Sovereign Housing Association has extended its use of GIS in a strategic, enterprise-wide initiative that is transforming core business operations. Now, the organisation can deliver more responsive customer services, better understand the needs of its residents and plan more strategically to build new homes.

Sovereign manages and maintains more than 38,000 homes across the south and south west of England. Already one of the UK’s largest housing associations, the organisation aims to grow to 50,000 homes by 2018, to help address the critical shortage of affordable property in this part of the country. It is, however, often difficult to identify suitable development sites that will pass the scrutiny of planning authorities, so Sovereign has to be able to work closely with local councils to facilitate its growth plans.

The housing association currently has more than 80,000 residents in its properties and strives to deliver the best possible services to enable these people to live comfortably and happily in their homes. To consistently achieve a high standard of customer service, it needs an accurate understanding of its residents’ needs and concerns, as well as efficient operations so that it can respond quickly and effectively.

Sovereign had been using geographic information system (GIS) solutions to manage spatial data for some time, but, in the year of its 25th anniversary, it took the strategic decision to exploit the powerful analysis capabilities of GIS more extensively as part of a wide-ranging business transformation programme. It selected a comprehensive suite of solutions from Esri’s ArcGIS, including ArcGIS Server Enterprise Advanced, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Online, 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst and Network Analyst and began to apply GIS to pressing business challenges.

At the same time, the organisation decided to extend GIS capabilities out to the whole business, aiming to train 500 employees across all parts of its business by summer 2015. With support from Esri UK’s professional services team, Sovereign built a GIS-based web app to deliver accurate information about properties, assets, land and residents to employees working in all departments ranging from housing services to the customer call centre. Available via the company’s secure intranet, this solution gives everyone in the business instant access to up-to-date business information, all in one place, in an easy-to-use interactive map-based format.

The enterprise-wide use of ArcGIS has begun to transform the way in which employees work and will deliver long-term benefits for the organisation, as Andrew Bradley, GIS manager at Sovereign, explains. “ArcGIS is adding value right across our business and will continue to do so for years to come,” he says. “It will enable us to plan and build new homes, work efficiently and deliver better services for residents.”

Sovereign employs its new ArcGIS solutions to conduct analysis and gain a deeper insight into business issues and tenant needs. For instance, the company collected data on the incomes and living costs of its residents, at all of its different locations, and performed GIS analysis to ascertain the impact that the government’s new ‘benefits cap’ would have on residents over a period of 5-10 years. When the findings were displayed on a digital map with a time lapse slider, the effects of the new policy became clear. “We could see a wave of impact coming out of London over time and identify easily where and when different types of households would start to struggle,” says Bradley. “ArcGIS is a very powerful tool, helping us to better understand and respond to our residents’ needs.”

ArcGIS enterprise is proving particularly beneficial for Sovereign’s strategic asset management group, a team tasked with identifying and qualifying development opportunities. It has successfully used ArcGIS to pinpoint locations where Sovereign-owned land lies adjacent to under-utilised council-owned land. It then uses ArcGIS Online to share this information with councils and commence negotiations about mutually-beneficial new housing projects. Bradley recalls: “When we first used ArcGIS Online in a meeting to highlight potential development sites to a team from a local council, their jaws dropped. It was incredible. ArcGIS has opened up a whole world of opportunity and will certainly help us to achieve our planned growth.”

Now, if residents contact Sovereign with an enquiry about a boundary, employees can quickly check on the Intranet-based GIS and often clarify issues instantly. Previously, such boundary enquiries had to be passed on to the company’s legal team, and responses could take up to 21 days according to the company’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). “Our employees are empowered with information that they simply didn’t have before,” Alice Rhodes, GIS Analyst at Sovereign says. “Customers get accurate information much more quickly.”

Finally, ArcGIS is enabling Sovereign to improve its operational efficiency, as all employees can share information much more easily. They no longer have to send emails from team to team requesting data and waste time chasing up further details. Instead, they can simply look up the information they need straight away and work more productively.

Argent is a leading property development company. In 2008, it joined forces with London & Continental Railways Limited and DHL Supply Chain to form the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership (KCCLP) and embarked on one of London’s largest ever mixed-use development projects.

In the heart of London, adjacent to busy King’s Cross and St. Pancras rail station lies 67 acres of brownfield development. By 2020, the area will accommodate 50 new and reused buildings, up to 2,000 homes, 20 streets and 10 public squares, providing a modern environment where some 45,000 people can work, live and study.

Argent is responsible for the development and asset management of this ongoing transformation. Over twenty project managers are working together with a wide range of contractors and consultants, using shared services and facilities in close proximity.

One of the challenges faced by Argent and KCCLP was how to manage large amounts of asset information – and indeed how to communicate this information to different stakeholders within KCCLP and Argent, as well as external partners, contractors and stakeholders.

Argent called in consulting firm GeoEnable for advice on how to overcome its asset and project management spatial challenges, as part of a wider initiative to improve information management. GeoEnable identified how geographic information system (GIS) technology could play a key role in the solution, alongside new internal business processes.

Argent had a basic desktop GIS solution, which no longer met the needs of the business. Director of GeoEnable, Steven Eglinton, says: “Argent possessed asset maps and plans, but needed the technical capability to share this asset information and the ability to keep pace with constant changes in asset data during the many project phases.”

GeoEnable deployed Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop solution in conjunction with ArcGIS Online for Organisations, Esri’s cloud-based GIS service. Used together, these GIS solutions allow Argent to create dynamic, interactive asset maps locally, and then share them with team members via the intranet. Users can view high level plans of the entire site, or drill down to individual roads, pipelines or buildings and click on the maps linked to the project management database.

Most Argent employees use a web browser to access ArcGIS Online from their desktops. However, a small but growing number employ customised web apps to access the same capabilities from their smart phones and tablets, while away from the office.

ArcGIS Online provides a complete, accurate record of all assets involved in the King’s Cross development, both installed and planned, and this information is accessible to everyone in the organisation from planners and surveyors to board members. Every week, projects progress and new contractors arrive; all this data is regularly updated in the GIS, so everyone has access to the same accurate information. “It is easy for everyone to get asset information instantly, whenever they need it,” says Argent’s GIS Manager Lilia Wydra.

ArcGIS Online includes a ‘phasing tool’ that enables users to look forward and see how the site might look at different points in time. This feature plays a critical role in helping Argent to make high-level business and financial decisions, as well as project-level decisions. “The asset information that is accessible via ArcGIS Online influences many decisions we make, from how to plan on-site logistics to when to start marketing new homes, offices and retail outlets,” says Wydra. “GIS is a strategic asset management tool for business planning as well as site management.”

At present, the web-based GIS solution is accessible to Argent and KCCLP employees and a limited number of consultants to KCCLP. The company is also working with external consultancies and construction firms on the development site. GIS has significantly improved KCCLP’s ability to collaborate with third parties and helps to ensure that everyone involved in the King’s Cross development is properly informed.

One of the key advantages of having instant access to shared asset information is that it helps to improve record keeping and phasing. By accessing time-aware information users can easily access what is proposed, when contractors are working on site and clearly see when projects are due for completion. This allows better planning and identifies potential clashes. This is a particularly important issue on large projects like the King’s Cross development, where many different organisations are working together in close proximity.

Within the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Joint Aeronautical Geospatial Organisation (JAGO) is responsible for providing geospatial capabilities to support British Forces. In particular, the organisation develops, supports and manages geospatial Information Systems for use by 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) in operations at home and overseas.

The geospatial analysts of 42 Engr Regt (Geo) are required to employ their geospatial analysis and cartographic skills in cramped and very basic conditions in some of the world’s most inhospitable and dangerous environments. Operating with limited resources in small numbers, they work closely with UK forces and their coalition partners to collect local intelligence, analyse data and produce up-to-date mapping and briefing services for commanders.

Over time, the volume of data handled by the organisation had grown rapidly, leading to a number of data management challenges. Like many organisations, JAGO had built its capability around many individual desktop systems with no central data repository. This was resulting in multiple versions of the same data sets. “We needed to manage our data better to create a single view of the truth,” says Keith Mosley, capabilities development manager at JAGO. “At the same time, we also wanted to take advantage of new web services architectures to deliver data more effectively to military personnel, at home and in theatre.”

JAGO developed a joined-up solution to extend and optimise its existing geospatial systems. It called upon Esri UK to help develop a new centralised system using Esri ArcGIS Server technology. The system called DataMan provides a central repository for all of JAGO’s geospatially referenced data and delivers data and mapping services to users via an easy to use web-browser interface over secure networks.

JAGO also received support from Helyx Secure Information Systems, a specialist defence consulting firm and Esri UK business partner. Mosley said: “We have a very close relationship with both Esri UK and Helyx and receive an excellent service from them.” When they are dispatched into hostile environments, teams from 42 Engr Regt (Geo) take everything they need to deploy DataMan within a set of ruggedised green boxes. An integral SQL server database manages the data; a web server handles the SharePoint web portal; and a GeoProxy facilitates the connection to the external network. The whole system can be active and accessible within hours.

JAGO also built a browser based application called GeoViewer using Esri’s Flex application programming interface (API) to access web services remotely and securely. GeoViewer makes it easy for engineers to add and manage data, perform analysis and print on demand. JAGO has developed different versions of its GeoViewer to meet the needs of teams in specific regions, such as a “Helmand GeoViewer” for use in southern Afghanistan.

DataMan was launched in March 2010 and within nine months was receiving over two million hits per month from a wide range of users throughout the command chain. This rapid take-up is testimony to its ease-of-use and relevance to day to day operations. Users at all levels, with little or no GIS experience, can quickly access the same data – whether they are in barracks, on a training exercise or in theatre.

Users connect to DataMan and know that they are looking at the latest information. In the past, analysts would have worked from data CDs which meant it was difficult to track versions. “DataMan provides a single authoritative source of geospatial data for military operations,” says Mosley. “When anyone pulls data from DataMan they know that it is the best available, the most appropriate and the most up-to-date.”

This capability enables 42 Engr Regt (Geo) to quickly produce customised briefings in theatre, displaying information on everything from the likely locations of roadside bombs to the ethnicity of local communities.

Other organisations and agencies have been encouraged by the rapid adoption of DataMan and share data through the system. There are now over 350 data layers ranging from aerial reconnaissance and intelligence from ground patrols; through to information that was held by external organisations in spread sheets, such as lists of medical facilities in Afghanistan. This data is accessible to all units and partners working in the vicinity.

DataMan is used by commanders to inform orientation exercises, assess threats, plan missions, determine patrol routes, organise operational and tactical activities and conduct post-operation reviews. Because it delivers a wider range of reliable and current information – it is improving the quality and speed of tactical and strategic decision making. Mosley explains: “DataMan helps to improve situational awareness and understanding. Commanders can make better decisions about where they go and where they don’t go, based on a better understanding of current threats. It’s helping to save lives.”

It has long been JAGO’s goal to deliver a common geospatial picture to the widest possible range of users – not just geo specialists. With the development of DataMan, JAGO believes that it is well on the way towards achieving this goal. It is extending the reach of its new capability, so that it can add value across more defence organisations.

As part of a wide-ranging initiative to minimise health and safety risks, the electricity distribution network operator UK Power Networks needed to assess and improve the condition of 47,000 cable pits, spread throughout London, the South and South East. It therefore appointed the integrated consulting and construction business Black & Veatch to verify the locations of these underground assets and provide it with the accurate information required, to help inform its planned maintenance programme.

Black & Veatch initially employed a paper-based process, in which ten back-office administrators printed and sorted maps, collated the handwritten notes from surveyors and typed the data into spreadsheets. However, following the completion of the first 17,000 cable pit visits, Black & Veatch was convinced that this traditional survey approach simply wasn’t sufficient for the enormous scale of the task.

Taking advantage of its existing Enterprise License Agreement for Esri’s ArcGIS platform, Black & Veatch used out-of-the-box technology to create a mobile GIS app. The proof of concept took just half a day to build, and was subsequently refined after demos with internal teams, the sub-contractor and UK Power Networks. “In total, it took us just six days to put the mobile GIS solution together,” recalls Paul Hart, information management specialist at Black & Veatch.

Next, Black & Veatch developed a new survey method for the UK Power Networks project, by combining the mobile GIS app with other new and existing GIS solutions from the Esri ArcGIS platform. In summary, Black & Veatch used ArcGIS to:

• Determine the priority order for cable pit inspections, based on risk & safety factors, such as distance from the gas mains
• Send job allocations automatically to the tablets used by eleven surveying teams
• Allow field-workers to locate cable pits, photograph them and describe their condition using tablets
• Convey survey data from the tablets via 3G to a web map on ArcGIS Online, without the need for any further data entry
• Monitor the progress of inspections in real-time via Esri’s ArcGIS Operations Dashboard
• Export lists of cable pits for a partner organisation that doesn’t use GIS yet, using ArcGIS for Excel.

The use of mobile GIS for this cable pit survey project – in conjunction with web and desktop GIS solutions – has benefited not only Black & Veatch, but also its client and sub-contractor.

Fast and effective customer service
Using the new GIS-based survey method, Black & Veatch was able to survey the remaining 30,000 cable pits in just six weeks, enabling it to deliver a fast and effective service for its customer, UK Power Networks. “We wouldn’t have been able to even print 30,000 maps in six weeks using the traditional survey method, let alone visit 30,000 sites,” Hart says. “ArcGIS enabled us to do, in weeks, a project that might otherwise have taken years.”

Substantial cost savings
Black & Veatch estimates that its use of GIS has saved UK Power Networks in excess of £130,000, by reducing the amount of time crews might potentially waste going to the wrong streets and attempting to locate cable pits that are no longer there. Within its own business, Black & Veatch made additional cost savings by removing eight to ten back office administration roles and eliminating the need to print tens of thousands of paper maps and forms. Furthermore, Black & Veatch’s sub-contractor benefitted financially, by being able to plan survey journeys more effectively and reduce parking fines.

Better tracking of field workers
The use of Esri’s Operations Dashboard gave managers at Black & Veatch and UK Power Networks up-to-the-minute visibility of the progress that surveyors were making. “Using our previous survey method, it took around a week before we knew which cable pits had been visited,” Hart says. “With our new approach, we could go online, at any time, to see exactly how many cable pits each team had visited. We could also see the current locations of survey teams, improving safety for our sub-contracted surveyors.”

Improved data quality
While accelerating its survey process, Black & Veatch simultaneously improved the quality of the information that it collected for UK Power Networks. For instance, it was able to photograph cable pits for the first time, capturing over 29,500 location-referenced images. This improved asset data will help UK Power Networks to plan future maintenance activities more effectively and speed up the implementation of measures to mitigate potential hazards on British streets.

Strong competitive advantage
In 2015, the mobile GIS app won Black & Veatch’s Innovation Award and, ever since, Hart has been receiving requests for demonstrations from potential new clients. He says, “Our use of ArcGIS will enable us to offer future clients a highly cost-competitive service, as well as deliver a faster and higher quality survey result.”

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council was no stranger to Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology. Indeed, it had been using solutions from Esri UK for over twenty five years. The organisation was now in the process of migrating to Esri’s ArcGIS, to give it access to new, more versatile web- and cloud-based GIS services. It realised that this pivotal technology upgrade had the potential to significantly transform the way in which it used GIS to deliver services for citizens.

Given the vital importance of the new GIS platform, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council recognised that it would be beneficial for its GIS specialists to receive ArcGIS training. It wanted to ensure that it had the skills in-house to optimise its use of the new GIS platform, but, like all public sector organisations, it had a limited training budget. Consequently, it feared that the costs associated with paying for employees to travel to a training venue and providing overnight accommodation would make the training course prohibitively expensive.

The council was already familiar with Esri UK’s on-site training courses, a pragmatic option for organisations looking for a more cost-effective way to train up to twelve employees. It liked the idea of being able to receive training at its own offices but, as it only planned to train three members of staff, it didn’t think this would be feasible. Then the Esri UK training team mentioned its ‘Invite a Neighbour’ programme, a scheme that makes it easy for GIS teams to invite other nearby businesses to join their on-site courses and share the costs and benefits of local, cost-effective training.

Through its participation in a networking group, ‘Hampshire GIS’, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council was able to quickly establish that there were GIS professionals at other public sector organisations locally who were also interested in receiving ArcGIS training. Esri UK helped liaise with these organisations and handled all of the necessary course administration, maximising convenience for Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council as the host business.

Held in a meeting room at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s offices, the two-day course provided valuable instruction in how to use ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online to create a range of different web services and publish maps on the web. Twelve delegates from seven different organisations attended, and the experienced Esri UK trainer brought all the course materials and exercises pre-loaded on laptop computers.

Cost savings for multiple organisations
The shared approach to training enabled seven public sector organisations to reduce the costs associated with training. Robert Curtis, the GIS Systems Administrator at Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, says, “When the cost of the course fees, avoided travel and accommodation for three delegates is taken into account, we estimate that we reduced our anticipated training expenditure by over £1,600. The other attending organisations would have made similar savings.”

Reduced carbon impact
The course also enabled the participating councils to minimise their impact on the environment. “At a time when councils are trying to make cost savings and lessen their carbon footprint, the ‘Invite a Neighbour’ training concept really makes sense,” says Curtis. “It enabled us to reduce our training costs, avoid unnecessary expenditure on accommodation and minimise our carbon impact by shortening journeys.”

Greater convenience for delegates
As the training was held at a location not far from any of the participating organisations, delegates were away from their offices for no longer than was absolutely necessary, without wasting any personal time. “When I did a different training session previously, I had to give up my Sunday afternoon to get there in time for Monday morning and didn’t get back until late on the Wednesday evening,” Curtis recalls. “With this course, no-one had to give up their free time, as it was much like a normal working day.”

Improved services for citizens and employees
Most importantly, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council now has the new GIS skills it needs, enabling it to commence the next chapter in the story of its long use of Esri GIS technology. Initially, the council plans to use the new features and capabilities of ArcGIS to redevelop a number of internal and external map viewers that will provide employees and the general public with improved access to local information.

Inspiration for the future
Curtis believes that the course helped to strengthen the local network of Esri users and gave everyone the opportunity to collaborate more closely with local government colleagues facing similar challenges. “As the other course participants were all people we knew, who worked for similar public sector organisations, the training course gave us a great opportunity to share ideas,” he says. “We have gained both the inspiration and skills to advance our use of GIS in the future.”

Epping Forest District Council has a multifaceted vision for the future. It wants to support the development of the local economy, build new homes and meet the often challenging needs of citizens, while protecting the green belt, conserving the character of local communities and keeping the council tax low. The council knew that if it was to achieve these goals, it would need to invest in new technologies and look for creative ways to transform its processes. Indeed, it stated in its Corporate Plan 2015-2020: “We want to embrace modern technology and innovation as we strive to improve the quality and efficiency of our services.”

For many years, the council had been using an assortment of different geographic information system (GIS) packages, from multiple suppliers, but felt constrained by the lack of flexibility and functionality that this mixed approach offered. So, in 2015, to support its Corporate Plan, it decided to replace all its legacy GIS solutions with Esri’s ArcGIS platform. “ArcGIS gave us a lot of options, at a time when we needed to embrace new, more innovative ways of working,” says Andrew Gardener, GIS Officer at Epping Forest District Council.

Within just eight months of deploying ArcGIS, the council’s small GIS team of three people had delivered a staggering array of new GIS apps and services, including:

• Customised web maps for council departments, displaying data relevant for different teams of employees in a format that is easy to access and understand
• Public-facing web maps, allowing citizens to use mobile devices to more easily access information on everything from the locations of polling stations to road closures along the route of the Tour de France
• Mobile apps showing field-based employees the quickest routes between jobs and enabling them to collect data electronically
• A centralised store of geo-spatial data and a single GIS platform for sharing ‘one version of the truth’ throughout the entire organisation.

“The fact that we introduced all this in the first eight months demonstrates just how easy it is to work with ArcGIS,” says Gardener. “One of the main advantages of ArcGIS is its flexibility and the wide range of components included in the platform as standard, which make it quick and easy to develop many different apps and services.”

Gardener and his colleagues have been particularly impressed by the ease at which they can develop new solutions for users of smartphones and tablets using ArcGIS. He says: “ArcGIS gives us mobile GIS apps that we can just pick up and use. It has enabled us to create user-friendly mobile solutions that start to save money, improve our efficiency and deliver better information to citizens straight away.”

Epping Forest District Council is now gaining extensive benefits from its use of ArcGIS and delivering on its corporate vision.

Better services for citizens
With the development of its new web maps, Epping Forest District Council can now make better information accessible to the general public, including information that wasn’t publically available previously. For added convenience, citizens can also access this information direct from their smart phones and tablets, from any location. The council’s web maps have been well received by local citizens; a new Waste Collection Date web map received over 10,000 hits in the first fortnight alone.

Greater efficiency in council processes
ArcGIS has contributed to significant improvements in the efficiency of key council processes. For instance, it has been used to create a mobile GIS for field-based surveyors, which enables them to check and record the condition of waste bins, bus shelters and other assets far more quickly. The automated solution converts spreadsheets with lists of daily jobs into a time-efficient route; displays this journey (and job details) on the surveyors’ smartphones; and allows asset data to be collected electronically, removing the need for subsequent data entry.

Sustainable cost savings
The efficiency improvements are expected to translate into sustainable long term cost savings, which will help the council to maintain its low council tax bands. The council no longer has to print out paper maps to give to its mobile surveyors and also saves on fuel, as surveyors take the most direct routes between jobs. In addition, citizens who use the online maps to ‘self-serve’ information may not need to call the council, which will dramatically reduce the cost of customer contact.

Well-informed decision making
Employees across multiple departments now rely on intranet-based maps to gain all the information they need to process planning applications and much more besides. “Everyone has a customised GIS, with the precise layers of data they need to do their jobs,” Gardener says. “Consequently, it is much easier for employees to make quicker, more informed decisions and deliver a better quality service for citizens.”

Sompo Canopius is a global insurance business, with operations in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Bermuda, US and Singapore. Every year, it underwrites billions of pounds worth of business with domestic, commercial and reinsurance customers on every continent. Consequently, it needs to be able to collate, analyse and, critically, understand vast amounts of information about potential natural catastrophes at millions of separate locations all around the world.

“Today’s insurers can potentially access huge volumes of data about hazards and risks from numerous organisations, but trying to distil all this Big Data down into something that underwriters can use on a day-to-day basis is quite challenging,” says Rob Porter, Head of Catastrophe Research at Sompo Canopius. “We wanted to create an online app that would make it easy for anyone in the company to view and interpret up-to-date catastrophe data, about anywhere in the world, on demand.”

Sompo Canopius worked with Esri UK’s Professional Services team to create its app using Esri’s ArcGIS Online solution, incorporating live disaster feeds. Named CatNav, the app is accessed via the company’s secure intranet, making it available to all of the company’s 600 employees in offices around the world. “ArcGIS Online is an exceptional tool for bringing maps and spatial data to a wider audience, especially people who have not used technical GIS products before,” says Porter. “It is highly intuitive and straight-forward to use.”

Now, underwriters can access CatNav when talking with customers or brokers, enter an address, and immediately see accurate information on localised hazards such as flooding, as well as more wide-ranging risk factors including hurricanes and earthquakes. Employees can also use CatNav to view and better understand the accumulation of insured properties in specific areas or, in the event of a natural disaster, easily see which insured properties are at risk.

Esri UK helped Sompo Canopius to integrate CatNav with back-office systems and databases, using Esri’s ArcGIS Server solution and Python scripting, to facilitate a number of automated workflows. For instance, now, when a new insurance policy is accepted, maps of the underwritten locations are automatically generated by ArcGIS and attached to policy documents, with no time delay or manual intervention.

CatNav is delivering a range of commercial advantages for Sompo Canopius including:

Well-supported underwriting decisions
Underwriters are now better informed about perils and natural hazards at all global locations and can ensure that potential risks are accounted for, every time. “Good underwriting is at the very foundation of how insurers make money,” says Porter. “ArcGIS Online supports underwriters, enabling them to make the right decisions about which policies to offer, at which price, to make the company more profitable over time. It gives the business greater confidence that underwriters are underwriting policies appropriately.”

Greater understanding of exposure to risk
Using CatNav, senior managers can better monitor the business’ exposure to risk, as catastrophes unfold. For instance, during a significant wildfire incident in Alberta, Canada, the organisation consumed data from NASA on the spread of the fire and used ArcGIS to monitor the risk to insured properties. “With ArcGIS Online, we could make near real-time information on the spread of the wildfires and the proximity of insured locations accessible to all our global employees,” Porter recalls. “There was a lot of media hype about the disaster, but ArcGIS Online enabled us to identify properties at risk and allay management concerns about the likely extent of any claims.”

Sound business management
Sompo Canopius also relies on CatNav to help monitor the level of accumulated insurance in specific regions and form sound business strategies to minimise overexposure to risks. “Global insurance is a highly competitive market,” says Porter. “CatNav helps us to ensure the business is appropriately diversified. The app helps us to make the right commercial decisions to achieve competitive advantage.”

Significant internal productivity gains
ArcGIS saves a significant amount of time for Sompo Canopius, partly because of the automation of key map production workflows and partly because the GIS team no longer has to respond to ad hoc requests for catastrophe maps. Previously, it took two or three hours for a GIS specialist to produce a pdf map showing a particular hazard or risk scenario at a certain location; now staff can see a map of whatever location they want, instantly.

More responsive client service
Staff can respond more quickly to client enquiries, because, in most circumstances, they no longer have to request information on potential risks and wait for it to be supplied. “They often don’t have to refer queries back to risk specialists, saving anything from a few hours to a whole day,” Porter estimates. “This helps us to provide a better quality of customer service.”

The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) is responsible for driving the development of the public transportation network in South Yorkshire and making information about bus, rail and tram services available to over 1.3 million people. The organisation wanted to introduce new information services for passengers, to encourage greater use of public transport. However, at the same time, it also needed to reduce its operating costs, urgently and sustainably.

To address these challenges, SYPTE decided to radically change the way in which it operated, by creating a single customer relationship management (CRM) platform that would centralise all of the organisation’s customer data, systems and processes. It planned to use this CRM not only to support all internal workflows, but also to transform the delivery of customer services via an integrated online customer portal

SYPTE has been a customer of Esri UK for over 20 years and immediately recognised the importance of including geographic information system (GIS) technology at the heart of its customer portal. With support from Esri UK, the organisation used Esri’s ArcGIS Server and JavaScript API for ArcGIS solutions to create a series of GIS web services. It then integrated them tightly with the new central CRM, built on Microsoft Dynamics, to allow two way communications between the customer-facing map views, back-end databases and internal processes.

Named MyTSY (Travel South Yorkshire), the customer portal now allows passengers to access an interactive online map and enter their postcode to find their nearest public transport stops, the best routes and service times. They can also click on the map to initiate communications with SYPTE, such as to report damage at tram stops or request new bus stop locations. The mapping interface has been designed to work on mobile devices, giving passengers the ability to use the customer portal anywhere and at any time.

“GIS is an essential part of MyTSY,” says Saad Masood, Senior GIS Analyst at SYPTE. “It allows people to navigate easily to the areas they know, visualise routes, plan their journeys and have greater confidence in public transport.”

Improved information services for customers
The integration of ArcGIS into the customer portal provides passengers with an easier and more convenient way to access travel information or contact SYPTE. The use of GIS is also helping SYPTE to deliver a new range of more personalised services for its customers. For example, commuters can view the interactive online maps to easily find and record their regular routes and bus stops. Then, when they leave work, they can simply use their smartphones to see exactly how many minutes away their next bus or tram is or see if there are any delays on the route. “People are often quite shocked that they can do this!” Masood admits. “It’s a great example of how GIS helps us to provide improved services for passengers and deliver a better customer experience.”

Reduced cost of customer contact
The MyTSY customer portal provides a much more cost-effective means of distributing travel information and handling customer enquiries than SYPTE’s network of travel information ‘shops’ in towns and cities around the area. “ArcGIS has helped us to change the way that people interact with us and enables us to deliver better customer services, more cost-effectively,” Masood says. “Reductions to SYPTE’s budget necessitated the closure of our physical shops and the organisation had to think about how to deliver information services effectively and sustainably. MyTSY has allowed cost savings of £400,000 in the first year. We expect the annual savings to be even higher in future years.”

Quicker resolution of issues
The online mapping capability plays a key role in helping SYPTE to resolve customer issues more quickly. For example, members of the public can go online, search for a specific bus stop and click on the map to report vandalism or damage to the shelter. This report is then automatically submitted to the relevant team, along with the correct location reference and the specification of the shelter, so that repairs can be initiated more promptly. When other passengers go online, they can see that the damage has already been reported and add comments to the existing record, but they cannot create an entirely new report for the same incident. This improves efficiency, as employees are no longer responding multiple times to the same issues.

Increased passenger numbers
Over time, SYPTE aims to improve customer satisfaction and increase the patronage of public transport. “By utilising Esri’s ArcGIS technology we are making it easier for passengers to plan their journey and make informed choices about available travel options,” Masood says. “Our aim is to encourage a modal shift to public transport services to reduce congestion and improve air quality.”

WSP Group plc is a global management and engineering consultancy. Whether designing, building or maintaining roads, bridges or civic amenities, knowledge of the built and natural environment is essential to their business and that of their clients.

When planning new road links, staff need to know the location of existing transport routes and centres of population; when designing new amenities, they need to know what environmental constraints might exist. The challenge was to make this information readily available to support staff in their day-to-day role.

Previously, WSP had a single data repository (including Ordnance Survey, NAVTEQ and demographic data), but used two different Esri tools for working with it: ArcIMS for around 100 non-specialist users, and ArcGIS Desktop to provide advanced functionality to around 300 specialists. WSP wanted to make data available to all 2,800 employees, irrespective of location and level of GIS expertise. Consequently, any new system had be intuitive and easy-to-use.

Esri’s ArcGIS Server was identified as the best solution, partly because the Flex API (Application Programming Interface) in v9.3 makes it easy to create customised mapping applications, combining web services from ArcGIS Server with other web content, for delivery over an intranet or the web.

In addition, WSP chose Google Maps API Premier to provide access to background mapping and Google AJAX Search API for location finding.

Within four months, WSP developed a corporate mashup called iGIS to deliver GIS services to its UK employees. It integrates Google base maps and location services with the WSP’s geographic data assets and the powerful geo-processing capabilities of ArcGIS Server, which makes many terabytes of data instantly accessible across the entire UK operation.

The result is a user-friendly mapping application that allows users to perform such tasks as query population statistics by area, undertake proximity searches, sketch site boundaries and print maps on demand.

Adoption was rapid (760 staff in the first fortnight and more than half the 2,800 UK staff within months) and the benefits too.

Data and functionality previously available to a few specialists is now available to all, taking GIS to new areas of the business. The intuitive iGIS interface, coupled with standard templates for figures and plans, has enabled GIS novices to produce high quality work for clients, including simple site location plans, analysing the demographics of an area, or undertaking complex spatial searches.

What previously took hours to pull together is now available in a fraction of the time, which is important in a business where many projects are charged on an hourly basis. iGIS allows WSP consultants to arrive on site with better knowledge of likely ground conditions and to offer a quicker, lower cost and higher quality service to clients.

ArcGIS Server has revolutionised data management: by having a central online data catalogue, WPS has saved money by eliminating unnecessary duplication and monitoring group spend more effectively to negotiate better rates.

Directors at WSP have been very impressed: “This is an exciting development of our GIS capability, which will materially improve the speed and efficiency of the delivery of a wide range of our project technical activities, calculations and presentation material,” says Mike Sheehan, Director, WSP Group. “iGIS helps to keep WSP competitive and stand out in the marketplace.”

Driven by positive feedback from staff and high demand, WSP plans to expand iGIS in the UK by adding further datasets and functionality and to roll it out globally across the entire group.

Recent improvements include adding new environmental and cultural heritage datasets and there are plans to add a geological map library catalogue showing where paper-based mapping has been purchased and where it is held.

In addition, WSP plans to use ArcGIS Server to develop value-added services for clients, who will be able to access their own data, analyse the results, drill down into layers of information and print their own maps, all via a secure login.

Westminster City Council has the busiest planning authority in the whole of the UK. Every year, it receives over 12,000 planning applications and needs to carefully manage the balance between residential, commercial and retail property to help maintain central London as a sustainable and successful city.

The council’s Evaluation and Performance team is required to survey the progress of planning permissions annually, in order to produce monitoring reports on changing land use patterns. This survey typically used to involve printing maps and forms and completing them by hand, on building sites, in all weathers. Inevitably, unnecessary inaccuracies and time delays occurred in transposing the hand-written notes back into the council’s IT systems.

When the department was reorganised, the team realised that a new survey approach was needed urgently. “The number of people in our team had reduced from five to four,” says Chris Lawrence, a spatial analyst at Westminster City Council. “However, at the same time, the number of planning applications that we needed to assess had increased by nearly 17% to 1,760.”

Westminster City Council has been using geographic information system (GIS) solutions from Esri UK for many years. Using the council’s existing licence for Esri’s ArcGIS platform, the team was able to take advantage of Esri’s ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Collector App to create a new mobile data collection solution. It then borrowed tablet computers from other council departments, enabling it to get up and running for almost no capital cost.

The new mobile surveying solution was introduced in the summer of 2015, allowing surveyors to plan their routes around London and complete their surveys electronically for the first time. At each site visited, surveyors selected from a range of symbols, such as green flags, to indicate if projects were progressing as anticipated. When the tablets were connected to Wi-Fi, the survey data was transferred almost instantaneously to ArcGIS Online, allowing colleagues in the office to monitor the surveyors’ progress.

This resourceful use of mobile GIS within the council has led to significant benefits including:

Surveyor productivity improved by 20% 
The tablet-based GIS is far easier to use than paper copies of maps and forms. Consequently, the council’s surveyors were able to gather data more quickly and plan optimum routes around the city to avoid duplicated journeys and wasted time. “ArcGIS made a huge difference to our productivity,” Lawrence says. “Whereas we used to be able to survey an average of 50 sites per day, per person, we can now survey 60 sites per day, per person.”

Project duration reduced by 1.5 months
Using its new mobile GIS solution, Westminster City Council was able to undertake the 2015 survey with four surveyors in just two months; previously, it had taken five people three and a half months to complete. This achievement is all the more noteworthy considering that there were around 250 more sites to survey this year than in previous years, as Lawrence points out. “ArcGIS Collector App enabled us to survey 17% more sites, with a 20% smaller team, in nearly half the time,” he says. “It has definitely contributed to cost efficiency savings for the council.”

Greater accuracy and accountability
As the surveyors’ observations are recorded digitally, there is less likelihood of inaccuracies occurring when notes are transposed from paper forms to the council’s database. Consequently, the quality of the council’s statutory reports is improved. In addition, the mobile GIS makes it easy for the team to look back, see who visited which site and when, answer any queries and validate the survey information.

Faster manipulation of data for reports
The versatility of ArcGIS Online enables the council to easily export its survey data into Excel spreadsheets and also extract shape files showing map images which can be easily embedded into its statutory reports. “I don’t have to manually compile spreadsheets anymore,” says Lawrence with enthusiasm. “The data component of our annual report took just a week to complete this year, rather than a month in previous years.” The Evaluation and Performance team is now looking at Esri’s story map templates and investigating ways to use them to further improve the quality its statutory reporting in the future.

Peter Kohler, GIS lead at Westminster City Council commented, “This mobile app is an excellent example of how ArcGIS allows corporate GIS teams to provide business users with the tools to do innovative, time- and cost-saving work. Projects like this help to deliver a high return on the council’s investment in GIS.”