Custom geospatial software development
Do you lack the expertise or time needed to take on a major new project or improve existing systems?
Our custom builds use the latest open source geospatial technologies to help you solve your operational business challenges. We can provide a fully outsourced solution from planning through to testing and ongoing support.
We can also help you upgrade existing systems to deliver improved functionality or stability.
Benefits
Four great reasons to engage us for your open source project
Your organisation
Save money and reduce risk by outsourcing your build to experienced open source developers
You
Relax knowing that we’ll help you design, build, test and support your solution
Your colleagues
Reduce pressure on your team by empowering us to share our expertise and examples of best practice
Your projects
Don’t pay for licences, use the money you save on customising open source technologies instead
How our team will work with you
The ‘typical’ engagement and delivery process looks like this
Meet your geospatial software development team
Our experts will help you every step of the way
Consultants
Your consultant will help you to understand your business challenges, define your required outcomes and scope out a solution that meets everyone’s needs.
Developers
We employ leading geospatial software developers. With hundreds of years of experience between them, you can feel confident that they’ll deliver the functionality your users need.
Project Manager
Your project manager will ensure that your project progresses smoothly. They’ll hold project meetings to keep you in the loop and ensure that you have input and feel heard from start to finish.
Test Analysts
Your test analysts will design, develop and execute tests and evaluations to ensure that your solution is ready and it meets your documented requirements.
The software we use
Why spend time learning the latest geospatial technologies when we already know them inside out?
From brand new builds to upgrades to existing systems
We’ll help you achieve your objectives
CASE STUDY (CHARITY)
Don’t Lose Your Way (Ramblers)
Following a change in legislation, the Ramblers needed to find and map historic rights of way before they were lost forever.
They needed a crowd sourcing platform that would inspire and enable a keen army of volunteers to find and map as many rights of way as possible. Our solution enabled the project team to:
ALLOCATE TASKS EFFECTIVELY
Each of the 154,000 one km squares of old maps was searched by two volunteers
PROVIDE USER-FRIENDLY TOOLS
A slider enabled users to compare historic maps with current OS maps
COLLECT ADDITIONAL INFO
Users annotated maps to record any ‘missing’ footpaths, bridleways or public highways
BRING DATA TOGETHER
Our custom-built tool stitched individual vectors into a final seamless path network
DATA USED
Great Britain – OS Six Inch (1888-1913), Bartholomew Half Inch (1897-1907) and current OS maps at 1:25,000
Visit the websiteCASE STUDY (GOVERNMENT)
Adding new functionality to heat maps (The Scottish Government)
This interactive online map shares information on the demand for energy to heat homes and businesses.
We added new functionality and additional download services to improve the user experience:
DATA DOWNLOAD
Users can download data in open source formats, including WMS and WFS
INTEGRATED METADATA
Supplementary and contextual information is supplied next to the map
USER-FRIENDLY TOOLS
Users have more control over how layers are displayed. They can also access easy-to-use measurement tools
EASIER MAP SHARING
Persistent map state and permalinks enable users to ‘save’ their maps and share them with others
TECHNOLOGIES USED
iShare, ol-ishare (our modern mapping interface), OpenLayers, MapServer and PostGIS
Read our case studyDATA USED
Pre-styled data from Astun Data Services & syndicated data such as NHS, EduBase
Visit the siteCASE STUDY (GOVERNMENT)
Improving data sharing (The Scottish Government)
Public sector organisations use the Discovery Portal to create, import and edit INSPIRE compliant metadata on spatial data sets and services and make them publicly searchable via a web interface.
Our updated version includes a user interface appropriate for non-expert users, plus:
SEO OPTIMISATION
SEO optimisation and structured data enhancements improve data discoverability and quality
ROLE-BASED SYSTEMS
The site is searchable by the public but also allows different levels of privilege for a number of named users
BATCH EDITING
Users can update multiple records efficiently, e.g. with new contact details or reference dates
IMPROVED COMPLIANCE
Schematron-based validation is conformant with Gemini/INSPIRE guidelines
TECHNOLOGIES USED
GeoNetwork, PostgreSQL, Zeppelin, Kibana and Elasticsearch
CASE STUDY (GOVERNMENT/COMMERCIAL)
Increasing efficiencies for a routing system
We helped the market leader in specialist telematics solutions for the winter service industry to gather requirements, create a technical design and develop the front-end.
The on-demand routing software now enables users to quickly and easily create detailed routes that can be used for exception reporting and driver navigation within the vehicle. Functionality includes:
INTELLIGENT ROUTING
Drivers are provided with detailed routes that clearly identify free travel and salting sections and accommodate any known restrictions
LIVE ROUTE EDITING
Users can edit routes in real life to accommodate road closures, diversions or bad weather
AUTOMATED SALTING CALCULATIONS
Intelligent salt spreading calculates the amount of salt needed to service each route efficiently
IMPROVED REPORTING
Users can view and audit treatment times and distances at configured speeds for each driven route to ensure compliance with Winter Service Plans
TECHNOLOGIES USED
GeoServer, GDAL and some custom code
DATA USED
Cloud-based data from Astun Data Services, including OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer
What our software development clients say
We always ask for feedback throughout a project. Here’s what some clients think about working with us
“We are very pleased with the new website and hope our users feel the same way.”
The Heat Map Team
The Scottish Government
“Astun’s problem-solving, flexible and expert approach to this project has been much appreciated.”
Programme Manager for Don’t Lose Your Way
Ramblers