T2 is a thrilling place to work these days. Things are going quite well and the T2 team is growing even faster than we have historically--so fast in fact that our HQ is out of desk space. So, as our current lease expires and our presence in the Indianapolis community continues to deepen, we have a happy announcement to make: we're moving!
By the begining of March, the T2 heaquarters will be relocated to Keystone at the Crossing on Indy's northside, where we'll enjoy close proximity to one of Indy's coolest areas and convenient access to amenities. Major office relocations can sometimes be a little tricky to pull off sussessfully, but in our case, everything is going well--and for good reason:
- The new location is closer to a majority of our staff
- Our architect, real estate broker, and furniture company were a great team
- We gave window views to our staff whenever possible
- We designed the space with our parking system software in mind
- We incorporated really cool features like a gaming area, reading nook, private glass offices, soda fountains, and a beer tap.
The office is currently halfway through construction, and everything is going as planned so far. We're not quite there yet, but soon enough we will be developing superior parking software solutions from this superior view!
If you would like to learn more about our move, you can find me on twitter
@ChrisPalmr.
Hi there T2 Nation! I have a question for you.
Was upgrading or migrating to T2 Flex the most hectic week of your work life? If you’re like me, it’s all a blur. I remember people asking “What about this, and this, and this…” and I’m sure I made at least two hundred and fifty decisions on how I wanted the software to work with my business practices without really even knowing what they meant.
Now consider the week after your new system was implemented. A huge sigh of relief. It’s over! It works! I never want to go through that again.
And so here you are, two, five, or even seven years later, still living and dying by those decisions you made during a weeklong blur. On top of that, how many upgrades have come out since then that you and your team have just glossed over? How many of the new features and enhancements are you actually using? Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate.
I know you don’t have time. But think about this: If you have just one process that that takes an extra 20 minutes a week, that’s 17 hours a year. The two days you would need to spend with someone from T2 Consulting and Training to tune up your system can easily fit into that window of wasted time. Who knows how many more minutes you could be saving by updating your system—maybe enough to take that long weekend trip that’s been on your mind for a while.
Here’s how it works. The T2 Consulting and Training Department will review your business practices and Flex configuration. During an on-site visit, they will meet with staff to see how Flex is being used and what processes need to be streamlined. You get helpful hints, best practices and suggestions along the way, as well as a comprehensive report at the completion that includes a plan to implement changes and any training needed. Then, while you are taking that vacation, you will be certain that everything is operating at peak efficiency.
Interested? Contact your Account Manager or T2 Training to get started.
My first BLOG entry, woohoo! I actually like the word BLOG. Of course, being a data programmer, I had to find out what BLOG means (I mean separate from the obvious of original "Web Log" definition).
So I searched (NOTE: I do not "google" anything, it's called searching and I refuse to use that term, or for that matter use Google. I use Yahoo - besides it just sounds like more fun ... YAHOO)
BLOG Web Log Internet
BLOG Better Listings On Google
BLOG Bears Little Organizer GUI
BLOG Boring Lump Of Garbage
BLOG Based Loosely On Groupware
BLOG Boring Lesson On Galaxy
BLOG Biological Links On the Globe
I like the Boring Lump of Garbage one. Cute. I digress.
I work for a company that writes parking lot software. I enjoy what I do--I enjoy doing the detective work and finding ways to force data from old systems into our newest T2 Flex system. I know many people would think I am crazy, it is tedious and it can be exhausting. But at the same time, it is also challenging and puzzling.
At times, I really have to be a detective. Trying to figure out what the customer needs and how our parking solution will fit their style is rewarding...and they're all so different! For example, cities usually need more citation management and boot/tow capability. Along with that, they need an appeals system. And of course, they need to take payments and report on people and vehicles. Colleges need to have permit solutions and a way to get the students information, give them a permit, and take that payment. Another common need of higher education parking systems is a way to put permit holders on a payment plan for the accademic year, or to take it out of a student account at the bursar. Parking garages need to have lots and facility management along with the ability to park the customers (and know how many spaces they might still have left), manage events that would use the garages, and allow secure credit card payments.
Now I get to Blog about it, this should be a lot of fun!
"We Wonder Wednesday" exists to make sense of all the noise in the parking and transportation industry. Weigh in on our 1-question poll every Wednesday and help answer some of Parking's biggest and smallest questions.
We wonder about what your experience has been like using - or not using - Parking apps. Awful? Fantastic? If you haven't opped for an app, what's detering you?
This was a busy morning for my team. Mark was up a bit before midnight to do security updates in the PCI environment. Scot was up at 4:30 moving customers to newer, faster servers running the latest version of Oracle. I met Grant at the Hosting Facility at 6:30 to install a new server, decommission two older ones, and to meet the EMC engineer to install more drives in the SAN.
It was a busy morning, but we don't mind. That's what we do. We want our customers to be able to focus on managing their hosted PARCS solution and running their parking operations, not have their servers compete for attention. So if early mornings make our sophisticated parking software perform just a little bit better, if they make parking management just a little easier, it is all well worth it.
Happy parking.
Jim
We all know the benefits of a good employee training program; training has a positive effect on performance by allowing employees to learn advanced techniques to help them complete their everyday tasks more efficiently. More efficient employees feel more valued and appreciated which leads to reduced turnover and less of a need for supervision. Trained employees are motivated employees and the entire organization achieves its goals more readily.
Don't invest in your parking management software and hardware without also optimizing your staff. The T2 Training Department offers several solutions for all your parking permit management, parking access and revenue control and parking citation collections training needs - and at quite a reasonable price! Arm your employees with access to a recorded video library with over 60 courses they can view at their convenience. Further reward their accomplishment by allowing them to become a Flexpert on your parking system software with T2 Flex certifications on Front Line Permits, Front Line Citations, Front Line Supervisor, Access and Revenue Control and Finance and Audit Control.
Training does not have to be costly. Access to the Recorded Video Library is less than $400 a year and every member of the organization can access the courses that are relevant to their roles. For just a little extra, the training team will set your staff up with an agenda and links to tests. Upon successful completion of all 9 courses, the participant is awarded a certificate. It's a win-win solution to the age-old problem of providing a successful training program. You have the peace of mind that your staff has demonstrated competency and your staff has the skills to meet and exceed expectations in their career. Make the investment that will ensure your team’s success - invest in training!
I attended T2 Systems Training Camp this year as a rookie. I was a little nervous going in--I had been with T2 for about 6 weeks and did not come from a parking background. I was a true rookie, still learning the parking business and how T2 Flex works.
What truly surprised me at Training Camp was the number of other rookies in attendance. It seems like about a third of the attendees fit this category.
It was great to get to meet some customers that I had actually been working with on cases. Meeting over the phone just isn't the same!
Attending workshops to gain a better understand of how T2 Flex works was a great opportunity. I had gone through the T2 recorded training library on a lot of the topics covered. The refresher was nice since I am just beginning to gain an understanding of how our customers use T2 Flex.
All the customers I had the opportunity to speak with were very happy with T2 Training Camp, and all said the benefited from attending. One fellow rookie was very impressed with the event and described at as "First Class."
I am excited about next years T2 user group, when I can attended as a veteran and lead workshops and share my experience and knowledge with all attendees.
So those of you who know me know that I describe myself as a "technology nerd who fell into the world of parking".
How nerdy? I got my first e-mail address in 1986 (yes, back when legwarmers were cool but being a nerd was not). In 1992 I had a pair of ISDN connections in my house for a bountiful-at-the-time 128Kbps bandwidth, and I registered my first domain name and website in 1995 when Netscape launched the web revolution.
Ahhhh, it was the Internet’s halcyon days… when “spam” was still a luncheon meat, a “virus” was something that infected only living beings, and a “banner ad” was flown behind an airplane.
The Internet has evolved at a frantic pace - and continues to do so. But nobody would quesiton that the hot Internet activity for much of the last decade has been the spectacular rise of social media – basically the generation of content created by the masses, distributed in a highly accessible and scalable way. Two of the most popular social media sites today are Facebook and Twitter, of course.
Is there a Facebook/Twitter angle to parking technology? Does social media even have a role in parking?
Well, at its core the business of Parking is really a business built on organizing the behavior of people. Contrary to popular belief, parking is not about vehicles or parking spaces. Parking services are all about people – specifically people who park.
Providing parkers with the right information at the right time is the key to encouraging the behaviors that you want them to demonstrate. That’s where Facebook and Twitter can help. Let’s start with Twitter. This is a free technology that anyone can use to push out short messages to subscribers, very quickly, who can receive these messages though the web or on their phone.
If you’re going to send out such nearly real-time messages to your parking audience – Twitter would call these “tweets” –what messages would you send?
There are most likely two kinds of messages that are invaluable to a parker. The first type of tweet is an emergency message: For example: “Blue Garage - West entrance blocked, use North entrance” or “Snow clearance on Main St 3pm, no parking.”
The second type of tweet that parkers find valuable is real-time information about parking at an event. In this case the parker would subscribe to a series of tweets (called a “feed”) that was broadcast every few minutes about, say, occupancy at a lot or a garage. Driving downtown to get to the big game? Subscribe to a twitter feed for 3 or 4 different parking lots and receive a message every 2 minutes about how many spaces remain available – when you’re a few blocks from downtown you’ll know which garages have spaces available. When you arrive, you unsubscribe from the feed. Good information, happy customer, less circling the block.
Facebook, on the other hand, is much more like a traditional website - though it's evolving too. Many parking operations already have websites, so having a Facebook page for parking might appear redundant. Facebook provides a mostly structured interface for you to post information, photos, or other media about the parking operation and control the message that you’re putting out.
But the social component comes from the people (parkers) who subscribe to the content of the page by becoming a “friend” of the parking office. The parking operation can choose which content, or levels of content that a “friend” can see, and can also limit the amount that a “friend” can post or comment to the page. This gives a great deal of control to the parking operation on how information is distributed, and also provides a convenient mechanism for customer feedback and comments.
Also an interesting tidbit: Facebook and Twitter can be connected so that Facebook can “push” updates to Twitter, which in turn pushes information to your customers. Slick!
Are Facebook and Twitter really free? Well, they’re free to sign up and use as much as you like. But there is a cost - once your parkers get used to receiving tweets or visiting your page you will have an obligation to provide regular updates. So there is a cost – not for the service, but for your operation to produce regular content for your subscribing audience.
Does social media play a role in parking? This probably depends on your specific parking audience – a technically sophisticated parking audience (such as students on campus or frequent airport travelers) will embrace these features. There are already groups of parkers taking matters into their own hands and using text messages to help each other when it comes to parking (NPA’s Between the Lines newsletter recently described this), so yes, there are signs that social media could be useful and appreciated by your parkers. A less-technical audience may not be as interested. But in any case, social media can enhance the parker’s experience, and usage is likely to grow.
On that note, be sure to follow T2 Systems on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook! :-)
It has been a long time since I was on the other side of the bullet proof glass window at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Parking and Transit desk. I kid you not - both about it being a long time and about the glass! The University has since softened their look with a more welcoming window area, but to put it simply, there were days that I loved having that window in front of me.
Working in parking was no picnic. Particularly when I was responsible for parking appeals. I had freshmen cry, grown women yell, and even, one time, a man try and kick in our door. As I said, working in parking is no picnic.
It is critical that those in supervisor roles in parking do what they can to motivate their employees and improve their professional experience.
Last week at our User Group conference in Indianapolis, I sat with a group of parking operation managers and supervisors discussing this very topic. This thoughtful and staff-focused group came up with a number of suggestions for others in the room to take back to their organizations. Some of those ideas are:
1. For a smaller office, bring in breakfast once a week.
2. Motivate employees with a foot out the door to retirement by asking for their help in strategic projects.
3. Provide reward systems.
4. Have staff meetings where all can voice their ideas, then show how you intend to use those ideas.
5. Try an "employee of the month" program or something similarly celebratory.
6. Good marketing for a parking organization will translate to a better working environment for the staff. Get your policies out there: be an ambassador, not a dictator, of parking; provide good signage; offer real customer service (such as assisting in dorm move-in at Universities).
7. Provide role play opportunities to help staff work through challenging situations.
8. Training! Yep, it is that simple. Offer as many training opportunities you can to help them enhance their professional skills. Also, every employee should be confident in how to use their Parking System Software.
9. Have a career path. This is easier said than done in some state-run organizations where there are a lot of limitations on how employees can be financially compensated or promoted. If you are in one of these types of organizations, find other ways to allow for "promotion" of your employees.
10. It should be EASY for all employees to do their job. Have specific goals, clear guidelines, and provide as much support as you can!
Like I said. It is not easy working in parking. Make sure that your employees have what they need to do their jobs well and feel confident doing it!
Wow! What an awesome week. I really enjoyed seeing many of you, our customers, at UserGroup - those that I haven't seen in a while, those that I had only previously talked to on the phone, and all the first-time attendees who I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before Training Camp. I know it was a great opportunity for you to learn all those things that Flex can do to make your life easier, save a little time and keep you out of trouble...but User Group was a great opportunity for me, too. I got to learn about your operations - how you are using Flex for your parking permit management (especially as it relates to inventory control), how you are using Flex for your total parking revenue control system, and how you are using the Flex to track your carpool and vanpool participants. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the training table to say "hi" or chat about a challenge.
Remember to take advantage of everything T2 has to offer to make sure you are getting the most out of your parking system software - the free release training, Flex On-line Help, the T2 Listserv and everything you learned in the Training Camp classrooms. But most importantly, lean on all the contacts you made this week. The people who are already using the parking solution you are considering are an invaluable resource.
I'm off to climb some stairs to work off all that good food we ate all week. Hope to see you all next year in Orlando for another event-filled parking adventure!
If you've seen my previous posts (and I'm all but certain you've been waiting for my next one with baited breath, dear reader) you'll know that I'm the lead Analyst for our Hosting Environment. I play with servers, networking gear, enterprise storage, security systems, compliance, firewalls, and complicated software. I like blinking lights on equipment, play way too much video games, stood in line for every midnight showing of Star Wars, and have seen every episode of Star Trek (yes, all different flavors) at least twice. I'm a geek to the core.
And last week, T2 let me go mingle and talk to customers. Can you beleive that? Based on my stereotype, they should have me somewhere hidden in the back corners of the office, occasionally feeding me mountain dew and pizza..
I kid, I kid though - this was my fourth User Group, and every year they just keep getting better. I have the privlege of meeting up with the customers that use the solutions my team hosts and strives to keep available 24/7. Every piece of network gear, every new blinking light or state of the art server - and every report I fill out in the name of compliance - all has a face behind it. At User Group, I get to do what few geeks really get to do in their lifetime with a company - meet, mingle, and drink good beer with the customers that utilize the stuff I live and breathe.
It's a fascinating prospect, really - when you think of it - geek meets customer. Customer meets geek. Customer doesn't run away. Geek leaves User Group even more amped up to do his best to push the envelope of service in T2's Hosting Product. Seriously, though, it was great meeting new people, and shaking hands and exchanging a beer with the familiar faces of our wonderful customers was great.
Until next year - I'll stay geeky - you keep the world parking. Things work well that way.
- Grant
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend Training Camp, T2's annual User Group Conference, in Indianapolis! In attendance at Training Camp this year were players from across the United States. I had the pleasure of meeting customers from California to Vermont, Wisconsin to Texas, and just about everywhere else in between. We even had a customer or two attend from as far away as Alaska.
All of these players came to Training Camp to learn more about T2 Flex, network with their peers in the industry and have plenty of fun along the way.
As I sat in on the different training sessions each day, I was astounded by the knowledge transfer that was taking place in front of me. The T2 employees provided all kinds of useful information about the different functionality inside T2 Flex. Topics ranged from Parking Citation Collections to Campus Parking Solutions, Handheld Ticket Writers, and Parking Permit Management. Customers would often make comments like, "Wow! I did not know you could do that in Flex!" or "I can't wait to get back to show my employees these new tricks in Flex!"
In the sessions, I also noticed how customers would take the time to help each other. Many times, a customer would present a problem they had at their specific college, municipality, university, city etc., and another customer in the room would have an answer to their problem. Questions were resolved, best practices were shared, and connections were made in a matter of seconds. I can't count how many times I saw things like this happen at User Group.
Finally, after spending long days learning about T2 Flex and networking with their peers, our customers got to have some fun. At the customer party, they got to try out their passing skills, shooting abilities, and bowling prowess while supporting the Special Olympics of Indiana and hanging out with T2 staff and customers. Oh, and there were a few thirst-quenching beverages for all of our hard work throughout the week, of course!
Facilitating the Asset Management class at T2's User Group always proves to be a learning experience - even for the instructor. This year I was happy to see the turn out was as good as it was a few years ago when I taught the class. In those few years, T2's Asset Management module, which is part of of the
T2 Flex parking system software, has evolved quite a bit. It now includes automatic assigned work order responsibilities and scheduling for reoccuring work orders.
We discussed ways to become more unified in how we use T2's advanced parking solution during the session. Many customers also take advantage of T2's Parking Access and Revenue Control solution, Handheld Ticket Writers, and Event Parking Management solution. With the Asset Management module, users can now track the hardware and other assets used for those solutions!
Tracking regular maintenance of parking garage equipment, handheld ticket writers, customer self service kiosks, even elevators and vehicles with T2 Flex's Asset Management makes our customers live's easier, and nothing feels better than that. Asset Management in T2 Flex conveniently maintains the scheduling for an asset to be used with an event or scheduling regular maintenance or a repair as it prompts the user when a schedule conflict occurs.
Many of T2's customers were also excited about taking another approach at being unified in that they could use the T2 Flex Report Scheduler to send automatic notifcations to workers about assets they manage that require maintenance. Even better is the fact that parking enforcement officers can enter, maintain, and close work orders (including attaching photos!) right on the handheld ticket writer!
Becoming unified means becoming more efficient with your parking system software.
So, I've been with T2 Systems for 12 days now. I've jumped in feet first, and the water is great, folks!
I spent my second week at the 2011 T2 Systems User Group 'Training Camp' Conference. The event registration and information desk was, at times, the social hot spot. There was no better place to be to hear what people had to say about this conference.
As attendees went to their sessions, I took some notes on what people were sharing with me. I wanted to know, "What's all the buzz about this conference?". After 4 long days of informative sessions, social gatherings, celebrations, training, and networking, it finally "clicked".
The Top 5 Reasons to attend a T2 User Group Conference:
5. Impress your boss. After the conference, return home with cost saving or revenue generating solutions. Most people told me that they learned functionality and solutions that they didn't know prior to the conference.
4. Join the T2 Community. Find out what other organizations are doing and how they use Flex. One of the most amazing things I witnessed as a newcomer to the conference was the camaraderie among all of the T2 customers and staff. [PS- T2 throws a great party!]
3. You don't know what you don't know about parking management software. I must have had over 100 people cross the registration desk telling me "Wow! I had no idea I could do that with Flex [or other services]".
2. Build relationships. Get face-to-face time with account managers, T2 thought leaders and most importantly--industry peers. [also see #4]
1. I overheard a long-term customer say, "You really can't afford not to go".
After 7 years of working in a major retailer's IT department, I decided I needed a change of pace. While I built up some great relationships with my coworkers, the work itself was monotonous. I needed to work on something bigger and more creative. So when I got a call from one my friends who worked at T2 Systems, I was curious. Two of my friends had left my current company to work there, so I'd heard a lot about the awesome T2 culture. But how would it benefit my career as an Application Developer? How complicated could software that lets you in and out of garages be? I mean, you drive up, press a button, and get a ticket, right? Turns out, there is a whole lot more involved than just that! This week has been eye-opening as I've learned about everything our main product, T2 Flex, does. It is a single unified parking solution covering everything from parking access and revenue control to parking permit management to even handheld ticket writers. It is all highly advanced and fascinating to learn about.
So how will this move benefit my career? T2 has taken pains to stay ahead of the curb--I mean curve--in the industry, and the technology that makes all of those things possible is innovative and interesting. I'm now able to develop and code with experts in the field using software and technology that is industry-leading, be challenged by my work, and have opportunities to be creative!
So now I'm shifting gears and looking forward to the future with T2!
I made the choice to take a position at T2 for a variety of reasons; one of the biggest was the culture. After one day at T2 I was impressed by what this organization has done to create such an exciting and refreshing atmosphere. While many people have moved and changed jobs, moving into this company was like none other. The transparency T2 provides shows great pride within the organization and it’s reflected in each associate. In never having worked for a company that so conciously promotes culture, it has been a wild experience getting involved in T2.
I was also impressed by the industry. At first I didn’t know what to think about access and revenue control, parking garage software and parking ticketing management, but getting more of an understanding of this 25 Billion dollar industry, I see nothing but more potential, growth and opportunity. T2 is an industry leader because of our products, and I am proud to be part of the excitement. I never thought that working in advanced parking solutions, talking about access revenue control and permit management would be my next career move, but after getting learning more and meeting so many of our great customers at User Group, I see nothing but potential. When the staff likes the company and the customers like the company, it creates a really special place of incredible promise.
It’s the people that make this company what it is. It seems like in this economy, business is all about the bottom line. While financials are important, the leadership here at T2 doesn’t forget about their roots and how vital each person is in the grand scheme of things. I was excited to get to work today and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for me tomorrow!
If you had asked me 6 months ago what my ideal marketing career would include, I can tell you I would never have imagined responding by mentioning parking access and revenue control systems or parking enforcement software. It wasn't on my radar.
After just one day at T2 Systems, I can tell you my answer would include parking payment systems and parking permit software. Who knew the parking management industry and even moreso that a parking software company could be so awesome?!
The culture at T2 Systems is one that will foster my creativity, and the people are great! After all, the whole is the sum of its parts.
You've heard the saying "product of your environment". Metaphorically, I believe our product is a "product of our environment". The flexible culture is the foundation of what has built FLEX. I believe it is our flexibility that sets us apart from competition, with our people and with our product.
I was the lucky T2 Systems representative today at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that marked the launch of new pay-by-phone services in the City of Houston, Texas. And by lucky - I do mean that! It was a pleasure to meet so many great people - our great customers at the city, our great Parkmobile partners, and Houston Mayor Annise Parker.
For those cities and municipalities out there that may be looking to upgrade and improve your parking solution and your parking management, Houston is an excellent example to look to. A T2 customer for a little over two years, Houston uses the T2 parking enforcement (parking citation) and parking permit management solution. However, the city understands that in order to get more people to its thriving - and beautfiul - downtown area, they need to make parking easy and convenient.
Now drivers can pay for parking through their cell phone. During my very short comments at the event today, I mentioned how our mobile phones are so much a part of our lives; we surf the net, we check e-mail, and we make purchases. Why not use them to pay for parking? The City of Houston - and many other cities - have embraced this technology whole-heartedly, and their constituents are better off for it.
But this solution doesn't just make life easy for customers - it makes life a little easier for the enforcement officers, too! Information about the status of the parking meters is sent to their T2 handheld ticket writers in real-time, making enforcement officers more efficient and reducing errors. It's a great, integrated parking enforcement system that benefits the parking operation and the city's constituents.
Occasionally I still find it funny that I work in parking. The parking industry is something we sometimes take for granted, but it was great to see that my colleagues and my great customers in Houston - as well as city officials - understand the importance of how parking, when managed properly, can make a night out, a shopping visit, or a walk downtown not only hassle-free, but super convenient, too.
Great job Houston and Parkmobile!
Free parking and honor boxes are two of the best ways there are to forgo revenue. And if you're in the business of missed opportunities, then you can go ahead and stop reading. But if you like capitalizing on chances to secure more revenue, check out this
prezi on T2's Free to Fee solution.
It's hosted, automated, and can quickly turn that money pit into a gold mine.
Let's face it: when you think parking, the first thing that jumps to mind is not great service. Very rarely is parking a great experience for us. We rarely score the perfect spot by the exit or by the stairwell. When you need to go back and feed the meter, you often find the ticket writer lurking nearby waiting for your meter to expire. And we are never ready for the cost when the cashier tells us the total when we exit the garage.
What if we encountered a smile on our parking adventures? How would that change your outlook? What if that ticket writer said hello and talked about the weather without circling waiting for your meter to expire. What if the cashier at the exit was engaged and not annoyed that you interrupted their perusal of the National Enquirer? You just might seek out that parking lot the next time you were in the area, and perhaps the experience would be an enjoyable one.
I'm happy to say that working at T2 puts a smile on my face, and as VP of Support Services, I hope my work does the same for you.
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