A prestigious new Government order has been won by Sperry at the Department of the Registers of Scotland (DRS). Sperry’s advanced applications development system MAPPER, running on an 1100/61 mainframe, is to be used by the DRS to establish a comprehensive database of all land and property ownership, and changes of ownership in Scotland. Beginning with the take on of three counties in February, 1984, the development will run until 1991, by which time all counties will come within the scope of the land register.

A call for proposals was put out to the computer industry by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, the Government’s procurement authority, in accordance with standard open tender policy. After a detailed study two companies were shortlisted.

Under Sperry’s policy of enabling users to gain “hands on” experience of MAPPER, a terminal was installed, free of charge, at the DRS offices at Meadowbank House, Edinburgh. This proved highly successful and the system was quickly accepted by DRS personnel who will be involved in developing the system.

As a further demonstration of the system’s ease-of-use and the impressive productivity gains possible, Sperry developed an element of DRS procedures using MAPPER in 40 man-days. The previous system, using traditional data processing methods, had taken a number of years to computerize the same element.

Notable factors in the Sperry tender were the speed of implementation, a minimum number of staff required to develop and maintain the system, that MAPPER is a proven product with over 700 users world-wide; and Sperry’s hardware and software expansion capability.

The Registers of Scotland are public registers provided for the registration of legal documents. The Register of Sasines, established in 1617 by an Act of the Scots Parliament, is the largest register and in it are recorded deeds affecting land. This will gradually be superseded by the Land Register of Scotland which was established in 1979.

Every building and every square foot of land in Scotland, together with any rights and burdens, including mortgages, affecting them, will eventually be registered in the Land Register of Scotland which will be held on the Sperry 1100/61 using MAPPER. Also held on that system will be the Register of Inhibitions and Adjudications in which are registered writs prohibiting a debtor from selling his property.