Aligned Assets
Encyclopedia
Aligned Assets are a UK-based full service company from Surrey
that develops address management and gazetteer
software for local authorities, the emergency services and the commercial sector. They almost exclusively work with the AddressBase products from the Ordnance Survey
.
(now Pitney Bowes MapInfo). Originally working as MapInfo resellers and Geographical Information System (GIS) developers, the company saw early success by securing contracts with companies such as the BBC
, Experian
and Orange (brand).
Aligned Assets moved into address management with the development in 1997 of the BS7666 Toolbox that was built on behalf of MapInfo to assist UK Local Authorities in the development of the National Land and Property Gazetteer
(NLPG). It was the BS7666 Toolbox that went on to form the basis of their current Gazetteer Management System, Symphony iManage.
They are currently the only UK software provider to specialise solely in the gazetteer market working both in the local government sector and with the emergency services. They are the chosen supplier to the British Transport Police
, Transport for London
, Birmingham City Council
and were involved in the FiReControl
project.
After the introduction of BS7666:2006, they were the first company to achieve accredition to the new standard and the first company to have one of their customers fully migrated.
Recent developments have seen them complement their gazetteer management systems with software designed for property management.
iExchange - A delivery tool used in local government for disseminating Local Land and Property Gazetteer
(LLPG) data to departmental systems such as council Tax
, electoral roll, planning, etc. as well as automating updates to the NLPG.
iValidate – A module that allows the user to qualify street, land & property data and check for BS7666 compliancy.
iMatch – An addressing matching tool that synchronises legacy systems against BS7666 gazetteers. Works by writing a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) against successful matches and geocoding the data.
iPlot – A mapping tool that allows the user to design their digitised maps for print in a variety of formats.
Street Naming and Numbering – A module that is designed to speed up the process within local authorities when dealing with the street naming and numbering process.
SinglePoint – Originally built for the British Transport Police, SinglePoint
is a multi-gazetteer search engine that is able to return sub-second search results via web services from the AddressBase products as well as searching other non-BS7666 gazetteers simultaneously via the use of adaptors.
Xtended Data Module (XDM) – A supplementary module within the gazetteer management system, the Xtended Data Module allows for additional (non-BS7666) information to be stored in the gazetteer via additional user-defined fields.
Symphony Property Management System (PMS) – Enables an organisation to manage the maintenance, acquisition, sales and legalities involved in the management of large property estates ranging from schools, leisure centres, social housing, parks and investment property such as shops and industrial estates.
Symphony SinglePoint - Based on the solution designed and built for the BTP, Symphony SinglePoint is a flexible, web-enabled search engine that allows the user to search their address database and return results in sub-second time. Its basic concept stems from the idea that the quicker data can be accessed, the quicker it can be used and the better the emergency response. More recently it has been enabled to search names data .
In addition to software for local government and the emergency services, they now offer address management solutions to Housing Associations, Insurance Companies, Utility Firms and into Customer Relationship Management
amongst others. These solutions consist mainly of SinglePoint web services and Symphony PMS, both of which are provided prepopulated with AddressBase data.
On 6 July 2010, Aligned Assets announced that they had moved to a new business model, offering Software By Subscription . A quote on their website from their Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam states, “By moving to Software By Subscription, we have completely scrapped up front software fees and as a consequence have been able to lower our year-one pricing by an average of 60%.”
accredited. They pursue a carbon offsetting policy by which they contribute to a fund proportional to the amount of miles driven as a result of company business.
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
that develops address management and gazetteer
Gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
software for local authorities, the emergency services and the commercial sector. They almost exclusively work with the AddressBase products from the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
.
History
Aligned Assets were formed in 1996 by Carl Nunn, later joined by Phil Gee in 1997 and Mike Saunt (now of Astun Technology) in 1998, who all met whilst working together for MapInfoMapInfo
MapInfo Corporation, initially incorporated as Navigational Technologies Incorporated, was a leading Location Intelligence and GIS company, headquartered in North Greenbush, New York. It was acquired on April 19, 2007 by Pitney Bowes, and on January 28, 2009, the name of division of Pitney Bowes it...
(now Pitney Bowes MapInfo). Originally working as MapInfo resellers and Geographical Information System (GIS) developers, the company saw early success by securing contracts with companies such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Experian
Experian
Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, US...
and Orange (brand).
Aligned Assets moved into address management with the development in 1997 of the BS7666 Toolbox that was built on behalf of MapInfo to assist UK Local Authorities in the development of the National Land and Property Gazetteer
National Land and Property Gazetteer
The National Land and Property Gazetteer is an initiative in the United Kingdom to provide a definitive and consistent address — see address — infrastructure for the whole of the UK...
(NLPG). It was the BS7666 Toolbox that went on to form the basis of their current Gazetteer Management System, Symphony iManage.
They are currently the only UK software provider to specialise solely in the gazetteer market working both in the local government sector and with the emergency services. They are the chosen supplier to the British Transport Police
British Transport Police
The British Transport Police is a special police force that polices those railways and light-rail systems in Great Britain for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services...
, Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
, Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council
The Birmingham City Council is the body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local authority in the United Kingdom with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 Birmingham...
and were involved in the FiReControl
FiReControl
FiReControl was a project, initiated in the UK in March 2004, to reduce the number of control rooms used to handle emergency calls for fire services and authorities. Presently there are 46 control rooms in England that handle calls from the local public for emergency assistance via the 999 system...
project.
After the introduction of BS7666:2006, they were the first company to achieve accredition to the new standard and the first company to have one of their customers fully migrated.
Recent developments have seen them complement their gazetteer management systems with software designed for property management.
Current Products
iManage - The core of Symphony Suite allowing the creation and maintenance of street, land & property gazetteers. It allows for gazetteer data to be displayed geographically in a map window and was the first product in the UK to be BS7666:2006 accredited.iExchange - A delivery tool used in local government for disseminating Local Land and Property Gazetteer
Local Land and Property Gazetteer
A Local Land and Property Gazetteer is an address database maintained by local authorities in the United Kingdom. In the UK local authorities have responsibility for creating all addresses, however, until recently those same local authorities have not held a unified and consistent list of...
(LLPG) data to departmental systems such as council Tax
Council tax
Council Tax is the system of local taxation used in England, Scotland and Wales to part fund the services provided by local government in each country. It was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as a successor to the unpopular Community Charge...
, electoral roll, planning, etc. as well as automating updates to the NLPG.
iValidate – A module that allows the user to qualify street, land & property data and check for BS7666 compliancy.
iMatch – An addressing matching tool that synchronises legacy systems against BS7666 gazetteers. Works by writing a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) against successful matches and geocoding the data.
iPlot – A mapping tool that allows the user to design their digitised maps for print in a variety of formats.
Street Naming and Numbering – A module that is designed to speed up the process within local authorities when dealing with the street naming and numbering process.
SinglePoint – Originally built for the British Transport Police, SinglePoint
SinglePoint
SinglePoint is a piece of address management software from Aligned Assets. Its primary function is to act as a search engine that allows the user to search a central address database by entering search terms.- Product History :...
is a multi-gazetteer search engine that is able to return sub-second search results via web services from the AddressBase products as well as searching other non-BS7666 gazetteers simultaneously via the use of adaptors.
Xtended Data Module (XDM) – A supplementary module within the gazetteer management system, the Xtended Data Module allows for additional (non-BS7666) information to be stored in the gazetteer via additional user-defined fields.
Symphony Property Management System (PMS) – Enables an organisation to manage the maintenance, acquisition, sales and legalities involved in the management of large property estates ranging from schools, leisure centres, social housing, parks and investment property such as shops and industrial estates.
Products for the Emergency Services
Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer - Allows the emergency services to take copies of and updates to AddressBase Premium, which can be built on with local records, improved with candidate records and extended with the Xtended Data Module. It was designed and built in collaboration with the emergency services and is the UK's only gazetteer management system specifically for this sector .Symphony SinglePoint - Based on the solution designed and built for the BTP, Symphony SinglePoint is a flexible, web-enabled search engine that allows the user to search their address database and return results in sub-second time. Its basic concept stems from the idea that the quicker data can be accessed, the quicker it can be used and the better the emergency response. More recently it has been enabled to search names data .
Recent developments
The start of 2010 saw the company move into the commercial sector after they became the UK's first reseller of NLPG data . More recently they announced themselves as the first UK company to be able to provide products compatible with the NLPG's replacement - AddressBase .In addition to software for local government and the emergency services, they now offer address management solutions to Housing Associations, Insurance Companies, Utility Firms and into Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
amongst others. These solutions consist mainly of SinglePoint web services and Symphony PMS, both of which are provided prepopulated with AddressBase data.
On 6 July 2010, Aligned Assets announced that they had moved to a new business model, offering Software By Subscription . A quote on their website from their Managing Director Dinesh Thanigasalam states, “By moving to Software By Subscription, we have completely scrapped up front software fees and as a consequence have been able to lower our year-one pricing by an average of 60%.”
Business Culture
Aligned Assets are regarded as a staff-orientated company with continual staff development a priority. They are an ISO 9001 certified company and are also Investors in PeopleInvestors in People
Launched in 1991 Investors in People is a business improvement tool administered by UK Commission for Employment and Skills and supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ....
accredited. They pursue a carbon offsetting policy by which they contribute to a fund proportional to the amount of miles driven as a result of company business.