Our selection of the study area was heavily guided by the fact that the number of well-established units who did the majority of the work in the study area, and the HERs involved, had the IT resources to assist the project and plan for future extensions of its application; we wanted to run the pilot where it had a greater chance of success. We recognise that nationally not all units and HERs are equally equipped, but we believe the principles of the project can be applied anywhere in Britain. Building on this project, we are developing a larger scale proposal that will apply what we have learned to other intensively investigated regions of the country. Archaeology world-wide is participating in the so-called 'Big Data Revolution'. There are huge empirical benefits in combining digital data sources in a seamless and accessible manner. Equally the creation, movement, curation and use of archaeological information highlights the organisational structure of British archaeology, in the process highlighting both the need for various sectors to act together and the potential benefits to be had from greater cooperation in our combined attempts to understand the past and to manage its physical traces.