Colchester City Council: One year on with iManage Cloud

Overview:
Just over a year ago, Colchester City Council migrated its Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) to iManage Cloud, becoming one of the early adopters of the cloud-based platform. While the move initially required some adjustment away from the familiar desktop environment, the gazetteer team now see the cloud solution as a clear step forward.

After twelve months of day-to-day use, iManage Cloud is described as faster, more intuitive and better aligned with the council’s cloud-first IT strategy. It has delivered clear efficiency gains while increasing confidence and reducing friction across some of the most time-consuming aspects of address management.

“It was a bit of a change at first, but now I love it. It does a lot of things the desktop version just didn’t handle very well,” commented Colchester City Council’s Information Analyst.

Transforming efficiency through bulk updates:
One of the most immediate benefits of iManage Cloud has been the introduction of bulk editing at scale. Tasks that previously required individual record updates can now be completed across hundreds of records in just a few clicks.

This has been especially valuable when managing large housing developments. Under the desktop system, plots had to be dragged and dropped individually onto roads, a repetitive process that could take hours. With iManage Cloud, entire developments can be selected and updated in a single action.

Information Analyst at Colchester City Council told us, “We’ve got a new development with just under 500 plots. In the old system, it would have taken hours to drag and drop each property onto the road. With iManage Cloud, it took just five minutes.” 

For a small team managing frequent development changes, this has removed a significant operational burden and transformed how large-scale updates are approached.

These gains are reinforced by the plot-to-postal wizard, which allows addresses to move smoothly from plot status to full postal address, including in bulk. Together, these tools have reduced turnaround times and removed much of the pressure previously associated with development work.

“Loading a development just doesn’t feel onerous anymore,” commented Colchester City Council’s Information Analyst.

Clearer classifications and smarter validation:
iManage Cloud has also improved usability through clearer data entry and validation. The move away from relying solely on numeric codes has been particularly well received. BLPU classifications and status values are now presented with plain-English descriptions alongside codes, allowing users to search by either and select the correct option with confidence.

“You don’t need to remember all the codes anymore. You can just type a keyword, like ‘terrace’, and it brings up the right code and description,” the Information Analyst told us.

Validation has also been strengthened, with issues flagged early, highlighted visually and explained clearly. This enables problems to be resolved immediately rather than discovered later during Change Only Updates (COU) processing.

“The old system would let you make changes that might fail much later on in the process. Now it flags up the error straight away and suggests how to fix it,” commented Colchester City Council.  As a result, rework has been reduced and confidence in data quality and outputs has increased.

Templates and guided workflows:
Custom templates have helped streamline repetitive tasks, such as creating communal bin locations, allowing consistent information to be reused efficiently across large volumes of records.

“I’ve got hundreds of communal bins to input, and having a template set up already saves so much time,” the Information Analyst told us.

Alongside a set of standard templates, councils can easily create their own to suit local needs, giving them flexibility without forcing them into fixed ways of working. Wizard-driven workflows then guide users step by step through address creation and updates, helping keep everything consistent.

“It takes you through everything in order, so you don’t need to know all the stages beforehand,” confirmed the Information Analyst.

Reliability, confidence and cloud alignment:
Over the past year, Colchester City Council has experienced no downtime with iManage Cloud, a critical factor for a system that underpins services across the organisation. COU generation and exports run reliably, feeding downstream systems and GeoPlace processes without issue.

“We don’t even think about the COU anymore, it just works,” the Information Analyst told us. 

The move to iManage Cloud has also reinforced the council’s cloud-first strategy, simplifying integrations, improving data flows and strengthening confidence in LLPG data.

Ongoing support and continuous improvement:
Beyond the technology itself, the team value the strength of the support model. The service desk is consistently described as responsive, clear and easy to work with. Equally important is the sense that iManage Cloud continues to evolve in response to real user needs, supported through tools such as the Ideas Portal and user engagement via events and webinars. And being cloud-based, new releases with bug fixes, enhancements and new features are seamless and more frequent.

“You listen to how we actually use the system and try to improve it and that really builds confidence,” commented the Information Analyst.

Continuous innovation, driven by customers:
Cloud delivery has accelerated how iManage evolves, enabling frequent enhancements and genuinely customer-led development. As Claire Russell, Product Manager at Idox, explains:

“Being cloud-based allows us to continuously enhance iManage and deliver meaningful improvements at pace. Customer feedback shapes every stage of our development, ensuring the platform evolves around real operational needs, something councils like Colchester City Council are already benefiting from.”