06 February 2007

Water companies set to tap addressing data of Great Britain’s mapping agency

Ordnance Survey today announces the signing of a contract securing the use of OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 for two of the UK’s leading water suppliers.

Bristol Water and Wessex Water, which between them serve over 3.5 million people, have access to the most detailed and accurate spatial addressing information in the country, allowing them to better track their assets and provide improved customer service.

With approaching 29 million addresses, OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 builds upon the foundation of its predecessor, OS MasterMap Address Layer. It not only features all Royal Mail’s postal addresses but also alternative addresses and over 1.5 million objects without a postal address.

By taking advantage of this huge and previously unavailable depth of information, Bristol Water and Wessex Water have been able to verify the whereabouts of thousands of properties that receive their services but for which they had insufficient addressing data.

Places without an address can include locations as diverse as churches to public toilets. With the added knowledge provided by OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, both water suppliers can ensure that addresses that would have otherwise not been registered are fairly billed for the water they receive. Likewise for their customers, OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 allows for the speedier location and resolution of faults. The enriched data is fully integrated with unique identifiers, which are then linked to the customers’ records, enabling easier and quicker identification.

OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 also includes over 150,000 residential premises that have multiple occupancies but only a single postal address. They include separate flats within a house where the postman can only get to one front door. As they do not fall within Royal Mail’s definition of a delivery point, other spatial address datasets fail to capture them.

Henry Ditoos, Spatial Records Manager at Bristol Water, says: "The main reason for purchasing OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 was a means to verify the addresses for a few thousand properties on our geographic information system for which we have no address or the quality of the addresses we have aren’t good enough.

"The fact that we now have the OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 dataset loaded on the corporate GIS allows us to carry out more complex enquiries relating to properties and addresses."

Andy Nicholson of Wessex Water says: "More and more projects within Wessex Water require us to classify service locations by function and process to achieve a higher level of customer service and manage risk within the business.

"OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 gives us access to a consistent externally assured set of data we can use in our business applications. Coupled with geo-analysis, OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 classifications extend the capability of the corporate geographic information system.

"For Wessex Water," Andy added, "a key feature was the potential future extension for cross referencing elements to include BS 7666, the British Standard designed to improve the way street, land, property and address data is identified and indexed. This would bring a step closer the day when organisations can cross-reference and exchange information on properties more consistently."

Roger Hunt, Utilities Account Manager at Ordnance Survey, commented: "We’re delighted to be providing both Wessex Water and Bristol Water with OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 data. It only goes to demonstrate yet again that the uses for geographic information are massive.

"Our data will offer Bristol Water and Wessex Water a powerful tool to support their revenue capture and customer services".

 

Notes for editors:

1. Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and the public.

2. Ordnance Survey, the OS Symbol and OS MasterMap are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey. Royal Mail is a registered trademark of Royal Mail Group plc.

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Head of Corporate Communications - Rob Andrews

Email: rob.andrews@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2265

Senior Communications & PR Officer - Paul Beauchamp

Email: paul.beauchamp@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2568

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