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.
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Friday, 14 May 2010
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
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
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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
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
Monday, 19 April 2010
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
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
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Integration takes centre stage at UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day
With over 60 delegates from more than 30 public sector organisations, the most recent Aligned Assets sponsored UK Gazetteer Best Practice Day proved to be the most successful yet.
Held at the offices of the London Borough of Southwark, themselves champions of Best Practice, there were six presentations, with themes ranging from web services at Cardiff Council, to the combining of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) with the One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG) by the British Transport Police.
The purpose of the Best Practice Day was to enable members of the gazetteer community to come together and share ideas and information. Through this, a better service can be offered to the public as well as improving efficiency that will ultimately save the tax payer money. This joint purpose was succinctly summed up by Ewa Platcha of the London Borough of Hackney who did a presentation on their award winning ‘Citizen Index’. “A Local Authority is a business in which the citizens are the customer, and therefore its success is determined by the quality of the interaction between them.”
The event as a whole was best summed up by Stella Morris of Canterbury City Council who described it as, “A very interesting day with a lot of useful information. I will certainly be taking back some ideas with me to have a go implementing.”
A full report of the event will be available in the April/May 2010 edition of the GEOconnexion UK magazine and information about the next Best Practice Day is available from www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.
Held at the offices of the London Borough of Southwark, themselves champions of Best Practice, there were six presentations, with themes ranging from web services at Cardiff Council, to the combining of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) with the One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG) by the British Transport Police.
The purpose of the Best Practice Day was to enable members of the gazetteer community to come together and share ideas and information. Through this, a better service can be offered to the public as well as improving efficiency that will ultimately save the tax payer money. This joint purpose was succinctly summed up by Ewa Platcha of the London Borough of Hackney who did a presentation on their award winning ‘Citizen Index’. “A Local Authority is a business in which the citizens are the customer, and therefore its success is determined by the quality of the interaction between them.”
The event as a whole was best summed up by Stella Morris of Canterbury City Council who described it as, “A very interesting day with a lot of useful information. I will certainly be taking back some ideas with me to have a go implementing.”
A full report of the event will be available in the April/May 2010 edition of the GEOconnexion UK magazine and information about the next Best Practice Day is available from www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events.
Next Meeting of the Symphony User Group Announced
The next meeting of the Symphony User Group (SUG) has just been announced for 21st May 2010 at Bath & NE Somerset Council, Keynsham Offices, Bristol, BS31 1LA.
The event is free of charge for all members of the Symphony User Group, whilst non-members can attend at a cost of £40 per person. If you are a member, you can bring along up to two colleagues for only £15 each.
The Symphony User Group focuses on your needs as an LLPG and/or LSG expert and is always a special event with opportunities to meet with other users of the Symphony Suite, see presentations of the latest products from Aligned Assets, hear about latest industry developments and quiz the AA team on all Symphony-related matters.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Southampton City Council joins with Aligned Assets
Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets are delighted to announce that Southampton City Council has chosen Symphony iManage for their street gazetteer management.
Symphony iManage is an industry leading gazetteer management system that will be used by Southampton City Council for the management of their Local Street Gazetteer and Associated Street Data.
Southampton had a requirement for a new system that was capable of exporting data in a DTF 7.1 format, and that was also fully compliant with the Traffic Management Act EToN 5 Technical Specifications. Not only was Symphony iManage an obvious choice because of its compliance with the standards, but because Aligned Assets have a well-earned reputation as a company that will always meet new standards on time.
With the new system installed, the next plan is to integrate Symphony iManage with other systems, including the Confirm® Street Works from Pitney Bowes MapInfo.
Mike Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets said of the agreement, “The management of street data is of vital importance, a fact that is reflected in the many standards that are needed to be met. In Symphony iManage we have a system that is not only consistently compliant to the latest standards but allows the user to save time and money, both in an intuitive and user-friendly way.”
To find out more visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imanage
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