SKIDATA, Wilson Group to network 75 car parks Down Under

Wilson Group, SKIDATA´s partner for Australia and New Zealand, has opted for SKIDATA™ parking solutions in implementing a prestigious project that involves setting up reliable data links and communication channels between the facilities, which are spread throughout the entire continent across various time zones. In a first stage, 75 SKIDATA™ equipped parking facilities in Perth (Western Australia), Melbourne (Victoria) and Sydney (New South Wales) will be networked for central administration from Wilson´s Main Control Center in Melbourne. This represents SKIDATA's biggest success story in the Pacific to date.

Centralisation as a key advantage

Once the network is up, Wilson will be able to offer its parking customers all-year, round-the-clock service with a minimum of staff. This workforce will consist of a team of highly skilled operators monitoring the activities at the car parks from a central Control Room. A CCTV and ultra-modern intercom system will allow them to interact with people at the local car parks as and when necessary.

The project is being executed in various stages, starting with the networking of all Wilson car parks in Melbourne and subsequently adding those in Sydney and Perth. Altogether, the project is scheduled to run until the end of the year. During the first stage, 130 PCs will be replaced, and the current software will be updated to Release 15, with an upgrade to Windows XP-based Release 17 being scheduled for 2005.

From car park network to transnational parking alliance

For SKIDATA this project is unique in that is does not impose any limitations on the number of car parks that can join the network. In fact, the Wilson project is actually just a first step towards an overarching centralisation platform for Australian SKIDATA™ equipped car parks that is expected to grow significantly over the coming months and years. Although the facilities being integrated into the network at the moment are all operated by Wilson, the idea is to build up a networked alliance of parking providers that individual car park operators can join as ‘members'. Project managers are expecting a domino effect to set in once the first few members have joined, with more and more providers coming aboard over time.

An additional number of 25 Wilson sites from Australia's small neighbour island New Zealand is likely to be brought in by Wilson in the near future, turning the project into a ‘real dinkum' (genuine) transnational enterprise.