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Urban Intelligence

PlaceMaker

PlaceMaker is an award-winning software platform designed by passionate planning, software and data science experts to revolutionise the local plan process and bring it into the 21st century. PlaceMaker is assisting dozens of teams to create digital local plans and deliver better places using a single purpose-built platform.

Features

  • Powerful and intuitive software designed by planners for planners
  • View data in maps, tables and beautifully designed dashboards
  • Site Identification and Assessment module for site assessment at scale
  • Standard or bespoke site assessments for suitability, availability and achievability
  • Strategy testing tools for understanding and communicating development impact
  • Engagement module to create meaningful and impactful consultations
  • Mobile-compatible materials with text, multimedia, interactive maps and questions
  • Representation management system with embedded contact management
  • Assessment of representation topics and sentiment
  • Fully integrated modules linking sites, representations and other evidence together

Benefits

  • Get your authority prepared for the digital era of planning
  • Front-load automated assessments and spend more time adding value
  • Create an integrated evidence base across sites, representations and strategies
  • Radically increase team productivity by releasing officers from repetitive tasks
  • Collaborate effectively across teams to reach shared goals and objectives
  • Unlimited access for your entire organisation with a single licence
  • Track sites live throughout their development lifecycle in one place
  • Empower officers and stakeholders to understand the impact of decisions
  • Model complex scenarios for growth and simulate different policy changes
  • Access support from an expert digital planning team

Pricing

£10,800 to £59,625 a licence a year

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info@urbanintelligence.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

5 3 8 0 6 1 9 8 4 0 4 5 0 2 3

Contact

Urban Intelligence Daniel Mohamed
Telephone: 0333 090 1647
Email: info@urbanintelligence.co.uk

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Public cloud
Service constraints
We occasionally undertake planned scheduled maintenance out of business hours. This is planned to avoid key timelines (e.g. consultation periods).
System requirements
  • Web browser
  • Internet connection

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Within 4 hours 9am - 5pm (UK) Monday to Friday. Within 48 hours on weekends and public holidays.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web chat accessibility testing
We undertake accessibility testing on all our product and service web pages for accessible users.
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Urban Intelligence offers comprehensive and unlimited technical support to our users via a dedicated Account Manager.

We provide a set number of days of consultancy on-boarding and off-boarding time (see pricing list) and can offer client workshops and training in addition to user guides and self-help videos.

Regular reviews in person and over the phone are offered to our customers to make sure they can use the platform to maximum efficiency.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
As part of our onboarding process, we include 3-5 days of dedicated onboarding support (based on your purchase). This includes time for initiation workshops, liaison with ICT teams (for setting up SSO (optional)) and time for collaboration with existing data/GIS colleagues.

We will set up the administrative users that will enable your manager to invite other colleagues to the PlaceMaker account. The administrative users can also define product branding features and permissions.

In addition to our comprehensive online knowledge hub, we provide access to a range of resources including user guides, documentation and training videos.

In addition to your support allowance, you have the option to purchase onsite training and/or consultancy days to help you get the most out of the platform.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Client data can be exported from within the application and requests for specific information can be made to support.
End-of-contract process
We provide 3 days of dedicated off-boarding support at the end of the contract to facilitate smooth transition/transfer. Additional support is available at extra cost.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Our consultation services have been designed to be responsive to mobile and tablet devices to widen citizen participation. Administrative user services are designed to be viewed on desktops.
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
We have developed an API for integrations with other planning software services for importing and exporting data. Details on available integrations and technical specifications are available on request.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
Open API (also known as Swagger)
API sandbox or test environment
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Branding and white labelling can be customised. Administrative users are able to control custom fields, user permissions, banners, logos and colours. For site assessment and consultations, the buyer can decide on its own approach to methodologies and design their own materials.

Scaling

Independence of resources
All customers get their own virtual machine. Customers do not share resources.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Customers are able to access audit logs of usage for monitoring purposes. For customers accessing public engagement and consultation tools, these provide real-time dashboards that can display usage, up-to-date submissions and responses.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
United Kingdom
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest
Encryption of all physical media
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
CSV, SHP and PDF data can be exported from within the PlaceMaker application. Other data formats for export can be made on request using the buyer's annual support allowance or at extra cost.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • ESRI Shapefiles
  • PDF
  • JSON (on request)
  • GeoJSON
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • ESRI Shapefile
  • .TAB File
  • GeoJSON
  • Geopackage (.GPKG)
  • KML
  • Doc
  • PDF

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
The SLA is site availability 24 hours a day, seven days per week. The target availability is 99.95% (maximum 21.5 minutes of Downtime per month). The measurement period for availability is in calendar months. If Downtime exceeds the target limit of 21.5 minutes in a calendar month, Urban Intelligence will provide the Client with a service credit equal to one day’s Fees on a pro rata basis (exclusive of VAT, and exclusive of any excess bandwidth or storage charges that have been negotiated) for each full completed hour of downtime. The maximum service credit available in respect of any one month shall not exceed one month’s Fees.
Approach to resilience
Available to buyers on request.
Outage reporting
Email alerts and client status update dashboard.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Administrative users define permissions and controls for different elements of the PlaceMaker application for users.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
Citation
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
13/05/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Urban Intelligence operates an ISO 27001:2013 certified information security management system which is responsible for setting policy and auditing for compliance.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
PlaceMaker has been designed to enable the capture of feedback on usage of the service so we can address bugs and optimise the features of the service into the future. New changes are checked for vulnerabilities before they are released to production. Our approach conforms to our ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System and its policies.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Available on request.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Security incidents may be detected by our automated detection tools, Urban Intelligence staff or customer notification. In all cases they are treated as critical errors triggering invocation of the disaster recovery process subject to their level of likely impact.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Available on request.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

Urban Intelligence is a net-zero business. We use carbon-neutral cloud service providers to ensure that we are able to grow sustainably without having a negative impact on the planet. We also offset our day-to-day carbon emissions and promote positive practices such as the use of electric vehicles, public transport and remote working where possible.

Our PlaceMaker service enables decision makers to holistically view places they manage to ensure they understand the impact and trade-offs involved in their decisions. This involves bringing huge amounts of data together on a range of themes to enable users to understand the likely sustainability impacts of different planning and development choices for current and future generations. Future planned research and development work on this product could potentially simulate and model the carbon impact of individual schemes using complex analysis of the construction materials and the site’s location (thus likely car dependency). Other factors could also be included such as biodiversity net gain, carbon offsetting, carbon sequestration, air quality, heat shielding and various other climate related issues/metrics.

Covid-19 recovery

The PlaceMaker service can be used to support Covid-19 in several ways. Firstly we empower our users to work flexibly and remotely however they choose to work in the new era post-pandemic.

Secondly, our data-driven analysis can also highlight where change has taken place as a result of the pandemic i.e. changing high streets and can suggest alternative uses for places to ensure they do not fall into long term decline. The service can be used to spot shifting supply and demand of land use opportunities to guide development to the right places.

Tackling economic inequality

Urban Intelligence cares deeply about making a positive impact. Our PlaceMaker service has been designed to enable customers to have greater awareness of the potential impacts of their land use planning and property decisions on social, economic and environmental factors. The service brings together disaggregated datasets on different themes to empower users to make better data-driven decisions.

We are dedicated to applying our knowledge and learning to the research and development of new products and services for greatly improving productivity and building new methods for the enhanced delivery of public services. We also empower more users to work in adaptive ways i.e. through remote and home working by being available and accessible fully remotely via the internet. More detail on our work is available upon request.

Equal opportunity

Our PlaceMaker service provides a level playing field for customers to access world class technology, skills and expertise. Our team is passionate about the delivery of first rate public services and we will provide additional support to customers that lack appropriate knowledge or skills to fully utilise and leverage the huge potential of our services.

We also offer a programme of free training and workshops for professionals to improve their digital literacy skills.

Wellbeing

The PlaceMaker service has been designed to enable enhanced dialogue and relationships between decision makers in the public and private sectors and the citizens and communities they represent or serve. The PlaceMaker service was originally created to enable the capture of ideas and feedback
from citizens and organisations on factors related to the built environment that decision makers could act and intervene on. These proposed interventions are then presented back to interested stakeholders enabling them to positively shape their futures working together.

Urban Intelligence is dedicated to using our services to solve a number of key societal challenges of the 21st century. Among our investors is the charity Crisis. We are working with Crisis and others to leverage the PlaceMaker tools to empower organisations to use data to end homelessness.

Pricing

Price
£10,800 to £59,625 a licence a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info@urbanintelligence.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.