Woking, Surrey 3rd September 2013 – West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have recently moved to a shared service platform using a gazetteer management system supplied by Aligned Assets.
Remaining as two sovereign councils whilst utilising one staffing structure, the councils are taking advantage of Aligned Assets’ Symphony iManage, which is the only gazetteer management system with components specifically designed to enable shared services in the creation and management of address data.
In addition to Symphony iManage, the two councils have elected to also use Symphony iExchange from Aligned Assets, which will enable them to integrate their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) data into other council systems, and through that recognise additional savings and gains in efficiency.
Although working within the one team, each council will retain a dedicated LLPG custodian whose local expertise will be essential in ensuring all addresses are accurately created and maintained. However, by utilising Symphony iManage’s shared service functionality, all staff, irrespective of which councils’ gazetteer they are accessing, will be working through one system, seamlessly switching between gazetteers via a simple drop-down menu.
Not only will this reduce infrastructure costs and allow the team to work in a more efficient manner, but has the additional advantage of enabling team members to easily cover each other’s work during holiday periods or when site visits are required.
Whereas Symphony iManage will dramatically improve the gazetteer management functionality across both councils, Symphony iExchange will see these benefits shared across council departments. Previously having to manually update other systems with the latest address data, Symphony iExchange will automate this process, whilst its intuitive data transformation process will allow for many more systems to be integrated.
This will enable departments from council tax to refuse and recycling to access the most up to date address data and begin to utilise the UK’s definitive property identifier – the UPRN (unique property reference number).
“We are delighted to welcome West Dorset and Weymouth and Portland Councils onto our shared service platform,” said Andy Hird, Managing Director at Aligned Assets. “As local authorities continue to try and find savings where they can, Symphony iManage is ideally placed to allow these savings to be recognised within gazetteer management.”
To find out more about how Aligned Assets shared service software can help, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imanage
ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.
ABOUT WEST DORSET DISTRICT COUNCIL AND WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND BOROUGH COUNCILS SHARED SERVICE
The Shared Services Partnership between West Dorset District Council and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council has created a single workforce serving two sovereign councils covering 165,000 residents.
Over the past two years a new staff structure has been agreed, senior management appointed and over 600 staff transferred to a single host employer. New office accommodation has been built in Dorchester to facilitate new ways of working and a similar approach taken in Weymouth. The partnership has already enabled over £2.0m of savings to be realised and was key to the successful hosting of the 2012 Games Sailing Events at Weymouth and Portland.
