Dotted Eyes News

Ambulance crews responding to emergencies across Wales are to use critical address and vehicle routing information from Dotted Eyes, the leading provider of spatial data solutions.
It follows a competitive tender by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust - the UK’s third largest ambulance service - designed to equip frontline and control room managers with the best available digital mapping products.
The contract award is Dotted Eyes’ third major public sector procurement win in just over a year.
The company secured a landmark collective purchase agreement to supply digital maps to the NHS in May 2008 and earlier this year it won part of the wider Pan-Government Agreement, by which central government organisations source their main mapping data.
Dotted Eyes Managing Director Benjamin Allan said: ‘This third major contract win reflects our success in delivering consistency and quality with an absolute focus on the needs of the customer.
‘The Welsh Ambulance Service will benefit from fully interoperable address and transport mapping data that works across their systems to support emergency response, resource management, service planning and performance analysis.’
Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust Programme Manager Gavin Bryce said: ‘We are committed to investing in technology that supports improvements to response times to our patients at their point of need.
‘The outcome of this tendered contract marks a significant step forward and complements a number of key projects. Most notably it will support operational crews in navigation when we launch our mobile data terminals later in the year.’
The one-year contract will see the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust using two Dotted Eyes’ datasets - Transport Map and AddressView Plus - for command and control and in mobile terminals among a fleet of 700 vehicles.
TransportMap is based on Ordnance Survey’s most detailed road network data, the OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network Layer. TransportMap includes comprehensive restriction and advisory route information such as weight and width restrictions - ideal for vehicle fleet management.
AddressView Plus, based on OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, includes postal addresses and sub-divided buildings that have a single external letter-box but multiple occupiers. These include housing association properties and student residences. The product contains names in English and Welsh and also covers properties without any postal address where emergency response can still be required.
Dotted Eyes is a Platinum partner of Ordnance Survey. Mark Salter, Ordnance Survey’s Head of Partners and Alliances, said: ‘Ordnance Survey data plays a vital role in the work of emergency services across Great Britain. We congratulate Dotted Eyes on their success with the Welsh Ambulance Service. The contract will deliver data benefits that will support many mission-critical activities.’
The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust employs more than 2,500 people and covers the whole of Wales. It receives £72 million in annual funding and attends more than 250,000 emergency calls a year. Its geographic extent makes it the third largest ambulance service in the UK.

 FME International User Conference 2009

Those of you out there who have ever been fortunate enough to attend a seminar or conference hosted by Don Murray or Dale Lutz of Safe Software will have some idea of the show that they put on. The 2009 FME International User Conference hosted at Whistler in British Columbia was absolutely no exception…it was informative, cutting edge and above all, great fun!

FME users from around the world gathered at the FME International User Conference from June 11-12, 2009 in Whistler, BC for an interactive and intimate opportunity to explore the theme “Bringing the World Together”. This year’s program provided conference attendees with a valuable opportunity to build their spatial ETL expertise, gain new insights into solving complex spatial data challenges and network with other industry professionals. A packed programme was available to attend which included pre-conference training sessions, 28 technical sessions, 4 hands on workshops, the quick fire ‘lightning talk’ presentations (I was delighted to present one on FME and Unifying the Spatial Environment, featuring access to GIS data from CAD via FDO, access to CAD data from MapInfo and, of course, FME Server) and opportunities to network at the lunch time ‘birds of a feather’ tables. If you had a troublesome task to complete with your data but couldn’t solve it on your own you even had the opportunity to pay a visit to the Safe Software Doctors Office where specialist consultants suitably attired in white gowns with stethoscopes at the ready were available to carry out surgery on your FME Workspaces!

Over 20 countries were represented by more than 110 delegates who all wanted to find out what is new in FME but more importantly seek out new innovative ideas for dealing with their data from examples demonstrated by their contemporaries. Networking is always a big part of Safe’s conference as it provides a unique opportunity to share ideas, successes, lessons learned and best practices. Given Safe’s unique place in the market you also get direct access to personnel from many Safe’s partners, some of the industries software vendors such as Autodesk, Pitney Bowes Business Insight, Oracle, ESRI, Intergraph, Informatica, Microsoft, IBM, Weogeo and many more.

So, for the uninitiated, what does Safe Software actually do? Well, they smash through your data silos to facilitate the free flow of data, that’s what. Interoperability is the name of the game and Safe have been playing their trump card, FME, for some time. With FME you can break down barriers between your data and your applications, translate your data into a more usable format as well as completely transform its schema to make it more fit for purpose.

What’s new?

As far as what’s new in FME… well, the list is somewhat endless. Those of you who have used FME for a little while will be aware that Safe do a very good job of listening to user requests and in the latest release of FME - 2009 - this is borne out by the inclusion of over 430 user requested features as well as yet more formats supported (225+) and even more transformers. The big news about FME 2009 though is that it has 20-20 vision! In general it’s 20% faster, and in some cases up to 20 times faster. In case you’re wondering how these numbers were calculated, they’re the results of Safe’s automated test suite which is run on every new build. Comparing the speed of the 4,000+ tests on FME2008 vs FME2009 the overall speed improvement was 20%. The ones with the most improvements - some of the raster reprojection and interpolation tests - were 20 times as fast as in FME2008. If you want to try it for yourself just go to www.dottedeyes.com/tryfme to download the latest version and give it a go. Don’t expect this to be the end of the performance increases though, at the User Conference Don Murray made the bold statement that every future release of FME will be faster than the last, irrespective of hardware, so we have some exciting times ahead or at least Safe’s development team have!

FME 2010 and beyond…

If you’re interested in forthcoming features then watch out for truly generic reading and writing and dynamic feature types in FME Desktop 2010. But, if your needs scale beyond the desktop and you’re interested in the benefits that FME Server can bring to your organisation you’ll be pleased to hear that FME Server 2010 will bring security as one of its most significant features. All actions in FME Server will be made secure to include Workbench access, web access and all APIs. It’ll ship with basic security and support for JAAS Authentication, LDAP security, Active Directory, Conterra securityManager and support for HTTP Basic and Digest.

If you’d like to know more about anything mentioned here or you have any specific FME questions on a wider topic feel free to email me directly at david.eagle@dottedeyes.com or alternatively visit www.dottedeyes.com/fme for further information on FME itself. Or, you can read Directions Magazine’s review of the Conference here: http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3195

David Eagle, Professional Services Manager

In conjunction with the release of MapInfo Professional V10 (planned for the end of June 09), Dotted Eyes are pleased to announce that our existing MapInfo training courses will now also be offered in version 10 format!

While we will still deliver Introduction to MapInfo and Advanced MapInfo courses for those using previous versions of MapInfo Professional, from July 2009 onwards you can now book a place on a Version 10 course.

To view available dates for V10 courses and all other training courses, please feel free to view our training schedule.

For more details see the ‘Public Training’ section of our website or contact our Training Co-ordinator on 01527 556920.

We’ve already hired some great graduates, but we need two more to help us lead the field in spatial intelligence. We need driven, innovative, energetic professionals who want to make a difference. Ideally, they will be due to graduate from a GIS course this summer, or have graduated in the last few years.

The successful candidates will be joining our Professional Services Team, which is responsible for support, training, consultancy and data management.

If you meet our criteria, please apply for a place at our Open Day on 10th July at our Midlands HQ. Download our PDF for more information, or apply online.

Local government data users are invited to an informal round table workshop where they can meet with other local government CAD and GIS users and managers, plus experts from Dotted Eyes and Autodesk, to openly discuss the data related challenges which face them each day, and explore potential solutions.

Whether someone is a CAD user trying to access maps or a GIS user managing spatial data, they can find out through networking and idea sharing how to benefit from the increased efficiency possible through CAD and GIS integration.

If you’re a local government data user please register online for this FREE breakfast event, to be held at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, on 25th June from 8.30 AM to 11 AM. All delegates will have free entry to the Royal Armouries immediately after the event.

For more information contact our Commercial Team on 01527 556920.

If you aren’t free that day, please contact us so we can help you evaluate your CAD strategy free of charge.

Dotted Eyes are pleased to announce the addition of a 1 day MapInfo Refresher training course to their training portfolio!

This one day course is open to all users of MapInfo Professional and aims to refresh your knowledge of the softwares core functionality, including: Thematic Mapping, Buffering, Table Structure, SQL and Layout Printing options. In addition to rediscovering how to maximise your potential with MapInfo Professional, this course teaches you some of the most useful ‘tips and tricks’ which our GIS Consultants have discovered!

So if you’re looking to consolidate your existing knowledge or simply wish to refresh your skill sets then why not book a place on our one day MapInfo Refresher training course? For more details see the ‘Public Training’ section of our website or contact Paula Holdstock (Training Co-ordinator) on 01527 556920.

We currently have availability on our MapInfo Advanced course on the 27th-28th May. Book now and take advantage of a £75 discount on one training place, reducing the normal delegate rate from £575 to £500.

For more information, email training@dottedeyes.com or call our Training Co-ordinator, Paula Holdstock, on 01527 556920.

All prices are ex VAT.

CAD users can now access spatial data without the need to convert GIS information to DWG,  using AutoCAD Map 3D. This frees up GIS staff resources, as they no longer need to translate data, and allows CAD and GIS teams to share the same core data sets.

Until April 15th,  Local Government users can upgrade from AutoCAD LT to Map 3D with Subs and save 30%.For more information, call the Commercial Team on 01527 556920 or email us.

Key business benefits of linking CAD software with GIS were the focus of a seminar held by Dotted Eyes and Autodesk which officially launched a partnership between the two organisations. The event, at Dotted Eyes’ Bromsgrove office, attracted spatial data managers, business and healthcare analysts from the NHS and different tiers of local government across England. It was designed to show how CAD/GIS integration can deliver greater value through an emerging model called the Unified Spatial Environment (USE).

Among those to benefit from USE will be designers, engineers, asset and estate managers, architects and many other decision makers across the public and private sectors.

Tracey Stone, Autodesk’s Geospatial Sales Manager for Northern Europe, who presented at the seminar, said: “This was the first opportunity to showcase our partnership with Dotted Eyes and the benefits that our solutions bring to the USE. Anyone who uses spatial data with a design element has the same challenge: how to maximise their investment in this data by ensuring all those who need it have fast and easy secure access to a single, centralised source. By eliminating CAD and GIS silos, the USE model does exactly this.”

In his presentation, Benjamin Allan, Dotted Eyes Managing Director, said USE offers a seamless way to reduce overheads at a time when spatial data managers face a twin headache of growing complexity and greater customer demand.

He said: “Unifying the traditionally separate technologies of CAD and GIS will facilitate better cross-functional management of spatial data. The priorities and timetable for developing USE will be driven by customer demand. The real power will be as an enabler for greater data sharing within and beyond organisations so saving them time and money and enhancing the quality of their work.”

Mr Allan said the partnership with Autodesk was crucial to the development of USE as it will help bring much needed solutions which enable the integration of CAD and GIS to the market.

The seminar looked at a series of examples of where CAD and GIS integration is already feasible. David Eagle, Professional Services Manager at Dotted Eyes, showed how translation tools can link design software with data storage files, databases, open source tools and web services.

Neil Brooker, Autodesk Geospatial Technical Manager for Northern Europe, explained the aspects of current design visualisation tools which enable GIS professionals to style spatial data and carry out geographic analysis.

One of the key products available from Dotted Eyes under its partnership with Autodesk is AutoCAD Map 3D.

The agreement adds a further world-leading name to Dotted Eyes’ partner list of GIS and data vendors. The company is already the biggest Pitney Bowes MapInfo partner in the UK and a premier partner of Ordnance Survey.

We will be co-hosting the 2009 UK FME User Group, to be held at Ordnance Survey’s Southampton head office on April 1st 2009.

The event will build on the success of last year’s inaugural user group, when over fifty delegates heard case studies from FME users across the UK. Don Murray, Co-founder and President of Safe Software, will once again lead the sessions, having received a rapturous welcome in 2008.

Don comments, “With the great success of last year’s UK FME User Group, I’m looking forward to being part of this year’s expanded event. I always enjoy meeting our users, both learning about the great challenges they are solving and receiving feedback on the ways we can make our product even better.”

The agenda will be packed with both informative and interactive sessions, including an under the bonnet look at FME 2009 and beyond, FME best practices, tips and tricks, user case studies and an opportunity to network with other FME users.

Both existing FME users, and those interested in using FME’s market leading translation, transformation and integration capabilities, will be made most welcome by Safe, Dotted Eyes and four other participating FME partners.

This year’s user group will be preceded by two days of intensive complimentary training on FME Server, delivered by Safe Software’s own trainers. Training places are strictly limited, and delegates should apply to the Commercial Team to enquire about availability.

Visit our FME user group page to register for the user group by the 12th March 2009. If you require more information, please call our Commercial Team on 01527 556920.