The primary role of the highways maintenance department at Worcestershire County Council is to improve public safety on the roads by maintaining the public highways. During periods of exceptional flooding, violent storms and heavy snowfall, its job becomes not only more difficult, but also more critical.

In one particularly bad flooding incident, the army was called upon to work alongside the council and other emergency services to help deliver sandbags and clear debris from roads. However, not everyone was familiar with the county and coordinating activities was a huge challenge. “It became obvious that we needed a single, web-based system for sharing highways information with multiple different agencies and making up-to-the minute information available to the general public in emergency situations,” recalls Elwyn Williams, Highway Maintenance Officer at Worcestershire County Council.

The council had been using Esri’s ArcGIS platform as its enterprise geographic information system (GIS) for over 15 years and already had all of the software and skills it needed to build a solution for the highways maintenance department. Initially the prototype application was introduced within weeks; more data and solution enhancements were then added over subsequent months. “We deliberately adopted an agile development approach, so we could quickly start using the new GIS,” says Mark Smith, GIS Programme Coordinator at Worcestershire County Council. “ArcGIS gave us an ideal platform for rapid application development and enabled us to create a bespoke solution – for no additional cost other than our time.”

Named the Highways Maintenance Emergency GIS (HMEGIS), the solution brings together over 30 layers of data and, for the first time, makes them visible on interactive maps all in one place. Internal data such as emergency sign deployments, fallen trees, closed bridges, grit bin locations and high risk campsites is consolidated with data streamed from external sources, including live feeds from riverside webcams, maintenance vehicle locations, actual gritting routes, customised river warning levels and weather forecasts.

HMEGIS has a number of innovative features including an alert panel that scrolls across the top of the screen, so that all operatives can instantly see and react to the latest emergency situation. The solution also has a ‘rewind and replay’ tool that allows managers to look back at past emergencies and see, at a glance, which assets and resources were deployed where, and when.

Improved public and personnel safety
Worcestershire County Council now has a single system for recording incidents such as fallen trees, enabling it to co-ordinate a faster response. “We can send the most appropriate people, with the right equipment, to the locations of greatest need, so that situations can be dealt with properly and quickly,” says Elwyn. “By enabling us to put out emergency signage or close a road more promptly, our ArcGIS app helps us to save lives.”

Significant resource and cost savings
While each emergency situation is totally different, Worcestershire County Council will inevitably save money by using HMEGIS to: deploy the nearest vehicles to incidents; locate assets quickly; and avoid duplicating the work of other agencies. “At times when significant emergencies like floods or heavy snowfall occur, we estimate that our GIS app will help us to make considerable cost savings through improved logistical and operational efficiencies,” says Elwyn, while emphasising that, “The real benefits in terms of accidents avoided and lives saved cannot be financially quantified.”

Better multi-agency coordination
The ArcGIS app is now being introduced to partner organisations, starting with the Highways Agency. Eventually access will be extended to multiple third parties including district councils, the Environment Agency and the fire, police and ambulance services. “HMEGIS will make the same ‘here and now’ picture available to everyone,” predicts Elwyn. “We will be able to talk with confidence about the same location, avoid duplication and ensure we are all optimally deployed to minimise public risk in emergency scenarios.”

Continuous improvement of emergency plans
HMEGIS was originally designed as an operational tool, rather than a management tool. However it is proving invaluable to the council’s highways maintenance department and emergency planning team, who use it to inform the development of new emergency response strategies. Using the slider tool, employees can refer back to and learn from previous situations and use this knowledge to improve the council’s effectiveness in future incidents.

More efficient customer service
When members of the public phone the council, call centre agents can use HMEGIS to provide immediate feedback and up-to-the-minute information about road closures. Similarly, if the council receives a freedom of information request (such as how often was a specific bridge closed), employees can use the GIS slider tool to easily look back in time and respond promptly. In the future, the council plans to further improve its customer service by developing a public version of HMEGIS that will enable everyone to see the latest information about road closures online.

Yarlington Housing Group (YHG) provides affordable housing across the South West of England, owning and managing over 9,000 properties in Somerset, Devon and Dorset. Working closely with local authorities, the group provides homes to rent and also offers Government-funded schemes to give people the chance to buy their own home. Based in Yeovil, YHG employs over 300 staff and was established in 1999 through a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer.

YHG wanted to create a new corporate geographic information system (GIS), from which the entire housing association would benefit. By combining data from Housing Management, Asset Management, Workflow Management Tool, Repairs and Services, the company-wide GIS would give a complete view of the business and deliver valuable new insights in order to make informed strategic decisions and for users to quickly access and view information collated from a range of disparate systems in one central location.

With no previous GIS at YHG, the group had already decided to use Esri UK’s ArcGIS as its new GIS platform, but needed the most suitable Ordnance Survey (OS) data to underpin it.

“Embarking on a GIS project with such far-reaching implications meant expectations were high, so we needed the best approach to source our OS data,” explained Chris Reed, GIS Administrator, Yarlington Housing Group. “Customer service, housing specific knowledge, data quality, efficiency and costs were the main drivers behind our search for a supplier.”

After examining the market, YHG concluded that Esri UK could meet its OS data needs and offer other invaluable benefits.

For our initial phase of the implementation, YHG selected a combination of OS OpenData services, OS mastermap and OS 1:25 000 Scale Raster for its base map data but recently updated the raster data to VectorMap Local following Esri UK’s recommendation. Delivered in file-geodatabase format and already set-up to the group’s specific scale, style and projection criteria, the new data was supplied optimised and cached for their GIS.

“While VectorMap Local was more expensive, we felt it presented better value for money for the organisation. It provided a greater level of flexibility by having a number of different map styles and had all the benefits of vector data, such as the ability to carry out analysis, feature integration and calculations. We were also able to take advantage of a three year contract providing a year’s cost saving compared to an annual agreement,” explained Chris Reed. “Esri provided the OS data in the correct format for our GIS and its bespoke service meant data arrived just for the area we needed, with the correct cartographic layer .mxd files, styled to our requirements.”

At no additional cost, Esri UK also provided a cache of the base-map data, geo-coded property lists and online data services such as OS OpenData, already pre-cached and in the correct format.

“Esri UK’s data consultants are experts in the housing sector and could therefore recommend and supply the most appropriate OS data,” said Chris Reed. “But it was the extra services they offered included in the price that made their solution most attractive. The team is very accessible and quick to help with any queries and we’ve built a strong working relationship.”

Another factor in YHG’s decision was that it already had a contract with Esri UK for the GIS software. Being able to deal with the same supplier for its OS data made the whole process easy and straightforward.

Selecting Esri UK’s OS data solution has saved the Yarlington Housing Group’s GIS team a significant amount of time and effort.

No extra work was needed to convert or load the data, match tiles or create the desired symbology, as Chris Reed explained: “The Esri approach presented a seamless OS dataset ready for use, resulting in an efficient integration into the GIS. We were up and running in a fraction of the time compared to buying the data on its own.”

Another major time saving has been realised from the map cache. Previously, when YHG had first received its OS Raster data and master maps, creating a cache had taken them several days due to the caching process and processing issues. Now the team simply load the cache into their GIS and it becomes live the same day, with the GIS performance levels that users demand. The cache will also play a vital part in future plans for new web and mobile-based GIS services.

“Overall, the new approach from Esri UK has saved the organisation approximately 2 weeks of development work,” stated Chris Reed. “We no longer have to convert data, geocode properties, create symbology and build a cache, allowing us to focus on developing functionality, data and services that our users require.”

All of Yarlington Housing Group’s OS data needs were met by Esri UK along with the additional value-add offered by their data consultancy services. Data updates are now also provided on a six-monthly basis via ftp download.

“Esri UK has an in-depth understanding of the housing market and sourcing OS data from them has cut significant costs from the whole GIS process,” concluded Chris Reed. “The total solution has cost us the same as other vendors were quoting purely for the data, so we achieved great value for money.”

Formerly part of National Grid, Wales & West Utilities (WWU) is a regulated gas distribution business with around 34,000 km of gas distribution pipelines, covering a sixth of the UK, and serving 7.4 million people. Every year, WWU repairs and replaces over 400 kilometres of gas pipeline to ensure its safety and reliability. In addition, they actively compete with other infrastructure providers for new connection contracts.

Maintenance and new connections use similar design and build processes, so WWU wanted to improve competitiveness and efficiency by streamlining these processes, building on a strong foundation of integrated systems.

Phil Pike, Head of IT explains: “One of our main goals was to reengineer the business processes that we had inherited from National Grid and create more automated, end-to -end processes. We saw GIS as an important tool in helping us to achieve this goal.”

Paper-based processes were slow and prone to dual entry, mismatched data, poor data quality and delays. Designers drew new networks and any changes in the field – such as rerouting around trees – were marked by hand and sent to head office to be digitised and loaded onto a GIS solution. “As a result, our asset information was always six months out of date. This was something that we were committed to changing,” observes Pike.

An integrated approach, facilitated by GIS, had the potential to improve customer service and the accuracy of quotes, in an increasingly competitive market.

WWU has achieved significant improvements in operational efficiency with its integrated approach to Design and Build, created in partnership with Esri UK industry specialists, using the ArcGIS Server.

Designers now enter their plans directly into the central GIS, giving all staff a clear, accurate and up-to-date view of the current and future network. “Using the ArcGIS design layer is like putting a piece of acetate over a hard copy map and marking the new pipe route on that”, explains Nick Hancock, Senior Business Analyst. “The designs created in ArcGIS become the graphical representation of the work that we are going to undertake. When the repair work or new installation is completed, we simply select ‘adopt new’ in the system and the replacement designs become actual plans. All our central records are immediately updated.”

To quote for new connections, staff scan housing development drawings and geo-reference new properties. Designers can easily identify the nearest mains and digitally design the new pipe infrastructure, which can be automatically exported into network sizing software to accurately define the dimensions and attributes of the new scheme.

Integrating ArcGIS with the SAP back office system creates further efficiencies: when plans are approved, ArcGIS automatically triggers the creation of assets and work orders in SAP. Time-saving and intuitive features, such as favourites lists with pre-set attributes for common tasks, ensure the system is easy for users.

The greatest benefit of the integrated approach is the undeniable improvement in operational efficiency.

“We used to have to go into the back office system to create each separate work order,” recalls Hancock. “The interfaces with SAP save an enormous amount of time and effort. As soon as we hit the ‘plan approved’ button, all the necessary work orders and central records required by our back office systems are automatically created in SAP.”

Because plans are entered directly into the central GIS system, there is no need for plans to be digitised after the work is carried out: maps are more accurate and up-to-date. “The new process is much closer to real time and cuts out months of delay”, says Pike.

New connection quotes are delivered quickly, consistently and professionally. “We can effectively provide standard quotes for non-standard installations,” says Hancock.

The company’s customers also benefit from the new Design and Build process. WWU can attach electronic copies of plans to records in its customer relationship management (CRM) system. “Everyone has visibility of the design and this improves our ability to provide good customer service,” says Hancock. “As soon as a project is approved, we can very quickly activate the job in the system and offer a customer appointment at an early date.”

WWU plans to continue to extend this integrated approach to include mobile ArcGIS for field engineers, so that the Design and Build process becomes truly end-to-end.

Wales & West Utilities is a regulated gas distribution business with around 34,000 km of gas distribution pipelines located in Wales and the South West of England. Covering a sixth of the UK, Wales & West Utilities serves an area with a population of 7.4 million.

Wales & West Utilities was founded in 2005, when a consortium acquired the gas network for Wales and the West Country from National Grid Transco. Initially, the newly autonomous utility rented IT systems from its former owner, but it was keen to be independent as soon as possible.

It set about a huge programme of IT investment. “GIS was seen as a mission critical system that we needed to put in from the outset, to replace functionality provided by National Grid,” explains Phil Pike, Director of IT & Procurement.

However, the company didn’t just want to replicate the National Grid systems, it wanted to streamline processes enabling it to operate more efficiently. “From an IT systems perspective, we were starting with a blank piece of paper,” says Pike. “This gave us an opportunity to start from scratch with streamlined and centralised systems that would minimise our total cost of IT ownership.”

The company recognised that it would be more cost effective to have one GIS for the entire organisation and searched for a solution to meet the needs of its entire business. “Virtually everything that we do requires an understanding of where our pipes and other assets are located,” explains Pike. “We felt that it was important for us to be able to make clear, accurate and up-to-date information available throughout our organisation in a graphical and user-friendly format.”

Wales & West Utilities selected Esri’s ArcGIS Server solution. “We wanted an off-the-shelf product that was tried and tested in the gas sector,” says Pike. “We had aggressive timescales for implementing the new GIS solution, so strong gas industry experience and existing gas-specific functionality were extremely important for us.”

Wales & West Utilities gained a single joined-up view of its business assets and operations; easily accessible to desktop, intranet and field based users. It is now possible for accurate asset information to be shared easily between teams. For example, a designer in the new connections business can see which pipes the maintenance team are planning to repair or replace. This helps to cost and plan extensions to the gas network. Customer service teams can view accurate maps of pipelines to help them respond to customer enquiries. The company can react quickly to emergency calls and easily identify precise locations of leaks and outages improving public safety

ArcGIS Server is also delivering innovative new functionality to support network design. Designers can create plans for new connections and replacement pipelines directly within the central GIS. “If we didn’t have this integrated design and build capability, much of this process would be done manually on paper,” explains Nick Hancock, Senior Business Analyst. “The plans would then have to be digitised after the new pipes had been laid, which takes much longer.”

ArcGIS Server has been incorporated into the company’s wider IT environment. Wales & West Utilities uses SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for its back office systems and has integrated a number of key processes across the two solutions. “ArcGIS and SAP are tightly coupled,” says Pike. “The flow of information between the two systems is very effective.”

The availability of centralised, up-to-date asset information has led to the creation of new streamlined business processes, and the new GIS-enabled design and build capabilities have contributed to tangible time and cost savings.

“We now have a single, common view of our asset information, in a graphical format, and this creates operational efficiencies across multiple different areas of our business,” says Pike. “The deployment of a centralised GIS solution formed a key part of our business improvement programme. This IT transformation programme was seen as a key business enabler and has contributed to overall efficiency savings worth several million pounds.”

In the company’s management and administrative functions, improved availability of up-to-date data enhances reporting and supports high level decision making. ArcGIS is used to prepare and present information for regulatory compliance and health and safety audits.

ArcGIS has made it easier for the organisation to share information with third parties, such as other utility companies. “If a local electricity or water provider is undertaking essential repairs on a certain street, it will need to know exactly where our pipes are to ensure the safety of its engineers and the public,” explains Hancock. “Because designs are created in ArcGIS and there is no time delay between pipes being laid and maps being digitised, we can provide maps to third parties with more confidence in their accuracy.”

The University of Northampton is situated in the heart of England and offers a range of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Universities in England and Wales are facing up to one of the biggest changes in higher education in decades. Students now have to pay tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year, and this huge financial consideration is deterring many young people from continuing their education. Indeed, in the autumn of 2012, there was a 12% decline in student enrolments across the UK. As a result, many universities failed to fill their courses and suffered a reduction in funding.

The University of Northampton was quick to realise that the introduction of tuition fees would necessitate a dramatic shift in the way that it promoted itself to prospective new students.

Firstly, the university recognised that it would need to further target its marketing activities more precisely towards those students most likely to choose Northampton to help it increase applications. Analysis of postcodes from applicants had been undertaken, however, analysis of enrolled students had not been undertaken. Furthermore, there had not been any opportunities to monitor changes to the location of enrolled students over time.

Secondly, the university was being asked to contribute towards economic reports relating to graduate employment of students from Northamptonshire. It was recognised that this report would also demonstrate the quality of the University’s education to prospective students and reassure them that they would be able to work in graduate-level employment afterwards. The university is currently named England’s top university for employability.

Like many further and higher education institutions in the UK, the University of Northampton teaches geographic information system (GIS) skills to its students. Every year, as many as 80 undergraduates and 20 postgraduates are introduced to GIS as part of Environmental Science, Geography and Waste Management courses, and the university has a site-wide licence to use Esri’s ArcGIS software for this purpose.

Emily Fletcher, a Business Intelligence Officer within the Office of the Vice Chancellor, discovered that she could also employ ArcGIS for research and business intelligence purposes, at no additional cost. In the first instance, she used ArcGIS Desktop to create a map showing precisely where enrolled students come from. This project provided conclusive evidence that many of the university’s enrolled students come from Northamptonshire. However, it also revealed that pockets of students originate from locations further afield.

Every year the university undertakes a survey to ascertain the destination of leavers. Fletcher used this survey information to create a GIS application that displays students’ home towns, where they subsequently obtained jobs after graduation and whether those jobs are graduatelevel positions. These maps are used in a variety of ways to inform students about job prospects, as well as supply data to Northamptonshire County Council for use in economic reports.

Finally, Fletcher has also used ArcGIS Desktop to plot the locations of Northamptonshire’s primary schools against the National Index of Multiple Deprivation and highlight those schools in the poorest areas of the town and County. Students then visited these primary schools to talk to children about university life. “Using GIS, we were able to allocate our ambassadors strategically to help raise the aspirations of pupils in the most deprived parts of the County,” Fletcher says.

The use of ArcGIS has given the University of Northampton a deeper level of intelligence about its applicants and students. For example, it will be able to foster links with schools and colleges in areas where, historically, young people have tended to select Northampton. “ArcGIS has provided the University with an opportunity to pictorially capture where our students originate” says Fletcher. “It has given us greater insight, which will help us further tailor our marketing and attract higher numbers of applicants to our university.”

In addition, the University of Northampton has gained a great deal of value from being able to analyse the results of its annual leavers’ survey using GIS. While information about students’ destinations had always been available in the past, this information is now displayed clearly on interactive maps. Prospective students can therefore easily see where past students have moved to and whether they have obtained graduate-level employment. This helps them to understand the value that they will gain from an education at the University of Northampton.

Finally, the use of GIS is helping the University of Northampton to target its ambassadorial activities more precisely to those areas of greatest need or relevance. The UK Government seeks to raise the attainment of young people from deprived areas, and the university can now clearly demonstrate how it is supporting this national agenda.

Veolia Water UK relies on geographic information systems (GIS) to supply over 900 million litres of fresh drinking water to 3.5 million customers every day, using around 16,000 km of water mains.

Veolia had two main legacy GIS applications, which were no longer supported, making it difficult to adapt to changing business requirements.

Most significantly, the company had no single source of up-to-date spatial data, contributing to poor data quality, data duplication and other inefficiencies. “We had to reduce the risk of making operational decisions based on information that wasn’t absolutely correct”, says Steve Andersen, Works Systems Manager. “At the same time, we wanted to become more efficient in the way that we worked.”

Working closely with Veolia’s own staff, Esri designed and implemented the new corporate GIS solution, including extensive data cleansing and knowledge transfer to key Veolia users.

The solution was delivered in three phases, over twelve months. The first and most significant phase was the single central spatial database, created using ArcGIS Server, running on an Oracle database, and accessed via a web browser.

In phase two, Veolia extended database access to over 600 users, with a bespoke web page for each distinct group of users. This reduced unnecessary complexity, making it easy for users to find the tools they needed. In addition, the existing field-based GIS was upgraded to use the new database.

Deploying Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop software to provide full-featured GIS to over 50 specialist users was the final phase.

For the first time, Veolia has a fully integrated and centralised GIS:

One version of the truth
“Our network is a living thing that can change in nature at a moment’s notice”, says Andersen, and now the current status of all network assets is visible to all users, at all times.

More efficient business processes
“By having consistent data and ArcGIS tools in place throughout our organisation, we will be able to improve many business processes”, says Andersen. New automated processes include updating water leakage schematics whenever the central database is updated.

Long term cost savings
Andersen believes that “Veolia Water UK anticipates getting return on its investment within five years and hopes to benefit financially far greater than this into the future.”

Improved customer service
Responses to issues such as leaks are quicker, and there are new browser-based tools. For example, the conveyancing department can supply solicitors and home movers with a map, clearly showing the water main nearest to a property.

Reduced risk
Veolia now has a fully supported solution that can link to external systems and expand to meet changing requirements. In addition, ArcGIS improves the accuracy of street works, thus minimising the risk of corrective measures and fines.

Better decision making
Employees now trust the data, without the overhead of weekly data refreshes, the risk of basing decisions on out-of-date information, or field staff wasting time returning to the depot between jobs. Furthermore, “it was very difficult for us to distinguish between what was in the ground and what was proposed”, admits Andersen, but, “we are now much more able to show proposed pipe lines for new housing developments on the system. This helps the management team to make good long term investment decisions.”

Improved information sharing
ArcGIS makes it easier for Veolia to share information with other water authorities, external partners, public bodies, regulators (OfWat and DWI) and government departments. Flexibility to integrate map feeds from the internet and feed out its own information is crucial. “Being able to integrate with web services of all types is a key advantage,” says Evan Quick, GIS Manager.

Worcestershire County Council serves more than half a million people in approximately 240,000 households. It delivers a wide range of services, in conjunction with six district councils, and is one of the highest performing councils in the country.

The Crime and Disorder act of 1998 requires councils to establish formal partnerships with other local agencies and organisations to implement local crime reduction initiatives. Worcestershire has four Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), involving representatives from the police, fire service, probation service, chamber of commerce, district and county councils, and voluntary organisations, such as Neighbourhood Watch.

CSPs are required to produce Crime and Disorder Audits every two to three years. “We found it very challenging”, explains David Onions, Research Manager, Worcestershire County Council. “The newly formed CSPs didn’t have the complete range of analytical skills or the capacity to pull together reports of the depth and quality they may otherwise have desired.” Consequently, the CSP sought support from the Research & Intelligence (R&I) Unit at Worcestershire County Council to help produce audits more effectively, and with more detailed analysis and visual representations.

Worcestershire had recently decided to migrate to Esri’s ArcGIS across the entire council, so it used it to support CSPs too. Onions recalls: “It made it possible for us to make data more accessible to our partners. The selection of ArcGIS also gave us a range of new tools – such as the ability to create web-based maps – that we foresaw would be very advantageous for our work with external organisations.”

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) adds value in other ways. Emily Humphreys, Partnership Data Analyst working for Bromsgrove CSP, explains: “At each monthly CSP Tasking Meeting, a different issue is selected, which we then examine in depth. GIS plays a key role in these meetings, as it draws together data from multiple sources to highlight problem areas.” CrimeAnalyst is used to map the exact location of crimes, analyse the geographic nature of related incidents, understand the types of crime, and identify hotspots, revealing complex trends in place, time and movement across enforcement areas.

The ability to define and analyse bespoke areas is especially useful, e.g. to study crime and anti-social behaviour in a housing estate that does not fall within existing boundaries, such as wards or districts.

As well as highlighting problem areas, GIS helps CSPs monitor their performance and assess the impact of initiatives by comparing incidents before and after changes in tactics and facilities.

Over the last four years, recorded crime in Worcestershire has reduced by around 30%. Furthermore, the rate of fall has been four to five times faster than in most other areas. Although many factors are involved, Worcestershire County Council is convinced that the success of its CSPs has been a major factor. This view is supported by The Jill Dando Institute, which recognised the work of Worcestershire CSPs as National Best Practice.

“The success and failure of a CSP hinges on how well the different partners accept the data and work together to act upon it”, Onions explains. “ArcGIS provides Worcestershire’s CSPs with an invaluable visual aid. Different partners may have limited experience of interpreting data. Through the use of ArcGIS, partners are much more likely to interpret the data correctly and take it on board.”

Bromsgrove CSP demonstrated that criminal damage incidents followed the main streets away from the town centre after pubs and clubs closed. After reviewing and discussing the map-based evidence, new taxi ranks were sited closer to the town centre. This helped disperse people from the town centre more quickly, reducing incidents of criminal damage immediately after closing time.

An increase in numbers of young people gathering in parks on Friday nights was also noted. Bromsgrove CSP combined multiple datasets to demonstrate that this was affecting many council departments and local partners: noise complaints, vandalism, and health risks for other park users (broken glass), for example. To address this, neighbourhood wardens were engaged to disperse large groups, and new facilities for young people were opened.

As the CSPs have gained confidence and expertise in GIS, they have begun to use data from more agencies and organisations. This not only increases the possibilities for identifying trends, but “It helps to strengthen the involvement and the commitment of the different partners”, says Onions. “When they see their own data in a map format, used in conjunction with that of the police and council, for example, they can see how they fit into the partnership and what value they add.”

The council wants to take full advantage of ArcGIS to make data and reports available to partners in a range of formats most appropriate to each. “As the economic conditions deteriorate, it is likely that incidents of crime may increase”, observes Onions. “Our challenge now is to continue to monitor and manage this situation through the CSPs and implement initiatives with our partners that will enable us to maintain our low crime rate.”

Worcestershire is a predominantly rural county in the West Midlands. The county council formed the Worcestershire Hub in partnership with its six district councils, as the first point of contact for council services.

The council wanted new and innovative ways to work with partner agencies, councils and the public, to deliver better services in a cost-effective way.

Geography is the common denominator of council activities, so a central database now stores Geographical Information System (GIS) data that is used in the back office systems and custom-made web pages that underpin many projects: The 3,000 miles of footpaths, bridleways and byways were managed by separate teams. “Some used spreadsheets; others used a database. It was very difficult to get a single view of all rights of way information”, observes Philippa Jaine, Countryside Access GIS Management Officer. A new back office system, Encompass, now stores eight categories of data for every right of way, centrally.

Worcestershire is a pilot member of Total Place, UK-wide initiative to help local public service and voluntary organisations work more cohesively. “We wanted to see how we could make better use of our collective properties”, says Hayley Miles, Land Terrier Officer. Data from Total Place stakeholders was uploaded into the GIS. “We then worked with our GIS team to create a simple, secure web interface to this data, which each of our partners could access.”

“Warmer Worcestershire” was launched to tackle fuel poverty by enabling residents to see how much heat their property is losing. “Our GIS team created the map by overlaying a thermal night-time image of the county onto an Ordnance Survey map”, says Heather Lammas, Assistant Sustainability Officer.

The council had been accessing social care information as tables and lists from its Frameworki database, but it was difficult to cross reference this data and make decisions quickly in emergencies. The GIS team created an interface between Frameworki and its GIS. Individuals with care needs are now shown on an interactive, printable, map that is used to co-ordinate multi-agency responses.

The council works closely with districts to use resources and deliver services more effectively, and is sharing more information with the public online.

“ArcGIS Server is very reliable for us. It also makes it very easy to develop web interfaces”, says Mark Smith of the GIS team. “All the web applications we’ve built refer to the same core set of data, which ensures no duplication and that our work is accurate… We’ve also made it possible to edit this data on the fly. So if one person makes a change, a user of another application can be sure they’re using that same, updated data.”

Developing web-based interfaces is quick, cost-effective and flexible, without the additional licensing costs of developing desktop solutions. The council shares map data with districts through Web Mapping Services (WMS): “We simply broadcast it. It allows applications and other organisations to consume our maps and data without the need for further development”, explains Smith. The benefits are impressive and award-winning:

Encompass won the 2010 Innovation and Best Practice (Local Public Services) Award from the Association for Geographic Information. “Now we can see everything that relates to a right of way in a single location”, confirms Jaine. This means “we never do something like dig up a path one month only to have to re-dig it up the next”.

With Total Place, “We’ve identified opportunities for co-location of police and fire stations”, says Miles. “And by seeing where all available training facilities are, both public and private, it’s easy to share them and save costs or improve service.”

“Warmer Worcestershire” was an instant success, with a survey showing a quarter of respondents had heard of the project, of whom 30% had then insulated their loft, 21% had cavity wall insulation and 6.5% applied for heating grants. Emergency Planning Officer Mike Warner explains that the integration between Frameworki and GIS means “We can brief the right people very quickly. We can plan how we might handle something… We’re now partnering with other councils to show them how they can create the same system that we have.”

The council is using online GIS to inform and serve the public better: Staff and residents can view and log the precise location of problems. “Thanks to GIS access via the website, council staff can focus on other tasks”, says Smith.

“My Local Area” gives a simple, web-based view of everything in a locality, including reported faults, schools, leisure facilities, and areas of environmental importance.

In 2009, the council generated a live map of election results. “This is a perfect application of GIS, as it really made election progress easy to follow”, says Smith.

Local map data is now available online, overlaying new and old data. “Some of this data is hundreds of years old”, says Smith. “Putting it online through GIS aids research into our past, and shows clearly how these locations have developed over time.”

The West Coast Group of Companies is a specialist provider of energy services based in Wales. It provides services to UK electricity network operators through an experienced team of planners, surveyors, engineers and environmental managers.

Electricity network providers in the UK have a statutory duty to ensure that trees and other vegetation do not come into contact with overhead power lines. As a statutory requirement the network providers take their responsibilities extremely seriously because trees can damage electricity cables, causing power cuts and risks to public safety.

West Coast Group carries out vegetation management services on behalf of a number of UK electricity network providers. It conducts on-site surveys of over 3500 km of electricity circuits per year.

Historically planners at West Coast Group would photocopy paper maps and mark sections of power line using a highlighter pen. The company’s surveyors would then take these paper maps into the field, take photographs and manually fill in forms to indicate any vegetation that required cutting or felling. These forms were returned to the office where they were collated and keyed into the back office system to create jobs.

West Coast Group had been using geographic information system (GIS) technology elsewhere in its business for a number of years and realised that it could use GIS to simplify, automate and accelerate this process. Using Esri’s ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS for Mobile solutions, it designed and developed a sophisticated new application that has transformed the way in which it delivers vegetation management services for its clients.

Planners in West Coast Group’s offices now upload the locations of its clients’ electricity network into ArcGIS, where they are displayed on digital Ordnance Survey maps. The planners then use an electronic highlighter to mark those sections of electricity circuit that are due to be surveyed. The map sections are subsequently sent electronically to the company’s surveyors, enabling these mobile employees to no longer have to go into the office to collect their jobs lists and paper maps.

In the field, West Coast Group’s surveyors view the highlighted circuits on toughened, portable tablet computers. A workflow within a mobile GIS application then guides the surveyors through each required stage in the surveying process. They enter details on the location of trees within the vicinity of overhead power lines, calculating distances, and requirements for road closures, circuit outages, etc. Surveyors also take pictures using the tablet computers and these images are entered directly into the GIS-based reports, attached to specific locations.

At the end of each day, the surveyors synchronise their tablets with the central system, passing their GIS-based survey reports direct to the planners. Icons within the GIS solution clearly show the planners which poles and lines have been surveyed, the locations of trees requiring work, circuit outages, network resilience issues and more. Armed with this information, planners can efficiently group maintenance tasks, allocate jobs and resources to works teams.

The development of this innovative GIS solution has enabled West Coast Group to save money, work more productively and deliver a far more efficient service to its clients.

Surveyors spend up to a day a week less time in the office, as they no longer have to go in to collect maps and drop off reports. The company’s administrators also save considerable amounts of time, as they no longer have to enter survey reports into the back office systems. In the past, a lot of time used to be absorbed in the office trying to match up photographs with locations, whereas now photographs are automatically assigned to the correct jobs. Nathan Caley, IT manager at West Coast Group says: “We estimate that we have improved the overall efficiency of our vegetation management process by around 20%.”

Previously planners within West Coast Group had to wait for around three weeks to receive survey reports, but they now receive them the very next day. Consequently, if trees have grown too close to the overhead power lines, they can alert the client more quickly and dispatch works teams directly to the sites. This faster response helps West Coast Group’s clients to provide a safer and more reliable service for their customers.

Use of GIS has also led to improvements in the accuracy and consistency of West Coast Group’s surveys. “In the past, there were often considerable differences between the reports produced by our surveyors, because different people had different styles and approaches,” explains Caley. “GIS has given us greater consistency in data captured and the criteria applied.”

West Coast Group believes that its use of GIS is enabling it to deliver a very high quality service to existing and new clients. “Our vegetation management solution gives us a unique selling point that other utility service providers just don’t have,” Caley says.

Saxon Weald Homes Limited (Saxon Weald) is a housing association managing over 5,000 properties across Sussex and Hampshire. It aims to improve the quality of life for residents and manages housing for general needs, retirement and shared ownership.

When Saxon Weald became independent of the local authority, it inherited 175 land titles. Each had a grounds maintenance liability, but “we didn’t know explicitly how much ground we were responsible for, what it was and where it was… we discovered that we were routinely cutting grass that didn’t belong to us, while missing out grass that did”, explains Justin Chamberlin, GIS Manager.

A better way of managing and maintaining its assets was needed, but “our old solution didn’t hold attribute data behind the maps”, recalls Chamberlin. “We therefore couldn’t record information such as how frequently grounds maintenance teams were required to visit each location.”

Saxon Weald deployed ArcMap geographic information system (GIS) with the ProductivitySuite Housing extension. Staff quickly converted paper plans into digital maps, making it easier to view and interpret the data. GIS was then extended to managing boundaries, properties, liabilities, grounds maintenance, and disabled access, for which Saxon Weald upgraded to ArcGIS Server, with GIS for Housing. A dedicated, virtualised server provides all staff with access to central geographic data, via the intranet. GIS for Housing was specifically designed to help housing associations meet the needs of tenants and neighbourhoods, and comply with legislation. It includes tools such as Amenity Manager (for comparing contractor costs) and a Boundary T Marking tool.

ArcGIS is a critical business system, managing more than just property and land; social and demographic information, such as anti-social behaviour, is recorded and analysed too. “ArcGIS helps us to identify issues that we wouldn’t otherwise be aware of and direct services towards people who need it”, says Chamberlin.

Saving at least £124,000
By precisely calculating its land assets and maintenance requirements, Saxon Weald negotiated more competitive service contracts and reduced direct costs by £60,000. “We expect to save a further £40,000 by better managing the maintenance of trees”, says Chamberlin.

ArcGIS helped identify land parcels that were not needed, but had a maintenance obligation; by selling these, Saxon Weald got cash and reduced maintenance costs. Another GIS-enabled process saves an estimated £24,000 a year by reducing the time to generate separate invoices for rent and services. “This process used to take us about three weeks. With ArcGIS, it now takes about ten minutes”, says Chamberlin.

Time savings
Staff can collate local service information (banks, schools, bus stops etc) for prospective tenants, without site visits, and architects’ CAD drawings are imported into ArcGIS and used to map floor layouts and communal corridors. “We can produce accurate Lease Plans that are recognised by the Land Registry without reference to external agencies”, explains Chamberlin. Aerial photography is invaluable, too. “I could look at aerial photography to get an indicative view of where footpaths are and then plot them directly onto our property maps – and do all that sitting in the office”, says Chamberlin.

Efficient working practices
Interfacing ArcGIS with the existing document management system means easy retrieval of internal floor plans, pictures and other documents about a property on a map. “We can get the answers we need in no time at all”, says Chamberlin. “In addition to the quantifiable, cashable benefits, there are also high-level, strategic benefits that are just as valuable.”

Better management information
Housing associations are legally obliged to risk assess all their trees. Saxon Weald equips its tree surveyors with hand-held GPS devices for recording assessments against precise locations, and the data is analysed to schedule maintenance. “This helps us to forecast the required spend two years in advance”, says Chamberlin. Similar processes reduce emergency call-outs (previously around 12,000 per year, at about £150 each) by scheduling proactive property maintenance. Properties with rent arrears are highlighted so staff can visit when they are in the area, and analysis shows where there are problems and which collection strategies work best.

Evangelising GIS
Saxon Weald promotes GIS to other associations, partly via www.Gi4housing.com, and the Audit Commission declared its use of GIS ‘best practice’. Chamberlin concludes: “We are so convinced of the benefits of using ArcGIS that we want to raise the profile of GIS in the housing sector.”