Subsea 7 optimises the management of its car park in Sutton

The management of company car parks is a big concern for Facilities Managers. Indeed, it represents a significant cost for companies (on average, a car park space can cost between £1200 and £1700 per year). In most cases, 10% to 30% of spaces are left unused and this has increased further due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has opened up opportunities for working from home.

Subsea 7, a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services for the evolving energy industry, has an underground car park for their office in Sutton, England. This car park has a mix of bays that are allocated permanently and bays which are kept vacant for ad-hoc use. With an employee/parking space ratio of around 5:1, Subsea 7 were looking for a solution that would enable quick and easy access for their people to book a parking space whenever available.

At the end of 2020, after much searching, they chose Sharvy, a French start-up which offers a digital solution to manage company shared spaces, and, especially, car parks.

“We were a little worried at first, because Sharvy was based in France and we were unsure about the level of technical support we would receive and how quickly we would get a response. However, right from the first online meetings, communication with the support team has been very easy and I can say with confidence that we are happy with the service that Sharvy team provides.” explains Tim Peterson, who is responsible for managing building security for Subsea 7 in Sutton.

Thanks to the Sharvy web and mobile app, employees who have an allocated space can release it remotely and change its status to available even when they are not at the office (remote work, holidays…). This allows the spaces, and the ones vacant for ad-hoc use, to be booked by other employees in just a few clicks on the app. The vacant spaces are automatically distributed by the Sharvy algorithm without any action from the team who manages the car park.

“For our team who manage the car park, it is a breath of fresh air. The application distributes spaces automatically and gives them more time to focus on their other tasks. Car Park users are very pleased with how user friendly the application is and how the app sends them their confirmations super quick. For Parking bay owners it couldn’t be easier as they have full control of their space and only have to confirm their usage requirements every two weeks – this cuts out the middle man, which we love!” says Tim Peterson.

In addition to space reservation and allocation, Sharvy manages the access control of the Subsea 7 car park thanks to an ANPR camera (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) installed at the entrance gate. “Having the ANPR installed has made controlling access to our car park effortless. Every 60 seconds, the vehicle list gets updated on the cloud and if the driver has registered his vehicle and reserved/confirmed a space, the gate automatically opens to allow entry.” explains Tim Peterson.

This is one of the many benefits of this app for Subsea 7 and today, more than 200 of their employees use the app and share the use of the car park. Thanks to the statistics provided by the app, the security team can follow the occupancy evolution of the car park and they have seen “a massive transformation in how many of empty spaces are now being used every day” continues Tim Peterson. “Overall, we are extremely happy with Sharvy, the system is easy to operate, the app is user friendly.”

For more information visit www.sharvy.com/en

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