Despite the COVID-19 crisis and difficult year for many industries, our parking industry experts leave 2020 behind them and start focusing on the year ahead. In this Quick Question series, we asked our members what they will be prioritizing in 2021. We are pleased to hear that they are staying positive and starting 2021 with big ideas and important projects in mind.
Russell Simmons, Managing Director at Ballast Nedam Parking 
"We are prioritizing building on the foundations that we laid last year. Last year it was our first full year in business in the UK as Ballast Nedam Parking. We built some fantastic structures and we have done some fantastic design work ready for 2021. So we are looking forward to and prioritizing growing our team and further investing in our team to ensure we have the best team in the UK for designing and building car park structures and delivering some of those projects."
Nick D’Alessio, Senior Business Development Manager at Brother Mobile Solutions
"For Brother Mobile Solutions we see the second half of 2021 picking back up for many activities in the parking industry including commercial parking. For us, we’ll continue to focus on our municipal parking enforcement, leveraging our mobile printing solutions which provide law enforcement and others the ability to get out and about and take care of those things."
Steve Gorski, CEO at DESIGNA USA 
"Like most of us, we at DESIGNA have put the very challenging 2020 behind us and we are excited for and looking forward to 2021 and the changes it will bring the parking industry. Our priority for this year is to take the lead in driving the digitalization of the parking industry. We’ve launched our new car-based NEXT solution platform which is a SAS model for small to medium size projects. We are also planning to launch several other innovations this year including free flow and payment solutions and maybe some other surprises as well."
Marco Parnisari, Smart Parking Product Manager at Paradox Engineering
"We are integrating blockchain technology into our Smart City solution to ensure the utmost cybersecurity and provide the strongest possible control at any level of the infrastructure. Blockchain also allows data to be tokenized and turn it into tradable assets. Cities and operators can monetize device-generated data, kick off new services and business models."
Matt Brooker, Regional Sales Manager, Midwest at ParkMobile 
"In 2021 I’m prioritizing our expanded partnerships with technology providers. Our platforms are connecting with more technologies and new ways, so we have to work much more closely with our partners in the industry to bring everything together. This includes things like our new Google Pay integration, we’ve got a new ticket takeover integration to allow mobile payments in gated facilities and we just announced a new partnership with TIBA that we’re very excited about. So strong partnerships with the other tech companies in the industry will lead to better overall solutions for parking providers."
Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia
"The deployment of in-car payment solutions for parking is a priority for us. We will launch several new solutions with IOMs in Europe and North America and now we’re expanding the feature set to create even better user experiences across several vehicle-centric domains. We continue to make parking greener, charging and parking need to come together in an electric vehicle. We’re actively working on solutions that solve the current problems for EV drivers. New markets, in particular in Asia, are a key focus area for Parkopedia. After establishing ourselves successfully in China, we have just launched our activities in Japan with the local presence. Finally, enter end-to-end navigation with indoor maps is a priority. Our new services will also support localization, location sharing, and many other used cases inside car parks with no GPS reception. This is key to unlocking interesting business models for the parking industry."
Ewout Buisman, Country Manager Spain at Parkos 
"At Parkos we focus on offering an enjoyable travel experience to our customers. Something that has become even more important during the times of COVID-19. In order to offer the best customer journey, the main priority at the moment is to make the booking process even more transparent. We do this by adding extra products that complete the parking experience and products that allow customers to book with even more flexibility in case of change of plans."
Ben Fox, Head of Marketing at ParkVia
"Customer experience is our priority. Our customers have already told us that they are ready to fly this year. So, our priority is to make parking at the airport as easy as possible for them. That means advertising in their preferred mediums, providing customer service on their preferred platforms, and connecting them with car parks they can trust."
Jason Yu, Business Innovation Sales Specialist at Parkxper 
"In 2021 as the virus doesn’t seem to slow down at all, we are prioritizing being ready when the pandemic is over. Parkxper's website is being refreshed as we know most physical events are being postponed. So having a well-developed website with a wide product range is currently our priority. Also, we are focusing on strengthening our product line from the newly developed motorcycle PGS system to on-street PGS and EV license plate recognition posts. This is what we are prioritizing in 2021."
