Geographic Information Management in Local Government - Chapter 15 pot

CHAPTER 15 Case Study — London Borough of Enfield LONDON BOROUGH OF ENFIELD AT A GLANCE Key Facts Local authority name: London Borough of Enfield Local authority type: Outer London borough Population: 265,000 Current state of operation of GIS: Multi-supplier/Authority-wide GIS in transition toward single-supplier/authority-wide GIS status Main GIS products in use: Originally Sysdeco Records/GI3S linked to ICL PLANES, now disbanded in favor of MapInfo with text data captured in MS Access and held in Oracle 8i. Applications: Gazetteer, development control, planning policy, LLC, environmental health, property review, and education admissions Land and Property Gazetteer status: MapInfo BS7666 Gazetteer GIM/GIS strategy status: Agreed corporate GIS strategy (July 2001) Forum for steering GIS: GIS program board Staffing for GIS: Information services manager supported by four GIS staff and three address management staff Contact details: Group information manager (telephone 020 8379 3874) What Makes London Borough of Enfield Distinctive? Enfield is an example of a large London borough that has attempted, but so far has failed to achieve, a fully corporate approach to GIS in the face of strong depart- mentalism and lack of high-level champions. Despite having achieved only a semi- corporate approach, it is believed to have been the first local authority in the Britain to have captured all its address and property data with extents to BS7666 standards using accredited software. Like many authorities, it has had to weather the change from systems that were becoming obsolete (moving from Sysdeco Records/GI3S and ICL PLANES to systems based on MapInfo). Strong policy initiatives for joined- up government within the borough council are strengthening the willingness of depart- ments to work together and may ultimately result in a fully corporate approach and transition into an example of single-supplier/corporate GIS. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC Key Stages in the Implementation of GIS Stage 1 (1989 to 1992) — Building of PLANES property gazetteer, with Sun network for Sysdeco records Stage 2 (1992 to 1994) — Establishment of PLANES topic sets for planning, land charges, and property terrier Stage 3 (1994 to 1996) — Extension of applications for contaminated land, parking control, school admissions Stage 4 (1996 to 1999) — Maturity of semicorporate GIS, with access primarily through MapInfo on PCs Stage 5 (2000+) — Move toward fully corporate GIS with introduction of single GIS supplier policy (MapInfo) and implementation of intranet/Internet Positive Drivers and Success Factors for GIS • Need to automate planning applications, land charges, and data relating to council- owned property • Joined-up government and commitment to make council accessible to the citizen • Commitment of staff • Building of core team within information services unit of environmental services directorate Problems that Threatened Success • Strong departmentalism that impeded data sharing, with a lack of high-level champions • Lack of understanding of core benefits of GIS, which is seen by many as a specialist technology • Lack of flexibility of existing software • Lack of investment • Lack of skills Practical Benefits from GIS • Increased efficiency of operational processes, particularly for planning and land charges • Improved spatial analysis for strategic management of the borough’s services 15.1 WHY WAS LONDON BOROUGH OF ENFIELD CHOSEN AS A CASE STUDY? It is believed that London Borough of Enfield was the first local authority in the country to capture all its address and property data with extents to BS7666 standards using accredited software (Sysdeco GI3S). It has a long tradition of developing and maintaining property gazetteers, starting with the implementation of ICL’s PLANES database in 1989, with associated boundary data held initially in Sysdeco Records and subsequently in GI3S. With the resulting obsolescence of PLANES, and the ©2004 by CRC Press LLC closure of Sysdeco as a GIS supplier, the council has had to transfer its property and spatial data to systems based on MapInfo as the preferred GIS. Despite these early initiatives in relation to land and property data, the council has attempted, but so far failed to achieve, a fully corporate approach to GIS. As in many large organizations, the introduction of an authority-wide approach has been made difficult by strong departmentalism and lack of high-level champions. Cur- rently, the council is an example of the significant amount of progress that can be made despite attaining only a semicorporate approach. For the future, the situation may change as a result of strong policy initiatives for joined-up government and electronic service delivery that are strengthening the willingness of departments to work together. The result may ultimately be the adoption of a fully corporate approach within which data is shared extensively across departments through the acceptance of common standards and compatible systems. 15.2 THE BACKGROUND — WHAT HAS LONDON BOROUGH OF ENFIELD DONE? London Borough of Enfield is an example of the implementation of a multi- supplier/authority-wide GIS, using the terminology that we introduced in Chapter 8. However, the authority is now in transition toward single-supplier/authority-wide GIS status. In the past, it began by developing systems based on Sysdeco Records and GI3S, linked to ICL’s PLANES database. MapInfo was introduced initially to coexist with Sysdeco GIS products as the user-friendly viewer of data held initially within Records and subsequently within GI3S. It has now become the GIS product that is used throughout the authority, with the major areas of application being development control, planning policy, local land charges, environmental health, property review, and education admissions. Currently, the following MapInfo products are used by departments: • MapInfo Professional (24 licenses) — which is used by environment, education, corporate, and strategic services • MapInfo ProViewer — a free viewer used by 100 users • MapXtreme (25 licenses) — which is MapInfo’s GIS browser and which is primarily for a pilot intranet GIS application The implementation of GIS has undergone a checkered history that involved responding to the demise of ICL PLANES as a product and Sysdeco as a supplier. London Borough of Enfield’s lengthy experience of GIS can be grouped for conve- nience into five stages: Stage 1 (1989 to 1992) — Initial experimentation with GIS started in 1989 with the building of the council’s first property gazetteer within ICL PLANES. Sysdeco Records, running on a small network of Sun workstations within the Information Services Team (in the environmental services department), was used to capture and ©2004 by CRC Press LLC maintain the boundaries of properties within the gazetteer. A link was implemented between PLANES and Records to allow editing of the text and spatial data. Stage 2 (1992 to 1994) — Following the establishment of the core gazetteer, PLANES topic sets were built up for the planning register, planning constraints, land charges, and the property terrier with associated boundaries for all but the planning register, held in Sysdeco Records. Stage 3 (1994 to 1996) — Use of GIS was expanded through the installation of additional Sun workstations to support applications for contaminated land, parking control, and school admissions. Stage 4 (1996 to 1999) — With the maturity of the semicorporate GIS (and directly in line with Sysdeco’s product strategy), MapInfo was introduced to coexist with Sysdeco Records as a user-friendly tool for viewing and analyzing data captured and maintained within Records. Following open tender, MapInfo’s BS7666 LPG was selected as the product to replace PLANES, for which ICL had, by this time, withdrawn support. Planning application boundaries began to be captured for current planning applications and enabled the rapid identification of relevant planning con- straints. Over this period, the information services team took the lead in beginning the migration from Sysdeco Records to GI3S, which was heralded as Sysdeco’s state-of-the-art object-oriented product. Stage 5 (2000 to present) — Following the unexpected closure of Sysdeco as a GIS supplier, the authority committed to establishing a single GIS standard, based on MapInfo and complementary products. The “Development of a Corporate GIS and Local Street and Property Gazetteer Infrastructure” became a major council project (led by the environmental services group), which included the migration of data from PLANES and Records/GI3S and the implementation of the gazetteer to BS7666 Standards. Data matching of the council’s existing property gazetteer with council tax, National Non-Domestic Rates, electoral registration, and the local street gazetteer was started to enable the accreditation of gazetteer through the IDeA. Over this period the council selected Swift, through open tender, as the supplier of new planning application processing and local land charges systems (linked to MapInfo and the gazetteer) to replace ICL’s PACIS system and data held within the PLANES LLC topic set. 15.3 WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS IT SET UP? To steer the development and implementation of GIS, the council originally set up a GIS steering group, which was in existence for a number of years. The group met only infrequently and was largely ineffective. In practice, key decisions with regard to GIS policy have been taken by the council’s IT steering group, which is composed of senior managers from each of the directorates. This group has agreed on the brief for the “Development of a Corporate GIS and Local Street and Property Gazetteer Infrastructure” project. Implementation of GIS projects has been coordinated through a GIS program board and carried out by the information services team. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC Support skills for GIS are concentrated within the information services team with the environmental services group. This unit has played a major role throughout the history of GIS implementation within the borough. The unit has a split role in that it provides IT, GIS, and information skills to the whole of the environmental services directorate, but also manages the LPG and high-profile GIS datasets as a corporate service to the authority. The group information manager is supported by seven staff members with GIS skills, structured as follows: • GIS Team — with team leader, three GIS assistants, and the street naming and numbering officer who are responsible for maintaining corporate GIS data and providing general support on use of systems • Property Information Team — with team leader and two assistants who are responsible for street naming and numbering, LLPG maintenance, and street and property information 15.4 WHAT DOES LONDON BOROUGH OF ENFIELD PLAN TO DO IN THE FUTURE? The challenge for London Borough of Enfield is to complete the implementation of GIS on a corporate basis so that it underpins the political priority of achieving joined-up government (see Figure 15.1). The priorities are to: • Incorporate the GIS/GIM strategy into the council’s IT strategy • Promote the LPG as the authoritative source of address information within the council, enforcing the standard that all systems within the council are linked to it • Develop the use of metadata and data standards Figure15.1(See Color Figure 3following page 134.) London Borough of Enfield’s vision for the delivery of data from service information systems to the council’s customers in conjunction with its partners. (From London Borough of Enfield.) ©2004 by CRC Press LLC • Rationalize the use of street and property data • Extend the use of GIS across departments within the framework of a clear single- supplier policy based on MapInfo • Expand the use of Web-based GIS through the PlanWeb application, starting from a pilot project, to allow access to the LPG and core data across the intranet • Develop pilot Internet applications • Support “spatial enabling” projects through linkage of text databases to GIS • Demonstrate the value of the LPG and GIS to support joined-up working so that the transition to single supplier/corporate GIS status can be fully realized 15.5 WHAT WERE THE POSITIVE DRIVERS AND SUCCESS FACTORS FOR GIS? London Borough of Enfield has been engaged in the implementation of GIS and LPG for over 10 years. The drivers that have pushed the authority into using GIS technology have all been business oriented, the most significant being: • Pressure to automate the processing of planning applications, which is a highly spatial activity • Political interest in improving the processing of local land charges searches and enquiries, with the target (achieved in 1995, and subsequently) of returning search responses within 24 hours • The need to improve the quality and availability of information relating to council- owned property, which was recognized as a major asset (with an estimated £1 billion asset value) • The current pressure for joined-up government and electronic service delivery, emerging out of government advice, but now embodied in a political commitment to make the council more accessible to its citizens • And most recently, the imperative of evidence-based policy to support neighbor- hood renewal and community strategies The critical success factors that have worked with these drivers to enable the council to achieve success with GIS despite the lack of a corporate approach have been: • The building of the core team of skills within the information services unit in the environmental services directorate • The commitment of key staff within the core team and other departments such as corporate services, which includes the local land charges and property manage- ment functions • The support of key directors, in particular the director of environmental services 15.6 WHAT WERE THE NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT THREATENED SUCCESS? Despite the many positive pressures, there have been a number of significant negative factors that have held back progress. These include: ©2004 by CRC Press LLC • Lack of commitment, until recently, to a corporate approach with strong depart- mentalism that has impeded data sharing • Only limited appreciation of the core benefits of GIS, which is still seen by some as a technical problem looking for a solution • Coupled with this, a lack of awareness of the potential impact of GIS on services, hence no championing by managers at a high level within the orga- nizational structure • Inflexibility of the early GIS and gazetteer products, resulting in inability to meet new needs in a responsive manner • Erratic, rather than sustained, investment in GIS and related systems, which forced development to proceed in a “stop–go” manner • Lack of skills in GIS initially, before the creation of the GIS team and GIS coordinator post within the information services unit, but these skills are still scarce and stretched With the establishment of the council’s Joined-Up Government Board, many of these negative factors are now being overcome. The board is fostering a new vision in which the council will be treated as a single entity, data will be seen as a corporate resource, and services will be forced to work together. Only the long term will tell if departmentalism truly disappears and GIS becomes recognized as a prerequisite for integrated delivery of public services. 15.7 WHAT HAVE BEEN THE PRACTICAL BENEFITS? In London Borough of Enfield, GIS have been used primarily to support oper- ational processes. The emphasis has been upon improving data quality, establishing data definition standards, and introducing formal procedures for data maintenance. GIS have been little used to support strategic planning and monitoring. This is because of the difficulty of getting senior officers to understand the potential role that GIS can play and then to find the necessary resources for research and analysis. This picture underlines the profile of benefits that have accrued to the authority: • The greatest benefits have been directly attributable to the increase in efficiency of operational processes that have occurred in the processing of planning appli- cations, local land charge searches, and property management transactions. For example, the most dramatic effect has been on the processing of local land charges searches and enquiries that are now turned around in less than 24 hours as a result of vastly improved access to information within GIS (for which the council received the Charter Mark in 1995). • Lesser benefits have accrued from the provision of spatial analyses to support strategic management of the borough’s services, though this is likely to be a growing area of return as joined-up working develops. 15.8 WHAT ARE THE LESSONS FOR OTHERS? Looking at London Borough of Enfield’s lengthy history of involvement with GIS and LPG, there are a number of important lessons that can be drawn: ©2004 by CRC Press LLC • The fundamental importance that must be placed on data, in terms of its quality, definition, and maintenance, as part of the basic infrastructure for GIS. This is an area where London Borough of Enfield has been particularly successful, and it has enabled the council to weather the storms of migrating from ICL PLANES and Sysdeco’s GIS software to MapInfo as the GIS and gazetteer supplier. • The need to conceive of GIS as a long-term program of implementation that will only be successfully achieved over a number of years and which requires the sustained commitment of resources. • The vital precondition for success of having a core team of staff with the necessary skills and project leadership ability to make things happen. • The need to take advantage of the momentum arising from government pressure, advice, and initiatives in order to align GIS projects so that they will deliver benefits that are widely appreciated as supporting the political and service priorities. • The difficulty of achieving a fully corporate approach, but the many advantages of striving for it as a long-term aim. Other authorities that view themselves as corporate would do well to review the lessons and experience of London Borough of Enfield and the pragmatic step-by- step approach that it has taken to put in place a successful GIS environment. ©2004 by CRC Press LLC . Multi-supplier/Authority-wide GIS in transition toward single-supplier/authority-wide GIS status Main GIS products in use: Originally Sysdeco Records/GI3S linked to ICL PLANES, now disbanded in. (and directly in line with Sysdeco’s product strategy), MapInfo was introduced to coexist with Sysdeco Records as a user-friendly tool for viewing and analyzing data captured and maintained within Records terminology that we introduced in Chapter 8. However, the authority is now in transition toward single-supplier/authority-wide GIS status. In the past, it began by developing systems based on