Centro’s use of interactive mapping software and how it has created an evidence base to support spending decisions

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CACI UK | Giving large retailers detailed insight to help them find the right location and promote their stores effectively

Background

CACI offers a range of marketing solutions and information systems to local and central government and to businesses from most industry sectors. Its location planning experts provide advice in a number of areas from retail development opportunities, shopping centre asset management and town centre regeneration to catchment areas and consumer segmentation.

Steve Halsall is a consulting partner at CACI and heads up the Property Consulting Group (PCG). He has been with CACI for two years and was brought in to help evolve its well-established offer in this area. His team works across the public sector and commercial sector (including shopping centre owners, investors, developers and agents) providing advice on retail or leisure-led developments.

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Locus Insight – ‘Helping individuals and organisations gain insight from public sector data using interactive online reports’

Background

Locus Insight was set up by Tom Hobson to provide a comprehensive range of services related to spatial data management and visualisation in the social, economic and environmental fields. Locus Insight helps clients by bringing clarity to their presentation of spatial information. Its work with InstantAtlas is an extension of its geographic information service. Locus Insight also seeks to help individuals and organisations gain insight from public sector data. “It’s about the means by which public sector information is made available – it really isn’t accessible unless you are familiar with ways to access it,” says Tom.

Getting started

Tom says he has been using geographical information systems (GIS) for many years but two years ago realised there were limitations when it came to delivering interactive solutions for clients who were not familiar with GIS. He looked at a number of options but decided InstantAtlas could work well for the Locus Insight client base. “Traditional GIS solutions were static in comparison and I think that certainly as far as standard PDFs go they have had their day when it comes to reporting data,” he says.

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Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, UK (CIPFA) | Case Study

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), is the professional body for people in public finance. It has 14,000 members working throughout public services, national audit agencies, major accountancy firms and other bodies where public money needs to be effectively and efficiently managed.

Chris Greene is Head of Information Services at CIPFA. Part of his team’s responsibility is the collection of local government data across a multitude of services, including financial, staffing, activity and performance information from all UK local authorities. This data is analysed to help local authorities better manage their resources.

The traditional approach has been to present the information in hard copy publications, which later evolved to include spreadsheets. However, Chris and his team were looking for something more “cutting edge” that would allow them to present data in a useful format.

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Consumer Credit Counselling Service

Background

The Foundation for Credit Counselling, based in Leeds, is a registered charity which was set up to assist people in financial difficulty by providing free, impartial and realistic debt advice. The Foundation for Credit Counselling is the umbrella charity for Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) in theUnited Kingdom. Through its free national telephone service, ten regional centres and online CCCS Debt Remedy, CCCS is able to help people with debt problems wherever they live. CCCS is continually looking for new ways to raise awareness of its services and its data is an important resource for its promotions.

 

Getting started

CCCS felt that data such as the number of people seeking its help would be a good way to highlight the pattern of debt in the UK, which would be of interest to the media and politicians. Presenting the data in an easy-to-understand format would be helpful for the media and the public.

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