Advantage Pumps Software Into Big Petrol Station
Advantage Pumps Software Into The Southern Hemisphere’s
Biggest Petrol Station
Auckland-Monday 6 November
2000: Advantage Group Limited’s (NZSE: ADV) retail
automation business has provided the essential software for
the biggest petrol station in the Southern
Hemisphere.
The AUD $15 million BP site opened at
Coomera, near Brisbane, relying on Advantage to provide the
software for its huge site. The petrol station is called a
travel centre and is twice the size of the largest forecourt
in the Southern Hemisphere, boasting 33 pumps.
The BP
Coomera site is the first of six planned for South-East
Queensland, a project worth AUD$60 million, with Advantage’s
software playing a key role in the development of
each.
Greg Cross, CEO of Advantage, says the software
will play an important part in forecourt sites in
Australia.
“To be involved at such an integral level of
development is exciting news for Advantage’s future with the
oil industry,” says Cross.
Cross says the pure scale of
the new travel centre meant the traditional system fell
short of the capacity needed to support the 33
pumps.
Petrol pumps are typically controlled by the
Master Processor Card (MPC), which can only control up to 32
pumps. Although developing a system to incorporate more
than one MPC is possible, it had never been achieved in
Australasia.
Andrew Wells, Advantage’s General Manager
of Retail Automation, says creating an integrated system for
a complex the size of two football fields was a
challenge.
“Advantage successfully re-worked the
architecture of the traditional system to support two MPC
cards, automatically doubling its capacity to control up to
64 pumps,” says Wells.
The BP complex heralds a new
generation in Australasian travel centres. Travellers can
also enjoy facilities such as a choice of five fast food
restaurants, a convenience store, a communications lounge
and interactive tourist information kiosks, a children’s
playground and a separate truckies lounge.
ENDS
About
Advantage
Advantage Group Limited, an NZSE 40 company, is
a leading supplier of eServices throughout the Asia Pacific
region. Advantage employs over 400 full time people
supporting customers in 15 international locations. For more
information, visit http://www.advantagegroup.co.nz.
About BP
BP operates in 100 countries and in
Australia the company has a strong presence in all aspects
of the energy business, from exploring for natural gas and
oil in the North West Shelf to marketing fuel and other
products at our distinctive BP Express convenience stores.