Orca

Designed and maintained by Cofnod, Orca is an integrated Online Records Centre Administration system, providing a comprehensive species database, metadata store and secure place to hold sites and habitats data. It contains powerful reporting tools, which can be driven by data requests from the My LERC website, provide outputs in a variety of formats, including our unique online mapping system, eMapper. It is fully configurable for the different ways in which LERCs operate, and makes the day-to-day running of a records centre easier, providing among many other things, a sophisticated contact and organisation database for storing information about who supplies and accesses data, automatic quoting, streamlined enquiry handling and invoice generation.

"Orca is an essential tool for us, giving staff a helping hand to provide our high level of service. It makes us more efficient and consistant in what we do, giving us more time to concentrate on sourcing data and increasing data quality." Roy Tapping - Cofnod's Manager

Orca uses a Microsoft SQL Server database and operates through a Microsoft Azure cloud server. It contains a series of integrated modules, covering the main aspects of Local Records Centre administration. At its heart is a powerful contacts database, helping to manage interactions with data suppliers and users.

Orca is fully integrated with our Online Recording System, providing a direct feed of data and controlling access to data to Local Experts for verification and defined projects.

One of Orca's primary strengths is its ability to upload large batches of data using its comprehensive import tool, which is integrated with the species dictionary and designation lists supplied to us by the Natural History Museum's UK Species Inventory, and the NBN Record Cleaner rule sets. Imports can range from a handful of records to many hundreds of thousands, providing a range of data checks designed to help improve the quality of the data stored. Each imported dataset is associated with its own metadata and once imported, data can be easy accessed and manipulated using a range of data management tools.

Alongside species data, Orca can store spatial data related to sites and habitats, allowing these to be seamlessly integrated with species data through Orca’s reporting tools. Orca can also link directly to our Sites Manager system, which can store a customisable range of contextual information about sites, ideal for handling site management data.

Data Requests are made via the My LERC website, which manages the request process through predefined data packages and customer types. 

The requests are quickly processed in Orca to provide rapid turnarounds, supplying data using our online mapping tool eMapper. This gives users a virtual GIS experience, allowing them to interact with the data and download in a range of formats.

As well as managing wildlife data, Orca provides access to a range of other configurable tools and features, including agreement and correspondence management, a document library, statistics, and even a time recording system. 

Orca isn't just used by Cofnod; it is provided under licence, which incorporates ongoing maintenance and development, to many other LERCs across the UK. The map on the My LERC website shows those already using Orca. If you're interested in knowing more about Orca and how it might work for you, please contact us and we can arrange a demonstration of what it can do.