How did the Parkl team develop the ultra-modern and smart parking lot of the MOL headquarters?
"The office of the future", "The greenest office building", "The smartest building in the country" - a few quotes that take the already huge tower even higher, making it not only the tallest building in Budapest, but also in the whole of Hungary. The MOL Campus is the most significant office development project of recent years and a true testament to modern architecture and innovation, with its functional and aesthetic excellence.
The 28-floor tower, with 86,000 square metres of floor space, is equivalent to 12 football pitches, but its impressive size is not the only remarkable feature of MOL's new headquarters. The campus was built with a strong focus on sustainability, and as a result, has successfully achieved the LEED Platinum and the BREEAM Excellent certifications thanks to its innovative solutions.
More than 2,500 MOL employees are based at the headquarters, so great attention was paid to providing services that would help them work more efficiently and conveniently, from the design phase onwards. Taking into consideration international trends and employees' opinions and needs, the company tailored the smart services portfolio offered by the building.
„The digital program team has two options for a project of this scale: they can choose to develop all the necessary functionality in-house, or they can collaborate with leading companies in relevant fields and involve them as experts in the joint development and implementation. We chose a hybrid solution.” - said Dóra Alexa, Digital Program Manager at MOL Campus.
In the case of parking management, MOL decided to rely on a solution that already proved to be successful in the market, so we were delighted that they chose the Parkl team. But how did it look like working together? Join us as we take you behind the scenes!
Parking as a mission-critical system in office buildings
When designing an office building, meeting the expected functionality of the interior workspaces is not the only key to success. Mission-critical functions extend beyond the operation of elevators, revolving doors, and heating, and may include factors that are often overlooked, such as the importance of a trouble-free parking system.
„The digital parking system developed by Parkl had to manage a 1000-space, 4-level car park with 10 barriers, typically used during two peak periods - a morning and an afternoon peak. Therefore, it was crucial for MOL Campus to choose a system that had already been successfully implemented at several similar locations." - according to Péter Varga, Managing Director of MOL Campus.
Just think of the chaos it could cause even in the capital's traffic itself if the parking system in a busy parking lot like this broke down on a Wednesday morning. While 1,000 MOL employees are waiting for their cars to get to work, the queue of cars would cause a 4 km traffic jam from the campus, which would paralyse traffic during the morning rush hour.
„During the past six months, since the opening of the headquarters on 8 December 2022, we haven't encountered any significant problems that disrupted the parking system. This is further proof that close collaboration with Parkl's team of experts during the design and development phase has led to an unwavering, stable system." - added Péter Varga.
High technological requirements could not be an obstacle
When Parkl's team of experts and digital specialists from MOL Campus first met, their most important question was the use of the right technology. Fortunately, a common ground was quickly found, as both teams used Microsoft's cloud-based service, Microsoft Azure, which made the integration easier. This also facilitated implementation of additional features that arose during the design process, such as releasing fixed parking spaces or even variable directional barrier control.
Understanding the needs and travel habits of employees was crucial, particularly in the post-Covid period where hybrid working became prevalent. For an organisation of this size, facility management also faces the challenge of managing departments, teams and workers with different needs and entitlements, so integrating efficiency features to support their work was also a priority.
As a result of the planning phase, the concept of a complex parking management system was established, which is unique in Hungary both in terms of technology and functions.
A service without compromise
The involvement of the Parkl team as experts from the early planning phase enabled the development of a bespoke digital parking system tailored to the specific needs of the employees and local requirements.
„The involvement of Parkl's experts allowed us to implement a fully customizable, uncompromising solution for every use case. Our main goal was to provide the highest level of user experience for our employees, making their everyday life in the office easier and providing facility management with an efficient, transparent operating system." - added Dóra Alexa.
Parkl's flagship product, Parkl Office, already included a wide range of existing features, which were customised to integrate Parkl elements into the MOL Campus application, allowing operations colleagues to use an upgraded version of the Parkl online administration interface.
The following features now make the MOL Campus digital parking lot the most modern office parking solution in the country:
Parking space reservation | This feature allows users to reserve a parking space using the application, with different access management options. |
Guest parking management | With this feature, users can send invitations and allocate guest parking spaces. |
Releasing fixed parking spaces | This feature makes fixed parking spaces available for other colleagues for a limited period of time (e.g. for holidays). |
Variable direction of barriers | During peak periods (e.g. at the beginning and end of working hours, or at lunchtime), the direction of barriers can be changed based on whether there are more vehicles entering or leaving the building. |
Occupancy and false parking control | This feature uses sensors to monitor parking occupancy and prevent false parking. |
Zone management | Certain zones can be assigned to users or teams, who can only reserve parking spaces there. |
Pool car management | This feature allows the entry and exit of pool cars, as well as parking of shared cars. |
Zsolt Somogyi, Managing Director of Parkl says, “The project was the largest and most significant development in our company's history, and we attribute our success to the strong background of experience and know-how possessed by our team members. This allowed us to react in a quick and flexible manner to the needs that arose. We are pleased to say that we have solved the parking issue in one of the largest office projects in Hungray!"
We are continually building on our experience in the digital office parking management market and seeking out opportunities to add unique developments and features to our service. If you are interested in Parkl's business opportunities, please visit our website, or email us at sales@parkl.net.
MOL Group's new headquarters in Budapest officially opened to the public on April 21st. The Visitor Centre and the 120-metre-high panoramic terrace, located on the 29th floor of the building, are now accessible to visitors.
