Now that lockdowns are being lifted and Covid-19 restrictions are easing in some countries around the world we ask our Business Members how they are responding. In this Quick Question series, we hear about how our members are returning to the office, adapting workplaces to social distancing measures, and maintaining business continuity. Read on to find out how you can prepare for the "new normal".
Christer Halvorsen, Revenue Manager at 2Park Technologies
13 weeks after Covid-19 measures were introduced the weekly like-for-like parking volume at our 150 Autopay locations is 83% recovered compared to last year. The transient segment has recovered to pre-pandemic levels as people prefer private vehicles to public transportation options. The contract segment, however, suffers more deeply. We saw a 3% shift from our cash machines to automated online payments during the past three months. We think landlords who can offer free-flow, touchless solutions are more likely to attract customers in the future.
Maarten Mijwaart, Business Developer at Tattile
Tattile headquarters are located in Brescia, in the heart of Lombardia, a region clearly affected by Covid-19. The outbreak forced us to close down our factory and headquarters for several weeks, but thanks to the hard work and dedication of our staff we have been able to ensure business continuity, and none of our clients have been confronted by any significant supply delay. The business is surely slowing down somewhat but all major projects continue, so we trust that we can still end 2020 in style.
Simon Wood, International Partner Manager at CCV Group
CCV has always provided remote support to customers and so we have been 100% up and running during the COVID crisis. At times, the lockdown has tested working processes but we have come out of the other side a fitter, leaner organization even better prepared for the future. We also launched our revolutionary new IM30 payment terminal at what would have been Intertraffic time, and are very happy to see increasing levels of inquiry about this device now that our customers are returning to work and planning for the future.
Marilena Forzatti, Chief Financial Officer at Paradox Engineering
Our team’s health and safety was the priority and so we extended our smart working program to cover 100% of our employees during the lockdown. This meant that we could ensure the continuity of almost 100% of our projects with very little impact. The lifting of Covid-19 measures brought us back to some normality and now most of us are back in the office. We are also benefitting from some innovative knowledge sharing and training initiatives that started during the lockdown.
Tanja Hess, Export Sales Director at nagels
With the lifting of Covid-19 measures, restaurants, shops, malls, and even airports are opening and usual business is picking up. We see that our contactless RFID solutions are becoming more important than before now that public awareness and market demand is rising. We also extended our portfolio when the crisis hit with disinfectants, social distancing floor labels, face masks, etc. I think that many measures will be carried out voluntarily even once they have been lifted by the state.
Emily Perrett, HR Manager at NMI
At the moment the Covid-19 restrictions have not been lifted enough to be reflected in our operations, however, we are planning for when restrictions are lifted further. We are planning a phased return to each of our offices, both in the US and Europe whilst ensuring that there is no disruption to our services. We have surveyed all of our employees, taking their views into account as well as receiving local government guidance regularly. Before we return we will be implementing additional social distancing and hygiene measures to keep our employees safe.
David Parker, COO at Cleverciti
The biggest impact we have seen is a recovery in parking occupancy. As we look across our global platform we can see that occupancy is increasing quickly – first in Europe, and then in the US, in line with the lifting of quarantine restrictions. One of our shopping mall clients, for example, their parking areas were empty a month ago, and some days they are now over 70% full. These data have been helpful to our clients daily to ensure they are maintaining capacity caps and social distancing guidelines. It is relieving to see life coming back into our economy and customer base and we are optimistic for the future.
Tammy Baker, Vice President of Client Experience at Parker Technology
Our workforce was impacted by the stay at home order – once restrictions were lifted everybody was ready to be around each other again, and feed off the positive energy that the team brings, but at the same time, there was apprehension. We are working hard to keep as many of our trained employees as we possibly can because we know that business is going to come back and we want to have people here ready to handle it. It is a delicate balance that has put a lot of strain on the business in the short term, but we do know that we will be thankful for this decision in the long term.
Adrian Cseko, Sales Manager at Asura Technologies
We are back in the office working with the team once again. Our daily schedule did not change that much as our clients and partners are all over the globe so web conferencing will always be important to us. However, we are still missing events, so we are waiting for the time to reconnect physically with the global parking community.
Joan Sarda, Marketing Manager at CIRCONTROL
At CIRCONTROL the lifting of Covid-19 measures has not impacted our operations. We already adjusted our manufacturing lines to meet with the new safety standards and even doubling the shift to have full capacity. So in that sense, we have been fully operative since around the middle of April.
Martin Kieroth, Distribution International at projekt w
We have better ways to discuss things now that temporary home workers are back in the office. I am happy that I can now arrange meetings with my customers and visit them. Overall I hope that there won’t be a second wave, I think we have to wait until the end of the summer vacation to see the results.
