Hull City Council adopts eSpatial Web GIS solution

01 October 2006, 2:59pm

eSpatial has been selected by Hull City Council to deliver a Web Based GIS (Geographical Information System) built on its iSMART Xtra for Local Government solutions framework.

eSpatial's solution will enable the delivery of Geographic Information (GI) internally throughout Hull City Council (HCC) as well as to the general public with a focus on increased efficiency and online service delivery.

The solution will provide internal departments with web-based access to a spatial analysis environment to support location dependant decisions. iSMART Xtra for Local Government will provide valuable information to the general public, initially Streetworks information and this will be extended to include the public reporting of incidents such as abandoned vehicles and graffiti, identifying temporal hotspots of anti-social behaviour such as concentrations of ASBOs as well as viewing and analyzing information such as school catchment areas. The solution will also provide a web based data capture and maintenance capability greatly reducing the dependency on deploying costly GIS tools.

iSMART Xtra for Local Government delivers on the UK's Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) required Priority Outcomes G5, R7 and G14. Through this solution HCC can implement web-based corporate Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with public-facing and back-office interfaces in line with these requirements. Benefiting from both increased on-line service delivery and better internal analysis of Geographical Information, HCC see this solution as a means of delivering on the recommendations of the Gershon Review.

iSMART Xtra for Local Government will form a integral part of Hull's GI data strategy, managing data residing in Oracle and complementing existing technologies from ESRI, EXOR, CAPS Solutions, CadCorp and unlocks the power of OS MasterMap(tm) which is a key component of the overall solution. The applications delivered will integrate with existing business applications used throughout the council, seamlessly placing spatial within HCC's internal workflows.

HCC's selection of eSpatial's iSMART Xtra for Local Government is an extension to an eSpatial consultancy engagement to advise the council on the realisation of a Spatial Data Store, whereby consolidated geographic data is made more widely available by storing and exchanging using Oracle Spatial technology.

Philip O'Doherty, CEO, eSpatial said, "We're delighted to be working with Hull City Council and this win extends our experience within UK local government, our approach of technology to drive business benefits such as internal efficiency and increased customer satisfaction was important for HCC. eSpatial are well positioned to increase our footprint in this important market."

Richard Liversedge, Head of ICT & e-Government, Hull City Council commented, "eSpatial's iSMART Xtra for Local Government delivers on the vision of 'joined up Government' initiatives to ensure services are seamless for customers, and to save money. Geospatial data is a key requirement for HCC's essential urban planning and management and this solution will greatly improve critical decision making. Hull City Council is excited about working with eSpatial and believe our partnership will deliver innovative spatially enabled applications benefiting both the council and the general public."

HCC and eSpatial will work in partnership to deliver on Hull's vision of GI usage and will help shape product features to meet Local Authority needs in Europe and North America. iSMART Xtra for Local Government is built on iSMART, eSpatial's advanced GeoSpatial platform for the delivery of sophisticated web applications. The iSMART suite of web deployable off-the-shelf tools to manage, publish, query and edit both spatial and attribute data.

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