LINZ News
New support making e-lodgement work for you
Landonline customers are already taking advantage of the improved support services show-cased at LINZ events recently held around New Zealand.
As well as the new Landonline information website, customers are already benefiting from:
- Dedicated technical and specialist e-dealing and e-survey user support
- Specialist training support
- Pre sign-up support
- The new streamlined, easy-to-use sign-up process.
Newly signed-up customers have also received the new Welcome packs, containing all the information they need to make the most out of Landonline. Welcome packs include detailed information sheets, a computer-based training CD-ROM with a 'get started' guide and checklist and a set of printed desktop Quick Reference Cards.
" LINZ is also rolling out a number of training initiatives," Brendan Boyle, LINZ Chief Executive, says. "Right now, specialists are 'shadowing' new users through their first e-survey or e-dealing transaction. And coming soon is face-to-face third party training for surveyors.
Brendan also explained that LINZ appreciates how busy land professionals are and aims to save you time by guiding you through the new services, and helping you learn how to gain the most benefits from them.
" LINZ is focused on providing training and practical expert advice to help you adopt e-dealing or e-survey into your workflow.
" LINZ is confident you will see the benefits of its e-lodgement services – faster turn-around for your clients, pre-validation to enhance quality assurance and reduce the occurrence of requisitions and, no more onerous middle steps that are necessary in the paper-based system."
Tim Jones of the Auckland District Law Society spoke at the Auckland event on his firm's experience with e-lodgement. "The integrity of the Torrens system is paramount, as it should be. Landonline offers security, accuracy of data and more.
" The system is very smart, very capable of assisting you in completing your documents as accurately as possible."
Landwrap will continue to bring you information about how these new support services are benefiting land professionals around New Zealand.
Surveyors and Territorial Authorities benefiting from online certification
Surveyors in Christchurch and Wellington are the first to benefit from the reduced time taken for Territorial Authorities to certify plans online.
And a recent combined LINZ and Christchurch City Council presentation to the Local Government Surveyors Conference in Auckland has generated more widespread interest in the Landonline TA e-certification service and the benefits it offers.
One of the presenters at the conference, LINZ Senior Development Advisor Ralph Winmill says 90 surveyors and signing officers from Territorial Authorities attended the annual event.
LINZ Business Analyst and surveyor Joanne Head was also a member of the presentation panel, and says many of the surveyors and signing officers in attendance were not aware of how little work was involved in TA e-certification.
"The process is very time efficient, and can save up to six days compared to the manual territorial authority certification of paper subdivisional plans," says Joanne.
A perfect illustration of this was shown at the end of the presentation by Mike Gillooly, a subdivisions officer at the Christchurch City Council, who did a live e-certification and signing of a plan.
In just ten minutes, Mike logged onto Landonline, accessed a survey, demonstrated the workspace, created certificates and digitally certified and signed them. The surveyor was then rung and given confirmation that his plans had been certified. The impressive benefits of online certification were apparent to all those in attendance.
Mike also spoke about the experience of the Christchurch City Council regarding management buy-in, process re-engineering and training issues, and the progression from training and learning to TA e-certification as "business as usual".
"TA e-certification is the way of the future for territorial authorities, and all that is needed is access to the Internet and digital certificates," says Mike.
Mike also indicated it is only a matter of time before more Territorial Authorities take up TA e-certification and gain significant efficiencies for their organisations and their clients.
Ralph says developing the skills needed to use TA e-certification is not time consuming. The challenge for local authorities is to get their internal processes aligned with online certification so the benefits can be realised.
LINZ has now received strong interest in online certification from authorities in Hamilton, Dunedin, Marlborough, Queenstown, Tauranga, Rodney, Auckland, North Shore and Waitakare.
New fees bring savings for online customers
New LINZ fees take effect on 5 July. Every year we review our manual and electronic fees. Our aim is to ensure LINZ charges continue to match the costs of providing services to you. And we're delivering on our promise to return to customers the surpluses from the automation account by introducing a discount system.
" In particular, e-lodgement customers will notice significant savings compared with manual lodgements", says Sharon Cottrell, LINZ's Operations General Manager. "LINZ electronic lodgement fees have been discounted by 40%."
The main features of the fee changes are:
- Surveyors in particular will make considerable savings: the most commonly-used fees have dropped in price.
- Title customers will notice no changes in the most commonly-used lodgement fees.
- Most search fees have dropped. For instance, the fees for title searches (with image) and historical title searches have been reduced.
The new LINZ fees are available on the LINZ website, and a leaflet is available from LINZ processing centres (from 5 July). The fees listed include the 40% discount. The only exception is in the printed Regulations, which show theoriginal non-discounted fees.
Landonline News
Electronic Territorial Authority forms for e-survey users
New e-survey users can find essential templates for use with e-survey on the Landonline website.
These templates enable e-survey users to fill out Territorial Authority forms electronically on their own PCs and attach them to e-surveys for their Territorial Authority certification.
These essential templates cover Territorial Authority forms required for certification purposes. LINZ recently emailed the templates to all e-survey customers for your convenience.
The templates are linked from the "Quick Links" box on the Registered Users homepage.
For help with these templates, or any other aspect of e-survey, call the e-survey specialist support on 0800 ONLINE (665 463), select option 2.
Key website tools for easy navigation
The new Landonline website features some useful navigation tools unavailable on the previous website. These tools are designed to improve the value of the website to you. This article provides some quick tips and tools to help you make the most out of the new website and the information it holds. Using these tools, you can quickly find the relevant information you need and minimise searching time.
FINDING A SPECIFIC SECTION
The site map is your overview of the information sections on the website. It's also useful for discovering information you didn't know about, but might want to, for example 'Training and Support'.
Where to find the site map: the sitemap icon is towards the bottom of the left-hand navigation bar of every page.
SEARCHING FOR A SPECIFIC TERM OR WORD
The search engine zeros in on specific terms or topics. Enter a word or term – the search engine ranks the results in relevance to your request.
Where to find the search engine: the search engine is available at the top right corner of every page.
NAVIGATING THROUGH THE WEBSITE
As you navigate from page to page, the left-hand navigation bar expands to show more links to click on for related information.
There is also a route trail (the "Breadcrumb" trail) that shows you where you are in the site as you navigate through. You will find it in the lime green bar directly under the section tab at the top of each page. It is interactive and can be used to get back to where you started.
GENERAL INFORMATION AND BROWSING
As email readers of Landwrap, you're already using the new-look website, and may be familiar with the colour-coded blue, orange and green sections. These sections ensure relevant information is streamlined to you, whether you're a Landonline user or considering signing up or upgrading your licence to a new service.
New and prospective customers can access introductory information on Landonline through the general information (blue) pages. Here you can 'tour' Landonline services, benefits, testimonials, and more.
Sign-up to become a Landonline user via our sign-up (orange) pages. LINZ has developed new, easier to follow sign-up forms, and our customer support team confirms the process is proving straightforward for customers.
Users are also guided through downloading software and downloading Digital Certificates.
Registered firms and users - bookmark the Registered User homepage if you use Landonline every day. It links you directly to the relevant technical, user support and important Landonline user information.
The key icon on this page logs you into Landonline. In the green box below the key keeps you up-to-date with important or urgent messages about Landonline.
The system updates and news are available on the right navigation bar. The updates let you know what's changed with the system (such as details on the Landonline 2.4 upgrade in mid June, see related article).
If you have any queries about the new website, please email info@linz.govt.nz
Landonline version 2.4 released
The latest upgrade to Landonline, version 2.4, went live on June 14. It mainly provides behind-the-scenes improvements, part of our regular Landonline maintenance to improve stability and performance. Upgrades address as many of the issues you've told us about as possible.
LINZ has produced a new layout for the Systems Update web page that describes the changes in detail and provides quick links to the Shared, Survey, Territorial Authority and Titles sections. This makes it easy to check out the changes in the sections that concern you.
You can also view the Known Issues for any minor issues that we've provided work-arounds for.
Unlike our November 2003 upgrade, there is no major new functionality being introduced, so most users won't notice all the changes. However, some changes may be noticed in:
- XML in the survey area
- Capture, Spatial Window, Plan Generation and TA certification in the Survey area
- The re-ordering of geodetic/cadastral mark layers – read about this change
Work has commenced on the improvements and enhancements for the 2.5 upgrade, planned for November 2004.
Significant changes to mark layers benefit surveyors
Surveyors who regularly use Landonline for access to digital survey data will appreciate one of the changes made over the weekend of June 12-13.
For some time, surveyors had been commenting on the confusion with having both the 6th and 7th order marks in one layer. Version 2.4 of Landonline, just introduced, has included a significant change to the mark layer structure, and it's easier for surveyors to identify survey control and traverse marks separately from boundary positions.
Rule 24 of the Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Surveys 2002/2 places an obligation on surveyors to connect to geodetic control. This change should help them to achieve this by making it easier to find this information inside Landonline.
Check out the new look via the All Layers tab under Marks, NZGD2000.
Screen shot representing the new look All Layers tab
One day response to your exception request
LINZ has a new standard for responding to surveyors' requests for exception processing of e-surveys. If you lodge a request, we will resolve the problem or let you know the likely timeframe for resolution within one working day.
The exception process is available for e-surveys that cannot be submitted due to a fatal conflict between the e-survey and Landonline business rules.
If you believe your captured survey data is correct and the existing Landonline information is wrong, LINZ will investigate. The one-day response standard is to let you know that we're working on it.
You can lodge an exception request any time that Landonline is available – that's between 7am and 7pm on LINZ business days.
More information is available in the e-survey user guide on the Landonline website.
Processing Information
New lodgement form to use from July
LINZ has updated the lodgement form to incorporate the new fees and charges. The updated form is available on the LINZ website.
All customers need to download the updated lodgement form and use it for any transaction lodged with LINZ from 5 July onwards. The new fees and charges schedule takes effect on that date. The updated form calculates the total fees payable for dealings and surveys based on that schedule.
Please continue using the current form for dealings and surveys lodged prior to 5 July.
How to download the updated form
Visit the 'Survey and Title Lodgement Form' page on LINZ's website.
The link to download the new lodgement form is under the heading 'Where do I get the Lodgement Form?'
Please delete your copy of the existing form from your computer or network.
LINZ has also improved the way the form calculates the total fees payable for large dealings that extend over more than two pages.
For more information on this enhancement and on the updated form, please check the new user guide.
Processing time targets consistent with 2003
LINZ's timeliness targets for processing titles and survey transactions have been set to ensure an efficient service to you.
Electronic lodgement targets for the next year remain consistent with last year. This reflects the stability of Landonline and LINZ's supporting processes. Conveyancers who lodge transactions electronically are benefiting from the instantaneous registration of titles.
This year, we're improving targets for processing titles and survey transactions from paper lodgement:
- We've increased the target percentage of titles documents processed within 15 working days from 90% to 95%.
- We've reduced the target number of working days to process 90% of cadastral survey datasets from paper lodgement from 25 to 20 working days.
These targets take effect from 1 July 2004. More information is available from LINZ's Statement of Intent 2004/05.
Landwrap
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