A Consortium, led by Intergraph Corporation and including 1Spatial and Snowflake Software, successfully completed the delivery of its innovative Geospatial Data Management System (GDMS) to Great Britain’s national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey in January of this year. Following successful pre-production trials, the new system achieved a successful ‘Go Live’ in July and is now in full production mode. To satisfy Ordnance Survey’s operational needs, the system had to meet challenging and exacting requirements for both performance and process control. Most significantly, the system will ensure consistency between Ordnance Survey products and will enable it to develop new, innovative products to address both the current and future business needs of the organisation.
Ordnance Survey manages the definitive mapping database of the entire natural and built landscape of Great Britain at survey level accuracy. The agency’s national geographic database describes more than 440 million individual features – including every road, building, pillar box and field. Each year, more than one million changes to the landscape of Great Britain need to be measured and assimilated into this database using data sources that include field surveyors, remote sensing commercial data capture companies and other national agencies. This creates a data management task of extraordinary complexity and volume that requires efficient planning, control and processing. The GDMS has been developed to address some 5,000 detailed Ordnance Survey requirements in order to support up to 600 staff and 5,000 update jobs daily, which can involve the retrieval of up to 36 million map feature records and the posting of 300,000 updates.
The solution is the result of close collaboration between the design and test teams of both the consortium and Ordnance Survey. It provides an integrated, enterprise-wide solution for the management, planning, coordination and control of Ordnance Survey’s data capture and production activities, using state-of-the-art software technologies from the three partner companies. As prime contractor, Intergraph delivered job planning and scheduling capabilities using its highly-customisable GeoMedia product suite and integration of third-party technologies from vendors such as Safe Software and PlexityHide. 1Spatial provided the central data model and enterprise rules for maintaining and validating data through Radius Studio. Snowflake Software provided data extraction and loading via its GO Loader/Go Publisher products. The system uses Oracle for data storage and process orchestration.
Ordnance Survey selected the Intergraph-led team after a rigorous six-month competitive evaluation in 2007. After an exhaustive three-year implementation and test programme, the system passed Final Acceptance Testing at the end of December 2010, coinciding with Ordnance Survey’s relocation to its new head office at Adanac Park in Southampton, England. The GDMS has now been fully integration-tested within Ordnance Survey’s geospatial systems infrastructure, and has been in operational use since early July 2011.
Bob Goodrich, Director of IS, said: “Ordnance Survey continually pushes the barriers of technology, and the GDMS has been another fantastic example of this. By taking best-of-breed technologies from a number of suppliers, and combining them with Ordnance Survey’s deep knowledge and experience of our data, this solution is providing us with a sturdy and effective platform for the future. This will give us the capability to support more flexible and rapid development of new and enhanced products, enable us to increase efficiencies in our production processes, and reduce costs risks associated with an aging IT infrastructure.”
“We are delighted that the GDMS has been proven to meet Ordnance Survey’s needs,” said John Graham, President of Intergraph’s Security, Government and Infrastructure division. “IDC commented in 2007: “..if successful the Ordnance Survey’s new geospatial database and data management system will define a best practice for the collection, distribution and use of geospatial data..” We genuinely believe that the Intergraph Consortium GDMS delivery defines best practice in national geospatial data management, and will be a model that other national mapping agencies will now look to as a benchmark in 2011.”
About Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and the public. Ordnance Survey and the OS Symbol are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey. For more information, visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
About Intergraph
Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraph’s industry-specific software to organize vast amounts of data to make processes and infrastructure better, safer and smarter. The company’s software and services empower customers to build and operate more efficient plants and ships, create intelligent maps, and protect critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world.
Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) and Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I). Intergraph PP&M provides enterprise engineering software for the design, construction, operation and data management of plants, ships and offshore facilities. Intergraph SG&I provides geospatially powered solutions to the public safety and security, defense and intelligence, government, transportation, photogrammetry, and utilities and communications industries. Intergraph Government Solutions (IGS) is an independent subsidiary for SG&I’s U.S. federal and classified business.
Intergraph is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon AB, (Nordic exchange: HEXA B) and (Swiss exchange: HEXN). For more information, visit www.intergraph.com and www.hexagon.com.
About 1Spatial
1Spatial has almost 40 years of experience in providing operational solutions to organisations with large spatial databases. With leading expertise in transforming data from CAD and GIS, quantitative data quality control, and spatial database technologies we also enable reuse and repurposing of such data and access through both internal and external portals. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing of spatial data between systems, business areas, organisations, and the public. We are the specialists in enabling such cooperative infrastructures. For more information, visit www.1spatial.com
About Snowflake Software
Snowflake Software, market innovators in geospatial data solutions, provide commercial off the shelf software products that facilitate data exchange and interoperability within the Data Provider, INSPIRE, Defence and Aviation markets. Based on open standards, the unique off the shelf GO Loader and GO Publisher products allows the build of next generation Open Data infrastructures by wrapping existing legacy infrastructure. Combine the off the shelf software with the knowledge of our industry experts, business consultants and training courses and we can work with you to tailor our products and services to your specific needs. For more information, visit www.snowflakesoftware.co.uk
