Utility Mapping, Electricity maps and NRSWA: Groundwise Searches Limited

From the 4th January to the end of February 2010 any Groundwise client who purchases a full Groundsure Insight bundle on any site and provides their separate residential address will receive a free full MapInsight of that residential property.

To order a report simply:

download the pdf form found at:www.groundwise.com/onlineapplication.html
complete the form with your site details
in the Additional Reports section select “Discount order 1,2 and 3” This will select the Full Insight bundle report
if you require the Free MapInsight report on a separate residential address provide the address details and return the form to us.
email or fax form to us on sales@ground wise.com or fax 01702 460239

We can only supply one free MapInsight report per contact in the promotion period. If you have any questions please give the Groundwise Team a call on 01702 615566 or email to sales@groundwise.com.

I wish you a prosperous New Year.

David Gunn

December 2009 : Groundwise retained for Environment Agency Contract through 2010

Groundwise Searches Ltd is delighted to announce that the Environment Agency (Midlands) has decided to retain our service for the provision of Utility Searches for a further 12 months.

September 2009 - Change in Fees for Envoy Enquiry

Groundwise Searches Ltd is one of the UK’s the leading providers of site investigation information including reports comprising utility mapping, OS mapping, environmental and geological data.

We have recently been made aware of a proposed change in price from Envoy Asset Management for their Plant Enquiry Service. This search is undertaken as part of our comprehensive Utility Report Service when requested by our clients, with the Envoy search fee passed on at cost as a disbursement.

Envoy news release: 27th August 2009

“Re. Changes to Plant Enquiry Charges

Please be aware that as of the 14th September, 2009, due to increasing costs in providing Asset Information, Envoy Asset Management will be increasing the administrative fee charged for Plant Enquiries from £46.00 to £60.00 (inc. VAT)”

Groundwise will therefore be quoting this new disbursement fee to our clients from the 14th. Our fee for carrying out the utility search will remain unchanged, starting from only £100 exc VAT for a search on a site in the UK.

Who is Envoy? The following information is taken from Envoy Online www.envoyonline.co.uk

Envoy operate and maintain the entire network and all associated meters on behalf of Independent Pipelines, Independent Power Networks, Independent Meters and Independent Water Networks. Envoy also administer systems, update records and handle all queries on behalf of the above companies.

Independent Pipelines is the UK's largest Independent Gas Transporter. The Independent Pipelines network transports gas to over 450,000 properties across the UK.

Independent Power Networks is the UK's leading independent electrical distribution network operator. Owning electricity networks connecting new homes to their utility infrastructure system.

Independent Meters Limited is the leading independent meter provider in the competitive domestic market.

Independent Water Networks is the UK's first operational independent water network provider… to developers and customers across the UK.

If you have any queries please contact one of the team at Groundwise.

June 2009 : Groundwise agrees distribution deal with Searchflow

Groundwise Searches Ltd, have agreed a deal to allow MDA Searchflow to distribute an alternate version of our Utility Report to the UK legal market.

"MDA SearchFlow , the UK's largest property search information provider, has today launched Groundwise, a new search service that has been specially designed to make utility searches both quicker and easier. With up to 150 separate service providers included, this new report from MDA SearchFlow will offer the most comprehensive single view of utility services available on the market".

Read Press Release on Searchflow site here

April 2009 : Groundwise agrees deal to supply Environmental and Mapping Data

Groundwise is delighted to have signed an distribution deal with Groundsure www.groundsure.com to resell their range of environemntal reports.

Groundwise now provide detailed Environment Agency data, Ordnance Survey Historical Mapping and Geological data. We are a reseller of the Insight Range of products from Groundsure. Launched in 2008 these reports, designed by consultants for consultants, have revolutionised environmental site investigations with their clarity, ease of use and a fair price point that in today’s economic climate make these reports an obvious alternative to current offerings. MapInsight Contains the most comprehensive collection of historical mapping dating back to the 1840’s at 1:10,000, 1:10,560, 1:2,500 and 1:1,250 scales scanned at 508dpi (the market standard being 300dpi) and 1:500 Town Plans. Groundsure supplies comprehensive and complete data information including published date, survey date, revision date and copyright date where available. This enables a true map sheet match, using the closest dates available. EnviroInsight Provides condensed data in an easy to use report format, enabling the quick identification of potential risks and helping to give an immediate site overview. The report also contains unique data sets such as High Pressure Oil & Gas Pipeline data, World Heritage Sites and Geological and Sensitive Sites. GeoInsight Delivers a cost effective assessment which details a site’s geohazards and ground stability based on the British Geological Survey’s (BGS) 1:50,000 mapping and GroundSure’s unique datasets. Prices start from only £179 exc VAT for the complete range of Insight information - to order use the form here.

April 2009 - Groundwise Wins Environment Agency Contract

Groundwise Searches Ltd, site information specialists, have recently won a tender to supply packs of utility mapping and data to the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency is the leading public body for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales Environment Agency The range of tools for ordering searches and the associated account management facility provided online at www.groundwise.com met the requirements of the detailed tender document provided by the Environment Agency’s procurement team. The contract will cover various sites in the midlands region and will run for up to two years.

March 2009 - Utility Order Comparison

We believe our Utility Report service is the most efficient, quick and cost effective means of collating utility mapping data for sites in the UK. We listened to our clients and altered our online reports option. It is popular with many clients with large requirements for utility data but often we are asked; “what is the different between online and normal paper orders?”

Below I thought it would be an idea to compare the two ways of ordering:

	Online Utility Order	Paper Utility Order form
Delivery of received Items	From 1 Day of order	From 1 Day of order
Paper originals of utility responses	Yes	Yes
PDF Delivery Option	Yes	Yes
Measure site footprint	Yes	No
Select which utilities to order	Yes	Yes
Email updates of Order History	Yes	No
Track order history	Yes	No
View account history	Yes	No
View account history	Yes	No
List of utility contacts provided at quote stage	Yes for all utilities	Only details of utilities that charge are provided
Save quotes	Yes	Yes
Current information on utility delivery times	Yes	No
Size of site footprint limit	To 15 Hectares	Unlimited
Pay via credit card	Yes	No
Pay via invoice	Yes via Premier account	Yes
Deliver data to alternate address	Yes	Yes
Invoice alternate address	Yes	Yes
Scan data to CAD Option	Yes	Yes
Environment Data Option	Contact office after ordering utility report	Yes
Geological data Option	Contact office after ordering utility report	Yes
Historical Maps Option	Contact office after ordering utility report	Yes
Price	From £100	From £100

Does your current utility search provider offer you these options for this price?

February 2009 - Advice about Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 section 34. Energy distribution installations recommends that “where necessary to prevent danger, energy distribution installations shall be suitably located, checked and clearly indicated” and also that “no construction work which is liable to create a risk to health or safety from an underground service, or from damage to or disturbance of it, shall be carried out unless suitable and sufficient steps (including any steps required by this regulation) have been taken to prevent such risk, so far as is reasonably practicable”. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/uksi_20070320_en_1 .

A suitable Health and Safety plan should be used for engineering works. This plan must include details of restrictions and risks to engineering work such as the location of below ground utility apparatus. So typically before an engineer goes on site a desk top buried services search should have be undertaken.

For an engineer, researching the locations of underground pipes, cables, and other services is exceedingly time consuming, frustrating and, frankly, at times boring but it has to be done. Without it, projects can be delayed and utility assets damaged, possibly leading to expensive litigation. Any site in the UK may be effected by buried apparatus. Maps showing the location of these potentially hazardous features are available from the utility that owns them but the engineer needs to find the time to write many letters and emails, raise cheques for any payments and establish the relevant contact within each utility who can reply. This research can take a long time and is not a valuable use of resources.

Groundwise Searches Ltd with our eight years of expertise in the supply of utility information have developed a sophisticated mapping system to meet the requirements of engineers and consultants. Groundwise’s Utility Report Online order system at www.groundwise.com enables our clients to select their site by either post code or grid reference and draw and outline of their site using the specialist mapping tools on the website and Ordnance Survey maps as a base layer.

Groundwise will then obtain utility information for that site keeping the client information of the progress of the order. By using the online system the client can log on and track the progress of their orders, view their account history obtain and save quotes for other sites.

Fortunately our fees per site for using this innovative, time saving, technology start at only £100 per for a site to half a Hectare excluding VAT and payments to utilities.

If you want to see how Groundwise is changing the process of ordering utility information for the benefit of both requesters and the utilities please look at www.groundwise.com .

January 2009 - New website

In January 2008 Groundwise launched their new website. The former website had served us well but we needed update in both in content and image. One of the major changes has been to the Utility Report Online service. Following customer feedback and also changes in the way Utilities charge for data we felt we need to give clients more of a choice with the type of data they request By offering a simple search fee then giving user the option of paying only for the data they want we have created what we believe to be the most efficient way of ordering utility data for a UK site.

We hope you like the new look and clearer layout of our new website. Our plan is to add even more features to the website in the coming months.

September 2008 - Groundwise release new order form for Utility Report via Post.

The pdf order form has been enhanced and a few bugs fixed. We will be sending this to our clients that order their reports via post as pat of the quote or sales confirmation. You can also download the form from here

June 2008 - Desktop Mapping Launch

Paper Free Utility Reports and Desktop Mapping Direct to the Engineer's PC. Groundwise launch innovative Desktop Mapping product in response to client requests for CAD reports.

Groundwise Ltd.

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