Update 16

Update 16 for Vision launches Monday, 12th April 2021. Services will be down for approximately 2 hours while we complete the update, and of course, we'll notify all users when services are back online.

The maintenance window start times are as follows:

Summary

Boasting an entirely new organisation administration area, lots of boundary and demographic updates, and (finally) the ability to update to the latest boundaries, Update 16 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting we've ever done for Vision.

Anyone who had made changes to their Vision system will welcome the new organisation administration area in Update 16. We teased it to you in Update 15 with the new account management area, but now we're thrilled to bring you a far easier and better way of managing your organisation's settings.

With Update 16, we're not just doing updates to demographic subscription packs. We're releasing new boundaries for the UK, Ireland, and Australia. And, with these new boundary sets, we're also finally giving you a way to update from your current boundaries to the latest release on your own terms - something we've talked about for a few years, but it's taken this long to get it right.

Organisation Administration

Since we released the original administration area in 2017 with Update 3 and 4, we've known it was a temporary solution. Before that, we used to make system changes on demand (as some of you may well remember). The later part of 2016 and early 2017 had brought lots of new subscribers, and we had started to become flooded with requests for changes. We needed a fast and simple resolution to allow users to make their own changes to the system. However, in 2020, we analysed all of our support tickets, and our attention started to turn back to this area. Finally, we can now share the outcome of our efforts with you.

So what's changed? Well, everything! Let's take a look at some of the improvements we've made to make using this area more enjoyable.

A new navigation menu

That's the dark blue bar on the left-hand side! This lets you jump to where you want to be, massively reducing the amount of scrolling you need to do and reducing the depth and, therefore, the area's complexity.

Information Tiles

The new tile-based approach presents information in a way that's clearer to read and makes better use of the screen space. Some of them even allow user interaction, acting as portals to more information (a little like clicking on the older list items), or even (in the case of API keys) allowing you to copy their value to your clipboard.

Step-by-step Wizards

These have long been around in desktop-based applications and are very helpful in breaking down large tasks into manageable chunks. We've brought them in a web-based format to Vision, allowing you to accomplish much more while making it easier. Here are a few examples:

• Adding new users allows you to set their permissions and which layers they have access to while adding them.
• You can now add multiple users in one go, and you can even copy another user's settings to speed up the process.
• When creating a new layer, you can set the display settings, the users that can access it, and the classifications and custom fields for it all in one go, rather than 4 (or more) processes.

Usage statistics

The new Organisation Administration provides useful information to help you get the most of your subscription. Who doesn't love a dashboard!?

For instance, the Home page now shows you the limits imposed by your subscription and how close you are to meeting them, providing valuable information on how well you use your current subscription and when it might be time to upgrade.

The User Statistics page (shown above) also provides a breakdown of:

• Total logins by month (last 12 months)
  Helps you see how well your team have adopted Vision in their day-to-day activities.
• Total actions by month (last 12 months)
  Shows you how many individual actions your users log within the month.
• Days since last logged in
  Shows you how long it's been since your users last logged in. Use this to know which users you can remove from your organisation and replace them with those who could benefit from Vision.

And there's so much more we could list!

Updating to the latest boundaries

After a couple of years of development, we're finally ready to unveil our boundary update feature. We've had to hold off several updates during this time because we truly understand how these can affect many of our customers who operate on a franchise model.

Traditionally, when it's time for data/boundary updates in mapping software, you get updated when it's ready. A particular issue in franchising is that this means silent changes to many territories which form part of your franchise agreements. These updates cannot be ignored as they reflect the now and not the past, but we felt it was better that you were informed, given the opportunity to prepare for the update, and then choose when it's convenient for you to do so.

This image shows 2 new Postcode Sectors (NG90 2 and NG90 5) being formed in what was NG9 1 and 2 more new Postcode Sectors (NG90 1 and NG90 4) being formed in what was NG7 2.

We've detailed the boundary updates that will be made available with Update 16 below. Still, we would recommend you take time to understand what you can expect and the process involved by reading the articles below.

• What to expect in a new boundary release
• Common questions on boundary updates
• Updating to the latest boundary release

We are here to help you. If you need support or have further questions, please contact support by creating a new ticket.

Data Updates

These updates will arrive with Update 16. Some of the boundary updates are a little later than we would have liked, having been held back by the reasons we discussed above. For this, we apologise, but now our update feature is live, we'll be making sure new releases are available to you as soon as they are released.

With boundary updates, new customers will receive the latest version automatically. For existing users, you will need to start the update process, and we recommend this is as quickly as possible.

UK Postcode Boundaries (2020)

This update sees 50 new Postcode Sectors and 3 new Postcode Districts added, with 1 Postcode Sector being deleted. There are also countless minor boundary changes/improvements which reflect an ever-improving data accuracy.

These boundaries will be updated each year (assuming there are changes) moving forward.

Australia Administrative and Postal Boundaries + Census Data (2016)

This update sees 169 new 4-digit Postcodes being added, 4 4-digit Postcodes being removed, and 1 2-digit Postcode being removed compared to the previous 2011 release. There are also countless minor boundary changes/improvements which reflect an ever-improving data accuracy.

Additionally, the Census 2016 data is now available for the newer boundaries. We had previously looked into trying to make the 2016 data available for the 2011 boundaries, but with the vast number of changes being made, they were incompatible and would have resulted in too many errors in the data displayed to you.

These boundaries will be updated with each census, starting as soon as the 2021 census is available.

Ireland Administrative Boundaries + Census Data (2016)

This update sees 335 new Small Areas being added and 182 Small Areas being removed as well as the minor boundary changes/improvements expected in an update.

Additionally, the Census 2016 data is now available for the newer boundaries.

These boundaries will be updated with each census, starting as soon as the 2021 census is available.

Additional Data Updates

We will also update the following demographic sets with Update 16:

• Market Location Business Counts (UK)
• Buzz Education School Locations (UK)
• Health Sector Locations (UK)
  Please note that only CIS, CQC, and HIW are being updated as the other bodies do not currently have an available update.

As before, these updates are applied automatically and require no action.

Other improvements and bug fixes

1. We've identified a very rare issue that could cause an invalid boundary to be formed when using hand-drawn boundaries. A hotfix has already been applied. Thank you to Snap-On for their help identifying this one.
2. We've identified a very rare issue that could cause a label position not to be calculated when using hand-drawn boundaries. A hotfix has already been applied. Thank you to Snap-On for their help identifying this one.
3. We've fixed a rare issue where a layer could be created but would not be visible to a user.
4. We've fixed an issue that could cause labels to be presented in an order other than specified by the user.