CTRL-Shift-Escape - #9

Postcode Lottery

From day 1, we've built our systems around the UPRN and the LLPG. Back in the day (20+ years ago) the LLPG was at times patchy - I remember one London Borough which, according to its LLPG, had 10,000 farms in it. Today though, it's a very reliable and accurate data source which has benefitted from wide-scale adoption, a strong set of standards to keep it consistent and relatively fast feedback loops which give it an element of 'crowd-sourcing' from a wide range of users.

It's also free. Until it isn't, and you realise that if you want a postcode (and a UPRN), you need to win the lottery.

Under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) councils can use the data in the LLPG for free. That's pretty reasonable, given that they create and manage it in the first place! They can also licence organisations like ours to use it on their behalf, and signing 'yet another copy of the PSGA contractor licence' is one of the earliest tasks we complete during client onboarding. We can then get a daily feed of that council's address and street data and keep their waste software up to date, including properties that haven't even been built yet.

This week we've been working on a new product. It won't be directly sold to councils but after 20 years of using LLPG it was our instinct to build it around the UPRN. Without the PSGA we will need a commercial licence for the data. The costs are eye-watering - every single look-up which matches a UPRN and a post code is roughly the same price as sending a text message.

So it's Plan B for us this time, and the addressing system and data which my overseas colleagues look upon with such admiration (and a little envy) will have to stay behind its paywall.

Listen Up!

Not all tension is bad - every day in a growing company is about prioritising and making choices about what we focus on. Everything you choose to prioritise means something else is set aside, and we don't always agree on the decisions. That's going to leave some people feeling like they've had a rough deal or perhaps are under-appreciated.

It's annual employee review time. In Bartec that's a process that takes weeks rather than a few hours, especially this year as we really focus on straightening out our structure. It's becoming pretty obvious that some of our more technical people feel that they are taken for granted.

And it's fair comment. Whilst I'm 'selling the dream' to clients, inventing new products and ideas in my head and buggering about putting silly pictures on LinkedIn, there's a whole team of people keeping the lights on. While our Projects team are smashing another successful go-live there's coders, DBAs, helpdesk staff and project officers trying to 'do things properly' before I show up with the next 'big ask'.

I sometimes overlook all the great work that goes on in our engine room. When I'm told that we need to take a little breather to work on the plumbing my first instinct is to prioritise "the shiny new thing". Last week a few people made polite noises that I need to read the room a bit better.

I’d rather work in a team that fights for something instead of floating along politely. If there's no tension then there's probably not much creativity either.

The Wrong, Long Way

For a few weeks now I've been talking about how we are building our business 'objectives' so we can all work better together towards common goals.

And yet, quietly and without any great intervention, many of us have found a common objective in our push to support Andy's Man Club. If you look at the numbers it appears that some of us are doing 'better' than others, but I don't see it that way. Partly that's because my numbers are terrible, but also because there's a bigger picture. We've not really had any meetings, mission statements or grand statements. We just decided to do a massive bike ride and raise some money for Andy's Man Club.

We are all approaching it differently. Some are pounding out massive mileages and fighting to cover the distance first. Some are doing miles on foot rather than by bike. Others are quietly showing up and doing 5 miles to support their team. Personally, I've metaphorically fallen off my bike for now and taken up running - with a half-marathon in September looming ever closer in my diary.

The point is that everyone is aligned, and doing completely different things in different ways. They are giving up their time, getting a bit uncomfortable and making progress individually and collectively.

I'm really proud to be part of it.