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Raising the profile of the data and your role

Integration knowledge base2. Raising your profile & gaining buy-in

Building awareness and visibility

Your role and the data which you maintain is critical for the effective delivery of council services. It can be easily argued that address and street data are one of your authority's most valuable assets.

However, if your colleagues in other departments simply don't know that the data exists or what the potential benefits are of using it, then it is very unlikely that they will know or want to use it.

Awareness of the data is therefore a major factor in departments using and integrating the data.

But why?

As the diagram depicts, If departments are aware of the data, they are more likely to use it (2).

If they use it, they will to some extent want to integrate with the data to ensure an updated and automatic supply is being consumed (3).

Integration and reliance on the data in this way to support service delivery leads to a wide range of benefits and efficiencies for the department (4).

It is at this stage that you may find the department is a strong supporter of the data due to the benefits it has unlocked for them and therefore they inadvertently become advocates of the UPRN / USRN (4).

In turn, through their conversations and outreach, they are able to help you spread awareness of the data more widely.

Techniques to build awareness

Below are some techniques you can use to help raise awareness of the UPRN and USRN:

What

For example

Presentation(s)

  • Deliver a presentation or series of presentations introducing attendees to the basic concept of address / street data and slowly build on this. Be careful not to use too much technical jargon and try and keep things as plain English as possible to avoid confusion or overwhelming.

  • Try and identify a key objective for the presentation (what is it that you want the attendees to walk away with?) and build your content around delivering that.

  • If it's general awareness you want to spread, then this could be open to all staff. However, if you wanted this to be more strategic then you could deliver this to a specific department or role holders such as Service Managers for example.

  • You can do this at any time or even use Gazetteers@GISDay as an opportunity to do this.

Intranet presence / dedicated page(s)

  • If your authority has an intranet, then having a presence on there explaining your role and the data you maintain would help provide visibility.

  • You could even signpost any processes or policies which you have around the handling of address or street data to help spread further awareness.

Meetings with key stakeholders

  • Scheduling a meeting with individuals who use or are responsible for the management of address or street data is a great way to introduce yourself and the data.

  • Ensure the meeting has a clear objective and is structured to deliver this.

  • Try and use a plain English approach if the topic strays into complex areas as it is very easy to use technical address / street language which may create confusion.

  • Where possible, make the content relevant for the attendees by tying it back to their specific department / team / usage.

  • For example, if you are talking to a waste collection team about the use of address / street data, then use relevant waste examples to illustrate the benefits and how could it help support their service delivery. GeoPlace case studies are a great resource here.

A feature in all staff communications

  • If your authority has a regular newsletter / email roundup / staff briefing session then see if you can feature in this.

  • You could introduce your area and the work you do in a type of "did you know?" to help inform colleagues of your role and the data

Set up an address / street data user group

You may find value in forming an address or street data user group with members being key users of the data from across each department.

The group could discuss a multitude of topics, for example:

  • implementing an address / street data sharing process to aid queries / Intelligence

  • Establish best practice for sharing departmental data to inform lifecycle information and change intelligence

  • Address / street data-related issues

  • How best to champion and advocate the use of address / street data within their respective departments

The group would need a clear "terms of reference" to outline its purpose and objectives, its membership, how often it meets plus other administrative items.

More guidance can be found in the following guide:

Key resources