I joined T2 Systems in November 2012 as a Web Developer, after
working my first job out-of-college with Fischer Homes, a regional
home builder here in the Mid-West. While I thoroughly enjoyed
working at Fischer Homes, I was very pleased to join T2 and be part
of a larger development team.
Since coming aboard, I've been impressed by the software and
systems that are in place. The atmosphere and environment of
the office space is great for productivity, where I am well-equiped
for my job. The...
Read More » »
I love it when T2 customers do cool and interesting things with
technology! In fact sometimes they show us a thing or two
about innovative ways to deliver or visualize parking information
for consumers. In this case, they did both!
Florida State University (FSU, for the uninitiated) has used
Flex data to feed into a mobile app that they constructed
themselves. You might have already seen this online - I was
fortunate enough to see some early prototypes and provide
feedback. But now it looks...
Read More » »
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...
Read More » »
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...
Read More » »
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...
Read More » »
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...
Read More » »
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...
Read More » »
One of the cool features of the Canadian
Parking Association annual conference is Lunch with a Parking Doctor, where delegates come with their parking
management ailments and get a prescription for the cure from
experienced professionals in the parking business. Sounds, great,
doesn't it?
Since I have never managed a
parking operation, and since my primary goal at the Conference is
to meet with T2 customers and others in the industry to learn about
trends and needs in parking enforcement, permit...
Read More » »
When it comes to parking citation collections, New York City
has a $16.7 million problem on their hands. Diplomats, it seems, do
not like to park legally.
New York City is
home to 289 foreign missions and consulates, many of which have
been issued multitudes of tickets for safety violations and blocked
fire hydrants. Scofflaw diplomats, drawing on the power of
their national treasuries, owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in
unpaid parking tickets, and the leaderboard is impressive:
- Egypt:...
Read More » »
I was at T2’s Datacenter the other night,
staring at the symphony of blinking lights of the servers and
network equipment that make up the Hosting Environment. In
this environment, we host over 160 customer’s parking operations.
To the customer, it’s an application like no other in the
industry – allowing a true Unified parking solution with a plethora
of business and industry-centric features wrapped around fantastic
support and performance.
To me, at the core, it’s a combination of
cutting...
Read More » »
I just passed my four-year mark working in parking. After
nearly nineteen years in banking, it took me a while to really
understand. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a long, long way from
being prepared to sit for the CAPP test, but I think
I can honestly say "I get it" when taking about Parking
Access and Revenue Control, Parking Garage Software, Handheld
Ticket Writers, and a lot of what goes into managing them.
For me, all that complexity translates back to computing systems
that talk to all of...
Read More » »
Used to, we'd use "keywords" in our content to drive Search Engine
Optimized results to our Web sites. (ie Buy Advanced Parking
Solutions!) Now we put hash marks in front of our keywords and
remove the spaces (#buyadvancedparkingsolutions!) as we tweet our
content to our followers.
Last year,
one study stated that your friends on Facebook drove more
internet traffic than Search Engine results. Google must have
found this study credible, as they
just announced their version of the Facebook...
Read More » »
Working with Advanced Parking Solutions every day can change your
perspective. I've been with T2 Systems for almost four years now
and the time has just flown by. This week we were having
a technical discussion about some possible enhancements to the
features in the eBusiness (parker-facing) portion of T2's
suite of Parking System Software and it reminded me of my
first day at T2.
On my first day at T2, I got the first and only parking ticket
of my life. Yeah, that's what I said. I'd never gotten...
Read More » »
Who says being a parking lot attendant is a dead end job? Well
those of us in the parking industry sure don't think so. I mean,
there is a plethora of things one can do here in the parking world.
And parking can even be a springboard for bigger and better
things.
Take Michael Bloomberg for example. The billionaire mayor of New
York City - yeah that Michael Bloomberg. Well guess what? He got
his start in the parking industry. Yep, he was a parking lot
attendant while working his way through...
Read More » »
Recently I was talking the manager of the company that cleans our
office building about facility security to insure that they were
following all appropriate security procedures in our space. During
that discussion, he told me a story about one of their employees
that had a very bad day. The cleaning company has a company-wide
policy against propping open doors (even for just a minute). This
policy exists to protect their clients as well as their employees.
One of their employees didn't follow...
Read More » »
In my last blog entry, I said I thought I should
stick to what I know (technology) and not dive too deeply into
the industry side of parking that many people know so much better.
I'll be keeping that in mind again today. So last month I went
to the IPI (International Parking Institute) Conference and
Expo in Las Vegas. This was my second IPI (after a bit over three
years working in the technology side of the parking
industry).
After seeing everything there, I have to say that I'm proud to
work...
Read More » »
So when I first joined T2 systems nearly three years ago, I knew
very little about parking or parking management systems. My only
real exposure was as a parker on a college campus. And even with
that, my experience with the Campus Parking Solution was only
in the form of paying for my permit once a year.
So here I am running a data center full of Software for Parking.
Just three years ago we had only a few dozen hosted customers. As
of this week we're up to 135 and we're using all sorts of...
Read More » »
A theme
I believe would be of value if brought before vendors in the
parking industry and is not terribly unique to just the parking
industry is that Information Technology must take priority within
their organizations. There are many leaders in this industry that
lag grossly behind in software technology advancements that only
handcuff parking organizations that have invested heavily in their
hardware/software. Whether its providing interoperability (import,
export, API, or interfaces), moving...
Read More » »