GGP provides the GIS connection at West Lothian

19 June 2008, 1:16pm

West Lothian Council is boosting its customer services with an integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) from GGP Systems. GGP’s GIS is forming an essential link between back office systems and front line service provision, providing information to power West Lothian’s online mapping portal that delivers information to residents at the touch of a button.

GGP is used predominantly within Planning Services, Property Management and Emergency Planning, but it also assists with management of the Council’s corporate property address database. Integration with back office systems, such as Plantech ACOLAID and Idox Document Management software used within Development Control and Building Standards, are facilitating the delivery of information and services to residents via the Internet.

West Lothian Council is a long time user of GGP GIS. Prior to the reorganisation of Local Government in 1996, which saw the Council come into effect in its current form, GGP GIS was being used by several departments to manage map based information and the delivery of services and information to residents.

“West Lothian Council was formed when three authorities came together at local government reorganisation. Each of these organisations had their own well developed GIS and a number are still used today,” said Craig McCorriston, Planning Services Manager at West Lothian Council. “GGP GIS gives us the flexibility to use different systems in different departments for different applications, you could say it is the glue that holds it all together. Links from other GIS applications to GGP GIS for onward publication on the council’s Intranet and Internet sites are a particular benefit.”

Due to the physical organisation of the Council GGP GIS is currently held as three self-contained installations within Planning Services, Property Management and Emergency Planning. The recent adoption of Ordnance Survey MasterMap as the de facto base mapping has fuelled a move towards a central repository of geographically referenced data rather than service based information silos.

“We have already started on the path towards centralising our data holdings and the move to a new single Civic Headquarters will continue to fuel this journey,” continued McCorriston. “The continued adoption of the Council’s centralised address database, and its interface with GGP GIS, will in turn release information held by other service areas improving internal communication while the publication of information on our website delivers real benefits to residents.”

GGP Systems specialise in GIS and gazetteer management software specifically designed for local government. The Croydon-based company provides Councils with easy to use solutions for the creation and management of corporate property databases, the ability to add and use a spatial element to all location based information and a range of solutions to meet e-Government directives.

Photograph shows Rebecca Anderson, West Lothian’s Strategic Information Officer with Mike Gale, GIS Analyst.

Enquiries : Prim Maxwell at GGP tel. +44 (0)20 8686 9887, e-mail: prim@ggpsystems.co.uk, www.ggpsystems.co.uk

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