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.

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