Louisiana State University Streamlines Processes with T2’s All-in-One System

Louisiana State University, located in Baton Rouge, is the flagship university of the Pelican State. From championship-winning athletics to award-winning academic programs to cutting-edge research, LSU is known for excellence in many areas. However, LSU Parking & Transportation Services had fallen behind the times, riddled with end-of-life equipment and an in-house-built system that failed to connect everything together.

With a quarter of the gates across LSU’s campus not functioning and an inability to find replacement parts, enforcement officers were spending their time sitting at the gates rather than writing citations, though their end-of-life handhelds would have made that challenging anyway. This made it difficult for LSU to keep the core of its campus secure and led to a significant loss of revenue.

Additionally, LSU’s in-house-built parking management system did not connect the department’s various solutions – permit management, enforcement, PARCS, and meters – leaving the team with manual processes, disconnects, and redundant information.

LSU implemented T2 Flex® software for permit management and enforcement, T2 FlexPort for online permit sales and citation payments, T2’s Mobile Enforcement App, and T2 Logan PARCS, all of which run on a single platform and integrate with one another and third-party systems seamlessly.

Flex serves as the epicenter for LSU’s parking operation, where they can manage and configure permits and monitor enforcement activity and citations. FlexPort makes it possible for the team to sell permits online through a dedicated web portal, which are then fulfilled through T2’s PermitDirect solution. With PermitDirect, T2 partner WW&L takes the orders made through FlexPort and handles the printing and shipping of the credentials.

The Mobile Enforcement App enables LSU’s enforcement officers to easily perform permit lookups and issue citations from a smartphone, all while integrating seamlessly with Flex in real-time. As far as access and revenue control, LSU installed T2 Logan PARCS hardware at 64 access points across several surface lots and two garages. Flex also serves as the back end system to manage these facilities and lanes.

One of the biggest successes for LSU Parking & Transportation has simply been having working equipment, with officers able to conduct enforcement rather than sitting at the broken gates and staff no longer constantly focused on fixing broken equipment.

With all aspects of their operation now in a single system, it’s much easier for the Parking Services team to provide credentials to students, faculty, and staff, while enforcement officers have accurate, real-time information in their hands. And, manual processes like raising gates can be done with the push of a button.

Meanwhile, Flex’s robust reporting capabilities and seamless integrations have made reconciliation much easier for the business office. Previously the systems were not syncing and so everything needed to be double-checked, but now they are able to bill without doing a lot of extra research.

“It is a lot more seamless now than it ever has been before,” Laura Foster, Assistant Director of Financial Operations stated, “so that’s our goal: to keep on creating automated processes that work, to allow us to function with the new requirements that we’re getting – because stuff is always changing – and to also make it seamless and easy for the customer, where they have the confidence on what they need to do when they are coming, regardless if it’s a visitor, student, faculty member, or just a unique situation.”

About T2 Systems 

T2 is the largest provider of parking, transportation, and mobility solutions in North America. With over 25 years in business T2 now serves more than 1,700 customers and maintains the largest Customer Community with over 5,000 active members. T2's open technology and best practices are used to process over 2 billion US dollars annually, and the company's PARCS, Permits, Enforcement, Pay Stations, and Professional Services capabilities are renowned for innovation and reliability. T2 solutions help universities, municipalities, operators, healthcare campuses, transportation hubs generate revenue and operate efficiently with integrated solutions featuring touchless and contactless options. From curbside management to gateless, from mobile payments to transportation demand management, T2 strives to make every trip a smooth journey by streamlining the parking, mobility, and transportation experience with technology solutions that help organizations manage resources, achieve goals and empower consumers with choices.