Plus Dane Group is using Cadcorp SIS to deliver a desktop- and web-based GIS system via its intranet, with the aim of improving productivity through data sharing and organisation-wide access to the most up-to-date information.
With 15,000 properties under its management and more than 400 staff, Plus Dane Group was formed in 2008 from the merger of Dane Housing Group and Plus Housing Group. However the merger highlighted disparities in each organisation’s use of GIS, with Dane having a small but fully-functioning GIS department while Plus had no GIS experience or capabilities. Furthermore, users varied from those managing tenants, grounds maintenance and land ownership to arrears and property administrators.
To provide a GIS system to cover these users’ varying requirements and to promote data sharing across the group, Plus Dane decided to implement a suite of Cadcorp products including Cadcorp’s web based mapping application GeognoSIS Viewer, desktop licences of Map Modeller and Map Editor, and mSIS, Cadcorp’s mobile data capture package.
Cadcorp’s Housing Toolkit was included with the desktop licences and provides a number of productivity tools that streamline the map production processes typically carried out by housing providers. The solution was integrated with an open-source PostGIS database to reduce the cost of the system.
Alex Hill, GIS manager, Plus Dane Group, said, “We chose Cadcorp because they were the only vendor offering a package that we can develop and attune to our current and future needs, with the added bonus of flexibility, excellent support and great rapport.”
Cadcorp SIS allows GIS data to be created quickly and easily on the desktop which can then be shared with others over the corporate intranet. This saves time and means that staff with little or no GIS experience can access up-to-the minute data, improving intra-group communications and making it easier to share information.
Hill added, “Sharing information such as land ownership and grounds maintenance data via our intranet is just one way Cadcorp SIS helps us to streamline business processes and allows better communication with our tenants and other third parties.”
Some of Plus Dane’s uses of the Cadcorp system include using its spatial analysis tools to ensure rent arrears staff are allocated similar numbers of tenants, and the creation and display of hotspots with higher incidences of arrears. Looking ahead, Plus Dane plans to integrate GIS into other areas of its operations such as using mobile GIS to allow field-based staff to photograph and report incidences of fly-tipping, graffiti and vandalism.
