Prime Contractor Tadpole-Cartesia Teams With ESRI to Help Maintain The Digital Face of Britain.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

ESRI CONFERENCE 2002

Booth No. 1313

Press Op - Ordnance Survey delegates will be present at

Tadpole-Cartesia's booth #1313 at the ESRI International User

Conference 2002 (San Diego, California, July 8-12, 2002)

Tadpole-Cartesia, the field mapping software subsidiary of Tadpole Technology plc (LSE:TAD), has won the largest software project in its history from Britain's mapping agency, Ordnance Survey. In partnership with ESRI, the firm will build Ordnance Survey's next generation field editing and data management system, which will be used by the mapping agency's surveyors to maintain the digital face of Britain.

A Memorandum of Understanding has now been signed prior to the preparation of the formal contract.

Development of the new multi-million pound system begins this month with deployment targeted for end 2003. Under an international license and partnership agreement with Ordnance Survey, Tadpole-Cartesia intends also to market the field editing and data management system to other mapping agencies around the world.

Tadpole-Cartesia will be the prime contractor for the development and deployment of Ordnance Survey's new field data system. Called the Field Object Editor (FOE), it will be built around the Tadpole Group's ESRI ArcGIS-based field mapping and Endeavors Technology's Magi software products.

The first seamlessly extends corporate data into the field, the second provides mobile workforces with an intelligent and secure 2-way web communication platform to share and interact on files and data in both disconnected and real time modes.

Ordnance Survey's 400-plus nationwide surveyors will use the system to record and seamlessly update geospatial data, such as new buildings, streets and pathways, from the field to OS MasterMap(TM), the nation's official and most detailed digital map database and on-line delivery service. OS MasterMap is the digital face of Britain, showing detail as fine as the shapes of individual houses and their precise location. The validity and accuracy of this geospatial data is fundamental to the operations of a myriad of users - police, ambulances, utilities, GPS software developers, builders, courier services, and even pizza delivery bike services, for example.

Ed Parsons, Ordnance Survey's chief technology officer, comments: "Ordnance Survey's next generation data capture system is possibly the most advanced and sophisticated large scale mapping project ever undertaken by any national mapping organisation anywhere in the world. Tadpole's ESRI-based mapping and Magi collaboration technologies will enable Ordnance Survey to deliver our planned programme of continuous improvement to OS MasterMap, ensuring that we keep ahead of the growing demand for more intelligent data with greater accuracy and accessibility."

Mark Ketteman, Tadpole-Cartesia's general manager, adds: "Ordnance Survey is a peer model for mapping agencies around the world, and a proven adopter of advanced technology. Its selection of Tadpole's core software products to maintain the digital face of Britain well supports the aim of the mapping agency to continue to improve OS MasterMap, putting intelligent data into the hands of all who need it at any time, and from any place."

About ESRI

For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,200 business partners. ESRI's goal is to provide users with comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on the Web at www.esri.com.

About Tadpole-Cartesia

Tadpole-Cartesia, a software business unit of Tadpole Technology plc (www.tadpole.com), is the leader in the deployment of enterprise-class mobile information systems in the world's utilities, telecommunications and public service industries, and is the premier field solutions provider for ESRI-based technology. In addition to ESRI-based solutions, the company offers a unique range of mobile business solutions known under the Conic brand that support both Windows and Java platforms and open new vistas for better management and productivity of field workers, improve customer service, reduce operational costs, and enable user industries to fully capitalise their investments in corporate GIS and CAD data. Further information on Tadpole's businesses on 760-929-0992 (US), [phone] (UK), or by email [e-mail].

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