3rd October 2007  FVGIS Awarded Dumfries and Galloway Council GIS Contract

Forth Valley GIS has recently been awarded a 3 year contract to implement a corporate GIS strategy with Dumfries and Galloway Council. The implementation work is targeted at ensuring staff, customers, members and partners can access and use geographic information in an efficient, integrated manner to improve the planning and delivery of shared services within and beyond the organisation. A full press release  is available in the Press Release section of our website.

26th September 2007  Autumn FVGIS Newsletter

The Autumn edition of the FVGIS newsletter is now available to download and includes articles on the launch of FVGIS Ltd, our web based refuse routing tool and Stirling Councils on-line archaeological sites and monuments record. To read these articles and much more download the newsletter!

31st August 2007  FVGIS Official Launch!

As part of National Customer Service week and to mark the creation of Forth Valley GIS Ltd an official launch will be held at the Inchyra Grange hotel, Falkirk, on the 5th October 2007.

The launch theme is to highlight the importance of geographic information to improving public services and will include presentations from a number of key speakers including Keith Yates, Chief Executive of Stirling Council and Chair of SOLACE, Jim Kinney, Customer First Director for the Scottish Improvement Service, Duncan MacNiven, Registrar General, General Registrars Office (Scotland) and Mike Traynor, Director, Registers of Scotland and Chair of the Association of Geographic Information (Scotland).

15th August 2007  Waste Route Design Tool case study now available

Stirling Council Waste Services recently commissioned Forth Valley GIS to develop a Web GIS-based refuse and recycling route design tool. The map based tool provides users an efficient method for designing and reporting on routes as well as performance monitoring. For more information on the application have a look at the case study.

16th July 2007 Second Institute of Customer Services Silver Award

Following on from our office manager's Silver Institute of Customer Services award, Stephanie Gallen one of our Support Officers has also just passed her Silver Award. To achieve this Stephanie was required to demonstrate high levels of personal effectiveness by consistently delivering good customer service and by continuing to meet the ICS professional standards. Good work Steph!

10th July 2007  Antisocial Behaviour Information Sharing Project

Forth Valley GIS are currently working with Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, and Stirling Community Planning Partnerships to develop a web-based system for sharing information on Antisocial Behaviour. The project, partly funded by the Scottish Improvement Service, is now in the development phase and a pilot system will be available shortly. The system builds on the successful tri-council corporate GIS infrastructure developed by FVGIS. If you would like more information on web mapping projects please see our intranet GIS case study.

6th July 2007  Forth Valley GIS Limited

As a result of the continuing success and growth in services provided by Forth Valley GIS, it has been decided to establish a new local authority company, Forth Valley GIS Limited, to take forward the business.

The new company was officially established on 1st July 2007 following a well attended signing ceremony on 29th June.

This change builds on the highly successful partnership between Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Councils over the last 11 years and marks a significant episode in the ongoing development of shared GIS services. The new company, limited by shares, will be controlled under a shareholding agreement that will support other local authorities or public sector organisations joining the company in the future.

Forth Valley GIS Limited will continue to offer the same high quality, market leading GIS services to public sector customers across Scotland while extending the benefits of a new business model.

Establishing Forth Valley GIS Limited on the 29th of June.

19th June 2007  1st Class Customer Service

Linda Workman, our office manager, has recently completed the second level of the Institute of Customer services award. The Silver or "Solutions" award builds on the skills and experience gained from the Communications level of the award and delivers a clear statement that Linda is a customer services professional and that FVGIS continue to be committed to providing a 1st class customer service. Well done Linda!

12th June 2007  Falkirk Council Audit of Open Space case study now available

Falkirk Council has recently completed an audit of open space within the Local Authority area. The council's Development Services requested that Forth Valley GIS assist the Council with the preparation and management of this audit - full details of how this was done are available in the open space case study.

17th May 2007  Falkirk WIAT Project wins OS Innovation Awards 2007

A collaborative project involving Falkirk Council, Callendar Estates, Forestry Commission and Forth Valley GIS has won first place at the Ordnance Survey Innovation Awards 2007.

This is the first year of the OS Innovation Awards : "to celebrate and reward customers for the exciting and innovative ways in which (OS) data is being used across many different services in local government".

Congratulations to the Falkirk WIAT team - a great achievement !

A case study with more information on the WIAT project is available.

03rd May 2007  New FVGIS Newsletter

The Spring edition of the FVGIS newsletter is now available to download. Articles in this issue include how GIS has helped in the build up to elections, updates on work with our customers as well as all the usual GIS tips and tricks!

23rd November 2006  GIS Awareness Event Success!

The Forth Valley GIS awareness events were a great success.  About 200 people came to the three events at our host Councils.  There was a real interest in our GIS portal, ‘GeoLink’ and 50 people signed up for training on the day.  The events were a good opportunity for Forth Valley GIS to talk to customers that were previously unaware of GIS and collect requirements information to provide a more responsive and improved service to them.

31st October 2006  Geography Awareness Week – Forth Valley GIS Event

6th September 2006  New case study added

An outline of the project work undertaken for Falkirk Council on the Woodlands In and Around Town (WIAT) initiative has been added to the case studies section of the website.

21st July 2006  New Senior GIS Analyst

Forth Valley GIS welcome Juliette Mitchell who recently joined the team as a Senior GIS Analyst. Juliette will be working with our external customers, assisting and supporting new and ongoing projects.

Juliette has a wealth of experience from previous work including managing West Dunbartonshire’s Corporate Address Gazetteer and developing database systems for an NHS software supplier. We look forward to the skills and experience that Juliette will bring FVGIS and its customers

19th July 2006  Second Institute of Customer Services Award!

Stephanie Gallen, one of FVGIS’s support officers, has recently become the second member of our team to achieve the Institute of Customer Services Communication Award.

This award recognises all the hard work and effort put in to managing customer relations by Stephanie over the last year and emphasises FVGIS’s continued commitment to its customers. Well done Steph!

19th May 2006  New Start!

Forth Valley GIS welcome Christopher Donaldson to the team as a GIS Data Technician. Christopher will primarily work with the Corporate Address Gazetteer (CAG) team assisting maintenance of the Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Falkirk Address Gazetteers.

Christopher's previous experience includes an MSc in GIS from Edinburgh University and more recently working with Scottish Borders Council as an Information and Mapping Assistant. Whilst working for Scottish Borders Council Christopher helped maintain their spatial databases as well as providing support to a variety of GIS users across a range of departments. We look forward to the experience that Christopher will bring to FVGIS and its customers.

19th May 2006  Institute of Customer Services Award

Congratulations to our Office Manager Linda Workman on recently achieving the Institute of Customer Services Communication Award.

This highly regarded award recognises skilled professionals that are committed to delivering the highest standard of Customer services. Receiving this award is a great accomplishment and demonstrates FVGIS's continued commitment to providing first class customer services. Well done Linda!

27th March 2006  New Start!

Forth Valley GIS welcome Alison Story to the team as a Senior GIS Analyst.  Alison will be working with our Corporate Address Gazetteer (CAG) team as a Project Manager for the Clackmannanshire Council CAG.

Alison's previous experience includes an MSc in GIS from Edinburgh University and several years working with Informed Solutions where she provided technical and project management skills for a number of public and private sector clients, particularly in the Crime and Transport sectors.  We look forward to the experience that Alison will bring to FVGIS and its customers.

19th January 2006  FVGIS recently hosted an Ordnance Survey Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Showcase

We recently hosted an Ordnance Survey Integrated Transport Network (ITN) showcase.   This was to demo the use of the ITN product for route planning and also took an in-depth look at the ITN data model.  A range of Forth Valley Council Services were represented at the morning event including staff from Roads/Transportation, Education Planning and FVGIS.  A great deal of discussion about the product and it's potential applications took place.  FVGIS are currently developing intranet-based routing applications for the Councils to maximise the investment made in the OS ITN data.  

Thanks to everyone who came along to the event, to Stirling Council for hosting the event, and to Ordnance Survey for their ongoing support.  For more information about the day drop us a line!

18th January 2006  Enough channel surfing Forth Valley GIS is on Sky TV!!

From Monday 23rd Jan the SOCITIM conference film FVGIS are featured in will be shown on the 'The Local Government Channel'.  You can catch it weekdays at 6.30pm and on Sunday at Midday on Sky Channel 277.  You can also watch it on the web throughout that week at www.thelocalgovernmentchannel.com

8th December 2005  Find out more about what we do.....

We recently put together a series of case studies highlighting practical examples of FVGIS work and how our cutomers are benefiting from the outcomes of these projects.  Case studies are ideal for showing what we do and how we can assist with many aspects of public sector service delivery.  So, click here for some interesting reading!

6th December 2005  New GIS Support Officer!

Forth Valley GIS welcome Andrew White to the team as the new GIS Support Officer.  Andrew will be taking over the GIS training programme delivering courses and support on all aspects of desktop and web based GIS.

Andrew's previous experience includes an MSc in GIS from Edinburgh University and more recently working with HarperCollins as a GIS Cartographer.  At HarperCollins he helped maintain the databases that are used to create the Times Atlas of the World and other Collins Bartholomew mapping.  We look forward to the experience that Andrew will bring to FVGIS and its customers.

9th November 2005  Lights, Camera, Action!

The work of Forth Valley GIS and Stirling Council have been featured in a SOCITM television film!  The films were put together for SOCITM television and featured at the Annual Conference held in Brighton in October.  The film focuses on innovative uses of GIS technology in support of the Council’s e-government projects.  Click here to see FVGIS team members in action!

6th October 2005  FVGIS featured in Ordnance Survey Annual Reports

Forth Valley GIS are featured in the Ordnance Survey 2004-2005 Scottish Annual Review.  This publication highlights the progress of Ordnance Survey core activities in Scotland.  FVGIS are showcased as providing innovative technical solutions for the adoption of OS Mastermap in a number of Local Authorities.

This years Ordnance Survey Annual Report also highlights how FVGIS are using OS data in support of modernising government initiatives in Scotland.

22nd April 2005  Managerial Changes to FVGIS External Services

External Services Manager, Richard Teed is leaving FVGIS after 5 successful years. Richard joined FVGIS in 1999 to work on the Corporate Property Initiative for Clackmannanshire Council and in 2002 took over as the External Services Manager. Over the past three years external service provision has seen substantial growth with consultancy projects for the Deer Commission for Scotland, National Library of Scotland and East Lothian Council to name just a few! We wish Richard success in his new position as a Senior Forward Planning Officer at Falkirk Council.

Richard’s replacement has been recruited internally and Gary Semple will be taking over as the External Services Manager. Gary is currently the Gazetteer Coordinator for the Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Council Corporate Address Gazetteers. Gary is already familiar with some of FVGIS’ external customers, having worked with a number of Councils on delivery of their Corporate Address Gazetteers. Most recently, Gary has been working with Councils to define the business process change that is required to ensure that the Gazetteers are properly maintained.

6th April 2005  2 New GIS Data Technicians join FVGIS

Forth Valley GIS welcome Andrew Cowie who joined us on Monday 4th April as a GIS Data Technician. Andrew will primarily work with the Corporate Address Gazetteer (CAG) team assisting maintenance of the Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Falkirk Address Gazetteers. Andrew previously worked with Registers of Scotland.

Neil McFadyen will also join us on Monday 25th April as a GIS Data Technician supporting our Data Coordinator on corporate GIS data management.  Neil previously did work for us on the Corporate Address Gazetteer when he was with ASA Data International.

5th April 2005  Customised ArcGIS training for SEPA & North Lanarkshire Council

Both the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and North Lanarkshire Council will be attending customised GIS training from Forth Valley GIS.  This adds to the growing number of public sector organisations attending our “Introduction to ArcGIS” and “Data Capture in ArcGIS” courses.  Perth and Kinross Council and East Dunbartonshire Council will also be receiving customised training in the coming months as part of their migration from ArcView 3 projects.

7th December 2004  New GIS Support Officer!

Forth Valley GIS welcome Stephanie Gallen to the team as the new GIS Support Officer.  She will be joining us on 5th January from her current job as GIS Controller with Amey, working on GIS/GPS based asset data capture on the trunk road network.  Stephanie will be taking on the role of supporting Forth Valley GIS customers in Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils.  We look forward to her arrival and the experience she brings with her.

26th November 2004  Innovative GIS Wins National Recognition

Forth Valley GIS has scooped the second prize in the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) 2004 UK Awards.

The service was highly praised by the AGI, the professional association for GIS in the UK in the Innovation & Best Practice (Local Government) category - for its "modernising and improvements" and being "extraordinarily well planned and managed", with "strong partnership".

See the press release for more information.


10th November 2004  FVGIS Launch new on-line GIS Helpdesk

To coincide with GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week Forth Valley GIS are launching their new GIS Helpdesk Service online on the 17th of November - the new facility is delivered as part of the increasingly popular GeoLINK solution now available across Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Councils. One of the main aims of GIS Day and indeed Geography Awareness Week is to open up GIS to a wider audience and promote geographic literacy across organisations. We hope that by opening up another channel of communication we achieve this.

1st October 2004  Forth Valley GIS Join Autodesk Developers Network

FVGIS recently became members of the Autodesk Developers Network (ADN) providing us with an increased knowledge base to deliver Autodesk Mapguide solutions.  Being a member of the ADN gives access to all Autodesk software including beta versions of products, direct support from Autodesk engineers and technical development conferences. These benefits will be passed on to our customers when specifying and developing web GIS solutions and customisations.

24th September 2004  FVGIS Corporate Address Gazetteer Team Changes

As our Clackmannanshire Project Manager, Gary Semple, moves desks to take up his duties as strategic Gazetteer Custodian for the 3 councils (Falkirk, Stirling & Clackmannanshire), Simon Hope has been appointed to take over where Gary left off. Congratulations to Simon who joined Forth Valley GIS from North Ayrshire Council in January as GIS Support Officer, another post we will be recruiting for in the coming months.

24th September 2004 Snowflake Software feature Forth Valley GIS as Best Practice Local Authority Case Study

As part of the 'Migration to OS MasterMap' FVGIS moved to a centralised model for storing and serving GIS data regionally. This model and the processes involved in moving towards OS MasterMap are described in the document produced in conjunction with Snowflake Software.
See http://www.snowflakesoftware.co.uk/casestudies/FVGISCaseStudy.pdffor case study

23rd July 2004 FVGIS become Accredited Ordnance Survey Consultants

FVGIS recently attended a 3 day course to become accredited OS consultants.  This certification will provide our customers with even greater confidence in the data consultancy services we provide. The objective of the course was to provide improved awareness on implementing and making use of OS mapping data.  An understanding of the practical value of OS business products such as OS MasterMap® to specialist markets was also a key component of the course.

25th June 2004  Forth Valley GIS feature in June edition of AGI Newsletter

A recent article in “Geographic Information” highlights a number of exciting new developments by Forth Valley GIS for its three partner councils.  The article focuses on the joint working business model for delivering GIS to the councils making up the Forth Valley area in Scotland.  Developments such as GeoLink (web GIS portal), GeoStore (geographic data warehouse) and the unique approach to Corporate Address Gazetteer work are featured.

20th June 2004  Planning a trip to the park?

Forth Valley GIS have been working with a research team from the University of Stirling in a project examining visitor movements and destinations within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National park. We have added a useful ‘spatial’ approach to gathering baseline data using a map based postal survey.

The response to the survey has been excellent and provides the research team with a visual representation of how visitors actually use the park.  The data will be used in many areas of policy making and identifying potential tourist site locations within the park.

4th May 2004  New Start!

Forth Valley GIS welcome Jonathan Stewart to the team as a Senior GIS Analyst.  Jonathan joins us from Parsons in London where he worked on a number of interesting projects for the US Army Europe (USAREUR).  Jonathan brings a range of experience to the team with particular expertise in field GIS and remote sensing.  His main responsibilities within FVGIS will be working on the tri-council Corporate Address Gazetteer project.

1st May 2004  Forth Valley GIS launch GeoLink...

....the new intranet GIS site for Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Council.  The site not only provides on-line mapping but it also provides a valuable resource for all geographic information related matters affecting your business.

The site is designed so that staff in all three councils view the same template, but get access to council specific information.  All users have access to a basic mapping tool and some common mapping information.  By requesting a username and password, you can get access to even more data and more advanced functionality.  There are more details on GeoLink in the recent edition of Forth Valley GIS Newsletter, so why not check it out!

6th April 2004 East Lothian Council contract with Forth Valley GIS

East Lothian Council have selected Forth Valley GIS to help design and improve business processes for its Corporate Address Gazetteer.  Forth Valley GIS will assess existing address business processes, research address requirements, and help to design CAG maintenance and quality control procedures ready for the gazetteer rollout later this year.

17th March 2004  Director General of Ordnance Survey visits FVGIS

Vanessa Lawrence, Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, visited Stirling Council to discuss the role of GI / GIS in Scottish Local Government.  Her visit included meetings with Keith Yates, the Chief Executive and presentations from Modernising Government Programme representatives and from the Head of Forth Valley GIS. Vanessa was impressed by the progress to date and offered continued support to the Definitive National Addressing for Scotland programme.

27th January 2004  Forth Valley GIS purchase CadCorp MapModeller

ForthValley GIS recently received a demonstration of CadCorp MapModeller - the flagship product of the CadCorp suite. As a result, we have licensed a copy of the product to provide us with additional flexibility for our GI data management strategies.

12th January 2004  New Start!

Forth Valley GIS are pleased to welcome Simon Hope to the team as a GIS Support Officer.  Simon joins us from North Ayrshire Council where he worked as a GIS Analyst / Programmer.  Prior to this he worked for Scottish Water as a GIS advisor.  Simon will be taking on the role of supporting Forth Valley GIS customers in Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils.

10th December 2003   Forth Valley GIS choose GoLoader

Following an extensive evaluation process of Mastermap data translators,  Forth Valley GIS have purchased Snowflake Software’s GoLoader product.  The translator will be used to load and manage Mastermap for the Forth Valley area using an Oracle database.

2nd  December 2003   Forth Valley GIS contract ASA Data Services

ASA Data Services have recently been contracted to assist with the Corporate Address Gazetteer data cleansing exercise at Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils.  Three contract staff have been employed and have recently been trained to use address matching software and other tools to assist the process.

25th November 2003   EDC start using Roadnet

East Dunbartonshire Council are now using the Forth Valley GIS developed Roadnet application to create and maintain their BS7666 National Street Gazetteer database.

14th November 2003   FVGIS adopt PRINCE2

All Forth Valley GIS staff have now received accredited Prince2 project management training.

10th November 2003   Travel time maps published

Forth Valley GIS travel time maps recently appeared in Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley’s November publication  titled “What’s Happening in the Forth Valley Economy”.

24th October 2003   Forth Valley GIS selects Infoshare software

Forth Valley GIS recently completed an extensive selection and evaluation exercise for address matching solutions to add to our toolbox of Corporate Address Gazetteer applications.  Forth Valley GIS are happy to announce that we have chosen Infoshare as the supplier of address matching solutions for the Corporate Address Gazetteer creation and cleansing at Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Councils.

17th October 2003 Website Launch

Forth Valley GIS has launched a new web-site as part of a larger re-branding exercise.

The site contains the latest news from Forth Valley GIS as well as details of our capabilities, services, customised GIS solutions, and much more.

The future plan is to provide more detailed product information, making the site a first-line of support for our products. Also, look out soon for more customer case studies, detailed training syllabuses and more.

1st October 2003   Going Forth

Forth Valley GIS have recently made a number of new appointments to meet the growing demands for corporate GIS service provision, consultancy and gazetteer services in Scotland.

Headed by Alan Moore, Forth Valley GIS has established a strong reputation for the provision of high quality, customer-focused GIS services and solutions in its 7 years of operation. Reporting to a Joint Management Group, the team operate under a unique and highly effective public sector partnership business model - providing corporate GIS services to the three neighbouring local authorities of Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Council.

The recent appointments include Richard Teed (External Services Manager), Alastair Carson (GIS Analyst), Richard Watters, Gary Semple, Tracy Rich and Gordon Angus (Senior GIS Analysts) and Fiona Thomas (GIS Data Co-ordinator). Craig Walker has recently assumed the role of GIS Technology Co-ordinator and Tom Moore has also recently been appointed as the Land and Property Gazetteer Custodian for the three partner Councils.

The 20 strong team are extensively involved with GIS service provision and the integration of GIS and e-Government initiatives across a wide customer base in Scotland. The services provided include desktop and web-based GIS application development, GIS systems integration, data management, technical consultancy, business consultancy, project management, support and training.

The team also provides a range of high quality corporate GIS services to other public sector organisations such as Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, Central Assessors, Angus Council, East Dunbartonshire Council, Perth & Kinross Council and East Renfrewshire Council. Additionally, the unit provides adhoc services to a wide and growing range of other Scottish local authorities and public sector organisations.