What’s better than a new Casio IT 9000 all in one handheld ticketwriter? A free one!
All you have to do is complete a demo and submit the included survey by October 31st 2012 and you’ll be entered to win a FREE Casio IT 9000 Handheld ticketwriter.
Click here to schedule a demo.
And if you're coming to the IPI conference and expo, stop by booth #214 to check it out and get to know the T2ers in attendance!
*Note: promotion applies to T2 Customers only.
Be Prepared this permit season
Are your permits configured properly for the upcoming permit season? Is your eBusiness site ready for the permit rush? Are all of your tasks set up for renewals?
Join us for our Permit Season training session to make sure you are ready for the permit rush. Permit Season Training will take place May 15 and 16, from 2:00 - 4:00pm EST, each day. We will discuss the permit creation and configuration process, preparing your eBusiness site, setting your renewals schedules, and setting up PermitDirect Permits. Click here to register!
And did you know that you can have access to more than 50 recorded training sessions for $395 per year? That covers everybody at your organization, and you can view training on the topics below to make sure you are ready for the upcoming season. Contact your account Manager for more information.
· Permit Manager
· PermitDirect
· Bulk Permits
· Chain of Custody – Permit Inventory
· Permit Allotments
· Permit Auto Renewals
· Value Permits
· Waitlists
Have a great Permit Season!
John Van Horn of Parking Today recently posted a piece on interoperability in parking management systems--that is, different vendors' components interfacing and working together--that compelled me to react. JVH asks, "Should Scheidt and Bachmann Software be able to run Skidata TDs and POFs?" He continues, "What is being proposed is that gates, dispensers, pay on foot machines and other peripherals are just that, peripherals, much like displays, keyboards, disk drives, and printers are on the systems you have sitting on your desk."
I believe that interoperability is critical for the success of any industry based in technology, and that certainly includes parking. Proprietary systems are antithetical to competition – they create closed environments – and customers do not like to be locked into a product or solution that is inextensible. As a result interoperable environments reduce the cost of solutions by encouraging competition. Even successful companies with a reputation for creating closed solutions (such as Apple) have opened up their closed platforms (App Store) to the great benefit of customers and third-party developers alike.
Here's a key example of interoperability: in my house we have a television set connected to a Blu-Ray player, a TiVo, and a Nintendo Wii. I completely expect that my TV will work with these devices... after all, why shouldn't it? Even the output for these devices is different and the TV still works properly with each device! TV manufacturers are very challenged in that they need to provide interoperability to compete with one another (on very thin margins) and they still work hard to differentiate their TV from the next guy, all while keeping the price competitive. In my opinion a PARCS solution should work the same way.
So back to John's blog entry. In his specific example: Why shouldn’t a customer be able to purchase Gate “A” and Software “B” if that’s what the customer is willing to pay for? The answer is not technical, it’s financial. Manufacturers want to avoid commoditization (i.e. eroding margins) for their equipment – and rightly so, because that’s what keeps them in business. The lazy way for a manufacturer to prevent commoditization is to be proprietary. But the long-term successful manufacturers will take a harder-to-execute but higher-value path to success: they will work hard to make their gate hardware so compelling (in terms of design, reliability, performance, etc.) that customers will spend more to select it over a lackluster-but-cheaper alternative.
Is it just hardware that becomes commoditized? One one might consider that the parking system software is the part that needs to change. A vendor who provides a software package with a recurring maintenance or subscription fee but never works to improve the software (bug fixes, add new features, offer cloud hosting, toss in a mobile interface…) is doing customers a massive disservice, and those customers should absolutely be able to choose an alternative.
I'll hop down from the soapbox now... thanks for reading.
A couple months ago Northern Virginia Community College contacted T2 Training to obtain certification for all their parking employees. Their goal was to motivate the staff with the certification while reducing mistakes at the front counter. The staff got a better understanding of the parking permit and citation collections software they are using and the Parking Department is benefitting from the efficiencies gained by everyone using the system in the same manner. To date, 53 staff members have completed the program earning their certification by taking 8 training courses and passing all 8 corresponding tests. This process was accomplished while the department is transitioning to T2's parking access and revenue control solution. Congratulations to the staff at NVCC!
As a suburbaner, I rarely frequent downtown Indy or areas with paid parking and public transportation. Working for a parking management software and technology company, my recent experience helped me understand the pains of our customers and their customers a little more intimately.
This week, I was downtown and decided to park in a garage because on-street parking is a recipe for a citation if you underestimate your time.
After my appointment, I was confused on how to pay for my parking. The signage was sparse and less than obvious. By accident, I saw the pay on foot machine. And...of course, I lost my ticket! I pressed the Lost Ticket button...didn't work. I pressed the Help button...didn't work. A fellow next to me said, 'Go to the building next door and see Ray--he'll help you."
Ray said, "Go to the building two doors down and see Pam--she'll help you."
Pam said, "Press the Lost Ticket or Help button."
Fantastic.
Keep in mind I had been sick with a GI virus and desperately needed to use the restroom! Was there no way out of here? Could no one help me?! Why doesn't the equipment work? Where are the people?!! I was beginning to hate unattended parking.
I tried every trick short of tail-gating, including getting another ticket while on foot (of course that didn't work because I wasn't in a car). I just wanted out of this garage! My stomach was hurting, I needed to use the restroom and no one could help me!
Finally, after walking across multiple parking floor levels and from one end to the other, I gave it one more try, and the Help button worked. As it turned out, someone was not responding to the calls prior. The Lost Ticket button worked again, and I paid for a full day of parking rather than just 2 hours.
The point of this blog post is that parking can be a real nightmare for customers and employees if not managed properly. In this case, my experience could have been a lot better with:
1) Visible signage/clear communication
2) Functional equipment (i.e. Lost Ticket and Help buttons functioning)
3) Backups for when equipment didn't work (i.e. where do I go/what do I do?)
And....
After all the rigamorole, I found my barcode ticket two days later. Sigh....
Don't get me wrong - I love our customers and it's a great treat to see them at conferences and tradeshows. I also enjoy speaking to potential customers, and understanding how our parking solutions solve their problems.
And yet walking the floor at Intertraffic last week as an attendee gave me the opportunity to learn and think more about the future of parking technology and the parking industry than I typically get at the shows in the US, where T2 is demonstrating our parking management system.
Our customers have come to rely on T2 for the cloud-based unified parking management system. Until recently that meant managing permits, parking enforcement, parking access and revenue control and event parking from one system. What will it mean tomorrow? Incorporating LPR (or as they call it in Europe ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Recognition) throughout your operation to "go permitless and gateless"? Expanding occupancy monitoring from off street facilities to on-street by adding sensors? Being able to seemlessly feed the handheld ticketwriter information from pay-by-space, pay-by-plate, pay-by-phone, transit fare collection and citywide ITS? Incorporating PDAs, phones and cars as access control credentials and payment methods? Going back to the future with barcodes and QR codes? Unifying parking and transportation into one system?
As a parking geek, I was practically giddy. For three days I could marvel at the new trends and technology for parking, as well as check the direction we've set at T2, to make sure we are going where the bigger world of parking and transportation is going. And now for the fun part - getting it done!
Parking professionals sometimes don’t understand why we need to care about data security. Remember the old adage, "Any PR is good PR?" I think we can all agree that it doesn't apply to all PR. Who wants to be known as the company that compromised their customers' identities? Now that parking software solutions involve myriad data capture capabilities, it becomes the responsibility of the parking operator to ensure that their customers are protected from cyber theft.
I find it fairly ironic that you can listen to a teenager today talk about data breaches and how they are affected by this; It only took one company’s security failure to put data protection on the map with the next generation. When Sony had a data breach that affected 101 million users, you bet the next generation stood up and took notice.
Honestly, I find thinking, learning and worrying about data security quite monotonous. That’s why it makes life so much easier to allow someone else to worry about the lion’s share of the headaches. You still have to do your homework and understand what is at stake and how thieves can take aim at your data, but finding someone you can trust to secure your data alleviates much of your stress while simultaneously achieving the kind of industry leading security measures that only a large, dedicated team can accomplish. Only then can you can rest easy knowing you have done all you can to stay off of the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper.
Fellow T2er Grant Dawson and I recently wrote an article for Parking Today on this matter. Let me know what you think in the comments of this post!
Learn more about T2's industry-leading hosting solutions
Parking in the cloud, Data Security, Parking data security
T2 Systems has made it to the finalist round of TechPoint's annual Mira awards in the IT Company of the Year category. (Check out my post on our nomination for more information)
We won a Mira award from TechPoint, Indiana's technology growth initiative, in 2008. It feels good to look back on how far we've come, and the pride we feel in earning this distinction both validates the work we do for our customers and further contributes to T2's bright outlook.
"This is the largest class of nominees and finalists that we have had in the 13 years that TechPoint has been conducting the Mira Awards, and I think that says a great deal about the strength and resilience of Indiana's tech sector," said Jim Jay, president and CEO of TechPoint.
We're thankful to be included in the prestigious group of this year's finalists. Good luck all!
Today’s parking operations need a solution that streamlines as much work as possible while providing managers with the information they need, when they need it. As the industry’s only completely unified solution, T2 Flex manages all aspects of parking – permits, citations, special event parking, and access and revenue control – ensuring users have all parking information in one complete system.
The unified approach to parking management is unmatched in the benefits it offers, and the latest T2 Flex release 7.3 includes new features and enhancements designed for efficiency, ease-of-use and flexibility, specifically in areas of reporting and data mining, enforcement, access and revenue control and special event parking.
Key Benefits:
Applications:
T2 Flex Query Manager
In terms of overall parking management, the ability to find and easily capture the information you need impacts your daily and long-term decision making, not to mention daily tasks. The T2 Flex Query Manager includes new features that make generating commonly used reports easier, and no more queries in SQL. The navigation of Query Manager and the general report wizard have been redesigned for improved usability, resulting in fewer clicks and screen refreshes. The new “Export to Excel” option allows you to send data directly to Excel for manipulation and reporting.
GPS Citation Mapping
New GPS mapping and code enforcement will enhance your enforcement practices. Based on your operation’s unique needs, you can use T2 Flex to issue citations for violations other than parking, such as loose dogs, or overgrown weeds at a property. With GPS mapping, you can capture routine GPS coordinates and display them on a Google map. If GPS is enabled on your handheld devices, you can capture GPS coordinates with each citation transaction.
Special Event Parking
The tighter integration between the T2 Flex PARCS solution and T2 PermitNow handheld software for special event parking is one of the most exciting new features of version 7.3. First, an “event value,” or cost for entering a parking facility for an event, can be purchased and tied to an active permit in T2 Flex. A huge benefit to current T2 Flex PARCS users, cashiers can now “flip” gated lots and facilities for special events by simply selecting event mode. Users can easily switch back and forth as needed, allowing existing permit holders and new parkers with a temporary permit to park in that facility. The cashier station software navigation immediately changes and in event mode displays the same options as the T2 PermitNow handheld software. This means no additional person with extra hardware is needed at the entrance of your facilities for special events, and no additional training.
For those using T2 PermitNow handheld software, it has been totally rewritten, offering faster real-time processing. During network outages, the handhelds pull information from the same source as ARC devices. This eliminates any interruption to admission, meaning no long lineups, no frustrated parkers or staff. Because the handhelds communicate in batch directly with the T2 Flex database, the need for an importer task is eliminated. Finally, users can change and update the handheld configuration options in one place and export the changes to one or more handhelds, providing consistency and huge time savings.
Paperless Parking Validations
If you are managing parking for local merchants or other businesses, you can extend paperless validations to them, making your validation process more efficient, saving costs and the environment. Instead of encoding and issuing a “chaser” ticket to validate given discounts, merchants, outside departments and other businesses can log into the parking operation’s eBusiness site and enter ticket and parker information. T2 Flex takes care of calculating the amount to discount, associating the validation with the ticket and parker, and charging the validation provider’s account. The parker uses his or her ticket as usual—no chaser ticket required.
T2 has always been a technology leader in the parking industry. We introduced the first parking enforcement product to support a graphic user interface and run on both Mac and PC in 1994. We were the first Oracle backend parking management software, awarded the On-Oracle certification in 1997. Then came PowerPark (remember PowerPark?!), the addition of Logic4U, our eBusiness solution, ePark, RoVR, PermitDirect, and our event module—all by 2004. Then we took the next big step forward when we launched T2 Flex as a SaaS solution in 2005. And we opened the doors to Citation Collection Services (2006) and our PARCS module in 2007, making us the first and only truly unified offering, bringing all aspects of parking management into one high-powered web-based suite.
We’ve added several Pay-by-Cell and Pay-by-Space partners in recent years, and T2 became the first Parking Access and Revenue Control Systems provider to achieve PCI DSS Level 1 compliance in 2010, joining a select few hundred peer organizations worldwide. With our recent investment and office relocation, T2 is poised for continued growth in the parking industry, greater support of our customers, and deeper offerings. One thing we won’t do, however, is slow down.
T2 leads through innovation, and we’re proud that today close to 400 organizations view T2 as a strategic partner in their success. That’s why we’re proud to announce that T2 Systems is nominated for the prestigious TechPoint Mira IT Company of the Year Award.
T2 is joined by fourteen other great companies in this category, and a record-breaking total of 122 nominations for this year’s TechPoint Mira awards is yet another indication that the growing Indianapolis technology community is stronger than ever. We are happy to call Indy home and are proud of our neighbors.
Thank you to the TechPoint Foundation for making this possible and for fostering the technology community in Indiana, and a very special thanks to all T2ers and our wonderful customers for making your success our success.
Good luck, nominees!
Recently, JVH reported in Parking Today blog on the challenges legacy parking revenue control system manufacturers face as parking continues to evolve:
"Technology is moving at light speed. The advent of electronic purses, the ability to pay with a near field communication (NFC) equipped smart phone, GPS and video enabled enforcement technology, QR code scanners in everyone’s hands, transaction based business models, “apps” that “run” parking garages, the marketplace is awash with startups and new technology that can leave customers and many legacy suppliers scratching their heads.’...You have to be very smart right now,” one supplier told me, “you are being forced to make a series of decisions and if one is the wrong one, you go down the wrong path, and there is no recovery. A lot of companies just don’t have the management expertise to handle this ‘state of flux.
We have seen the face of the parking industry change from cigar boxes to where we are today in 30 years. The next face we see is on the way, or perhaps already here."
Change is difficult to manage because sometimes it's difficult to see and even more difficult to respond to early enough. In order to be prepared for change in any industry, parking technology included, companies need to start before change is upon them. I am proud to say that T2 has been at the forefront of change in the parking industry.
We started our transition to a cloud parking system in 2003, rolling out T2 Flex in 2005. At the time SaaS was a relative unknown among users of parking solutions. Yet over the next few years we saw interest in parking in the cloud grow exponentially.
When PCI compliance became a significant issue for the parking industry, most PARCS providers achieved PA-DSS validation because this was a requirement to win current opportunities. So did T2. We also went a step further and achieved PCI-DSS level one compliance for our hosting environment in 2010—the first and only PARCS provider to attain this level of compliance. As a rusult, our customers benefit by shifting 80% of PCI compliance work to T2.
When we saw the emergence of new consumer parking solutions that deliver real-time information on parking availability, enable mobile payments for parking, online reservations, etc. we made sure T2 Flex is an open platform that can easily integrate with these solutions in real-time.
New technologies such as near field communication (NFC) equipped smart phones, GPS and video enabled enforcement technology, QR codes, etc. and these Parking 2.0 applications are changing the face of parking management. It is our responsibility as a parking systems manufacturer to stay relevant and continue to provide value to our customers.
With close to 400 customers in North America, T2 is no longer the new kid on the block of parking technology. We've grown up, and as a grown-up company we must anticipate and prepare appropriately for change - our customers expect no less of us.
State of flux? More like state of Flex, in my opinion.
Like many industries, parking should be the last thing your customers (patients, guests and staff) worry about.
With the escalated costs associated with developing and maintaining parking lots and garages, the need to control costs is more imperative than ever.
Implementing a sophisticated parking system: When and Why
Healthcare facilities, particularly those in urban areas, should be proactive in their approach to parking cost containment.
Moving toward centralized reporting and unified parking management is ideal for those medical facilties that:
How does parking in the cloud control costs?
By allowing a vendor to host your parking solutions, you are able to take full advantage of economy of scale by eliminating the need for additional network hardware, monitoring and maintenance costs, or future technology investments. In addition, staff time required for IT administration is dramatically reduced or eliminated.
PCI DSS compliance—why is it important?
Finding a vendor to host your solutions in a PCI DSS compliant hosting environment is crucial in giving your patients and guests peace of mind that their credit card data is secure. Just like HIPPA breaches, customer credit card data breaches are quite costly and detrimental to the organization's reputation.
PCI DSS compliance is a lengthy and costly investment to undergo, and using a vendor who has achieved Level I compliance will allow you to sleep at night without the high dollar investment attached.
The Baby Boomers
In previous decades, the aging population was a minority. With the Baby Boomers living longer and sustaining at more than 78+ million people, the need for hospital and medical center expansion is only going to rise in future years—and sooner rather than later. Hospitals are able to offset some of these expansion costs by using parking revenues to fund the investments, and monitoring how your facilities are used will enable accurate projections for future development.
Use robust reporting to monitor costs associated with cost centers and departments
When looking for ways to improve efficiencies and control costs in medical parking operations, look for a parking system vendor that is fully scalable for future growth and focuses on meeting your growing needs. Sophisticated data aggregation will be key in aligning costs with cost centers and departments.
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!
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! :-)
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