In all those cases, my guess is that a technocrat sat in a
office, decided they had a problem that needed fixing, and then sat
about to fix it. They did an admirable job. In most cases the product
was better than the competition's. But it never caught on, They created
a solution in search of a problem.
We find this, I think, in our industry. When we walk through
the IPI exhibition in Denver month after next, we will see a lot of
systems, paradigms, solutions, and esoteric discussions of ways to
solve problems. Owners and senior managers will be wowed by the wonders
of it all and order books will be filled with solutions, mostly high
tech, that are intended to solve problems that these managers see
daily. But they won't.
I think that the issues these technical marvels are to solve
come from the top down. Owners think that if they install a revenue
control system, with all the whistles and bells, their revenue will
increase. They think that if the machines can spew out reports they
will have the knowledge they need to make decisions on the future of
their businesses. They think that if they have Brand X in one garage
and Brand Y in another, that these new technologies will make them all
live in harmony and provide similar information and reports.
I sat with senior managers of one of the largest and most
respected parking equipment manufacturers this week and I asked what
was the most important thing that they could provide. This manager, who
comes from the marketing and not engineering side of the company, was
spot on. He said one word – "Training."
He understood the problem. Although senior managers in parking
operations and in parking ownership are looking for technical
solutions, they may miss the fact that their front line people are
sorely in need to technical training. Simply plopping someone down in
front of a PC and showing them how to use a mouse doesn't do it.
Many front line managers in our business come from the rank
and file. They are promoted from within, or they don't have deep
backgrounds in day to day computer operations. They don't know a
spreadsheet from a word processor. To them a GUI is a toffy that has
been sitting in the sun. Often they cut their teeth on PCs that came
over with the Pilgrims and in many garages that's what is sitting on
the desk today.
They have to worry about scratched cars, monthly permits, an
owner that has issues with attendants, maintenance, lighting, financial
issues, bank deposits, daily reports, personnel, and really don't have
time to teach themselves about an extremely complex piece of technology
that has been dropped into their office.
The fellow I spoke to was worried that no matter how easy they
make their equipment to use, and how few choices they give the front
line personnel, they wouldn't be able to make it work.
His sales manager, sitting next to me, laughed. "It's just
like the old mechanical counters we had years ago in garages. They
didn't work well and required a lot of attention to detail. Most of
them were simply turned off. No one had the time to deal with them."
So here it is. We have a technical solution to our problems.
But do we have the people in place to use it? Of course in some major
operations there are people there who know how to use these marvels.
But is that true across the board? In the small 450 car garages that
produce a million bucks a year? Does that manager have the personal
tools to make it happen? Or will they simply be "turned off" and left
to lie fallow?
We have a lot of work to do and those in operations need to
start with training and education before the technology is dropped in
place.
JVH