Innovation Debt and Parking

It’s no secret that technological advancements shape businesses across different industries, including the parking industry. The purpose of utilizing new technologies is to improve the parking industry’s performance and deliver a better service experience to customers by offering them comfort and convenience.

Besides this factor, there’s also a dire need for system improvement in the parking industry because of the increasing number of registered cars. That is exactly why traffic congestion, especially in big cities, remains a problem.

With new and advanced technology systems, players in the parking industry can ensure a smooth flow of traffic, at least in the areas they serve. Furthermore, they can also provide adequate parking spaces to vehicle owners, including residents and visitors. It makes perfect sense for parking companies to invest in innovation.

Innovation Has Evolved for the Better

In fact, history proves that innovation is crucial for the parking industry. For example, in the 1920s when there was no regulated parking space anywhere, people would just park their vehicles anywhere on the streets. Likewise, parking spaces in most of the shopping areas were occupied by downtown employees, thus leaving no parking space for customers.

This resulted in traffic congestion and hurt the businesses of merchants as nobody would visit their shops due to the lack of a proper parking space. The advent of the parking meter addressed this issue. Soon enough, it became a standard.

Then we saw paper violations to regulate the parking industry. Paper-based tickets were issued to people for parking violations.

Innovation Debt — Minimize it for Success

In today’s day and age, we see a new shift in technology systems, such as everything around us becoming smarter and cloud-based. The parking industry must leap and innovate itself to stay relevant. It won’t be wrong to say that innovation debt is closely related to the parking industry. 

Innovation has always been one of the top factors for improving the industry’s operations. Likewise, if the parking industry players fall back on the technologies of the past, thinking that they have worked well for decades and will continue doing so in the coming years, then they are likely to incur a high innovation debt.

Gradual Tech Adoption Can Make a Difference

A gradual shift to smart and cloud-based technologies is the only way for parking companies to compete and improve their operational performance and lower innovation debt. Start by taking small steps to make the cost impact low while operational improvement is substantial.

For example, paper permits should be a thing of the past. Consider investing in smart device-issued permits. These devices are advanced, fast, and efficient. They can be linked to a database and can help you easily identify legal parkers.

Therefore, if you are the owner of a parking company, you need to invest in new systems for improved operational performance and customer experiences. Remember, small and gradual changes can make a big difference.

Parking Must Invest in Technology

The significant increase in commercial property development in the past five years has led to a surge in the number of parking lots. These parking structures are necessary additions to both commercial and residential developments, especially in urban settings with mixed-use developments.

According to a report published by IBISWorld, in the past 5 years, the parking industry has grown by nearly 2.8 percent translating to $10 billion in revenues. And within the same time period, commercial businesses have grown by 2.6 percent with a growth rate of 1.8 percent in their number of employees.

As competition and demand for parking structures increase, industry players need to maximize their investment in technology and minimize their innovation debt. This is perhaps the best strategy to compete with a competitive edge. And this is clearly evident from the fact that the largest market shareholders in the US parking industry, like SP Plus Corporation and Indigo, are innovation-driven, so why not you?

Keep Up With Changing Trends

Technology is undoubtedly changing the processes of the parking industry. It makes operational work more efficient, faster, and friendlier at all levels. Therefore, if you want to match the industry pace, your business needs to be abreast with the changing trends, and that calls for the gradual adoption of new technology. It would be best to eliminate innovation debt from your business equation to succeed and capture a bigger market share.

A good example of staying abreast with the changing trends in the OPS-COM system. It is a fully integrated parking and violations platform that allows you to smoothly integrate all authorized parkers, term, and temp parking apps tied to a full enforcement suite that issues warnings and violations. It also automatically looks up license plate history.

This system truly shows that we’re at the pinnacle of parking technology. Now, if you don’t update your operations with this or such types of technologies that are revolutionizing the parking industry, then you might be a full generation behind in your service. This can hurt your business tremendously in terms of profits and business productivity.

Redefine Your Work Approach

New technology resources can add value to your business by redefining your work approach. If you have a large parking company, you could easily be having three to four generations of staff working under one roof.

Instead of following the typical work approach where the younger staff learns from the oldest and continues to rely on systems that are now obsolete, it is best to introduce new technologies to your business landscape and train everyone to use the latest hardware and software options so that all generations can work efficiently, accept change and deliver their best.

Deliver Superior Customer Experience

The success of your business is highly dependent on customer experience.

To deliver a superior customer experience, you need to exceed your customers’ expectations. To make this happen, use the power of new tech. That’s right; offer a better service experience through mobile apps allowing for reservations and payments and access control systems for better traffic flow at your parking facility so that drivers can find a space and park their cars easily.

If you want to run a profitable business with a growing customer base, the gradual adoption of new tech is the way to go.