Idox helps emergency services eliminate the pain of maintaining accurate location data
Crippling budget constraints are making it even harder for emergency services to maintain performance. With 2.7 million address changes in Great Britain every six weeks, ensuring location data is kept up to date is a time-consuming task – time that could be better used by emergency services to achieve their vital goals.
What’s more, once the Ordnance Survey’s (OS) Emergency Services Gazetteer (ESG) starts being used to boost AddressBase Premium (ABP) data, additional time-consuming processes will be required to keep this dataset accurate.
But by using Idox’s ABP Managed Service, the emergency response sector is coming to realise it doesn’t have to be this way.
The pain of maintaining location data internally
When the OS releases its six-weekly AddressBase Premium updates, an emergency service has to trigger the Change Only Updates (COU) into their Gazetteer Management System (GMS). Any errors will be identified at this stage. If they are using Idox’s Bluelight GMS, they can contact our support team to rectify these errors for them – however, as opposed to letting Idox handle things with the Managed Service, this method creates a time lag.
The only other alternative is to accept the errors, which compounds the issue, creates further errors down the line, and ultimately decreases the accuracy of the data. When some emergency services find they are lacking the time to fully implement updates, the quality of data starts to slide. Crucially, the impact of poor-quality address data on frontline emergency services could potentially result in life-threatening outcomes.
Doubling the trouble with the Emergency Services Gazetteer
The OS’s ESG has only recently been released, so emergency services are still considering how they will consume and manage this data. The update cycle for the ESG is four-weekly, while AddressBase Premium’s is six-weekly: as a result, updates have to be carried out at different times, creating an additional drain on time and server resources and increasing the risk of synchronisation issues.
We’ve never been in a better position with our location data since using Idox’s ABP Managed Service.
Idox is working hard to ensure its Bluelight GMS will have the capacity to consume the new dataset alongside AddressBase Premium in the autumn. As a result, you will also be able to guarantee the accuracy of your ESG data by using our Managed Service.
Seamless updates to save time
Over the last four years, Idox has seen a 36% increase in Bluelight GMS customers outsourcing the management of their AddressBase Premium data to Idox. That’s because we seamlessly manage all updates for you, whether your GMS is hosted in our Azure environment or your own, or if you have the on-site installation. This will not only save vast amounts of time and space on your servers, it also ensures your location data keeps pace with the OS, providing you with the most up-to-date AddressBase Premium data available. In addition, by managing the ESG updates (from the autumn), you’ll find synchronisation issues will be eliminated, and you will save time and resources, all while keeping your data accurate.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have been using Idox’s ABP Managed Service for four years. Lynn Oliver, Gazetteer Watch Commander for Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, comments:
“We’ve never been in a better position with our location data since using Idox’s ABP Managed Service. When we managed ABP updates internally, our ICT team would only be able to implement the updates every four months, i.e., three different EPOCHs at a time, as it was so time consuming and such a drain on resources. This meant our location data was at its most accurate only three times a year. Now we use the Managed Service, we keep pace with OS’s EPOCH releases with no time and resource input from us at all.”
Idox’s ABP Managed Service currently delivers accurate, current AddressBase Premium data seamlessly without any draw on your resources, leaving you with more time to deliver core services. From the autumn, you’ll also be able to use this service for delivering the ESG, providing more granular data at no time-cost to you.
