Points of Interest Product Information

This document contains additional theoretical information related to Points of Interest. All users will find the Product Information document useful and informative.

This product information document describes the main features of the product, suggests how customers can use the data and explains how the data is supplied. Everyone reading this document will gain an understanding of the key concepts of the data and the benefits an organisation can obtain from using it within location-based applications.

The Points of Interest product is a comprehensive location-based directory of all public and privately owned businesses, educational institutions and leisure services in Great Britain. It contains over four million records, which are sourced and quality-checked from over a hundred leading listing suppliers. It’s updated four times a year, so you’ll always be working with current information.

Product applications

For the public sector, Points of Interest lets you identify gaps in services and analyse changes in city centre retail space over time. This helps you to maintain a quality environment for residents, shoppers and visitors.

Using the Points of Interest product, you can:

• Identify places by their use and function as well as by their postal address or location. Each record also contains a telephone number, web address and brand, where appropriate.

• See commercial addresses for organisations across Great Britain, including phone numbers and web URLs for major businesses. Over 45% of Points of Interest records are businesses.

• Use the detailed company classifications linked to addresses to conduct detailed competitor and site analysis to help you identify the potential location of your next high street outlet.

• Access information on the following themes: accommodation, eating and drinking, commercial services, attractions, sport and entertainment, education and health, public infrastructure, manufacturing and production, retail and transport.

As each feature is provided with a national grid coordinate, it can be visualised as points on a map using a geographical information system (GIS).

Common applications for which customers are already using Points of Interest include:

• Citizen information services

• Distribution and provision of facilities and infrastructure

• Emergency planning

• Location-based services

• Tourism

Each feature comes with a set of attributions that can be manipulated and analysed within a GIS or database so that customers can customise the data and learn more about the facilities within their chosen geographic areas.

Roles and responsibilities

Points of Interest is created and maintained by PointX, an independent company in the joint ownership of Ordnance Survey and Landmark Information Group. Ordnance Survey is the sole ‘data only’ distributor for Points of Interest.

PointX collects data from around 140 suppliers, including Ordnance Survey. It receives updates from these suppliers on an ongoing basis. The suppliers are chosen for being the most authoritative source for the particular type of feature they supply, and for the quality and completeness of their data. It should be noted however, that for many types of features there are no absolute definitive source, nor can any list of the types of features found in Points of Interest be said to be complete. Points of Interest therefore comes with a number of indicators as to the likely currency and positional accuracy of any given set, which should be taken into consideration when using the data.

PointX runs verification checks, provides National Grid coordinates, and classifies each feature. The data is sent quarterly to Ordnance Survey who distributes it to customers. Ordnance Survey manages the customer relationship.

The suppliers are responsible for providing the data to PointX in a manner and timescale agreed between them.

Coverage

Coverage is Great Britain.

Product supply mechanism and file size

Points of Interest customer orders are currently supplied via a Secure URL. The current size of a full supply is about 1Gb.

Product update schedule

Points of Interest is supplied to customers quarterly in March, June, September and December, incorporating any updates made by the revision programme.