Success of Nottingham City Council’s Open Data Initiative Supported by FME & 1Spatial
Spatial data technology improves Council innovation, collaboration and FOI responses
Cambridge, UK, 16th February 2016,1Spatial’s Certified FME consultants supported Nottingham City Council’s use of FME technology to reduce the response time of Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) requests. Production of validated and redacted FOI responses for council spend data now takes just one hour per month, with significantly reduced manual input. The Council is now meeting government response targets despite a steady increase in FOI requests. Certified FME training and technical support from 1Spatial assisted in making this possible.
The technical expertise of 1Spatial, the spatial big data company, enabled the Council to create scheduled, rules-based automation using FME. The Council automated time-consuming processes, such as the redaction and checking of every one of the 15,000 council spend records, by creating user-defined data rules. Now the team checks just 50-100 exceptions as flagged by FME. The information is then automatically posted on the Open Data Nottingham site.
As a result, the Council has radically reduced its workload and improved performance against government targets for the publication of open data, response to FOI requests and building authoritative local geospatial data.
Kamrul Kashem, GIS Data Analyst in the Information Management Services team at Nottingham City Council said, “The general expertise of 1Spatial has always been top notch,” explains Kamrul. “Whenever we‘ve had a problem, they’ve been really responsive. They’re very dynamic and they feel like part of the team, rather than ‘just another supplier’. There’s a really good bond between the council and 1Spatial.”
Nottingham now has over 90 different data sets on the city’s open data site. Popular sets include: food hygiene, planning applications and information on CCTV cameras. Having so much information available has driven local innovation too, like the gallery of applications created by citizens and organisations, which makes use of open data.
David Eagle, Managing Consultant from 1Spatial explains, “Nottingham City Council has used FME for some time, but a little assistance from our excellent team along the way, has supported their skilled staff to explore its capabilities to the full and get more from their investment in the product. They now have the ability to automate the generation, updating and publication of a wide variety of datasets, both geospatial and tabular (non-spatial), as well as dramatically increasing the range of information available as open data. This has turned Information Management Services into a critical resource and source of value for the Council.”
FME World Tour
1Spatial is hosting a series of free events in the UK and Australia, to help users to automate their processes, innovate and connect with FME users. Companies can register herewww.1spatial.com/FMEWT to join the team in Southampton (12th April), Cardiff (14th), Manchester (20th) or Edinburgh (22nd).
The full case study is available here via the 1Spatial website www.1spatial.com
About Nottingham City Council
Nottingham City Council services a population of an estimated 314,000 residents. It is a democratic organisation, with 55 Councillors representing electors in the 20 electoral wards in the City of Nottingham.
About 1Spatial
1Spatial provides the software solutions and services that manage the world’s largest spatial big data. We work with users and creators of the largest geospatial databases on earth, helping them collect, manage, plan, maintain, publish and interpret location-specific information.
Our clients include National Mapping Agencies, Land Registries, utility and telecommunications companies, and government departments including emergency services, defence and census bureaus.
A leader in our field, we have over forty five years’ experience and a record of continual innovation and development. Today, with an ever increasing reliance on spatial and location-critical data, demand for our expertise has never been greater.
1Spatial is a Safe Software Platinum Value-Added Reseller and Solution Provider.
To find out more, visit www.1spatial.com
To find out more about the FME World Tour, visit http://1spatial.com/news/2016/01/19/1spatial-fme-world-tour-coming-to-the-uk-australia-in-2016
Find out more about 1Spatial & FME
To find out more about FME and hear some other customer stories, 1Spatial is hosting free FME World Tour events in the UK and Australia, which will help users explore, discover and innovate with FME.
8th April - Brisbane
11th April - Melbourne
12th April - Southampton
14th April - Cardiff
18th April - Sydney
20th April - Manchester
22nd April – Edinburgh
Each event will include technical presentations, networking opportunities, case studies and interactive sessions. Please contact fme@1spatial.com to find out more.