LSU Finds Flexibility with T2 Iris and Luke Pay Stations
Background
Whether it’s 100,000-plus football fans on a Saturday in the fall, a group of professionals attending a lecture or presentation, or a family coming to see Mike the Tiger, Louisiana State University hosts a lot of visitors throughout the year. And these visitors need somewhere to park. Unfortunately, LSU Parking & Transportation Services was dealing with end-of-life parking meters that weren’t functioning properly and lacked the mobile options that today’s consumers demand.
Challenges
“We actually were at a point where we were essentially past end of life for the meters, and we were having so many challenges,” explained Laura Foster, Assistant Director – Financial Operations. “The connectivity was spotty at times, and we were losing revenue. The system just really was not communicating, and we had done all the necessary upgrades that we needed to do to keep them as connected as possible.”
Additionally, LSU students were asking for a mobile payment option for on-campus parking. “They don’t carry cash – pretty much everything is on their phone,” Foster stated. “With the old system, it was going to be a little bit more of a challenge to go with a mobile option, and that was really what we wanted to do because we know that’s the future.”
Solutions
At the time they were looking to make a change, LSU was already a T2 customer, utilizing T2 Flex® software for permit management and enforcement, T2 FlexPort for online permit sales and citation payments, and T2’s Mobile Enforcement App. So the decision to go with T2 Luke® Multi-Space Pay Stations was an easy one.
LSU installed 11 Luke II Pay Stations – eight in surface lots and three in a multi-purpose garage. They also implemented Iris™, T2’s back end software for pay stations, which allows them to manage all aspects of their Luke IIs – collections, maintenance, rates, and more – from one platform.
In addition, LSU added a mobile payment option through ParkMobile, which integrates seamlessly with Iris to allow Foster and team to see all of their parking transactions in one application.
Results
The Luke II Pay Stations have been a huge upgrade for LSU. For starters, they are functioning properly, which has ensured that customers are able to make payments and has helped LSU maximize revenue. Additionally, the pay stations’ built-in coupon code functionality has allowed the Parking Services team to provide internal departments the ability to offer discounted parking to guests and visitors. “That’s something that we have found to be a huge advantage of having the meters on campus, just to provide that flexibility,” Foster said.
Iris has also proven to be a valuable addition. Within a couple weeks of implementing the system, a customer had their card stolen. “We ended up having the reporting that we needed to turn it over to the Police Department for them to do an investigation,” Foster explained. “In the prior system, we wouldn’t have been able to get the data that we were able to pull from Iris.”
As far as mobile payments, “We’ve gotten nothing but great reviews back from the community to say that they’re happy that we have that feature,” Foster stated. This mobile payment option has made paying for parking more convenient for students in a hurry to get to class and visitors wanting to quickly reach their destination.
“In the prior system, we wouldn’t have been able to get the data that we were able to pull from Iris.”
Laura Foster, Assistant Director – Financial Operations
Meanwhile, T2’s open API platform enables seamless integration of mobile transaction data with Iris, allowing for accurate reporting, and with the Mobile Enforcement App, providing LSU enforcement officers with real-time information on both pay station and mobile payments, in addition to parking permits.
“It is a lot more seamless now than it ever has been before,” Foster 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.”
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