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MapVision for the public sector

© Crown Copyright 2007 Licence Number 100022749

Web mapping provides funding efficiency

The challenge

The Government Office for the West Midlands' (GOWM) wanted to provide inward investors and their local authority facilitators with a transparent, accurate and easily accessible service to check their eligibility for assistance under the European Structural Funds programme.

Previously, staff manually checked property addresses on paper maps to advise customers whether a project was located in an area eligible for funding. This time-consuming process also proved inaccurate, with funding assessed at the ward level meaning properties within a single postcode could vary in eligibility. Staff also had to update records by hand when ward and postcode data changed.

The solution

Beacon Dodsworth developed and maintained a web-based eligibility checker that eliminates the need for staff involvement at the initial enquiry stage, instantly answering questions such as ‘which ward is my postcode in?' and ‘which local areas are eligible for funding'. It also streamlines data updates, which is essential for customers using ward data pre-dating 1996 to judge their eligibility.

"Beacon Dodsworth's mapping solution has enabled us to provide an accessible, user-friendly and reliable system for the people of the West Midlands. This interactive mapping application is making a valuable contribution to the regeneration of the region by enabling users to check their eligibility of their projects for Objective 2 funding."
Chris Marsh, Director of the Europe Division, Government Office for the West Midlands

The online Postcode Checker appraises every property in the West Midlands for the four levels of available funding. Users access the information by entering a postcode or, where not all the properties in a postcode are eligible, a house number. They then see a 1:10,000 scale map of the area with each property in the postcode highlighted.

Alternatively, they can navigate down through a hierarchy of maps to identify which development sites and other un-postcoded features, such as canal bridges are eligible for funding. As the information is provided via a website, potential investors and their advisers assess funding eligibility, quickly, easily and wherever they have access to the web.

The benefits

The Beacon Dodsworth online system benefited the GOWM in the following ways:

• Reduced administration costs in line with Gershon Report recommendations
• Extended the reach of eGovernment by enhancing public access to user-friendly online services
• Provided businesses with a one-click answer to an eligibility query around the clock
• Offered an affordable solution - the only costs are development and hosting
• Provided flexibility of eligibility assessment - enabling projects to be appraised at postcode or ward level
• Offered the potential to expand the system to consider the criteria of other Area Based Initiatives (ABIs)
• Enabled visual appraisal of a project's
  eligibility for topographic objects
  without postal addresses
• Enabled GOWM to use its PGA
  portfolio of Ordnance Survey
  mapping to its full potential

» Download a pdf of the
full GOWM case study

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