Cambridge, UK, April 223, 2015 — 1Spatial plc, the spatial big data company, was called upon by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to assist with their data management.
Barnsley has been using GIS systems for over 15 years. Initially projects evolved in individual departments, but four years ago, a GIS specialist unit was formed within the IT department and they were keen to implement a “single source of the truth” and manage all their assets in a database. Like many Local Authorities in recent years, the Council has gone through many budget cuts and faced the challenge of finding more and more savings. With reduced headcount and an aging GIS that continually needed attention, the GIS team found it could not immediately allocate time necessary for all the change-management that introducing a single, central database would require.
Riley Marsden, IT Systems Manager at Barnsley and his team started to look around for a solution. “The Council needed to do more with less,” Marsden explained. “With fewer staff in the council we started to think about how to make life easier for people, how to create better processes and how to put more information at people’s fingertips”. Barnsley opted to purchase FME Desktop, together with training, technical support and consultancy from 1Spatial.
Working closely with 1Spatial, the team has now developed automated processes using FME and these take the strain when time is short. The software populates data into the online map overnight, audits data quality, manages planning applications and organises background mapping. Increased efficiency has meant a greater demand for spatial data within the Council. Even challenges that are not traditional spatial problems like integrating Barnsley’s master address list (LLPG) with SAP and populating their new CRM has been undertaken using FME, proving its ‘flexible’ credentials.
“We are delighted with the results at Barnsley, we achieved a huge amount with its GIS team in a relatively short space of time and the feedback has been extremely positive,” commented David Eagle, Managing Consultant at 1Spatial.
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To find out more about FME and hear some other customer stories, 1Spatial is hosting four free FME World Tour events in the UK, which will help users explore, discover and innovate with FME. Register to attend one the following events:
21st May – Edinburgh (The Scotch Whisky Experience)
