LPI Achieves ROI With State-Of-The-Art System Upgrade
Announcement posted by NSW Department of Information Technology and Management 18 Oct 2001
A recently completed upgrade to the Land and Property Information (LPI) computing facilities that store land and property information for New South Wales will deliver a three-year return on investment.
LPI maintains a vast database of records covering every property in New South Wales. While information on Land Titles, surveys and valuations are stored as text, the LPI database also contains approximately 3.5 million images including plans and aerial photographs covering the entire State, said Warwick Watkins, Director General of the Department of Information Technology and Management.
The installation is state-of-the-art and has earned the NSW Department of Information Technology and Management (DITM) the distinction of being nominated as a Solaris 8 world reference site for Sun Microsystems. Now other organisations around the world will look to NSW for guidance and information about implementing such systems, said Mr Watkins.
The new equipment replaces a Pyramid Unix mainframe installed in 1991. The legacy system was a good investment and served the Department well, providing reliable service over the past ten years.
Service improvements cannot be achieved with a passive approach to technology. DITM is committed to providing vision and leadership in IT strategy for both Government and the community. So it is only appropriate that we apply the same fundamental philosophy within our own Department.
With rising maintenance costs it became uneconomical to keep the Pyramid hardware. Savings from the lower running cost of the new systems deliver a return on investment (ROI) which will be only a few years. However, the benefits to the people of NSW will last a great deal longer.
The investment in new technology means some of the Departments internal processes and reports are running as much as 35 55 times faster. Reports which were taking several hours even an entire weekend are now being completed literally in minutes.
Access to this system via the Internet greatly assists business and the general community particularly in the fields of conveyancing, surveying, land development, finance and historical and private research. The system overhaul demonstrates the State Governments commitment to customer service and Electronic Service Delivery.
As DITM staff progressively extract greater efficiencies from this new technology the Department plans to extend our capabilities to provide additional on-line services to the community, Mr Watkins said.
LPI aims to improve the integration and delivery of land and property information services to business, the public and all levels of government. LPI is already a leader in government eBusiness with many services already offered on-line. Products and services provided on-line via the Web include:
Current Land Title Searches including Final, Historical and Prior Title Searches and associated searching tools such as name inquiries;
Images of Deposited Plans, Strata Plans, Section 88B Instruments, Dealings and Old System Deeds;
Sydney Water services, such as conveyancing certificates and sewerage diagrams;
Electronic dealing forms, downloaded from the Web;
Airview enables on-line viewing and ordering of aerial photographs that provide a practical management tool for future land development;
SCIMS On-line The Survey Control Information Management System is a database of survey coordinates and related information. SCIMS is available to registered users only; and
Geographical Names Register a database of some 80,000 names including the origin, history and meaning providing an important reference for cartographers, researchers, publishers, government authorities and the public.
Development has commenced for the provision of further on-line services such as:
Additional title related searching tools including Street Address Inquiries, and Reference Map Inquiries;
On-line extracts of the State Valuation Role;
Electronic lodgment of plans (e-Plan); and
Various procedural and technical guidelines.
The new system includes two Enterprise class Sun servers and a number of smaller servers linked to A5200 storage arrays.
The LPI website address is www.lpi.nsw.gov.au.
LPI is a business division of the Department of Information Technology Management.
LPI maintains a vast database of records covering every property in New South Wales. While information on Land Titles, surveys and valuations are stored as text, the LPI database also contains approximately 3.5 million images including plans and aerial photographs covering the entire State, said Warwick Watkins, Director General of the Department of Information Technology and Management.
The installation is state-of-the-art and has earned the NSW Department of Information Technology and Management (DITM) the distinction of being nominated as a Solaris 8 world reference site for Sun Microsystems. Now other organisations around the world will look to NSW for guidance and information about implementing such systems, said Mr Watkins.
The new equipment replaces a Pyramid Unix mainframe installed in 1991. The legacy system was a good investment and served the Department well, providing reliable service over the past ten years.
Service improvements cannot be achieved with a passive approach to technology. DITM is committed to providing vision and leadership in IT strategy for both Government and the community. So it is only appropriate that we apply the same fundamental philosophy within our own Department.
With rising maintenance costs it became uneconomical to keep the Pyramid hardware. Savings from the lower running cost of the new systems deliver a return on investment (ROI) which will be only a few years. However, the benefits to the people of NSW will last a great deal longer.
The investment in new technology means some of the Departments internal processes and reports are running as much as 35 55 times faster. Reports which were taking several hours even an entire weekend are now being completed literally in minutes.
Access to this system via the Internet greatly assists business and the general community particularly in the fields of conveyancing, surveying, land development, finance and historical and private research. The system overhaul demonstrates the State Governments commitment to customer service and Electronic Service Delivery.
As DITM staff progressively extract greater efficiencies from this new technology the Department plans to extend our capabilities to provide additional on-line services to the community, Mr Watkins said.
LPI aims to improve the integration and delivery of land and property information services to business, the public and all levels of government. LPI is already a leader in government eBusiness with many services already offered on-line. Products and services provided on-line via the Web include:
Current Land Title Searches including Final, Historical and Prior Title Searches and associated searching tools such as name inquiries;
Images of Deposited Plans, Strata Plans, Section 88B Instruments, Dealings and Old System Deeds;
Sydney Water services, such as conveyancing certificates and sewerage diagrams;
Electronic dealing forms, downloaded from the Web;
Airview enables on-line viewing and ordering of aerial photographs that provide a practical management tool for future land development;
SCIMS On-line The Survey Control Information Management System is a database of survey coordinates and related information. SCIMS is available to registered users only; and
Geographical Names Register a database of some 80,000 names including the origin, history and meaning providing an important reference for cartographers, researchers, publishers, government authorities and the public.
Development has commenced for the provision of further on-line services such as:
Additional title related searching tools including Street Address Inquiries, and Reference Map Inquiries;
On-line extracts of the State Valuation Role;
Electronic lodgment of plans (e-Plan); and
Various procedural and technical guidelines.
The new system includes two Enterprise class Sun servers and a number of smaller servers linked to A5200 storage arrays.
The LPI website address is www.lpi.nsw.gov.au.
LPI is a business division of the Department of Information Technology Management.