From pioneer to pacemaker – the Parking division turns 50!

2016 is a special year for the Parking Systems business division of Scheidt & Bachmann: for 50 years now the experts from Mönchengladbach have been redefining urban mobility. 

Multi-storey parking

In the 1960s as cities begin to suffer from an increasingly short supply of parking spaces, the solution is clear: multi-storey car parks. But they have to be operated and managed. Scheidt & Bachmann is one of the first companies to recognise this need and leverages synergy effects from its existing business divisions: induction loops, barrier drives and optical switching systems which are successfully used in petrol stations and signalling equipment fit perfectly in the new application area of parking systems.

Innovation and customer focus

From the very outset, the Parking Systems business division makes use of two strengths which are typical of Scheidt & Bachmann: innovative approach and market focus. Components and devices developed in-house and numerous patents and utility models soon provide the proof for the innovative direction of the new business division.

Following initial trade fair appearances and successes in the market, in 1972 the young team carries out a project with a strong signal: Munich’s first fully automatic car park uses a microprocessor-controlled system from Scheidt & Bachmann. The strategy of addressing customer needs with products from the company’s own development and manufacturing facilities subsequently remains a trademark of the parking solutions from Scheidt & Bachmann.

At home the world over

In parallel with technological progress, sales also expand abroad. In 1986, the first systems are installed outside of Europe – in the USA and Australia, along with other countries. Reports from that period sound almost adventurous today – the service technicians had to work without the tools we now take for granted, such as Internet, smartphones or navigation devices.

Even thousands of kilometres from company headquarters, Scheidt & Bachmann considers fast service to be indispensable. For that reason, regional subsidiaries are established and partnership agreements are signed with engineering companies. Today there are products from Scheidt & Bachmann successfully operating in more than 70 countries around the world – and the upward trend continues. 

Pioneering concepts

Over the past 50 years, the Parking systems business division has developed right along with the technological possibilities. If the introduction of the PC and the DOS operating system were the milestones of the 1980s, the trendsetters today are cloud-based and app-based solutions. Control centres with connections to parking facilities beyond national borders are already standard today, and software-as-a-service models are becoming increasingly popular.

Since 2008, Scheidt & Bachmann has bundled its many years of experience and state-of-the-art expertise in the field of parking facility management under the brand name entervo. The name entervo stands for highly functional, open management systems which are readily compatible with solutions from third-party suppliers. And this demonstrates once again that Scheidt & Bachmann focuses on the needs of the customer.

Long-term partnerships

Through international experience and numerous successful projects, entervo has established a solid reputation as a competent partner for developing market-based business models. And what is more, over the course of the past 50 years, we have become a market-leading global player.

This would not have been possible without a sense of dedication that extends well beyond project acceptance: through its close-knit service network, tailor-made maintenance concepts, long-term availability of spare parts and remote solutions for software updates, entervo offers extremely high investment security, functionality and availability. 

About Scheidt & Bachmann

The family-owned company with its headquarters in Moenchengladbach, Germany was founded in 1872 and is now managed in its fifth generation. In the four divisions Fare Collection systems, Signalling Systems, Petrol Station Systems and Parking and Leisure Centre Systems, Scheidt & Bachmann is setting worldwide standards. The Parking Systems division dominates the international car park market by nearly 22,000 installations; it is the system provider for more than 75 airports worldwide.Scheidt & Bachmann provides with its brand “entervo” integrated, modular general solutions consisting of up-to-date JAVA software and innovative equipment.