An automated solution for data maintenance using the FME Platform
An automated solution to alleviate the burden of data maintenance using the FME Platform
Data management and publication is critical for all planning authorities, but it’s time consuming and can be inefficient.
In Nottingham, the City Council is meeting demand for planning information by building on its long-standing track record of deriving added value and proactively publishing data. In doing so, it not only realises the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)’s reform of the planning system in England, but also tackles in-house capacity and resourcing issues.
Putting data integration at the heart of planning
Mick Dunn, GIS Service Manager at Nottingham City Council explains: “As a planning authority, we want to improve the publication of planning data through enhanced reporting capabilities with data interoperability and integration at the heart of what we do.”
“Our automated approach, enabled by FME, allows us to keep pace with the growing demand for planning information and helps us derive more value from planning data through efficient and effective publishing and improved reporting. This not only supports digital planning reform but is also essential for statutory reporting and publication of statutory registers.”
To meet the critical challenge of accessing and publishing data held within the core development management system, the Council worked in partnership with 1Spatial and IDOX to build an automated integration between its core systems. By establishing clear reporting processes, the aim was to develop efficient and effective core data management to provide users with quick and easy access to planning information and improve data currency and quality.
Funding for the project was secured under the DLUHC ‘Development Management Software Pathfinder Programme’, which supports the part of the planning ecosystem related to applications and decisions.
FME – the data integration ‘glue’ that fixes sticky data situations
“FME server is the data integration ‘glue’ that provides a no-code automated data dissemination and reporting workflow within the enterprise infrastructure. Fully automating and scheduling data maintenance tasks facilitates statutory reporting, publication of open data and dashboard visualisations,” Mick says.
The solution is delivering benefits for all stakeholders by enabling quick and easy access to planning information in different formats to planning officers, internal colleagues, elected members, other public sector bodies, Central Government, residents, developers, and businesses.
Furthermore, data quality, use, availability, and transparency are improved, the time taken to prepare new datasets for publication is significantly reduced, and analytical work can be undertaken more quickly.
Managing performance against national targets
By delivering operational data to better understand current performance levels, the Council can manage performance against national targets. It is also making better use of planning data and producing tangible products and practices that can be shared with other planning authorities.
David Eagle, FME Division Manager, 1Spatial adds: “This project has given Nottingham City Council a deployed enterprise FME environment that can be scaled and used for planning, but also many other data integration challenges.”
“In addition to driving added value for users of the planning system, it addresses increased demand for planning data and the issue of capacity, expertise and resources experienced by all local authorities at the moment.”
Connecting data from multiple sources
Together with 1Spatial, the Council built an FME process that connects to the Oracle database sitting behind IDOX Uniform Enterprise. This queries, joins and aggregates data from multiple sources to populate a templated Excel worksheet for the Council’s PS ‘district’ planning matters return. The return runs on a quarterly schedule managed by FME Server.
The output set of metrics are emailed to a senior planning officer for sign off before
being reported to central government. This same FME process is also available as an FME Server Workspace App for planners to create customised versions of the report based on case officer, date range and ward.
Supporting in-system data use for case management performance
By implementing the IDOX Uniform Enterprise solution, the Council supports in-system data use for case management performance to enable quick and easy access to planning information in different formats through a simple user interface.
These capabilities empower planning officers with self-serve data discovery, enabling them to use simple metrics to extract, publish and share reports without the need to involve members of the GIS Team.
Whilst there is a complicated data model behind the solution, data is accessed through an easy-to-use interface, which requires no expert training or specialist knowledge, with outputs received via an Excel spreadsheet. The innovation with Uniform Enterprise and the data integration with FME Server are delivering time savings for planning and data specialists, and with the addition of spatial data extraction, planning officers can construct queries and create reports much
more quickly, in greater volumes and with greater knowledge of the data.
Mick concludes: “By alleviating the burdens associated with data maintenance through automated scheduling, we’re enhancing efficiency and meeting increased demand for planning data, whilst also tackling capacity and resourcing issues to deliver more by freeing up in-house expertise to focus on value added work.”