HOW ORDNANCE SURVEY IS MAPPING OUT THE FUTURE CHIEF EXECUTIVE NICK BOLTON TALKS ABOUT ORDNANCE SURVEY’S TRANSFORMATION INTO A DATA-DRIVEN ORGANISATION, THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF LOCATION INTELLIGENCE, AND THE CHALLENGES THAT LIE AHEAD
CAN YOU BRING US UP TO DATE ON HOW ORDNANCE SURVEY HAS MOVED FORWARD IN RECENT YEARS?
Nick Bolton Chief Executive Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey (OS) has been mapping Great Britain for over 230 years, and today we remain the custodians of that national map. Every day our expert teams capture Britain’s changing landscape and features to cm accuracy using planes, drones and boots on the ground - generating 30,000 updates daily which go straight into our digital database. OS continues to evolve as an organisation and now operates much more as a data company. As part of DSIT, we’re embedded into a wider geospatial community helping shape the future of public sector data, through initiatives like the National Data Library, Digital Marketplace, and government AI capabilities. Our most recent period of digital transformation started five years ago when we took the opportunity to totally redesign our back office and data because customers were asking for faster and easier access. This led to the launch of the OS National Geographic Database ensuring higher levels of usability, more options for personalisation and richer attribution of data. Our data provides valuable insights and fosters close collaboration between government and organisations by ensuring a consistent, reliable dataset. It also enables the linking of different datasets to deliver richer insights and more effective outcomes across commercial and public service tasks. Put simply, geospatial data is the glue that makes other data interoperable and helps generate location-based insights that support critical decision making, drive efficiency and strengthen the economy.
OS National Geographic Database showing roof shape
Field surveyors in action
AUTUMN / 2025
BUSINESSSOUTH.ORG
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