Staffordshire County Council awards contract to Cadcorp for corporate GIS in the cloud

Cadcorp selected to replace County Council’s existing GIS platform

Staffordshire County Council (SCC) has appointed Geographic Information System (GIS) software and services company, Cadcorp, to supply cloud hosted GIS and web mapping. The contract was awarded using the G-Cloud government procurement framework and includes the following Cadcorp cloud services: Cadcorp SIS Desktop, Cadcorp SIS WebMap, Cadcorp Spatial Database Service.

SIS Desktop in the cloud allows up to 100 users at the County Council to prepare, analyse and interpret geographic data across the organisation. The software can be accessed as a virtual desktop application or via a web browser. No specialist hardware or resources are required, making it ideal for remote and flexible working. SIS Desktop in the cloud is maintained and upgraded by Cadcorp, allowing users to immediately benefit from new functionality within the latest release.

Ordnance Survey^® (OS^®) data is used widely throughout the authority and is integral to business functions. SCC recognised that the new GIS contract provided an opportunity to significantly reduce the time spent managing OS data. Using APIs from the OS Data Hub, in combination with the specifically designed Cadcorp SIS Desktop UI, provides SCC with easy access to the latest OS data.

SIS WebMap is a sophisticated yet easy-to-use off-the-shelf intranet and internet web mapping application that brings together GIS data from across the authority into a secure web environment. Specific functionality includes Local Knowledge™ that automatically returns answers to questions about a locality, and ReportIT to allow members of the public to report and locate incidents on a map. An Edit facility is available for internal users of SIS WebMap to create and maintain spatial data.

A key challenge for the County Council is the management of large volumes of data. As part of the contract, they required a solution that would provide a single centralised location for the storage of spatial data. To meet this requirement, SCC chose the Cadcorp Spatial Database Service, including a hosted PostgreSQL database with the PostGIS extension. The database is hosted and managed by Cadcorp on a secure cloud platform.

Wendy Tompson, Insight Manager, Staffordshire County Council commented: “GIS helps the Council derive insights and informs decision making and strategy. More specifically, it supports the Council’s “Digital” agenda to transform how we use technology and data to connect, inform, and support our citizens. The Cadcorp solution can meet our requirements for both desktop and web GIS usage and supports our transition to a cloud-based platform, securing a sustainable GIS offering for the organisation.”

Migrating GIS technology to the cloud can bring a significant number of benefits to County Councils and other public sector organisations. It has the potential to reduce both the overall cost of ownership and the administration overhead of keeping software and data up to date. Cadcorp is an approved GIS supplier on G-Cloud. Further details about Cadcorp cloud services are available here.

About Staffordshire County Council
www.staffordshire.gov.uk
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the centre of England, bordering the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The county consists of eight districts: South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, East Staffordshire, Tamworth, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the Staffordshire Moorlands, and stretches from Kinver in the south right up to Flash in the north. Cannock Chase AONB is within the county as well as parts of the National Forest and the Peak District national park.

It is home to over 860,000 people and offers terrific opportunities for people to enjoy a good quality of life in safe and strong communities.

Staffordshire County Council’s responsibilities include highways and transport, education and learning, health and social care, children and young people, and economic growth.

Staffordshire is the largest economy in the West Midlands outside Birmingham and historically has a strong record in economic growth and low unemployment.

About Cadcorp
www.cadcorp.com
Cadcorp is a British software development company focused on geographic information system (GIS) and web mapping software. It offers a complete suite of products – the Cadcorp Spatial Information System^® (Cadcorp SIS^®) – addressing all phases of spatial information management. Cadcorp SIS^® is available worldwide through a network of Cadcorp partners and via a direct sales team in the UK, Cadcorp is an approved GIS supplier on G-Cloud.