Aligned Assets, one of the country’s leading address management specialists are proud to announce a collaboration with the innovative, award winning addressing company what3words
What is what3words?
what3words is a simple way to communicate a precise location based on a global grid of 57 trillion 3 meter x 3 meter squares. Each square has a pre-allocated fixed and unique 3 word address.
For example, the 3 word address for the front door of the what3words office West London is index.home.raft. Aligned Assets office in Woking is at fresh.parent.apple.
Why are 3 word addresses useful?
Whilst latitude/longitude coordinates are accurate they very hard for regular people to use. Transcribing and communicating long strings of numbers like 51.521049, 0.202721 is prone to error and prohibits their widespread use beyond the geospatial community.
Street addressing is not universal or accurate and there are numerous locations that need to be recorded which are not covered. These include electricity substations, bus shelters, advertising hoardings and telephone boxes.
A way to refer to these assets is needed, so people often end up allocating a name such as “Electricity Sub Station 16M from Premier Inn, READers Quay, 36M from ALBERT Road” which is unwieldy, inaccurate and difficult to communicate. A 3 word address is both a unique identifier and a precise location, accurate to 3 meters. It is much easier to use “Electricity Sub Station at blunt.keeps.film”.
Using 3 word addresses with the Aligned Asset product range
Aligned Assets will be able to automatically generate and store the 3 word address for any address held in its Gazetteers. This includes Symphony iManage, Bluelight, International and our Street Naming and Numbering module.
The 3 word address can then be viewed, searched for and updated within any of the products mentioned above. Our SinglePoint search engine will also enable the 3 word address to be used to search for land and property by linking it with AddressBase Premium and the LLPG.
We will also enable our matching tool iMatch to match against a 3 word address.
How can 3 word addresses help my organisation?
Local Authorities
Local Authorities can use the 3 word address to help identify any property with a complex or ambiguous address. They can also use the 3 word address for any UPRN without a postal address. Any service to these locations can then use the 3 word address to minimise confusion where use of a postcode or absence of one poses a problem. Local Authorities can also allocate a 3 word address during a development phase of new builds. This address can then be passed to other interested parties such as utilities, telecoms or other service providers at a premium before a formal address and postcode is allocated. This benefits the local authority, service provider and residents.
Fire
Fire and Rescue Services can use the 3 word address to help identify any property within a complex or ambiguous address and mobilise to it more effectively. Any service to these locations can then use the 3 word address to minimise confusion where use of a postcode or absence of one (such as storage areas for combustible or hazardous materials) poses a problem. Locations of Fire Hydrants, Extinguishers, Life Buoys or other equipment needed for fire and rescue can also be accurately logged using the 3 word address. The 3 word address can also be used to more accurately identify the location of an incident by using searching services provided by Aligned Assets and What3Words. These searching services combine the 3 word address with conventional addressing data sets such as AddressBase Premium to provide the best of both worlds.
Police
The Police can use the 3 word address to help identify any property with a complex or ambiguous address and mobilise to it more effectively. Any service to these locations can then use the 3 word address to minimise confusion where use of a postcode or absence of one poses a problem. Locations of crime hotspots can also be accurately logged using the 3 word address. The 3 word address can also be used to more accurately identify the location of an incident by using searching services provided by Aligned Assets and What3Words. These searching services combine the 3 word address with conventional addressing data sets such as AddressBase Premium to provide the best of both worlds.
Ambulance
Ambulance Services can use the 3 word address to help identify any property with a complex or ambiguous address and mobilise to it more effectively. Any service to these locations can then use the 3 word address to minimise confusion where use of a postcode or absence of one poses a problem such as open spaces. Locations of defibrillators or other equipment and access points can be accurately logged using the 3 word address. The 3 word address can also be used to more accurately identify the location of an incident by using searching services provided by Aligned Assets and What3Words. These searching services combine the 3 word address with conventional addressing data sets such as AddressBase Premium to provide the best of both worlds.
Utility Provider
Utility Providers can use the 3 word address to accurately identify both billing and service addresses. Addresses can be very ambiguous, especially in rural areas. This can cause significant inefficiencies in both the billing and service provision for utility companies. The 3 word address can also be used to identify fixed assets for the utility companies such as stand pipes, telephone masts, exchange boxes, man hole covers, etc. Customers of the utility company can further enhance this accuracy by confirming or providing their 3 word address if they regularly suffer the inconvenience of misdirected mail or service.
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