Why does this feel harder than it should be?

[robin.mulloy]

We’ve been seeing something interesting in demos lately and I’m curious if others are experiencing the same thing.

“Wait… that’s it?” is one of the more interesting things I hear coming out of demos, and it isn’t about features at all.

The reason for the surprise is that there is an expectation that “it” should be much harder.

I don’t sit in every demo, but I hear enough of these conversations to notice a pattern. Most of the organizations we speak with already have what they consider to be a complete system.

They’ve got mobile enforcement, permits, payments, real-time data, LPR, blah, blah, blah. On paper, everything looks complete and modern.

But when you get into the day-to-day, it’s a different story. Issuing a ticket might seem quick, but verifying everything around it isn’t.

Permit data is there, but it still needs to be checked. Payments come in, but reporting doesn’t quite line up without some additional, often painful effort.

That’s usually what people are reacting to in those moments. They’re expecting the extra steps because that’s what they’re used to… another screen, another check, another reconciliation somewhere down the line.

And then in our demos, it just doesn’t happen… or simply isn’t needed.

That’s been the focus behind OPSCOM. Not just making individual tasks faster, but removing the gaps between them so the extra effort doesn’t exist in the first place.

ParkAdmin and ViolationAdmin aren’t trying to stay in sync after the fact, they’re working from the same data set from the start.

That’s usually when the demo conversation shifts a bit. A lot less about features, and a lot more about why their current process feels so much heavier than it should.

I’m always curious… is this attitude common across the industry?

Curious if others are seeing this in their day-to-day “normal” operations.

[John_Griffiths]

I think this observation is spot on. Quite often in demos we switch from can this system handle all the difficult tracking we currently do to discussions on what the client will no longer need to do.

An obvious example is printed hang tags or costly laminated parking passes. But that’s only one example.

Here’s another:

Just this morning I had a discussion with a potential client that has separate systems for billing groups of people with various payment scenarios. (Some Invoiced, some pay monthly with a stored payment method, some pay manually.) They currently use three different systems to handle this process. Our system allows all three scenarios through the rollover process. All in one interface, reducing man hours and confusion.

Only a couple of examples but there are plenty other features that quite often get the “That’s so much easier and makes much better sense.” comment.