Liverpool Direct, an £80 million joint venture between Liverpool City Council and BT, is the first public sector organisation to use ContractorPortal, an innovative web service designed to simplify the distribution of Ordnance Survey datasets to housing partners and contractors.
Developed by Dotted Eyes, Contractor Portal provides an automated, audited workflow that streamlines the entire licensing and ordering process. It enables partners and contractors to access mapping datasets on a self-service basis, and allows housing providers and local authorities to manage their data distribution through a real-time console.
Brian Jones, geodata team manager, Liverpool Direct, said, “Whenever a contractor has to use Ordnance Survey mapping, they need to apply for a licence. That requires the contracting body to source and exchange the data and manage the licence application. Contractor Portal completely automates that process as it enables the contractor to self-serve. We expect considerable efficiency savings being generated from this avoidance of contact with contractors.”
ContractorPortal is designed to reduce the workload associated with the preparation and completion of paperwork, selection and processing of datasets, timely distribution of the completed data cut-outs and compliance with contractual terms. The advantage is the time and cost savings for both housing providers and local authorities and their partner organisations and contractors. The portal also ensures that current data is used more frequently on projects.
Contractor Portal is powered by Safe Software’s FME Server technology which is integrated with Dotted Eyes’ mapping interface. This provides housing providers and local authorities with a proven platform from which to seamlessly deliver services to their partners.
