Land and property professionals urged to make sure they always rely on licensed mapping data

Ordnance Survey – Great Britain’s national mapping agency – has launched a data integrity campaign aiming at educating data users about the value of having up-to-date and fully licensed mapping information. Promap stands fully behind the campaign and works together with the Ordnance Survey to always provide mapping that is copyright protected.

With the importance of property data significantly growing for making sound business decisions, land and property professionals are being urged to ensure they are only using correctly licensed and latest location data.

A research by the Ordnance Survey found that three thirds of the interviewed senior decision makers from the land and property industry believe that using location data delivers tangible cost efficiencies to their business, which makes the quality of the information even more important. Strikingly however, 34% of these companies don’t hold an Ordnance Survey license.
 
When it comes to digital location-based information, organisations need to make sure that not only is the data up-to-date, but that they have the rights to use it. Unlicensed information can risk the reputation of land and property businesses, which is something they shouldn’t forget as it has both legal and cost implications.

Unlicensed data is often unreliable, old and inaccurate, which can damage a property project and potentially prolong its duration, as well as putting the company-client relationship at risk.
What’s more, relying entirely on accurate, up-to-date and consistent data is a vital prerequisite for a positive organisational reputation, because companies can otherwise face law implications that can badly harm their image. With the face of Britain changing up to 10,000 times a day (ref: Ordnance Survey video), businesses don’t have a choice but to ensure their license is kept up to speed as it’s their defence to an allegation of copyright infringement.

The campaign is backed by the key industry bodies: RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) and RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

To complement the campaign the Ordnance Survey have also developed a ‘Land and property unlicensed data and mapping information toolkit’ which can be found here.
For more information, have a look at the three official campaign videos:

Why businesses should be licensed

Why surveyors should be using licensed data

 

Why conveyancers should use licensed data



 

 

As a provider of mapping data to individuals and organisations that require instant access to Ordnance Survey information, Promap makes sure it keeps company data and software up-to-date allowing clients to prepare an accurate location plan, develop a clearer picture of an area, create more efficiencies and protect against legal action.

 

To ensure you have the necessary licenses, take a look at our website, where you will find detailed information about paper map copying, licence management, OS license changes and more. For further licensing options you can also call us on 0844 844 9960 and email customerservice@promap.co.uk