Convinced That New Technology Will Solve Your Problems? Think Again …
By Barbara Chance
You’ve been watching all the new technological develop-
ments at the trade shows for years. You’ve spoken to your colleagues in other parking organizations about what they bought and how they like it. Now, finally, you have been approved to acquire new technology for your organization – PARCS equip- ment, parking management software, pay-by-cell, LPR, RFID – you name it. But is getting new technology
the answer? Will it bring the results you want? Technology is a tool – nothing
more, nothing less. How you define the tool and how you and your organ- ization will use it are the really impor- tant issues.
What Do You Want, and Why Do You Want It? Technology should be a tool you
use to move your parking and trans- portation programs to higher levels of achievement:
improved customer
service, better reporting to monitor progress, more efficient operations, improved revenue security, enhanced support for staff activities, or other improvements. Have you and your key staff spent sufficient time defining what doesn’t work well in your program, and whether technology could actually improve the deficient parts of your program? Or are you leaping to a technology solution sim- ply because it’s popular, well- advertised or seems “sexy?”
Are You Solving Past Problems or Getting a Solution for the Future? Never assume that the
future will be the same as the past. And don’t try to solve a past problem that should not even extend into your future. As Peter F. Drucker, the man- agement
Don’t assume all the solutions lie in technology – at times,
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” – Carl Sagan
expert, wrote:
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” A large part of considering new technology should be antici-
pating how you want to manage processes in the future. What will the future needs and customer desires be in your environ- ment? What kind of solutions, technological and otherwise, will be needed to meet those future needs?
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they can be found in better standard operating procedures, poli- cies, training or management. Figuring out the real causes of your problems requires being honest about staff capabilities, your edu- cation program, and the abili- ties of your managers (including you!) – as well as how your existing technology is working.
How Do You Decide What to Purchase? When considering tech-
nology purchases, there is no greater need than to clearly define understandable and realistic performance specifi- cations. How do you want
the processes to work? What kind of outcomes do you expect to be delivered? What information should be reported and for what purpose? How quickly do you want results? What is the return on your investment? In prior times, owners of parking systems would hire con-
sultants to write detailed specifications. Technology advances and multiple vendors soon outran that process, which was a good
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