Working with Partners on Digital Transformation Projects

Project Name: The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR)
Partnering with: Atkins and Ordnance Survey
1Spatial Value: Data Preparation (Transformation and Ingestion)

Background

The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is a highly collaborative project of strategic national importance, involving many partners and working with over 650 asset owners. The NUAR project will improve the efficiency and safety of underground works by creating a digital map of underground pipes and cables. The project, when complete, will revolutionise the way the UK installs, maintains, and repairs its buried infrastructure. NUAR will improve the efficiency and safety of underground works by creating a secure, auditable, trusted and sustainable platform. It will provide a consistent, interactive digital map of buried asset data, accessible when, where and how it is needed by those planning and executing excavations on behalf of underground asset owners. It will also lead to enhanced communication between parties and improve data quality.

Working in Partnership

1Spatial initially worked on the pilot project, collaborating with the Greater London Authority (GLA) on London’s Underground Asset Register (LUAR), one of two regional pilots of the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) programme. The project was a combined effort from the Geospatial Commission, Ordnance Survey, GLA and more than 35 Local Authorities, utility companies and asset owners. Funded by the Geospatial Commission, the pilot was to test the feasibility of creating an underground map on a national scale and was a great success. It was nominated for Digital Leaders Cross-Sector Digital Collaboration of The Year award in 2020.

Following the pilot the Geospatial Commission appointed design, engineering and project management consultancy firm Atkins to deliver the build phase of NUAR, supported by UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey and 1Spatial, global leaders in spatial data management. 1Spatial are a key supplier and are leading NUAR’s data transformation and data ingestion workstream, working closely with other partners, including Ordnance Survey Great Britain (OSGB), GeoPlace and the GLA. More than 650 asset owners will share and upload their data via 1Spatial’s online portal 1Data Gateway which will automatically transform their underground asset datasets from their source representation to a target NUAR data model designed by Atkins and OSGB. The project has seen partners work in close collaboration to meet set milestones and ensure consistent communication to asset owners and the market. It is proof of how 1Spatial fits into larger digital transformation projects to ensure data is fit for purpose and in an agreed format for use in other systems.

Guy Ledger, Digital Director at Atkins: “By harnessing technology to enable data sharing, we’re able to transform how we deliver projects and infrastructure by unlocking improvements in safety, certainty and efficiency. We now look forward to working with 1Spatial and the Ordnance Survey to develop the National Underground Asset Register - a truly exciting and transformative project for the infrastructure sector.”

Project Name: Utility Network Migration at Northern Gas Networks (NGN)
Partnering with: Esri UK
1Spatial Value: Data Preparation (Data Quality Audit, Cleanse and Enhancement) and Data Migration

Background

Utilities are one of the most compelling use-cases for GIS across all industries due to the complexities in overlapping networks of pipes and cables. Precise locations are difficult to obtain but vital to know. Networks are constantly evolving to meet social demands but also require continuous repair and replacements to be made. Understanding the relationships between assets are fundamental for example if a gas leak occurs, utilities need to be able to quickly identify and understand how many customers will be affected downstream and communicate efficiently.

Esri’s legacy geometric network model is now almost 20 years old and relied heavily on 3rd party tools. To advance ‘spatial’ within the enterprise and grow the role of GIS within a utility organisation, a more advanced GIS data model was required.

ArcGIS Utility Network is a next generation spatial information system. The underlying data model will provide greater functionality over massive datasets at every scale of resolution and allow utilities to create a true digital twin of their network to meet the challenges of a modern utility. However, this powerful technology requires a fundamental change in the underlying data model.   Whilst undertaking this upgrade, many organisations use this as an opportunity to improve existing processes, introduce new tooling and implement seamless integrations between the GIS and other business system, allowing for enterprise level automation. It is envisaged that these projects will take between 12 and 24 months to complete. There are both commercial and technical benefits for completing a UN migration by 2024 when Esri support for the geometric model reaches end of life.

Working in Partnership

In 2021, following a competitive tender, 1Spatial and Esri UK were selected by Northern Gas Networks (NGN) as key partners to deliver the first Utility Network migration in the UK. NGN delivers gas to 2.7 million homes and businesses in the North East, Northern Cumbria and much of Yorkshire.

1Spatial primed the bid, with a focus on completing data migration, application configuration and GIS integration activities. Esri UK brought their unrivalled expertise in ArcGIS deployment and configuration, with the teams working collaboratively on the data model design and architecture.  The project is being delivered in distinct phases, with an innovative synchronisation mechanism allowing NGN to ‘Go Live’ with each business application only when the business is ready. The iterative migration also includes the configuration and refactoring of NGN’s existing business applications to be compatible with the new data model.

The progress to date has been encouraging and the team workshops have worked well to set clear objectives, give recommendations and ensure collaboration between 1Spatial, Esri UK and NGN. 1Spatial are also partnering with Agility Works during the final phase of the project to deliver the SAP integration.

This is another example of how 1Spatial work with partners on large complex digital transformation projects to ensure data foundations are fit for purpose.

Craig Hayes, Head of Critical National Infrastructure for Esri UK: “By working in partnership, we will be able to bring the best of Esri’s geospatial platform together with 1Spatial’s world leading geospatial data cleansing and management expertise.”

Project Name: Land & Property Services (LPS) Northern Ireland Digital Transformation (NOVA) Programme
Partnering with: Version 1
1Spatial Value: Spatial Data Validation and Integration

Background

Land & Property Services (LPS) in Northern Ireland is a division within the Department of Finance (DoF), that plays an important role in supporting economic development and public services in Northern Ireland. LPS directorates include Valuation Services, Land Registry, the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, Revenues and Benefits, and Rating Policy. LPS collect over £1 billion in rates revenue each year to help fund vital public services; achieved by underpinning the ownership of land and by providing authoritative foundational geospatial data which drives Northern Ireland’s progressive economy. This is realised by LPS delivering the following functions:

• Mapping – providing Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland mapping services for both public and private sectors informing policy development and enhancing service delivery.
• Land Registration – providing a registration service to record legal interests in land and provide land information for conveyancing purposes.
• Valuation – maintaining valuation lists which support the collection of rates.
• Rates – collecting approximately £1.4 billion of rates billing over 630,000 properties. It is also responsible for the administering of various rate reliefs for those entitled to help with their rates. The money collected from rates helps to fund vital public services.

LPS recognise that to deliver the best services to the general public, businesses and public sector organisations it needs to build on its expertise in service delivery by improving its digital services and improve the integration of data across the organisation to enable faster and better decision making.

LPS have embarked on an ambitious digital transformation (NOVA) programme that will integrate services across LPS to ensure:

• They are fully aligned and integrated with each other to better meet the needs of customers and stakeholders
• They are integrated and seamless with other public services
• Data can be communicated, shared, analysed and reported on easily

LPS recognises that to deliver these objectives they need to effectively master data across the different directorates and with spatial data at the heart of almost every business transaction, application, and decision within LPS, that mastering needs to be underpinned by a unique geospatial identifier. By using the Fusion identifiers LPS will be able to match data across the organisation so when one system makes an update, for example a building is resurveyed due to an extension being built, that change can be published to the other systems across LPS and business processes can be automatically triggered.

Working in Partnership

1Spatial have been working with a consortium led by Version 1 to support the ongoing digital transformation (NOVA) programme. The aim is to deliver digitally integrated solutions, systems and outcomes to enable LPS to meet its strategic goals.  Version 1 have been working to build a master data management infrastructure that will allow different directorates such as Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland and Land Registry to access and submit changes to LPS’s master data. 1Spatial were named the exclusive spatial consultant within the consortium, to guide the validation and integration of spatial data usage and technologies throughout the LPS enterprise. 1Spatial are collaborating with Version 1’s delivery team to identify data that contains spatial features and ensure work packages are reviewed and approved before being submitted and integrated.

Tom O’Connor, CEO at Version 1, said: “We are delighted to be delivering this exciting digital transformation programme for our long-standing customer LPS, alongside our strategic partner 1Spatial. Our partnership with 1Spatial is key not only to this relationship but also to our wider strategic focus across the UK and Ireland’s public sectors. Our combined expertise and experience in digital transformation will continue to make a real difference to the organisations we support together.”

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