Bedfordshire CC to replace its existing GIS

04 February 2008, 4:40pm

Bedfordshire County Council to replace its existing corporate and departmental GIS facilities with Cadcorp SIS.

New web-based and desktop GIS will enable the council to better meet electronic service delivery requirements and bring it closer to its citizens.

Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer, Cadcorp, has announced that Bedfordshire County Council has awarded it a contract to replace the council’s existing GIS with a new, web-enabled system based on Cadcorp SIS – Spatial Information System.

Cadcorp will supply multiple licences of Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller and Map Editor desktop and GeognoSIS web-based digital mapping/GIS software, together with its desktop and Internet software development kits (SDKs).

The new software will replace Bedfordshire County Council’s existing corporate and departmental GIS facilities in order to provide a unified GIS environment for all of the council’s spatial data-related applications and across all council departments. It will also provide access to spatial data, via the council’s web site, for the general public.

“Following the usual competitive tendering process, we selected Cadcorp SIS and GeognoSIS, from a shortlist of two possible suppliers, for a number of reasons, including value-for-money and database flexibility,” said Dr. Martin Alcock, IS consultant, Bedfordshire County Council. “External database links are built into the software as standard, so there is no requirement for additional-cost ‘middleware’ in order to connect to third-party database management systems, such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and PostGIS,” he explained. “Further, its ability to read/display and write to over 160 native GIS, CAD and graphics formats, again as standard, will enable us to use our legacy GIS data in the new system without difficulty,” he added.

“On top of that,” he went on, “the value for money that the Cadcorp solution represents will enable us to develop and deploy a more comprehensive corporate GIS within the available budget”.

Among the benefits that the combination of the new Cadcorp SIS-based GIS and the open-source PostGIS spatial database will bring the council are simplified and improved access to spatial data held by Bedfordshire County Council, its partners, district councils and government bodies; greater currency and reliability of information; and improved administrative efficiency. By providing controlled public access to information via the Internet it will also enable the council to better meet its electronic service delivery targets, to the benefit of its citizens.

“We are proud and delighted that Bedfordshire County Council has selected Cadcorp SIS as the basis of its new corporate GIS,” said Mike O’Neil, managing director, Cadcorp. “We look forward to working with the council’s team to help it realise its ambitions.”

www.cadcorp.com

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