New service allows Local Authorities to update proposal maps in real - time
March 2008For further information contact: ...
Liz Adams
Lovell Johns
T: 01993 883161
E:liz.adams@lovelljohns.com
NEW SERVICE ALLOWS LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO
UPDATE PROPOSAL MAPS IN REAL-TIME
New service allows Local Authorities to update proposal maps in real - time
A new service is being launched today to help Local Authorities interactively map their policies within the Local Development Framework or ‘LDF’. planvu is a new service from Lovell Johns, a leading cartographic solutions company. The service enables Local Authorities to provide a map for their development plans and display them online for the public to view.
As well as complying with legislation, Local Authorities will also experience a more efficient way of mapping their development plans with planvu. The interactive web based system will improve productivity and organisational performance as well as giving the public a greater say over development proposals.
With planvu, Councils can publish instantaneously from their GIS data to take account of any changes in planning policies. The user can then control how and what is displayed on the screen with full ‘pan’ and zoom’ functions as well as dynamic content-driven legends and grouped ‘layers’ of associated information. Making representations is also easy because not only can users move from policy documents to the map and back again but also planvu links with major e-consultation software.
David Stephens, managing director, Lovell Johns says, “planvu will allow local authorities to collate, manage and proceed with development plans in the LDF much more efficiently. Having already supplied over 140 Local Authorities with printed proposals maps and HTML interactive web versions, Lovell Johns is well placed to offer an LDF solution that meets the burgeoning needs of Planning Authorities.”
“The main benefit of planvu is that maps can be instantly updated from GIS data as they occur through the LDF meaning the public will constantly have up-to-date information about development in their local area. It can also integrates with leading e-consultation software, and a range of hosting options is also available. Lovell Johns offer full technical support and bespoke development as required.”
For more information on planvu, please visit www.lovelljohns.com or contact the sales team on 01993 883 161
ENDS
About Lovell Johns: www.lovelljohns.com
Lovell Johns is a UK based cartographic services company and is part of the South African media group, AVUSA. The company was founded in 1965 and is recognised for producing high quality maps for use in print publishing, online applications and Geographic Information Systems. Lovell Johns is an accredited Ordnance Survey Gold Partner and an ESRI (UK) Business Associate. Clients include the European Commission, The AA, Yellow Pages and National Geographic.
Mapping tool for bird flu and asset management
8th May 2007Lovell Johns has developed a mapping application to help the livestock industry with asset management and monitoring of disease outbreak
Capable of displaying different categories of farm sites around the UK, the application uses Lovell Johns MapVu mapping data of the UK from 1:200k through to 1:10k scales.
The Lovell Johns customer supplies its list of farm postcodes which is geo-referenced and stored in a database. A search by postcode will then retrieve and display any address and also link the information to site information and contact details.
In response to the outbreak of Avian Influenza in late 2005, one particular customer requested the software be capable of drawing and saving any Defra imposed exclusion zones that might be imposed on a suspect site.
Disease outbreak and in particular Avian Influenza are serious issues for our customers and they need mapping to help them make quick informed decisions, said David Stephens, MD of Lovell Johns Limited.
If readers would like to learn more about the software contact symon.porteous@lovelljohns.com or have any general mapping requirements go to www.lovelljohns.com.
New interactive planning tool helps Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council save time and money
For further information contact:
Liz Adams
Lovell Johns Ltd
T: 01993 883161
E:liz.adams@lovelljohns.com
NEW INTERACTIVE PLANNING TOOL HELPS BASINGSTOKE AND DEANE BOROUGH COUNCIL SAVE TIME AND MONEY
A new service has been launched by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to interactively map their policies within the Local Development Framework or ‘LDF’. planvu is a product from Lovell Johns, a leading cartographic solutions company. planvu enables Local Authorities to provide maps for their development plans and display them online for the public to view.
Mark Lambert, Principal Planning Officer, at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council said “planvu is now up and running on our website and we have had some useful positive feedback on it from colleagues and members of the public…. it will help to save officer time, as people make more use of it.”
View the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council planvu service at http://www.planvu.co.uk/bdbc/bdbc.php.
planvu gives Local Authorities a more efficient way of mapping their developments. The interactive web based system will improve productivity and organisational performance, as Basingstoke and Deane Council have already discovered. planvu will also give the public a greater say over development proposals.
With planvu, Councils can publish instantaneously from their GIS data to take account of any changes in planning policies. The user can then control how and what is displayed on the screen with full ‘pan’ and zoom’ functions as well as dynamic content-driven legends and grouped ‘layers’ of associated information. Making representations is also easy because not only can users move from policy documents to the map and back again but also planvu links with major e-consultation software.
One of the main benefits of planvu is that maps can be instantly updated from GIS data as they occur through the LDF meaning the public will constantly have up-to-date information about development in their local area.
For more information on planvu, please visit www.lovelljohns.com/planvu or contact the Lovell Johns team on 01993 883 161.
ENDS
About Lovell Johns: www.lovelljohns.com
Lovell Johns is a UK based cartographic services company and is part of the South African media group, AVUSA. The company was founded in 1965 and is recognised for producing high quality maps for use in print publishing, online applications and Geographic Information Systems. Lovell Johns is an accredited Ordnance Survey Gold Partner and an ESRI (UK) Business Associate. Clients include the European Commission, The AA, Yellow Pages and National Geographic.
Viral Marketing for the Small Business
Lovell Johns have been looking to develop viral marketing campaigns for the last couple of years. Here is a brief description of how we went about viral marketing as a small business. The progress we have made on viral marketing has culminated in the game, Snowballs to Christmas (http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk/snowballs)
We’ve been looking at developing a viral marketing campaign for the past year, without any suitable inkling as to what to do. Being a small mapping company we don’t have the most exciting of subject matter to enable us to release new innovative material and we have struggled to come up with something that we felt confident enough to release. This Christmas we decided it was time to do something viral, and felt that it wasn’t necessary entirely important to have something related to mapping. If we take the Office Max Elf Yourself viral marketing campaign as an example, it’s clearly obvious that if a game is done well then it doesn’t need to be directly related.
The main requirements we had in mind for a viral game were the following:
• It had to be related to Christmas
• It had to be fun and make people want to play it again
• It shouldn’t be a negative game
• It should be related to the core ethos of http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk
The viral game we came up with was “Snowballs to Christmas”, have a look at the site to see how it fits in with our core strategy (http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk/snowballs). We built this viral game using in-house flash developers, which I admit is a luxury most small business won’t have. However there are lots of companies out that will take the task of developing the viral game for you, or for those on a small budget, you can buy games from companies (i.e. http://www.galaxygraphics.co.uk) and brand it up for your business. We estimated that the Snowballs to Christmas game cost around £500 to create, which is about the cost of a small advert in a trade magazine.
“Snowballs to Christmas” is a fun viral flash game where the player gets to throw snowballs at Santa and his Elves to relieve Christmas stress. The hook in is that we offer a stress free shopping experience, the tag line being: Fed up with queues? Can’t find that elusive gift? Watching the pennies this Christmas? Use our gift finder at mapsinternational.co.uk and get free delivery direct to your door. Although you need to remember that a piece of viral marketing isn’t going to bring in loads of sales, it’s important to ensure that it isn’t a million miles away from what you try to promote within your business.
Our strategy for promoting the game was as follows:
• Send the viral marketing game to all the office and ask each person to forward on to all their friends and family, hopefully starting the virus process
• Promote on social networking sites, including Facebook, Bebo, Youtube etc
• Promote on groups, forums, blogs relevant to the game
• Bookmark in sites such as Digg, Stumble Upon, De.li.ci.ous etc, ask everyone we know to do the same
• Submit to games sites (more about this here http://mochiland.com/articles/marketing-flash-games-the-other-half-of-the-battle)
Mapsinternational.co.uk is part of a larger company Lovell Johns (http://www.lovelljohns.com) with the benefit of having a range of developer skills which helped us develop the game. The viral game has only just launched so I can’t as yet tell the benefits, but within 24 hours, the web links are stacking up, the posts on blogs and forums are happening all the time, and the clicks are increasing. The main thing that I’ve come away with is that you shouldn’t look to viral marketing for a quick way to push orders through to your business. Viral marketing campaigns are so much more than that, they allow you to develop brand awareness, increase your rankings in the Search Engines through link building and traffic. All it needs is a bit of imaginative thought and a mega push from your marketing team once it is released onto the web.
Watch this space for further viral marketing campaigns from http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk
Liz Adams
Marketing Manager
Lovell Johns / mapsinternational.co.uk
T: 01993 883 161
E:liz.adams@mapsinternational.co.uk
W: http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk
W: http://www.lovelljohns.com