You’ve got the data, its time to use it
You’ve probably heard the term “big data” thrown around quite a bit lately—people talk about it as the conglomeration of several large data sets in an easily digestible format. But its true purpose is to convert data into information that is actionable. Many parking operators now have the technology to process their data, but aren’t fully utilizing the information. It’s time to start examining how big data can and should benefit your parking operation.
Start Your Big Data Engine
It’s important to remember that not all data is valuable. Because most parking management platforms pull in data from several different systems, you must first eliminate data you don’t need, and determine the key performance indicators for your operation. Remember your goal is insight, so its essential to first nail down exactly what you want to find out. Once you’ve determined your goals, you can begin building dashboards for each segment, facility, and time period you plan to monitor.
What’s in It for Me?
Converting your data into actionable information allows you to be proactive, rather than reactive when managing your parking operation. You’ll find it far easier to make accurate predictions and policy adjustments when you can visualize data points like occupancy over time and citations issued by location in one simple interface. This not only allows you to manage your operation more effectively, it also builds credibility to your administration or governing body.
You also have the intriguing opportunity to monetize your data by selling it outright to users or third parties—or even selling advertising around the use of your data.
The Value of Benchmarking
Looking at those yearly, quarterly, or monthly reports can often leave a lot of unanswered questions. Wouldn’t it be great to see data for similar operations in your geographic area? When big data is shared in the cloud, parking operators can easily share their data with industry peers—this opens up conversation and makes it easier for all parties to create benchmarks for success.
Attacking the world of big data seems like an intimidating task, but once you get a handle on it you’ll not only be improving your operation, but the parking industry as a whole.
Click here to learn more about how T2 can help you get a handle on big data.
