Australian motoring clubs unite

A consortium of Australian motoring clubs serving 2.8 million customers has selected Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure to provide a cloud-based platform for roadside assistance. With the selection of Hexagon’s Intergraph Computer-Aided Dispatch (I/CAD) software, the participating clubs will benefit from shared roadside assistance technologies.

The Australian Club Consortium (ACC), comprising Royal Automobile Club of Queensland, Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia and Royal Automobile Association of South Australia, was formed to promote inter-club collaboration and shared IT platforms and services. The consortium’s Common Australian Roadside Assistance System (CARS) program was initiated to deliver a common roadside assistance platform.

Glenn Toms, chairman of the CARS program steering committee and director of ACC, said, “We deliver world-class service to our members, and we are broadening our membership proposition by implementing a common technology layer to support future initiatives. The I/CAD solution is built on global technology, and advances in that technology will be made available to us from across the globe. This puts us in a strong position to meet rapidly changing trends and innovation in the automotive industry.”

Roadside assistance services contribute to safer and less congested roads by aiding stranded motorists and clearing blockages and potential hazards. The participating clubs have always worked to deliver efficient and quality service to their members. They want to ensure they keep pace with the rapid advancement of automotive technology, leverage technology innovations and deliver efficiency improvements for their businesses.

The consortium selected Hexagon for the CARS program because of the technical capability, industry knowledge and ability to deliver a unified and powerful solution to support the clubs’ current business requirements and future goals. The Hexagon systems will enable the clubs to run multiple operations from a single solution with the flexibility of cloud infrastructure; identify the caller, location and, in most cases, automatically dispatch the closest or most relevant assistance vehicle in the area; and locate members and staff in the field geospatially in real time. The solution also supports the supply of vital spare parts, management of external service providers and expansion through new business offerings.

The specific Hexagon software selected for the CARS features I/CAD, a suite of industry-leading incident management software, including Intergraph Mobile Responder, which extends dispatch capabilities to mobile devices, and EdgeFrontier, a platform that will enable seamless integration to the clubs’ IT systems. The solution also includes software from Surefire Systems, providing for point-of-sale and inventory capability. The consortium will roll out the systems to participating clubs through 2017.

“In selecting Hexagon’s dispatch and mobile systems, the Australian Club Consortium benefits from a common platform to meet the clubs’ needs now and into the future,” said Andrew Munro, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure.

“Our interoperable and scalable systems, deployed in the cloud, provide the clubs with a robust and reliable solution to support millions of drivers across Australia.”