|
Click and Park: The Future of the Parking Industry
...... categories: pre-parking services (eg. viewing, booking, promotion of related commercial goods and services), active services (eg. expiry alerts), and post-parking services (eg. aggregated billing, coupons, co-promotion of other services).
'e-parking' or 'm-parking' solutions are bound to work best in locations with high density of spots, office areas, event locations, or lots which are close to transit points (such as subways and ferries).
For parking lot owners and managers, a Web-based wireless-enabled solution offers added advantages of monitoring traffic flow patterns in real time, datamining archives of parking pattern history to unearth useful trends, and offer value-added services in keeping with an increasingly wired and unwired clientele. These could include bulk purchases for companies and tour operators, and promotion of related services like carwash (especially in long term lots).
Key components of such a versatile parking solution include applications (eg. bar-coding), database systems (for spots, corporate clients), messaging, manager dashboard, back-up and security.
Mug An Author Dot ComThere must be millions of thieves behind bars wondering where it all went wrong. Following the traditional .....
With proper planning and robust implementation, parking headaches could soon become a thing of the past in the Internet and wireless age.
In sum, while 'Web-enabling' may have been the clarion call of the Internet Age, 'handsizing' seems to be the slogan of the Wireless Age, according to Jaclyn Easton, author of 'Going Wireless.'
About the Author Dr. Madanmohan Rao is an Internet consultant and writer based in Bangalore, India. He is the co-author of the handbook "The Internet Economy of India, 2001" and the forthcoming "Asia Pacific Internet Handbook" (McGraw Hill). Madan was formerly the communications director at the United Nations Inter Press Service bureau in New York, and vice president at IndiaWorld Communications in Bombay.
|
