Metric Group and Cobalt Telephone Technologies, owners of the RingGo brand, have announced a commercial understanding to offer parking authorities a suite of parking solutions that integrates Pay & Display machines and a mobile phone based means of payment.

Joachim Oehmen, Managing Director of the Metric Group said, "This partnership will allow a parking manager to implement phone parking with confidence - with the added bonus of having a single source audit facility via our ASLAN networked central management system."

Harry Clarke, Commercial Director, speaking for the Cobalt Board, said, "We are excited at the prospect of joining forces to bring what is widely acknowledged as the best phone parking solution available to a community of local authorities that is already very comfortable with the reliability synonymous with Metric."

Notes to Editors

About the Partnership
This partnership will allow existing users of Metric machines to introduce RingGo phone parking technology under a single service agreement, with integrated management reporting and service structures.  It also reflects Metric's desire to benefit from the new opportunities that phone payment brings, and RingGo's plans to accelerate its national and international growth.  Metric's sales teams will now be able to offer a wider spectrum of parking solutions to the mutual benefit of both organisations.


About Metric Group Ltd
Metric is a wholly owned subsidiary of Höft & Wessel AG, a publicly traded company, located in Hannover, Germany, that specialises in the development, manufacture and distribution of technology-based business solutions.  A third of H&W's employees work in Research and Development

Metric employs around 200 people in the UK, with the company's roots dating back to 1878.  With an installed base of more than 60,000 machines in over 45 countries, Metric's Pay & Display systems control more than one million car parking spaces.  April 2006 saw the announcement of Metric's new "Aura" Pay & Display machine with initial installations taking place in the Autumn.  Strong market demand (with over 1000 units shipped) has already ensured that it is an increasingly common feature of the UK street scene.

Metric recently consolidated its UK operations, including production, to prestigious new premises in Swindon, Wiltshire.
www.metricgroup.co.uk 

About RingGo
RingGo is the brand name under which Cobalt launched a 'park by phone' service in April 2006. 

The process of using RingGo is as follows:  After parking, the driver makes a local phone call, giving a four digit car park location number, their vehicle make, colour and registration number, and their payment details.  When they call back, they will be fast-tracked as all this data is already stored.  Sophisticated speech recognition software is used to capture the vehicle details (with call-centre back-up), while keypad input is used as a more secure method of sending payment card numbers.
 
For business customers, VAT receipts are available online.  Parking attendants check valid RingGo customers via a range of handheld devices.

The RingGo system charges the parking session to the caller's credit or debit card.  Texts can be requested as a reminder that the session is coming to an end, and the customer then has the option of extending their parking with a further call from wherever they are. 
www.RingGo.co.uk