As you know T2 Systems develops parking solutions. We offer software like permit management and access control, we offer equipment like revenue control equipment and handheld ticket writers and we also offer parking ticket collection services through CCS. Who do we offer those products to? Glad you asked, last year at our annual User Group conference we put together a short video concentrating on our customer successes. We did this because we wouldn't be here without our customers and we wanted to highlight a few facts and figures from them. Feel free to watch the T2 Customer Success video:
Okay, so lately I have been spending a rather high percentage of my time at the amusement parks of central Florida. The weather has been beautiful and I just like to get out and about...people watch so to speak. What amazes me though, is the parking operations at the different parks. For example, the Disney parks use manned lots to control parking. You pay your $14 fee to gain entrance to the attendant and follow the cones until you get to the designated parking row where several additional parking attendants guide you into your space for the day - ones even on a Segway (which I think is really cool, but...I digress). The same work flow happens over at Universal Studios with one exception, you get to park in a parking garage instead of having the sun beat down on your car in a lot. Other than that, everything is the same - okay no Segway here but everything else is the same.
So I guess what I am getting at is, aren't they even the least bit worried about having that much cash exchange hands without some kind of control? I mean, yeah most times I go through the gates, the parking attendant rings up the money in the cash register so there is no question. But I am sure there are times when it is busy that the cashier doesn't ring up a transaction, for the sake of saving time. I think this would be a perfect location to have a parking management system. Maybe something like T2's PermitNOW (shameless plug inserted here!) I mean, in order for the parking permits to be printed, a transaction has to take place. So whether the customer is paying by cash or credit card, the parking attendant runs it through the handheld ticket writer and out comes a parking permit for the day. The beauty of this is, since payment has to be made in order to generate a parking permit, everything is trackable through the parking management software on the back end.
Well, seeing as Disney has been in business for a few decades, I guess they probably have this parking thing down, but I say, there is always room for improvement:)
So I guess what I am getting at is, aren't they even the least bit worried about having that much cash exchange hands without some kind of control? I mean, yeah most times I go through the gates, the parking attendant rings up the money in the cash register so there is no question. But I am sure there are times when it is busy that the cashier doesn't ring up a transaction, for the sake of saving time. I think this would be a perfect location to have a parking management system. Maybe something like T2's PermitNOW (shameless plug inserted here!) I mean, in order for the parking permits to be printed, a transaction has to take place. So whether the customer is paying by cash or credit card, the parking attendant runs it through the handheld ticket writer and out comes a parking permit for the day. The beauty of this is, since payment has to be made in order to generate a parking permit, everything is trackable through the parking management software on the back end.
Well, seeing as Disney has been in business for a few decades, I guess they probably have this parking thing down, but I say, there is always room for improvement:)
Selling parking spaces is kind of like airlines selling seats, or hotels selling room-nights. The supply of parking is pretty much a fixed quantity: it's not like new parking spaces are made available every day (or planes suddenly fly with more seats, or hotels suddenly have a new wing of rooms to sell).
Because the quantity is fixed you want to maximize the usage of the spaces (or seats or rooms) by filling those spaces every day. A day that a parking space remains empty generates no revenue - just like an empty seat on a plane that has taken off.
What's interesting about selling out the spaces - but not overselling them - is that it serves two purposes: (1) it maximizes revenue at the current price, and (2) it maximizes the number of satisfied customers. Oversell may generate more revenue but it dissatisfies some parkers who can't find space. Underselling generates less revenue and potentially fewer total satisfied customers.
In the case where your supply of parking spaces or airplane seats or hotel rooms is mostly constant you have to use pricing to try to manage the demand. Having a number of parking spaces is actually irrelevant, what you want to do is create a scarcity of available spaces. The key is to find the price at which all the spaces sell, but no more than all of them. Economically speaking, this matches the supply and the demand in a way that satisfies the most people at the highest price. Making the price higher will drive away customers, and making the price lower will result in a shortage of spaces.
Airlines realized this a long time ago, and have come up with many ways of trying to fine tune pricing so that the passenger load factor (the ratio of full seats to available seats on a given flight) is as close to 100% as possible. Pricing for a seat on a particular flight can be revised or altered several times a day by computer systems trying to sell out the plane.
In what ways to airlines use creative pricing? We're all familiar with these.
Probably the most common pricing differentiator is by using a "class" system - first class, business class and coach class are three differentiators. The parking equivalent could be the garage near the building versus the economy lot further away.
Additionally, seats within a class might be priced differently. In coach the airline passenger has the option of paying a premium for an exit-row seat, or for a seat with extra legroom. The parking equivalent here could be reserved spaces near a door, or perhaps parking in a nested area on a given floor of a facility.
Airlines also set their pricing based on the desirability of the flight. Morning and evening flights are more popular than afternoons, so these are priced higher. Wednesday is unpopular for flying so it's cheaper, while Friday and Sunday are the most traveled and subsequently higher priced. Parking does the same thing: early bird specials encourage parking before the rush hour; while special events might cause prices to spike on a weekend.
What is a little more unusual about the airline seat-pricing model is that the airline is aggressive at selling out the seats. The airline computer systems and predictive modeling will change the price of a seat multiple times, even in the same day. If the flight looks like it will sell-out then the remaining seats (the scarce ones) increase in value. Now imagine if parking operations did this - varied the price of the stall based on the number of remaining stalls!
There is a parking operation attempting to do this. The SF park project in San Francisco has received a lot of parking press lately on their goal of adjusting meter prices monthly so as to create a small amount of empty spaces on each block-face. The idea is that parking should be mostly full most of the time. The City plans to combine parking management software, space detection equipment, and a variety of metered parking devices to create gather sufficient data to price spaces monthly. Too much availability? Drop the price. Parking too scarce? Raise the price. It's the free market at work!
It's a simple concept but requires a complex implementation. Many eyes in our industry are watching to see how this works. In terms of the airline's sophisticated daily pricing adjustments, these monthly parking updates are as close as we'll get for a while. But rest assured that if this experiment is a success then you'll see more and more parking operations pricing like airlines.
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 a parking ticket before being hired at T2 and I haven't gotten one since. That's probably a combination of me being a conformist detail-oriented rule-follower, and living in the suburbs where there just isn't a lot of parking enforcement going on. There aren't exactly a lot of parking garages in my neighborhood.
For the record, I totally deserved the parking ticket. I parked in a two-hour zone and got stuck for a lot longer than I expected. I didn't make it back to my car for almost four hours. The parking ticket was a whopping $10. Thinking back on that now, I'm surprised how old-school the ticket was. It wasn't produced using an electronic handheld ticket writer. It was pen on two-part-carbonless paper. No parking ticket computer for them. Pure no-tech.
The really frustrating part was that the city parking solution was entirely manual. Not just the ticket writing. The whole darn thing. I had to pay $10 in cash ONLY and I had to pay it in person within 7 days. Oh, and the parking office was already closed for the day. If only they had given me a way to pay online, I'd have done it right then and there. I'd even have paid a few extra bucks to save the extra trip back to pay the fine.
At the end of the day, it just goes to show that there are a lot more places than need good parking enforcement systems and that following the rules works well for me.
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 a parking ticket before being hired at T2 and I haven't gotten one since. That's probably a combination of me being a conformist detail-oriented rule-follower, and living in the suburbs where there just isn't a lot of parking enforcement going on. There aren't exactly a lot of parking garages in my neighborhood.
For the record, I totally deserved the parking ticket. I parked in a two-hour zone and got stuck for a lot longer than I expected. I didn't make it back to my car for almost four hours. The parking ticket was a whopping $10. Thinking back on that now, I'm surprised how old-school the ticket was. It wasn't produced using an electronic handheld ticket writer. It was pen on two-part-carbonless paper. No parking ticket computer for them. Pure no-tech.
The really frustrating part was that the city parking solution was entirely manual. Not just the ticket writing. The whole darn thing. I had to pay $10 in cash ONLY and I had to pay it in person within 7 days. Oh, and the parking office was already closed for the day. If only they had given me a way to pay online, I'd have done it right then and there. I'd even have paid a few extra bucks to save the extra trip back to pay the fine.
At the end of the day, it just goes to show that there are a lot more places than need good parking enforcement systems and that following the rules works well for me.
I've spent the past 8.5 years in parking, and have seen many sides of campus parking solutions. The one that usually brings me an "instant bond" with our customers is the 2 years or so that I spent handling citation appeals.
Aside from being a key component of parking citation management, citation appeals can also provide a delightful source of entertainment. Whether it be the employee who threatened my life from the same "anonymous" email address he used to file his appeal, or the grad student who provided photographic evidence that there were no "No Parking" signs where he had left his vehicle. Granted, his vehicle was 20 feet back from the sidewalk next to the tree line, but he was technically correct.
My personal favorite is still one undergrad who didn't seem to grasp the notion that what she put in an email could come back to haunt her down the line. After offering up several creative activities I could perform upon myself with a BBQ fork, she then followed up by informing me that she had "broken more than her fair share of gate arms over the years" and inviting me to "just try and prove that!" So I hit reply, CCed the dean of students, and sent her the one-word reply of "Done." I miss those crazy kids sometimes.
I think that if I were still working in the operational side of campus parking solutions, I'd have to take advantage of some of the broader functionality offered by today's parking system software. Perhaps a custom field added to appeals records where you could rate them by the creativity of their appeal? Then, when I needed a little pick-me-up, I could run a query to find all my favorites.
I left those appeals behind when I came to T2, but I still have that grad student's picture on the wall above my desk. Just a little reminder that, no matter how delusional, those folks really did believe they were in a legal space. . .
Aside from being a key component of parking citation management, citation appeals can also provide a delightful source of entertainment. Whether it be the employee who threatened my life from the same "anonymous" email address he used to file his appeal, or the grad student who provided photographic evidence that there were no "No Parking" signs where he had left his vehicle. Granted, his vehicle was 20 feet back from the sidewalk next to the tree line, but he was technically correct.
My personal favorite is still one undergrad who didn't seem to grasp the notion that what she put in an email could come back to haunt her down the line. After offering up several creative activities I could perform upon myself with a BBQ fork, she then followed up by informing me that she had "broken more than her fair share of gate arms over the years" and inviting me to "just try and prove that!" So I hit reply, CCed the dean of students, and sent her the one-word reply of "Done." I miss those crazy kids sometimes.
I think that if I were still working in the operational side of campus parking solutions, I'd have to take advantage of some of the broader functionality offered by today's parking system software. Perhaps a custom field added to appeals records where you could rate them by the creativity of their appeal? Then, when I needed a little pick-me-up, I could run a query to find all my favorites.
I left those appeals behind when I came to T2, but I still have that grad student's picture on the wall above my desk. Just a little reminder that, no matter how delusional, those folks really did believe they were in a legal space. . .
As the Old Man of 2010 way to the New Year's Baby of 2011 the question is... what does the New Year hold? Given that some of the most famous prognosticators predict with only 39% accuracy you'll be equally forgiving with these Crazy Parking Predictions of 2011!
> In 2011 parking meters will experience a software glitch similar to Y2K. Twenty-four hours of free parking will be given to anyone who feeds a meter at 11:11am on November 11, 2011.
> 2011 will be the Year of the Parking App. If you have an iPhone, an Android-phone, megaphone, Blackberry, Blueberry or Halleberry then you'll be able to get an "app" that lets you find parking, reserve parking, pay for parking, or share parking with somebody you don't know.
> In 2011 the Internet will officially be renamed "The Cloud". Use of the word Internet will disappear overnight. Nobody will really be sure what the cloud really is, but there will be Parking in The Cloud. One enterprising American City will rename itself The Cloud.
> In 2011 sales of electric vehicles will exceed expectations. With these new vehicles we will see the creation of the electric license plate, which will subsequently befuddle all existing LPR systems.
> 2011 will see rent prices rise in London, England to such a high level that it will become cheaper to live in your car than in an apartment. Parking garage owners will offer cash-for-clunkers to fill empty stalls, and then lease them out as hotel rooms.
Best wishes for a great 2011!
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 that policy one night. He had a bunch of boxes to carry out to the dumpster and wanted to do it as quickly as possible. With all of the best intentions, he propped open the door figuring that it would only be for a few minutes. Unfortunately for him, some "bad guys" saw him do that. While he was inside getting a load of boxes, they came in, beat him badly enough to subdue him, and then stole a bunch of computers from the office he was cleaning. Fortunately he fully recovered physically. Unfortunately, his company had to fire him that same day for violating security policies and causing the cleaning company’s client to be victimized because of that violation. Double ouch.
So what does that have to do with Parking, Parking System Software, and Parking Access and Revenue Control? It is all about balancing security with convenience and expediency. Lots of parking facilities accept credit cards. If you take credit cards, you’re subject to PCI compliance rules. Much like the unfortunate employee in the cleaning crew, if you take shortcuts that compromise security, your parking facility could face some rather severe consequences. A parking lot can't be beat up or fired, but your bank could take away your ability to accept credit cards, you could be subject to fines and even huge civil penalties resulting from a credit-card related security breach. When an important or valued customer asks you to "just keep their credit card on file" or emails you their credit card information, it is tempting (and often good customer service) to just do what they ask. Unfortunately, like our ill-fated cleaner, doing that can get you in a lot of trouble.
The key is finding a way to balance good service and following good security practices. Unfortunately, security and convenience are inversely related. It is a heck of a lot more convenient to leave your home unlocked rather than fumble with keys when you come home in the dark with your arms full of groceries, kids, or both, but most of us don’t do that. We lock our homes (and often arm alarm systems) because we want and need to take reasonable precautions to keep our homes safe.
T2 Systems has recently completed our PCI-DSS Assessment to become a Service Provider. As a result of that project, we have been listed on the Visa Global List of PCI DSS Validated Service Providers (http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/cisp-list-of-pcidss-compliant-service-providers.pdf). This is a long, complicated, expensive process, but it was well worth it for us and for our customers. By T2 being a PCI-DSS Service Provider, our Advanced Parking Solutions customers have a lot less PCI-related work ahead of them by using the integrated Parking Payment Systems within our products. Our customers still can’t keep credit card numbers on post-it notes, but they have a whole lot less computer system work to do. Regardless of whether or not you are a T2 Systems customer, diligence with credit cards is critical. Credit card breaches typically don’t result in physical beatings, but if you have to deal with a breach, you may almost envy the guy that was only beat up and fired.
So what does that have to do with Parking, Parking System Software, and Parking Access and Revenue Control? It is all about balancing security with convenience and expediency. Lots of parking facilities accept credit cards. If you take credit cards, you’re subject to PCI compliance rules. Much like the unfortunate employee in the cleaning crew, if you take shortcuts that compromise security, your parking facility could face some rather severe consequences. A parking lot can't be beat up or fired, but your bank could take away your ability to accept credit cards, you could be subject to fines and even huge civil penalties resulting from a credit-card related security breach. When an important or valued customer asks you to "just keep their credit card on file" or emails you their credit card information, it is tempting (and often good customer service) to just do what they ask. Unfortunately, like our ill-fated cleaner, doing that can get you in a lot of trouble.
The key is finding a way to balance good service and following good security practices. Unfortunately, security and convenience are inversely related. It is a heck of a lot more convenient to leave your home unlocked rather than fumble with keys when you come home in the dark with your arms full of groceries, kids, or both, but most of us don’t do that. We lock our homes (and often arm alarm systems) because we want and need to take reasonable precautions to keep our homes safe.
T2 Systems has recently completed our PCI-DSS Assessment to become a Service Provider. As a result of that project, we have been listed on the Visa Global List of PCI DSS Validated Service Providers (http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/cisp-list-of-pcidss-compliant-service-providers.pdf). This is a long, complicated, expensive process, but it was well worth it for us and for our customers. By T2 being a PCI-DSS Service Provider, our Advanced Parking Solutions customers have a lot less PCI-related work ahead of them by using the integrated Parking Payment Systems within our products. Our customers still can’t keep credit card numbers on post-it notes, but they have a whole lot less computer system work to do. Regardless of whether or not you are a T2 Systems customer, diligence with credit cards is critical. Credit card breaches typically don’t result in physical beatings, but if you have to deal with a breach, you may almost envy the guy that was only beat up and fired.
I normally wouldn't write about parking technology. I mean although I work for a parking software company, I am technologically challenged. However, I saw an article recently about Washington, DC testing parking occupancy sensors. A small disc is placed in the parking space that sends information telling officials whether the parking space is occupied or not.
As of now, Washington, DC is just using the sensors to track parking habits. However, in the future the information could be funneled to a smartphone or computer telling customers where to find empty parking spaces. Now, that would be awesome!
As of now, Washington, DC is just using the sensors to track parking habits. However, in the future the information could be funneled to a smartphone or computer telling customers where to find empty parking spaces. Now, that would be awesome!
So, you are a parking organization that is stuck in the 1960's handwriting parking tickets. There's no budget for handheld ticket writers for all of your parking enforcement officers, so some of them use the old ticket book to write up parking violations. Well, as you and I both know, there are often challenges with writing those parking citations; it can be difficult reading the officers' handwriting (especially if it is like mine) and the time and effort required to locate and manually input the data into the parking management system can be significant.
T2's new eTicketBook software eliminates the hassles associated with the handwritten tickets by enabling officers to issue parking citations from their in-vehicle computers and automatically upload the citation data into the T2 Flex parking management system.
Cool alert!! The new eTicketBook software also integrates with AutoVu a mobile license plate recognition (LPR) system developed by Genetec.
T2's new eTicketBook software eliminates the hassles associated with the handwritten tickets by enabling officers to issue parking citations from their in-vehicle computers and automatically upload the citation data into the T2 Flex parking management system.
Cool alert!! The new eTicketBook software also integrates with AutoVu a mobile license plate recognition (LPR) system developed by Genetec.
Wow...I have no idea what Bob Dylan was trying to say with those words of wisdom(it's a little before my time). However, I think it is pretty cool that someone like Bob Dylan would even reference a parking meter in a song. That being said, let's get to the meat of this blog...
HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY PARKING METER! Yes, three quarters of a century ago, on July 16, 1935, the parking meter was born in Oklahoma-as was an entire industry. You see, shortly after the first meter was installed, parking tickets came around and of course parking enforcement officers were right there too-only back then, people referred to them as "meter maids".
As seen in some of my previous blogs, joining the parking industry isn't normally your first thought upon earning that college degree, but why not? We have enforcement officers. We work with governments, universities, the private sector and even hospitals. The parking industry is international-just about every country has some sort of parking controls in place. The technology behind parking is constantly being upgraded and tested including things like parking management software, handheld ticket writers, parking pay-by-phone, parking apps for smart phones and of course the new multispace parking meters.
I am pretty sure when Carl Magee developed and installed that first meter, he had no idea he was igniting this industry and in essence changing the world-some think for the better! So, thanks Carl. It is because of you I have a job. And when I tell people I work for a software company that develops parking software, I get that strange look which is always fun.
HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY PARKING METER! Yes, three quarters of a century ago, on July 16, 1935, the parking meter was born in Oklahoma-as was an entire industry. You see, shortly after the first meter was installed, parking tickets came around and of course parking enforcement officers were right there too-only back then, people referred to them as "meter maids".
As seen in some of my previous blogs, joining the parking industry isn't normally your first thought upon earning that college degree, but why not? We have enforcement officers. We work with governments, universities, the private sector and even hospitals. The parking industry is international-just about every country has some sort of parking controls in place. The technology behind parking is constantly being upgraded and tested including things like parking management software, handheld ticket writers, parking pay-by-phone, parking apps for smart phones and of course the new multispace parking meters.
I am pretty sure when Carl Magee developed and installed that first meter, he had no idea he was igniting this industry and in essence changing the world-some think for the better! So, thanks Carl. It is because of you I have a job. And when I tell people I work for a software company that develops parking software, I get that strange look which is always fun.
Ok, I don't consider myself a lazy person... I like to walk, bike ride, swim; I always choose the stairs over the elevator (unless we're talking about more than 5 floors of course), and I get peeved whenever I see the same person circling a parking lot or parking garage multiple times just so they can get the closest parking space available. I just think that's ridiculous...by the time they find something, I'm already in the store getting my stuff done!
However, I must admit that there are definitely times when I sooo want to take advantage of the new "mommy" (or should I say "parent") parking spaces that many stores and other areas now provide - even when I don't have my kids with me! How horrible is that?? Have you seen these spaces? They usually are indicated by a drawing on the space that shows a parent with a car seat, stroller or other contraption for transporting your children. And even though my kids aren't with me, the car seats in the back are clearly visible. Would anyone really see me walk out of the car without the kids? Is there an enforcement officer walking the grocery store parking lot with a handheld ticket writer making sure that you really do have your kids with you? Would they really give me a parking ticket or citation?
Believe me, there have been days when I'm so tired and there are clearly no spaces that are close - so I've been tempted to snag one of the "parent" spaces, even without the kids. For those of you who may watch "Desperate Housewives", there was an episode in which one of the wives (Gabby) mis-used her husband's handicapped parking hangtag - just so she could be close and not have to walk far in her high heels. Does my tempatation put me in the same category as her? I certainly hope not!
Let's face it - there are times when we all want to park our car as close to our destination as possible...there are days when we just don't want to walk it. As one who works for a parking management solution provider, I understand the importance of parking rules. That's what keeps me employed! Businesses, cities/municipalities, colleges and universities all need rules, and ways to manage those rules and all of us that park. Why else would there by the need for parking system software, parking permit management systems, access and revenue control systems, and a ton of other parking management solutions?
It's because at the end of the day, we're all selfish - willing to fight, drive around, waste valuable time - and break the rules, in order to snag that coveted close parking space! We all just might as well admit it!
However, I must admit that there are definitely times when I sooo want to take advantage of the new "mommy" (or should I say "parent") parking spaces that many stores and other areas now provide - even when I don't have my kids with me! How horrible is that?? Have you seen these spaces? They usually are indicated by a drawing on the space that shows a parent with a car seat, stroller or other contraption for transporting your children. And even though my kids aren't with me, the car seats in the back are clearly visible. Would anyone really see me walk out of the car without the kids? Is there an enforcement officer walking the grocery store parking lot with a handheld ticket writer making sure that you really do have your kids with you? Would they really give me a parking ticket or citation?
Believe me, there have been days when I'm so tired and there are clearly no spaces that are close - so I've been tempted to snag one of the "parent" spaces, even without the kids. For those of you who may watch "Desperate Housewives", there was an episode in which one of the wives (Gabby) mis-used her husband's handicapped parking hangtag - just so she could be close and not have to walk far in her high heels. Does my tempatation put me in the same category as her? I certainly hope not!
Let's face it - there are times when we all want to park our car as close to our destination as possible...there are days when we just don't want to walk it. As one who works for a parking management solution provider, I understand the importance of parking rules. That's what keeps me employed! Businesses, cities/municipalities, colleges and universities all need rules, and ways to manage those rules and all of us that park. Why else would there by the need for parking system software, parking permit management systems, access and revenue control systems, and a ton of other parking management solutions?
It's because at the end of the day, we're all selfish - willing to fight, drive around, waste valuable time - and break the rules, in order to snag that coveted close parking space! We all just might as well admit it!
Continuing with our stories about how T2 employees came to parking is a short blurb from Natalie in Support:
My husband jokingly credits himself for my career. He was writing parking citations at the beach as his summer job when we were both in college. I was tired of working part time in restaurants when a bookkeeping position opened in the office. It turned out that working in parking was a great job to have while also completing my degree. Over the course of the next few years, I worked in customer service, wrote parking citations, booted and towed vehicles, and helped in the parking office. I worked in three different parking operations which were all managed by the same private company. Eventually one of those operations switched their software to T2 Flex and I was introduced to T2 Systems.
Natalie Baird
We are back from the annual T2 company meeting. The meeting was a huge success. We learned about new solutions coming from T2 including the new T2 branded parking access and revenue control hardware. This is cool, T2 Systems now has our own brand of revenue control hardware. This means we offer not only the parking industry's first unified software solution where parking operations can manage both the permits and enforcement and the access and revenue control portions of parking in one web based, fully hostable system, but we also offer the parking access and revenue control equipment in conjunction with our distributor partners. Pretty awesome, huh?!
Back to the T2 Systems company meeting. I promised some photos in my last blog, so below you will see T2 in action at the Shepherd Center. There we cleaned up a bit and installed new patios for the community.
Coming soon...IPI updates (and maybe some pics)..so stay tuned
I started at T2 Systems 11 years ago as an Application Consultant. This is similar to what the Implementation Consultants do now, but with a few more components. PowerPark had less moving pieces and parts, so it took less people to implement.
I worked with the University of Virgina, and the energetic Rebecca White, in 2000. This was one of the hardest and most rewarding parking software installs I have had the pleasure to be a part of. Every install has its challenges, but the sheer volume of their data meant we would be running conversion programs for hours through the night.
Becca knows how to make things fun. We started the conversions running at the end of the day, and a shopping cart ride (oh yes, there are pictures, Kendall), one large beer, several BBQ chicken wings later, we were back in the office at 11 PM to get the next round going.
We stayed pretty late, got a couple of hours of sleep and went back to it. A LOT of work, but always easier to do when you work with a group that knows how to pull the fun into it.
I don't do installations anymore, but when I think back to the early years here at T2 Systems (okay and last year at Portland State), these are some of my favorite memories.
Don't think the rest of you I worked with in the past are exempt. I will be blogging about you in the future!
Being in T2 Systems support I talk to a *lot* of people over the phone. I have heard a lot of things said but rarely does anything actually leave me truly… speechless.
Several years ago I had scheduled a call with a customer several hours earlier then I would normally start my shift.
Now I am a night owl and so not a morning person, and at the time I was working the perfect shift, 12PM to 8PM ET. Since I worked at home, that meant my alarm didn’t go off until 11:45. Perfect… utterly perfect. As such I detested calls I was forced to schedule earlier then when I started.
So I call the customer a few minutes after 8AM to help troubleshoot some parking software problem that I have long since forgotten. As we were working thru the issue the customer out of the blue tells me:
“Your voice sounds different in the morning”.
I immediately know what the customer is referring to. Being that it was hours before I would normally be talking to any customers my tone was a little more curt and rough then my normal nice and friendly tone. I immediately apologize and try to explain that the coffee just hasn’t reached my bloodstream yet, but the customer interrupts with this gem:
“It’s sexy”
…
So after a couple minutes of me staring silently at my phone I finally mutter a thank you. I then proceeded as quickly as possible thru the rest of the call.
Apparently, despite what my wife says, my morning voice is sexy.
JB
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 cool technology to keep all of these advanced parking solutions running well.
Just last week we passed the 1.3 BILLION record mark in our production databases. Three years ago I would never have guessed that parking software could generate that much data this quickly. It has been a fun experience growing this environment.
Keep those parkers parking. We've got plenty of room for billions and billions more rows. Maybe we need to invest in a sign that says "billions and billions parked". Hmmmm...
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 to current IT industry standards (IIS, web services, Oracle/MS SQL, Cloud Computing, Software as a Service), or providing PCI compliance, the simple fact is that vendors in the parking industry have not invested in IT to the detriment of themselves and their customers.
When was the last time you wrote a check shopping? How frustrated do you get when you cannot view a bill or an account online? There is a culture being established that is becoming an expectation of our customers that everything can and should be done from an internet connection (via laptop, desktop, iPhone, PDA, cellular device, etc). Parking organizations appear antiquated if they don’t have an “ebusiness” solution. The reality is that many parking organizations must purchase solutions from vendors rather than build their own due to their own lack of IT investment. The industry needs turnkey solutions developed specifically to meet the technology of the times and the expectations of the customers (both external and internal).
I understand there are some in the parking industry that have already seen the writing on the wall and are pioneering an effort forward in this respect (thanks T2 Systems). My hope is that others in the industry will take initiative to develop enterprise level systems that meet the needs of today as well as tomorrow.
Jeff Reed
Project Manager, PMP
The University of Texas at Austin
Speaking (or writing) as a marketing professional who comes from the OLD world of “bingo” cards for sales leads and regular phone calls as a way of staying connected to customers, I now have to consider how to incorporate BLOGS and FACEBOOK into my corporate marketing plan. What? You mean Facebook…the way I stay connected with friends who aren’t close by…is also something I have to consider as a way to help my company? And for that matter… as a way to discuss parking and parking management solutions? Who wants to talk about parking if you don’t have to?
Well actually, those of you who live and breathe parking everyday do need to talk to others in the business. You know, the whole concept of sharing ideas, best practices…all that jazz (the stuff we like to say about our own User Group conference). You also just may need to blow off some steam to someone else who understands.
But you know what? You also need to talk to your vendors and providers. All of us here at T2 Systems are working hard to make “doing business” with us easier…developing new solutions for our customer website as well as other online tools that put information at your fingertips. But that’s not the same as really communicating with – and getting to know - your parking solution vendor. It's not always about the parking system or the software. T2’s strength has always been the tight relationships we’ve had with our customers and in this world of technology it’s often harder to maintain those relationships the way we’d like.
So - we’re finally venturing out… using blogs, Facebook and other tools to engage with you. And we really do want this to be about you. Whether you’re a current T2 customer or one who is managing parking or “touches” parking in some way, please talk with us and talk with EACH OTHER. Let’s share how we’re feeling, what we’re thinking; share ideas, suggestions, concerns, challenges, etc. Let’s talk to each other like we do our friends. I’m thinking maybe we can continue our history of maintaining great relationships and possibly even foster new ones!
Welcome to 2010! Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Every year many folks set out with the best of intentions to start off the new year. And sometimes these stick... but mostly they don't.
In fact the same New Year's Resolutions seem to crop up every year with alarming popularity. You can find lots of them online. However in order to put a "parking spin" on them, here are my suggestions for the Top Eight New Year's Resolutions for a Parking Office.
Eight New Year's Resolutions for the Parking Office
1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends
You're a parking office. You don't have any friends. You do, however, have scofflaws. Spend more time with them instead - they'll love you for it!
2. Get Fit
Regular exercise is the key to being fit. What does a parking office do to get fit?
Lifting weights will help get fit. And not too many things weigh more than a car! So lifting cars is what we need - lifting them right over to the towing compound. That's the resolution: towing three reps of 10 cars each and every day.
Statistics show that people are overweight. Even obese. They need to lose some weight. But how does a parking office lose weight?
Most parking operations have filing cabinets full of paper records. I say "who needs 'em?" Filing cabinets are fat and heavy. Ditch the filing cabinets, shred the papers, and you'll feel much lighter. (Side benefit: paperless office).
4. Quit Smoking
If the parking office is smoking then it's probably on fire. Run!
5. Enjoy Life More
The parking office is a go-go-go operation. Stop and smell the flowers once and a while.
Close the office for a week, stop enforcing, and raise the gates. You'll feel better afterwards and your parkers will love you for it! (Or at least during the resuting parking free-for-all they'll get an appreciation for the services that you actually do provide.)
We all know that parking and booze go together like hot dogs and buns. Skip this resolution because you're just going to break it at the next parking conference.
7. Get Out of Debt
Most parking offices have lots of debt. If you have a garage, you have debt. Or a municipal bond. Or parking management software (from the other guys, of course - our stuff is very reasonably priced). Debt. Debt. Debt.
Bottom line: You couldn't sell enough permits and collect enough citations in a hundred years to get out your office out of debt. So suck it up and see resolution #6 as a coping mechanism.
Aha! A resolution we can actually do something about. But what to learn... hmmm.
Learning another langugage is cool and never goes out of style. Sometimes an accent even makes you sound more sophisticated.
Latin is always a popular choice. Many people have even heard of it. You can re-do all your parking materials and brochures in latin too. And you can even change your phone system greeting: "Pulsus 1 pro latin vel 2 pro english secuutus per talentum."
Follow these resolutions and you're well on your way to a better 2010. Happy New Year!
There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears around here, but we did it! T2 Flex v6.6 was released this week. You might be thinking "Big deal...what does that mean to me?" Well, what's sooooo cool about this release is a hosting feature. This is not just your ordinary parking permits and enforcement software hosting, though.
T2 Systems can now host your parking access and revenue control systems!
So, allow me to break this down for you. Not only can T2 Systems host your parking permit and enforcement management software, but as an industry first, we can now host the software for your gated parking facilities. This means customers no longer have to have an IT staff on payroll just to manage gates into and out of parking lots and parking garages, which translates into a HUGE cost savings for you.
We are very proud of this accomplishment. When others said it couldn't be done, we proved them wrong!
So take a look at T2 Systems. With T2 Flex, you can manage all of your parking permits, parking enforcement, parking access control and parking revenue control in one easy to use parking management solution - and we can host it ALL for you!
T2 Systems can now host your parking access and revenue control systems!
So, allow me to break this down for you. Not only can T2 Systems host your parking permit and enforcement management software, but as an industry first, we can now host the software for your gated parking facilities. This means customers no longer have to have an IT staff on payroll just to manage gates into and out of parking lots and parking garages, which translates into a HUGE cost savings for you.
We are very proud of this accomplishment. When others said it couldn't be done, we proved them wrong!
So take a look at T2 Systems. With T2 Flex, you can manage all of your parking permits, parking enforcement, parking access control and parking revenue control in one easy to use parking management solution - and we can host it ALL for you!
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