"We can forget about GO Loader because it worked so well. Now we are focussed on delivering the benefits of good data management and GIS integration to our clients. " says Alan Moore, Head of Forth Valley GIS.

The advent of OS MasterMap® offered Forth Valley GIS a great opportunity to enhance service delivery to its partner councils, Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Council, so the decision to migrate to the new map data was taken relatively early. The case study provides full detail of how the Forth Valley GIS team approached the project, including details of how a convincing business case was built for centrally maintaining and managing OS MasterMap for the three councils using GO Loader.

The case study includes details of a three-year development programme initiated by Forth Valley in 2002 with the aim of rolling-out web-based GIS to the three councils, introducing a hosted service model for corporate data provision and implementing a robust and sustainable strategy for data management. During the programme it was decided to migrate to Oracle for the central spatial database, as Forth Valley GIS was required to connect (and support) a range of specialist desktop GIS applications used by the three councils to the OS MasterMap data.

After evaluation of four load tools, Forth Valley GIS selected GO Loader from Snowflake Software to support the connection of ESRI ArcIMS, CadCorp, Autodesk and UNI-form to its Oracle OS MasterMap holding. True to form, GO Loader completed the initial load in under one hour and has been used to complete monthly change-only updates since January 2004.

Ian Painter, MD of Snowflake Software said,

"GO Loader was designed specifically to support a rapid and straightforward migration to OS MasterMap. Furthermore, the flexibility of GO Loader supports open connection to multiple GIS applications, which appeals to our customers. Forth Valley GIS has completed a successful migration and once again demonstrated that GO Loader is the quick, easy and proven tool for OS MasterMap."

To find out more and to read / download a pdf copy of the Forth Valley GIS case study visit

http://www.snowflakesoftware.co.uk/casestudies/FVGISCaseStudy.pdf

for other additional case studies regarding GO Loader and OS MasterMap, visit

http://www.snowflakesoftware.co.uk/company/customers.htm

Snowflake Software at AGI show

Snowflake Software is exhibiting at stand 40 at the AGI show in Chelsea , 12 th -14 th October. We will be demonstrating GO Loader and launching our new GML publishing tool, GO Publisher.

Further detail will be provided in our forthcoming email newsletter..

About GO Loader

GO Loader is Snowflake Software's premier product for designing and building Oracle Spatial and Locator databases from content delivered in the Geography Markup Language (GML). GO Loader provides easy to use graphical interfaces that guide the user through all aspects of the database lifecycle covering: logical and physical data modelling, table creation, partitioning, data load, indexing and archiving.

GO Loader is the ideal choice for OS MasterMap users as it includes specific support for duplicate removal, change only update and feature archiving. GO Loader is a generic tool that works with any GML2.1 schema. Uniquely GO Loader does not require any software change or reliance on bespoke lookup files for any new GML datasets.

To find out more and to view the interactive Walkthrough, visit http://www.snowflakesoftware.co.uk/products/goloader

About Forth Valley GIS

Forth Valley GIS is extensively involved in GIS service provision and the integration of GIS and e-Government initiatives in Scotland . The 20 strong team operates under a unique and highly effective public sector partnership business model, providing corporate GIS services to the three neighboring local authorities of Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Council as well as other public sector organizations.

An ambitious program of strategic projects has been initiated in 2003-4 to provide a platform for future GIS service delivery. The initial priority is to provide a comprehensive and intuitive web-based geographic data portal for the partner Councils ensuring common, quality assured access to all geographic data resources, underpinned by robust data management processes and procedures. Learn more at:

http://www.forthvalleygis.gov.uk