Customer Choice and Smarter Parking with Trent Prior

One of them was that you've talked about discovery and how you, whenever you first got into parking, you did a lot of discovery.

So what I hear from that is that you like to learn and that's a great thing.

quality for a manager to have.

Another thing I keep hearing you talk about is getting that buy-in, not only from the vendors, but also from your staff and your employees.

So do you have any advice to managers out there in other municipalities or councils that can help them grow in those areas or keep an open mind to that discovery concept and that buy-in concept?

Yeah, a really good reflection and definitely curiosity was probably the real big driver for us in the earlier days.

I just couldn't quite understand how we ended up in this situation.

And I guess for us, we purchased that equipment back in 2014.

Technology has changed.

Expectations have changed both from staff and and the community.

And we just weren't moving fast enough with our technology.

So ultimately that curiosity factor really helped me and the team go and, you know, talk to other councils, speak to pretty much every vendor in Australia.

And we brought that Telstra Purple on and a consultant as well in Tricia Rogers come and sat with us to guide us through an expression of interest phase.

So we went out to the whole market and said, tell us what products you've got and how it all glues together.

And that early phase that we went through really established, you know, our requirements moving forwards.

And I guess, you know, we knew we wanted SaaS-based solution.

We knew we wanted open integrations.

We knew we wanted data to be shared bi-directionally.

So, you know, we get the best out of both systems.

And those principles stayed with us throughout the whole process.

But I guess for me and the feedback to any council or any organization looking to do this is, you know, really establish your blueprint and your key features that are absolutely non-negotiable.

And communicate that openly to vendors.

So it was no surprise when we did ask vendors to, you know, buy directly, integrate their apps.

you know, that they weren't surprised.

You know, we've told them three times before, this is where we're going, this is where we're going, this is where we're going.

One of them was that you've talked about discovery and how you, whenever you first got into parking, you did a lot of discovery.

So what I hear from that is that you like to learn and that's a great thing.

quality for a manager to have.

Another thing I keep hearing you talk about is getting that buy-in, not only from the vendors, but also from your staff and your employees.

So do you have any advice to managers out there in other municipalities or councils that can help them grow in those areas or keep an open mind to that discovery concept and that buy-in concept?

Yeah, a really good reflection and definitely curiosity was probably the real big driver for us in the earlier days.

I just couldn't quite understand how we ended up in this situation.

And I guess for us, we purchased that equipment back in 2014.

Technology has changed.

Expectations have changed both from staff and and the community.

And we just weren't moving fast enough with our technology.

So ultimately that curiosity factor really helped me and the team go and, you know, talk to other councils, speak to pretty much every vendor in Australia.

And we brought that Telstra Purple on and a consultant as well in Tricia Rogers come and sat with us to guide us through an expression of interest phase.

So we went out to the whole market and said, tell us what products you've got and how it all glues together.

And that early phase that we went through really established, you know, our requirements moving forwards.

And I guess, you know, we knew we wanted SaaS-based solution.

We knew we wanted open integrations.

We knew we wanted data to be shared bi-directionally.

So, you know, we get the best out of both systems.

And those principles stayed with us throughout the whole process.

But I guess for me and the feedback to any council or any organization looking to do this is, you know, really establish your blueprint and your key features that are absolutely non-negotiable.

And communicate that openly to vendors.

So it was no surprise when we did ask vendors to, you know, buy directly, integrate their apps.

you know, that they weren't surprised.

You know, we've told them three times before, this is where we're going, this is where we're going, this is where we're going.