Tehnology

The Solution

SMS4parking®  provides very efficient control of parking processes based on the latest communication technologies. Parking officers are connected to back office application via PDA or a Cellular phone and through a Bluetooth technology to a wireless micro printer. All the data is transmitted via GPRS in a matter of seconds from the time the parking officer typed the car’s registration plate number. The information that is send back will show whether there is a paid fee for this particular car and if so when it will expire, In the case the parking fee was never paid or it expired the parking officer will print the parking fine. Furthermore SMS4parking® is also used by the parking authorities to check the work of its parking officers (i.e. how many cars were checked, how many ticket issued…) thus providing for a measurable control of the activities of each parking officer contributing to their increased (and measurable) productivity.

Total Revenue and Access Control on Site or Off Site

SMS4parking® is the next generation of revenue and access control for the parking industry. It combines PSC MS software development and in parking management expertise for a totally integrated system solution. Fully scalable, robust, cost-effective and easy-to-use, SMS4parking® gives you complete control from a single lot up to multiple facilities around the nation, whether you are on site, at a central office, or traveling the world. No matter where you are, you gain real-time 3-D mapping of transactions and system activity, along with a full suite of pre-configured reports that put mission-critical data at your fingertips.

The Most Advanced, Fully Integrated Technology

Designed for optimum performance of parking equipment, all of SMS4parking®’s system interaction is performed using any standard Internet Explorer® web browser without the need to license and install dedicated workstations.*
The highly advanced SMS4parking® system was designed from the ground up to take advantage of Microsoft’s state-of-the-art .NET® technology, instead of trying to adapt old technology to provide piecemeal web-support. SMS4Parking™ uses industry standard TCP/IP communications to allow simple solutions that take advantage of a full range of off-the-shelf local area, wide area, and wireless network connectivity solutions.

Real-Time Transaction and Count Monitoring

The SMS4parking® solution gathers all transactions made from mobile phones of users, as well as privileged and reserved tickets (parking devices and access control points) in real-time. As messages are received, SMS4parking® stores them in a Microsoft® SQL Server database and simultaneously displays them on site maps in your browser. Any exception message can be designated as an Alarm for highlighted display, as well as being e-mailed to the appropriate responder’s computer or text-messaging device. Lot counts, differentials, and statistics are readily available on screen at all times.

Comprehensive  Reporting

SMS4parking® provides a full repertoire of ready-to-run reports that can be viewed from any web browser. Each can be easily tailored on-the-fly by selecting a time and date range (Today,Yesterday,This Week, Last Week, Last Month, Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, Custom) and other criteria to narrow down your report to just the information you want to see. All report settings can be saved to run the tailored report at a later time with a single click.

Reports can be:

• Viewed on screen, printed, saved to file
• Locations, converted to XML, PDF, Word, Excel files, or e-mailed to recipients.
• Scheduled to automatically run at regular times:
• Specific day(s) each week, specific day(s) each month, specific day(s) each quarter or year.
• Enhanced with charts and other graphics using Special Reports plug-in.

Simplified Management of Contract Customers

SMS4parking® allows your contract cardholder database to be managed from your browser. All contract cardholders can be grouped by account with up to three access cards assigned to each cardholder. Cardholder profiles allow you to precisely configure access rights once and then simply assign the appropriate profile to each cardholder. User-defined fields can easily be added to the cardholder database to customize it for your needs. Batch operations allow you to apply changes to large groups of cardholders in one operation.

Full Accounts Receivable Support

With the SMS4parking® Accounts Receivable plug-in, you define how and when accounts are billed (sms tickets, pre-pay,post-pay, per-usage, flat rate, variable rate, auto-charge credit card on file, auto-invoice,monthly,quarterly, etc.).

SMS4parking® Accounts Receivable allows you to: Automatically disable contract cards for delinquent accounts according to user-specified rules (Aging Category, Amount of Balance, Number of Notices).

Also users can link discount coupons to accounts to charge back discounts to the issuer. Automate invoicing, credit card auto-replenish, and late notices based on schedules you define. Send automatic e-mail notification when credit cards are charged. Link all transactions and charges to General Ledger accounts.

Single-Source Security and Alarm Monitoring for Lots and Buildings

SMS4parking® includes sophisticated access control features only found in true security applications. These allow you to control access to parking facilities and buildings with a single system (e.g., supervised input monitoring, input shunting, anti-pass back, user-defined alarms, local door-held-open alarm, elevator control, input-output linking, and multiple door shunt duration).
Distributed intelligence provides superior response time when a card is presented. Access decisions are made locally at the controller so access is not interrupted should the server be unreachable. SMS4parking® Access Modules support all card readers and keypads that use a Wigand or clock/data output format (including proximity,wiegand, magnetic stripe, and biometric), as well as any card data format (including site and facility codes and issue levels).

Manager of Control Officers (Parking Enforcement  Manager)

Control Managers are employees of the Municipality business system. Processes recognized in the work of control managers:
1. Maintenance of Pocket PC computers and printers.
2. Entrust control officers with Pocket PC computers and associated equipment at the beginning of shift.
3. Retrieve control officers’ Pocket PC computers and associated equipment at the end of shift.
4. Define zones, sectors and shifts for each working day, per control officer.
5. Administration of data on control officers.

Advantage

Modern technologies on which the solution of SMS4parking® is based and web-oriented applications enable fast and low rate implementation of this system on the already existing hardware infrastructure of companies which are responsible for parking organization in cities. Namely, the user purchases solely the service of using the SMS4parking® system, without the need for any additional investments in a complicated hardware infrastructure.

SMS4parking® has been developed by PSC MS  development team during 2005. Transaction and hosting centre has started the operative phase at the end of Q1-2006, and the first city was connected to the TC in May 2006.