Connells Survey and Valuation extends digital footprint through new surveying team

We are pleased to announce that Connells Survey & Valuation Ltd., now has more than 300 surveyors using the Landmark Quest 'Q-Mobile' property data capture solution to generate major efficiencies with valuation service delivery to mortgage lenders.

In July 2014 Connells Survey & Valuation was awarded the exclusive contract to deliver valuation panel management services to Principality Building Society.  Under the contract, Principality Chartered Surveyors also joined Connells Survey & Valuation business.

Q-Mobile, used in conjunction with Panasonic Toughbooks, improves workflow, standardises surveyors’ site notes and allows Connells’ surveyors to access supporting data for each valuation report while they are on site.  

The mobile software provides a seamless process from the receipt of a valuation instruction, scheduling the appointment, undertaking research and the inspection, through to transmission of the valuation report to the client. Connells have been pioneers in developing and using Landmark Quest’s Q-Mobile, which has supported their surveyors being more efficient in responding to increasingly complex service requirements and improving the customer journey.

Matthew Morgan, Area Director, Connells Survey & Valuation (former Chief Surveyor at Principality Surveyors), comments: “At Principality Surveyors we were researching the best mobile technology system on the market.  Connells Survey & Valuation has an unparalleled reputation for quality service delivery and had already made a major investment in its service involving Landmark Q-Mobile and tablet PCs. This was taken into consideration during the tender process.”

Ross Bowen, Managing Director of Connells Survey & Valuation, adds, “Using Q-Mobile has delivered tangible benefits to our clients and superior customer outcomes. We are now even better placed to manage our surveyors’ workloads and work patterns during the course of the day. Within the space of just a few weeks of rolling out Q-Mobile, it has become the established platform underpinning the delivery of our professional valuation services.”

Ross Bowen explains that introducing the new surveying team to Q-Mobile and the latest mobile working methods required three days’ initial training, but has paid dividends in efficient working practices and time saved when responding to queries: “When a query is raised by an underwriter or solicitor, we can push this out to surveyors in the field and they can respond immediately and effectively. Information such as site plans, photos and post valuation queries are all in one place, so it is much easier to access at the surveyor’s fingertips, speeding response times to clients and their time to mortgage offer. Using Q-Mobile in the field has also more than halved the time taken to respond to post valuation queries from two days to under one day.”

Whilst highlighting the benefits, Ross Bowen emphasises that Connells’ investment in Q-Mobile and tablet PCs was part of implementing its next generation service delivery model. “Being able to access data from mobile devices in real time is a major change for our industry and it’s helping to evolve the working patterns of the profession.”

Rachel Brookes, Product Manager at Landmark Quest comments, “We are delighted to be able to support the integration of the former Principality Chartered Surveyors into Connells Survey & Valuation, by using our mobile data capture software to standardise reports and improve validation, efficiency and quality for all surveyors. We will continue to work with Connells to further develop Q-Mobile to incorporate datasets, such as the homebuyer report.”

More details: 

Panasonic Toughbooks 

Connells Survey & Valuation

It’s green week at Landmark!

As a group we are being encouraged to raise awareness of green topics to help improve our approach to sustainability and the environment.

Landmark’s Exeter offices are located on an Industrial Estate, not the first place you’d think of as being particularly green. However, a quick walk around will have you running into all sorts of wildlife hiding among the verdant roadsides, dotted between warehouses and office blocks.

This time of year is a prime period for native and migratory butterfly and moth species, the hedgerows around Landmark’s offices are full of bramble flowers, thistles and flowering buddleia and the balmy temperatures are ideal for emerging butterflies.

As part of a concerted effort to conserve and preserve UK butterflies we can all contribute by signing up to the big butterfly count.

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/

This kicks off this Friday (18^th July) and runs for just over a month.

Last year’s count has provided the projects most successful results to date and mobile technology means that each year’s survey is more and more accessible.

It’s a good excuse to get out in the sun and spend 15 minutes chasing butterflies, just ignore the strange looks you may receive as you peer into a hedge, it’s worth it if you catch a glimpse of a rare or endangered species.

You don’t need a reason to do this beyond the simple pleasure of interacting with your environment but the count itself is hugely important as a conservation project and, much to our pleasure, emphasises the need for good data.

For more information on butterfly conservation please visit http://butterfly-conservation.org/

And if you want to find out where to go to spot some butterflies Landmark can provide details of….

• 24 butterfly farms from our Points of Interest dataset.
• Over 6,000 sites of special scientific interest, many of which are home to rare and protected butterfly and moth species.

A newly emerged Peacock butterfly taking a breather

A large White, snapped on the Exe estuary

Daniel Lewis Carter

Data Information Co-Ordinator

Landmark Information Group

ff

BIM: Don’t Overlook Data

The ‘BIM Issue’ of Building magazine (17/4/14) published the findings of the NBS Building Information Modelling (BIM) awareness survey, which I read with interest. Among the findings, it reported that 54% of construction firms have now used BIM, which is a marked increase from the 39% that claimed the same last year. To add to this, 93% said they will be using BIM by 2016.

Having attended the BIM Show Live, many speakers were talking about how BIM is now giving them ‘an edge’, with more than half of construction firms confirming that they have used BIM on at least one project, which is all very positive. 

One area that strikes me however as being potentially overlooked – from both the published survey and general discussions at the show – is the role that data, mapping or geospatial data plays in the entire BIM process.  Currently, location, risk and analysis data that is used before a build project currently falls outside of BIM. Under the current stages, the model doesn’t have to include pre-BIM data or have any reference to a geographic location; BIM can sit in space (or rather in one of the many software packages) without any context of its surroundings.

Professionals working across property, environment and construction all use pre-BIM data, from maps to devise a new road development to the rehoming of newts, and everything in between. This data is part of the project after all and as time moves on, factors can change. It is imperative therefore that such updates are fed into BIM to make it truly about the lifecycle not just the building.

Data is at the very heart of BIM: without the correct information being recorded, it fails to deliver on its goals and the BIM model – which is meant to last the lifecycle of a project – may become invalid.  

Carole Ankers

Product Development Director & BIM ambassador

Landmark Information Group

Landmark’s data team solve latest OS mapping mystery

Celia Craven, a key part of Landmark’s data team, recently solved a mystery surrounding an unrecognised symbol on an OS map, alerted to us by one of our clients.  The symbol (※) seemed to have no objective reference in historic map legends and subsequent googling only lead to more misinformation. 

It seemed like there would be no resolution…until Celia got her hands on the mapping.

The mapping in the area is derived, as Mr Peter Hobby from Ordnance Survey informed Landmark, from multiple map sheets. Using this information, combined with the indication that these are hand-drawn annotations, Celia was able to analyse the area logically to and determined the potential nature of the symbol. The addition of line features to distinguish map sheets from one another was also useful in this instance, both as a visual aid and a significant clue.

If we consider the nature of surveying and the methods applied to this process (historically at least) we can hazard an informed guess that the symbols are indicators of field area values where only partial elements of the field were available to the surveyor.

An example of this is depicted below – the coloured partial field object contains the mystery symbol. The line cutting through the map indicates the boundary of a map-sheet.

The red polygon and the symbol (with associated value) conform to the measure of the field only as it’s depicted on the southernmost map-sheet.  Perhaps the surveyor at the time was not able to measure the full extent of the field and was only able to capture the extent of the field as it appeared on their map? We can’t say for certain - that’s just speculation on our behalf.

The northernmost map-sheet and its acreage value (2.971) is for the entire field. The shaded area value (1.198) is for only the field area available on the map-sheet.  Applying this logic to the other areas divided by the map-sheet line is also true.

The original query map corroborates this finding as it’s divided by four map-sheet divisions.  Here we can see a total field measure (3.914 acres) and the partial values in each map-sheet.

The south-western map sheet (from 1918) shows .388 and .128.

The south-eastern map sheet (from 1919) shows a total of 4.112 and a partial value of 2.728.

The north-western and north-eastern maps sheets were surveyed at the same time  (1923) so depict the same value of 3.914.

We can’t say for certain, but it seems the symbol represents a marker for a partial field measure.

Whilst some of us were excited at the prospect of X marking the spot Celia provided the balance of intelligence and logic that resolved the mystery. Whilst there is no buried treasure (seemingly) this minor revelation does indicate something previously hidden to us in the present, the ingenuity and diligence of mapping surveyors and the real-world work carried out by Ordnance Survey and their team of experts. These symbols were marked on maps by an individual, or group of individuals and the results of their work are still visible to this day.

 

 

 

 

 

At Landmark, we live and breathe data 24/7 – it’s our DNA after all. If you have any mysteries you need help solving, please contact one of the data team via askdata@landmarkinfo.co.uk.

Daniel Lewis-Carter

Data Information Co-Ordinator
Landmark Information Group