Aligned Assets Appoint New Managing Director

Woking, Surrey 14^th February 2012 – Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the appointment of Andy Hird as their new Managing Director.

Now in his tenth year with the company, Andy started as Professional Services Manager, adding the Software Development portfolio in 2009.  During that time he has been recognised as driving forward the high standards that has earned Aligned Assets the reputation as the ‘go to company’ for anyone looking for gazetteer or address management software and services.

Andy gained a Degree in Geography from Middlesex University in 1997 and subsequently spent over five years working at a large Local Authority, joining Aligned Assets in 2003.  He has been responsible for bringing the consultancy, support, development and testing teams together into one department, which has seen a higher level of integrated working, the result of which has been a far greater responsiveness to customer requirements.

The company, who provides gazetteer management systems into over 100 public sector organisations, including local authorities, police forces, and fire and rescue services, has seen considerable growth over the last few years and are at the forefront of developing intuitive software solutions for use with the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase products.

Speaking of his appointment, Andy said, “I’m delighted to have been given this opportunity and am excited about the future.  Aligned Assets have always taken a customer first approach to the business and this will remain a core element moving forward.”

Outgoing Managing Director, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “Andy has extensive hands-on experience and insight into the needs of the public sector.  These facets, combined with his natural leadership and intuitive organisation skills, make him the ideal candidate to take over the reins at Aligned Assets.”

About Aligned Asset

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in 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.

Contacts

Carl Hancock, Aligned Assets

0870 750 8750

carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or

endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.

AddressBase Premium Gazetteer System Made Available To All Emergency Services

Woking, Surrey 31^st January 2012 – Symphony Bluelight, the Country’s most advanced emergency service gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets, has been formally released to the UK market.

After four months of intensive development work and the successful live deployment at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, all police forces, fire, and ambulance services can start to integrate the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium into their frontline and back office systems.

Combining a corporate gazetteer management system, web services, data matching software and the ability to automate updates to all other systems, Symphony Bluelight is a comprehensive software suite, built in collaboration with the emergency services to address their specific needs and requirements.

It will enable them to hold AddressBase Premium, import change-only updates, build in and maintain local records, add access points, security classifications and high priority flags to addresses, plus incorporate a customisable list of abbreviations to make searching the data far more intuitive and user-friendly.

“For many, the transition to AddressBase Premium will be a lengthy process,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.

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British Police Forces Set To Benefit From AddressBase Premium

Woking, Surrey 18^th January 2012 – Police forces across Great Britain are set to benefit from a new source of address data from the Ordnance Survey.

AddressBase Premium will see the amalgamation of local government data with the Ordnance Survey’s existing products, plus addressing from the Royal Mail, the combination of which will see the Country’s most accurate and definitive database of addresses ever created.

Increased accuracy and the higher level of detail will be a significant improvement on existing sources, which will not only ensure a greater ability to mobilise to incidents, but can be used throughout police systems from crime and intelligence, to case and custody.

Every record in AddressBase Premium will contain a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), which will be key to linking up systems.  Whereas an address can have multiple spellings, there will only ever be one UPRN, which means correctly linking property related data will be made a lot simpler.

Analysis and intelligence will be much improved by having this ‘golden thread’ linking all current and historic data about a property, whilst the ability to provide officers on the ground with accurate information about past incidents or intelligence such as firearm licenses has the potential to save lives.

AddressBase Premium will also enable police forces to make considerable financial savings by moving from the use of multiple sources of address data down to just one.  Many of these existing sources have to be paid for, and the management and updating of the data is duplicated across departments.  AddressBase Premium will be freely available to police forces under the terms of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and its use as a corporate resource will enable the redeployment of these currently duplicated workloads. 

“We have been working with the police for almost five years in gazetteer and address management, and AddressBase Premium is undoubtedly the most comprehensive database of addresses that’s ever been made available,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.  “The combination of the UPRN, historic data, alternative names, non-postal addresses and the fact that each record has precise geographic coordinates is set to make it one of the most important developments in policing for years.”

For more information, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/addressbase

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in 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.

CONTACTS

Carl Hancock, Aligned Assets

0870 750 8750

carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.

Aligned Assets Launch AddressBase Survey

A new survey is available for the public and the privates sectors to offer their opinions on the AddressBase products

Woking, Surrey 9th December 2011 – Gazetteer and address management specialists Aligned Assets have launched a survey to find out peoples’ views on the new AddressBase range of addressing products.

Launched in September 2011, the AddressBase products have created much discussion in the gazetteer and address management world, and the survey is an attempt to quantify that debate.

With three different products available, AddressBase, Address Plus and AddressBase Premium, central to the survey is the question of which of the products people are planning on using and whether the difference between them is fully understood.

In these tough economic times, price is inevitably a factor and the survey will seek to find out what people think about the levels the AddressBase products are being pitched at.  As well as price, value will also be looked at, with each of the products’ features being graded according to importance.

The AddressBase products have been created from the National Address Gazetteer, which is formed through the blending of three existing datasets – local government’s NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer), Ordnance Survey’s OS MasterMap® Address Layer 2 and the Royal Mail's PAF (Postcode Address File).

The AddressBase products will be free at the point of delivery to members of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA), which includes local and central government, the emergency services and the NHS.

They will also be available to the private sector as replacements for products such as the Ordnance Survey’s ADDRESS-POINT and AddressLayer 2, both of which will be gradually phased out over time.  Key users of the AddressBase products will be the financial services sector, utility companies and those involved in the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Of the survey, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Dinesh Thanigasalam said, “We have received so many enquiries about the AddressBase products both from the public and the private sector.  As with anything new and different there are many questions being asked, so this survey will serve to bring all those opinions together.”

To take part in the survey please visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/addressbasesurvey 

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in 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.

CONTACTS

Carl Hancock, Aligned Assets

0870 750 8750

carl.hancock@aligned-assets.co.uk

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.

Aligned Assets Customers Dominate National Awards

Woking, Surrey 16^th November 2011 – Users of Aligned Assets’ gazetteer management systems have dominated this year’s National Gazetteer Exemplar Awards.

With entry open to public sector bodies across England and Wales, the Awards were designed to showcase best practice in the use of gazetteers, foster innovation, recognise and reward hard work in the local government community, and to provide a benchmark for quality and improvement.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council topped the winner’s rostrum by collecting two awards during the event in Nottingham.  Their first award was as winner of the Financial category, with their ‘Big Bang’ project considered by the judges to be the best example of real financial savings through the use of the National Gazetteers.

Their second award was for the most improved Local Land and Property Gazetteer, which was an award that very much demonstrated the hard work and dedication of the whole team at Barnsley Council.

Also picking up an award was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service who won the Citizen Award for their ‘Risk Information Project’, which is having a direct and tangible improvement on both community safety and the ability to respond to incidents.

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