speaking after the awards, founder of Aligned Assets, Phil Gee said, “What these awards show is the consistently high level of excellence amongst our user base. Key to achieving this excellence is dedication and hard work, so I applaud all our customers who realised success.”

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in gazetteer software solutions. They supply over 90 Local Authorities as well as the FiReControl Project, the British Transport Police and Transport for London. In addition to providing GIS and address management software they can offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke solutions and project management.

Visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk

Full list of Aligned Assets awards:

NLPG Best Business Process Transformation
- Highly Commended Exeter City Council
Most Innovative Use
- Highly Commended Canterbury City Council
NLPG FireControl Award for the Best Integration
of the NLPG by a Fire and Rescue Service
- Runner-up Kent Fire & Rescue Service
NLPG Ministry of Justice Award for the Best Implementation
of the Electoral Registration Data Standard
- Runner-up High Peak Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Strategic Alliance
NLPG Best in Greater London
- Winner London Borough of Redbridge
NLPG Best in South East Region
- Runner-up Adur District Council
NLPG Best in South West Region
- Winner Exeter City Council
NLPG Best in Wales
- Winner Monmouthshire County Council
NSG Most Improved
- Winner Isle of Anglesey County Council
NSG Best in Greater London
- Winner London Borough of Enfield
NSG Best in South East Region
- Winner Wokingham Borough Council
NSG Best in Wales
- Winner Isle of Anglesey County Council
NSG Best in West Midlands Region
- Winner Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
NSG Best in Yorkshire & Humberside Region
- Winner North East Lincolnshire Council
Best Integration of the NLPG & NSG
- Highly Recommended Monmouthshire County Council

Gazetteer Best Practice Day Hailed as a Success

On Thursday 22nd October, at the offices of Cardiff Council, 40 delegates representing more than 20 organisations from across the public sector came together for the inaugural Aligned Assets sponsored Gazetteer Best Practice Day.

They were treated to eight presentations covering a wide range of topics on all things related to BS7666 gazetteers from using web services to increase efficiency, through to issues surrounding Welsh/English bilingualism. There was even a last minute presentation about the FiReControl project after the intended speaker on street gazetteers fell victim to swine flu.

Commercial Director at Aligned Assets, Phil Gee, who acted as compère for the day explained that, “Through working with so many different organisations, it is apparent how many different ways there are of achieving very similar tasks. We organised this Gazetteer Best Practice Day as a way to get these organisations together to share these experiences.”

One of those who gave a presentation was Andrew d’Andilly, Business Analyst at Barnsley Metropolitan Council. Speaking after the event he said, “With the need for local government to increase efficiency and reduce cost, events like this give the opportunity to share best practise and show that with the right support and planning we can achieve our target.”

The event was such a resounding success that another one is planned for early 2010 in London. Anyone who would like to attend or have a story about best practice that they would like to present is encouraged to email carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk or visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk.

New address management systems for the emergency services

There are many factors involved in the work of the emergency services, all of which play an essential role in their ability to not only respond to emergencies, but assist in reducing further risk.

A fundamental component underpinning all of their work is accurate address data, with the proper management and utilisation of that data equally vital. From mobilisation through to analysis, having an accurate address cannot only save lives but prevent risk long into the future.

Building on their vast experience of working within the FiReControl project, in addition to their work with the British Transport Police (BTP) and more recently with Kent Fire and Rescue Service, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have created three new address management solutions, designed specifically for use in the emergency services.

Collectively known as Symphony Bluelight, there are three distinct options available, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise, Symphony Bluelight Professional and Symphony Bluelight Search, each addressing the varying needs of the emergency services.

Symphony Bluelight Enterprise

Symphony Bluelight Enterprise is the complete corporate gazetteer system, which will support front line response, whilst all the while aiding in cost cutting and efficiency gains. It is based upon the gazetteer solution rolled out at Kent FRS, who had a requirement to implement a new system that placed accurate addressing at the heart of the Brigade.

In addition to being a secure, central depository of data, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise offers a complete, embedded Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to give the data a spatial component. This GIS enables full location analysis and is an important tool in strategic planning.

Importantly, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise allows for the synchronisation of all back office systems, enabling the user to ensure that each system contains identical address data. It creates direct links to these systems so that when updates to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) are received, these are automatically disseminated throughout the organisation.

It allows for all non-NLPG address data in other systems to be tagged with Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) so that these numbers can be used as a comprehensive system of cross referencing, giving confidence that all departments are using the same address. The same process also allows for back office data to be geocoded, by which geographical coordinates are attached to the address. This gives the data a spatial component, which in turn allows for that data to be analysed through GIS.

As well as being able to fully exploit the NLPG, Symphony Bluelight Enterprise allows for an infinite amount of user defined fields to be attached to each record within your corporate gazetteer giving the user a wealth of information essential in all emergency service activity.

Once the fields are populated, for example in the case of the Fire & Rescue Service you can see instantly if there is there a fireworks factory behind the 20ft fir trees; whether the house next door has an elderly lady who is dependant on her oxygen tanks or whether the building next door has a Black Powder or Gun powder license?

Through the use of the intuitive management console, the user has numerous options for creating and importing data from other systems and schemas, and including them alongside the NLPG. With Symphony Bluelight Enterprise, the user can derive data from a set of Oracle GIS Layers by spatial reference to a Property. This means that every time the Property geometry changes, the data created by spatial relationship is automatically updated.

Symphony Bluelight Professional

Designed for those services looking for a phased approach to implementation, at the core of Symphony Bluelight Professional is an industry leading BS7666 compliant gazetteer management system. It is a tried and tested solution used in both local government and the emergency services, is the gazetteer of choice for the FiReControl Project and is backed up by over twelve years of address management and GIS expertise.

It has been built to allow for the creation of local records, which are records that would not normally be included in the NLPG, but have significant value to the emergency services. They can be accessed alongside the NLPG data in supporting both back office analysis and frontline incident response.

To enable the further exploitation of the NLPG, Symphony Bluelight Professional is designed to allow for the validation of all your other address data against the NLPG through its address matching components. Just as with Symphony Bluelight Enterprise the geocoding functionality allows for your organisation to have a more complete usage of GIS as it will enable other department’s data to have an accurate spatial component.

Key to both Symphony Bluelight Professional and Symphony Bluelight Enterprise is the inbuilt method for creating and processing candidate records. This allows the user the ability to feedback changes in the NLPG data for future inclusions, which is yet another method by which the data can be constantly improved and kept up to date.

Symphony Bluelight Search

Irrespective of the data source and method of managing that data, the one thing that is absolutely essential to the emergency services is the need for fast and accurate. The quicker data can be accessed, the quicker it can be used and the better the emergency response.

Based on the solution designed and built for the BTP, Symphony Bluelight Search is a flexible, web-enabled search engine that allows the user to search their address database (NLPG, ADDRESS-POINT®, OS MasterMap® Address Layer 2) and return results in sub-second time.

With a look and feel that is similar to an internet search engine, Symphony Bluelight Search primarily consists of a simple, one line search bar in which the search terms are entered. It allows for ‘wildcard searches’ if the user is unsure of the complete search term and ‘fuzzy searches’ that means words will be found even if misspelt.

Symphony Bluelight Search provides a web service that gives complete, corporate access to your central address database, giving all departments access to the same, consistent data. It can be accessed via a web browser, embedded within your own application or even added as a customised search engine in Internet Explorer, so quite literally giving every member of an organisation access. All of this reduces costs, reduces the risk of errors caused by inconsistent data and ultimately allows the user to offer a safer, more efficient and higher level of service to the public.

More than just an address search engine, through the use of adaptor technology, Symphony Bluelight Search can index, compress and search a whole variety of data sources alongside your core address data. The most common use for this is to search a names database, alongside the address data, giving the user access to both names and addresses via one search, which was one of the primary requirements of the BTP.

With Symphony Bluelight Search, the user will have access to huge amounts of departmental data at the touch of button as well as a resource by which different address datasets can be search simultaneously e.g. ADDRESS-POINT®/NLPG/Bespoke Gazetteer. It could even be used to search the PRUFOS (Police Reporting UFO Sightings) database!

Conclusion

The needs of the emergency services vary from that of other organisations and they require specialist tools in order to function effectively and efficiently. The Symphony Bluelight systems have all been designed entirely with the Emergency Services in mind from a company who is the industry-leader in gazetteer software.

The three options are intended to give choice, with Symphony Bluelight Enterprise a full corporate gazetteer, Symphony Bluelight Professional an entry level solution to complement FiReControl and Symphony Bluelight Search giving complete corporate access to a variety of data sources.

If modernisation is key to your organisation visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight or call 0870 750 8750.

All three systems will be officially launched at this year’s Underpinning Transformational Government conference on 26th November at the Victoria Park Plaza in London. As Gold Sponsors for the event, Aligned Assets will be running a Masterclass with Kent FRS that will be exploring the use of the NLPG beyond FiReControl. This will be taking place at 13.45, whilst demonstrations of all Symphony Bluelight systems will be available by the Aligned Assets team on Stand 9.

Aligned Assets’ validation tool now contains over 1000 gazetteer checks

With the release of Symphony iValidate v3.1, the gazetteer validation and reporting tool from Aligned Assets now contains in excess of 1000 separate checks.

Designed to ensure that local authorities are fully compliant with BS7666, iValidate is a valuable part of the QA process for Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) maintenance as well as performing a complete ‘Health Check’ on BS7666 gazetteers.

With the value of NLPG data stemming from its accuracy, iValidate is useful not only for performing a complete sweep of the data, but as this data changes, allows for the accuracy to be permanently maintained.

iValidate was originally developed by Aligned Assets consultants to ensure that the work they did was consistent for each of their clients and fully compliant with BS7666. It has evolved into a comprehensive COTS tool to assist in reviewing the LLPG & LSG and assisting in highlighting areas of either gazetteer that could be improved.

The release of v3.1 sees a complete new set of scripts for the LLPG and LSG Health Checks, plus new validation and reporting options. These scripts were created in response to errors/warnings that the NLPG hub were providing as part of the LLPG Improvement Schedules sent to Local Authorities in 2008/09 and are used to monitor LLPG Improvements for 2008/09.

It enables the users of LLPGs to have their database comply with the NLPG Validation and Health Checks v1.3, whilst LSG users can now easily comply with the LSG and ASD – DTF 7.1 Submission Compliance Check Specification v1.2.

Speaking of the release, Head of Professional Services at Aligned Assets, Andy Hird commented, “The release of iValidate v3.1 is a big step toward ensuring our customers can avoid the frustrations involved in rejected submissions to the hub. By having the peace of mind that their data is clean and compliant, they can free up more time to make full use of that data.”

For more information on iValidate, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/ivalidate.

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.