GeoPlace Exemplar Awards Attracts Heavyweight Support

Online, August 24, 2012 (Newswire.com) - GeoPlace has announced that it has secured the backing of the Society of IT Management (Socitm), UK Location, the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey, as Award supporters for its annual GeoPlace Exemplar Awards.

Each of the supporting organisations recognises the need for accurate, up-to-date information on local addresses and streets and the impact that this has across the economy and the whole of the public sector. Knowing where people and assets are, makes a substantial difference to the efficiency with which public services are delivered.

'The Services Award', seeks to identify projects that assist with the streamlining and joining-up of services from different departments. Socitm's remit is to provide a forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT good practice and for information enabled local public services transformation in the UK. By supporting this Award, Socitm underlines the crucial role of its members in employing address and street information to join-up and transform services.

UK Location is supporting the 'Citizen Award' which will be awarded to the organisation with the best example of a project underpinned by address or street data that delivers services to citizens. UK Location focuses on improving the sharing and re-use of public sector location information to enable joined up services for government, business and citizens.

The LGA, with its focus on supporting, promoting and improving local government is supporting the 'Improvement and Efficiency Award' which will identify projects that have led to efficiency savings, or innovation or improvement for local government. As local government has the statutory responsibility for street naming and numbering, the LGA is also supporting the 'Best Example of Street Naming and Numbering Policy Implementation Award'.

Ordnance Survey's role is to collect, maintain and distribute the most accurate and up-to-date geographic information of the whole country. Supporting the 'Integration Award' with its emphasis on how addressing and street datasets are linked to council services or local partnerships provides a natural linkage to its role.

The Awards celebrate excellence in address and street information enabled service delivery across local government. They recognise the vital role address and street information professionals play in local service delivery. They celebrate their achievements, providing external acknowledgement of innovation, creativity, best practice, hard work and achievement.

For more information about the Exemplar Awards and how to enter, see www.geoplace.co.uk

CONTACTS:

GeoPlace contact: Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing, +44(0)207 747 3500, E-mail: gayle.gander@geoplace.co.uk, www.geoplace.co.uk

Notes to editors:

GeoPlace
GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. GeoPlace's role is to create and maintain the National Address Gazetteer and the National Street Gazetteer for England and Wales, providing definitive sources of publicly-owned spatial address and street data for Great Britain. Through agreement with Scotland's Improvement Service Company, coverage has been extended to include Scotland'. Visit www.geoplace.co.uk

Society of IT Management (Socitm)
Socitm is the membership association for all ICT professionals working in Local Authorities and the Public and Third Sectors and suppliers to those sectors. Socitm provides a widely respected forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT best practice. It is also plays a leading role in ICT-facilitated local government transformation in the UK

UK Location
UK Location is a UK pan-government initiative to improve the sharing and re-use of public sector location information. Established following the publication of the UK Location Strategy. Governance is through the Location Council, with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as the lead government department.
http://data.gov.uk/location/uk-location-programme

Local Government Association
The Local Government Association is here to support, promote and improve local government.

We will fight local government's corner and support councils through challenging times by making the case for greater devolution, helping councils tackle their challenges and assisting them to deliver better value for money services. Visit www.local.gov.uk

Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey is Great Britain's national mapping agency. Its job is to collect, maintain and distribute the most accurate and up-to-date geographic information (GI) of the whole country that government, business and individuals rely on. Visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk