Managing an office parking lot is a resource drain: from monitoring occupancy to booking and renting out spots, it is due an automatization like several other aspects of running a business have done in the past decade.

Digital parking management is a two birds, one stone solution. From the parking lot operator’s point of view, it’s an automated system that saves you costs and increases utilization. On the other hand, it makes everything easier for drivers: from booking a parking spot to finding it and later handling finances, it’s all in the palm of their hand. To put the cherry on top, the system integrates seamlessly with smart utility management and EV chargers, which are becoming increasingly more common.

In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into how digital parking solutions can benefit your business financially and take a look under the hood at the technologies connecting it all together. 

Appic by Hiflylabs’ has partnered with ParkL to develop full end-to-end custom parking management solutions for our clients. However, the topics we discuss are primarily platform agnostic.  

The Business Benefits of Digital Parking

Parking has largely been left untouched for the past several decades. Sure, some places have free spot indicators and counters, and long gone are the times of bored fee collectors by the entrance, but in general, it all feels like they were left out of the modernization wave of the current century.

Digital parking solutions provide countless benefits on both ends, for drivers and operators as well. Let’s take a look!

Space Utilization

Multiple companies regularly share office buildings, and while the number of employees driving to work is decreasing, managing parking space availability can be a challenge—just a single vehicle in an incorrect space can cause an avalanche of issues!

Fortunately, a parking management solution can help utilize space utilization. Here are some examples of it in action:

• Indoor positioning combined with license plate recognition can help employees find their space.
• Allocations can change adaptively thereby catering to company events, hybrid work environments, and similar situations.
• Real-time information ensures optimized booking with the ability to lease remaining space to generate additional revenue.

Coupled with real-time, actionable analytics, a digital parking solution gives you all the power to make the most out of your facilities. By looking at historic trends and real-time data, you will stay informed about how and when you can further optimize your parking lot rentals.

Previous projects have resulted in up to 80% increased amount of utilized parking spots.

Operational Efficiency

More optimized utilization comes with additional benefits. For example, the data from our analytics includes detailed information on:

• which parking spaces were used and when,
• to what percentage your tenants utilize their spots,
• and which areas are the most often unused.

Highlighting these underutilized parking spaces allows you to repurpose them as leased parking spots, opening up an alternative revenue stream for your company. Additionally, dynamic load management allows you to achieve a lower operational cost as well. This ensures that parking spaces are assigned in a manner that optimizes energy consumption, e.g.: unused floors are not fully lit, EV charger power use is optimized accordingly, etc.

These functions are beneficial from your tenants’ point of view, too: increasingly transparent and easily accessible digital operations will make parking spaces available to more employees, encouraging people to work from the office.

All in all, digitalized parking management drives up the value of your properties, lowers your costs, and allows for higher tenant engagement compared to regular parking lot management.

Sustainability

However, not only is a digitalized parking solution good for your business, it’s also great for the environment!

Governments worldwide are rolling out regulations that require companies to boost their ESG scores one way or another, and having ways to support this can give a boost to your office building and its perception as well. 

For example, EV usage and installing EV chargers reduce carbon emissions, which is a fundamental part of the Environmental pillar. Even if you already took the first step of using an energy management system or BMS, our solution can easily be integrated with them so you have all your tools in one spot.

On top of encouraging tenant companies to transition to electric vehicles, this attracts future tenants who are looking to invest in sustainability as well, in turn making sure that your facilities are sustainable in the long run.

Enhanced User Experience

Sustainability and costs aren’t the only things when it comes to attracting and retaining tenants, though. The way you interact with them and how their daily experience is shaped also influences their decisions and choices. 

In all of our work, we put people first: this includes making sure that the UI is built logically and to a purpose, but at the same time it is aesthetically pleasing and integrates into your brand’s identity.

Alongside guidance, in the case of an unexpected change or emergency, you can communicate with drivers directly through the app to notify them.

And the cherry on top: it all works with public and enterprise locations! If there’s a similar digital parking solution installed, users can just keep using the same solutions. It’s mobility made effortless. And people love it: over 90% of employees at previous project locations said that they were satisfied with the implementation.

The Technical Backend

The solution combines a proprietary physical layer with a powerful digital experience layer.

The physical layer, consisting of smart gates, EV chargers, as well as sensors and cameras for indoor positioning and use monitoring, is fully provided by ParkL. These devices are all connected to the gateways and ParkL’s cloud architecture, allowing you to manage everything from access and zones to EV chargers from the online admin interface, in real-time. Unexpected guest arriving at the office, or someone seems to be occupying a spot that belongs to someone else? Everything can be accessed via the control panel!

This is all made possible through the digital layer, crafted by Appic by Hiflylabs. Whether it is an MDM-ready mobile application, app clips that enable use without downloading or installing a separate app, we got you covered. Additionally, rich push notifications allow you to take quick actions in a heartbeat, while indoor positioning and AR/VR capabilities ensure that you’re always where you need to be.

On top of providing full, instant control over the entire parking system, the control panel is equipped with real-time analytics and reporting so that you can keep an eye out at all times. To round it all up, ML predictions based on historical data, as well as other tools, allow you to make informed, data-driven decisions about your facilities. Whether you’re looking to rent out spots that haven’t seen use in a while or want to optimize team allocation, the tools are all in your hands.

Features

The digital parking management solution created by ParkL and Appic by Hiflylabs combines the best of both worlds with high-quality proprietary hardware and matching, customizable software. Let’s check out all the bits that make it all work!

Digital Parking Spot Management

• Automatic dynamic allocation: Once set up, the system optimizes parking spot use, while considering prerequisites such as team-based spot allocation.
• Real-time management: In case you need to make a last-minute reservation or change a previous booking,  you can do it through the admin interface.
• (Mis)use monitoring: Keep an eye on the entire parking lot at a glance, and identify blocked parking spots or missing reservations immediately!
• Large vehicle support: We’ve got you covered if your parking lot offers non-standard parking spots, or if you drive a large vehicle!
• Easy drive-in: License plate recognition and two-way gates make parking a breeze.

EV Compatibility

• EV charger management: Start and stop your EV charging straight from the app, or manage EV parking spots from the admin hub.
• Live updates: Don’t worry about optimal charging, the app notifies you once your car’s battery is at capacity.
• Energy management: Only operate EV chargers when a car is actually using it.
• In-app payment: Handle finances straight from the app, be it a company, shared or private vehicle that you’re charging.

Corporate Sharing

• Corporate fleets and car-sharing support: Manage parking for multiple vehicles at once with the fleet feature.
• Multiple registered cars/employee: Register multiple license plates for one user without issue.
• Priority and team-based parking: Someone important visiting the office? Get ahead of overcrowding the parking lot with priority parking!
• User and guest management: Quickly add and manage current corporate users and guests so that they can use the system from the get-go.

Powerful Control Panel

• Real-time insights and overview: All of the above, at a glance, as it happens. Take a look at the current state and the usage history on the admin interface.
• Payment management: The system handles billing automatically, and users can pay straight from the app. 
• Occupancy calendar: Book ahead or check out previous usage stats to optimize utilization.
• Analytics & AI/ML insights: All of the data is processed and handled by AI/ML, offering you more details compared to traditional stats.

Conclusion

Parking has largely been left out of digital transformation waves so far, even though it’s an endless source of frustration for all of us. Digital Parking Management alleviates this for drivers and parking lot operators by automating the most painful processes on both sides, from booking to finding your parking spot and managing finances. In addition, it saves costs and makes the entire process more transparent.

Is digital parking for you? Let’s get in touch and see how it can benefit your company!