News

Landonline finalist for Computerworld award

Landonline's 100% e-lodgement project has been shortlisted for the 'Excellence in the Use of ICT in Government' category of the Computerworld Excellence Awards 2009.

This is the first year the awards have included this category, and LINZ has been shortlisted alongside three other organisations.

A panel of LINZ staff will now be interviewed by the award judges, and a winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on 28 October.

We will advise you of the outcome in the October edition of Landwrap.

More information on the awards can be found on the Computerworld website.

Significant changes made to topographic maps

LINZ has made one of the most significant changes to New Zealand's official topographical maps since the 1930s, with a new map series, Topo50, launched on 23 September.

The new Topo50 map series has been developed to be compatible with international mapping systems and modern navigational technologies such as GPS. As a result, the 1:50,000 scale Topo50 maps use different latitude and longitude points. The difference is equivalent to an approximate 200-metre change in position. Grid coordinates have also been changed so as to clearly differentiate the Topo50 series from the old map series.

In addition, LINZ has automated the production of topographic maps, greatly speeding up map production and allowing cartographic data to be made available in electronic format. Individual maps may be downloaded from LINZ's website free of charge, or the entire topographical database is available from LINZ for $84.

New Zealand's emergency services and the search and rescue sector have adopted the Topo50 maps, and changed systems to include the new latitude and longitude points and grid coordinates.

LINZ National Geodesist Graeme Blick says the change should be of interest to both land professionals and people involved in outdoors recreation.

"We're encouraging New Zealanders who visit the outdoors and remote areas to update their maps so they're in line with what the emergency services are using," says Graeme. "The change to Topo50 makes a material difference when describing the position of locations and landmarks in the outdoors."

In addition to the safety benefits, the Topo50 series includes updated information on features such as Department of Conservation huts and tracks, and is designed to help New Zealanders find their way through remote areas with greater ease.

The Topo50 map series has been designed for ease of use, with a new portrait format A1 sheet size that allows the best geographic fit. Relief shading helps users visualise topography, while the back cover displays a locality indicator, so map users can see where the map sheet fits within the geographic region.

The print maps are available from map retailers and Department of Conservation visitor centres.

LINZ has updated the maps and topographic services section of its website to help map users understand the changes and view the new maps. Individual Topo50 maps may be downloaded from the website in tif format. The site also includes a coordinate conversion tool.

In addition, a promotional website has been launched to make it easy for the public to identify which maps they need, and locate their nearest map retailers.

The site is also running a competition to win a Garmin GPS unit.

Landonline customers respond well to survey

Survey and title customers responded well to a survey about Landonline and the benefits of electronic lodgement.

Earlier this year, LINZ commissioned Colmar Brunton, an independent research company, to carry out research to measure the current level of customer satisfaction with LINZ, and the extent to which the benefits of e-lodgement and e-dealing in particular are being realised by customers.

"Thanks very much to all those customers who took part," says Kerri Osborne, Manager Customers. "We were very pleased with the 28% response rate - over 3,000 people took time to complete the online survey.

"Highlights of the results include an overall 80% customer satisfaction rating with LINZ, however, conveyancers are more satisfied than surveyors. We also had 50% of TAs responding, which was excellent, as well as a good representation of e-search and e-search plus customers.

Kerri says LINZ is committed to maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction, and there are areas where can improve.

Focus will be on ensuring:

• LINZ personnel understand our customers' business better, including the pressures they face, and the long term trends and issues in the land development market.
• LINZ's communicatons are consistently clear.
• Our products and services remain easy to use. This includes, for example, an update of the Landonline website.
• LINZ manages the relationship with customers well (70% of customers agreed).
• Better engagement with TAs, including assisting those who have not moved to electronic certification to do so, as well as listening to TAs more closely.

"Do have a look at the detailed findings, in particular focusing on the benefits of 100% e-lodgement," says Kerri. "Benefits most reported included enhanced service to clients, faster turnarounds and increased security.

"Once again, thank you very much for your participation. This information allows us to improve our service delivery to you."

Landonline

Landonline unavailable weekend of 31 October/1 November

An upgrade to the Landonline database was scheduled for the weekend of 17-18 October. This has been postponed until later in the year, and we will advise you when it is rescheduled.

Landonline Release 3.3

Landonline Release 3.3 is scheduled to be implemented during the weekend of 31 October/1 November 2009, subject to successful testing. This means that Landonline will not be available on Saturday 31 October.

Landonline and Customer Support will resume normal service from 7am on Monday 2 November.

See article Landonline Release 3.3 overview in this edition of Landwrap for more information about the upcoming changes and improvements to Landonline.

If you have any queries, please contact Customer Support on 0800 ONLINE (0800 665 463).

Landonline Release 3.3 overview

Landonline Release 3.3 is scheduled for 2 November 2009, and is the second of the two maintenance releases planned for this year. Release 3.3 contains enhancements affecting all Landonline customers as well as enhancements specific to conveyancers, surveyors and territorial authorities.

For all Landonline customers...

Release 3.3 will introduce the following improvements:

• Customers will be able to print selected items rather than all the items listed from the Search Instrument screen.
• Customers will be able to send Request Product List items to non Landonline users. Previously, third party email addresses were unable to be added to the Request Product List screen.

For conveyancing customers...

New features being introduced include:

• Electronic certifications – electronic certifications will be improved for instruments that affect new titles in an e-dealing, e.g. easement instruments (EI) following an Order for New Titles (OCT). When an EI is created against a new title, special certifications will automatically appear based on instruments in the head title. This will largely remove the need for imaged consents to be attached to instruments affecting new titles.
• Enhanced e-dealing pre-validation reports – now business rules may generate a Warning message or a Failure message determined by rule settings. In particular, new titles will generate a Warning message and not a Failure message.
• Reasons for stepping down to LODGE viewable – customers will be able to view the reason for an instrument/dealing stepping down to LODGE, i.e. if a dealing is expected to be AUTO REG but instead steps down to LODGE, the step down reason for each instrument can be viewed.
• Memorandum of Priority (MP) warning – a new message will display immediately when an MP is added to a dealing if it is not appropriate to create the MP in that dealing.

For surveying customers...

New Plan Generation enhancements include:

• Improved Plan Generation layout preparation – surveyors will be able to open layout sheets in background mode themselves for extra large plans, rather than raising a call with LINZ and having to wait overnight for the script to run. This will save the surveyor time and provide greater convenience. This new functionality, and the running of Plan Generation, have been moved to a new tab page.
• Offline Plan Generation Phase 1 – in preparation for Offline Plan Generation in May 2010, new functionality to support the export and import of data to and from Offline Plan Generation has been developed. This will not be active until Release 3.4 but is available to support testing of the offline application once it is completed.

For territorial authorities...

Enhancements to TA e-certification include:

• The addition of the Section 245 certificate.
• The ability to edit 220(1)(b) amalgamation condition certificates. This will enable the legal access words to be deleted if required.
• Increasing the size of the 'Manage TA' screen (CSL_S07a).

Official place names in Landonline

The New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008 requires official geographic names to be used in all official documents, unless it clearly states that the name shown is not an official geographic name.

Landonline cannot show macrons so to ensure LINZ complies with the Act, official place names that should have macrons will be uniquely identified by appending "[Spelling not official]" to the relevant name.

For a list of official place names that have macrons, see Find Official Names with Macrons on the LINZ website.

Attention IT support specialists

Firm IT support specialists are encouraged to sign up to Landwrap to receive information and updates about LINZ's IT work, projects and changes that may affect Landonline customers' IT environments.

We also want to develop a database of IT support specialists so that we can email relevant Landwrap articles and other IT updates directly to them. This would include both in-house and externally-sourced IT resources.

We would like to keep IT support specialists better informed about:

• what technical work LINZ has planned
• any changes to system support policies
• detailed Landonline maintenance release information, and
• opportunities to provide feedback.

We would appreciate it if your firm's Trusted Contact could either send this article on to your IT support specialist responsible for Landonline, or provide us with their contact details.

To make it easy for your IT support specialist to sign up to get Landwrap, and join our IT database, send an email to customersgroup@linz.govt.nz, put 'Landwrap and IT information' in the subject line, and include the name, email address and firm the IT support specialist is associated to.

Landonline disaster recovery test successful

Landonline's Disaster Recovery (DR) process was tested successfully in June 2009.

LINZ ran the test to provide assurance that the Landonline system infrastructure components are in a DR-ready state, and all associated Landonline DR procedures are up to date.

Findings from the DR test conclude that Landonline can be back online within a 72 hour window once a DR state has been declared. This timing is based on the actual time taken to complete each phase of the DR test, as well as catering for the time required to assess the risks and impacts of a given situation once formally in a DR state.

This was the first time that LINZ has been able to complete an end to end DR test for Landonline. The testing option chosen provided the best DR test without linking to the live production environment. As the test was not run within the live production environment, some components were not enabled, e.g. Active Directory (AD), Citrix data store.

Overall, the test was a success and an external, independent review raised no significant issues. The test did produce minor findings that will be addressed and monitored via LINZ's work programme.

We will also be completing the following tasks to support the DR process:

• undertake activity on an annual basis to confirm LINZ's ability to move to the DR environment
• keep the DR environment current as part of the standard change/release process for all Landonline production activities, and
• examine possible minor disaster scenarios (where only some components are impacted, such as internet access) and incorporate these as part of the annual DR test.

Microsoft Windows 7

Microsoft is releasing its new operating system, Windows 7, in October 2009.

Currently LINZ does not support Landonline running on Windows 7. However, we are embarking on a formal evaluation and impact analysis process, and envisage that testing will be completed later this year.

We will provide you with an update on our support policy for Windows 7 in the January 2010 edition of Landwrap.

Regulatory

Strong interest in Rules' seminars

Seminars held by LINZ around the country during the last month to introduce the new Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010 attracted more than 800 surveying professionals.

Surveyor-General Don Grant is pleased with the turnout. "Surveyors and their staff need to be up to speed with the new Rules before they come into force next May," says Don. "The seminars have been a good way for LINZ to explain the changes face to face and answer any questions. It's good to see such a high level of interest."

For those who were unable to attend a seminar, you can download the new Rules, the presentation slides, and an introductory document from the Introducing the new Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010 section on the LINZ website.

Based on the feedback received at the seminars, frequently asked questions are being prepared and will be published on the LINZ website shortly.

Guidelines on the interpretation of the new Rules are also being prepared, and will be published later in the year.

New ruling: Mortgagee sale transfers and removal of charging orders

Requirements relating to s105 of the Land Transfer Act 1952 (the Act), and its effect on charging orders, have changed as a result of the recent High Court decision in Gill Construction Company Limited v Morgan and Morgan (HC WN CI-2009-406-100).

The decision confirms that a charging order is an "interest" in land for the purposes of the Act.

The effect of this is that LINZ will now automatically remove a charging order under s105 of the Act on registration of a transfer in exercise of a power of sale under a prior mortgage.

For further details, see LINZR20301: Mortgagee sale transfers and removal of charging orders on the LINZ website.