In this edition of In the Spotlight by Parking Network, we speak with Liz Young from TIBA Parking Systems.
With many years of experience in the parking industry, Liz shares her perspective on TIBA’s evolution, the importance of partnerships, and how parking technology is moving beyond traditional systems toward a more connected and seamless ecosystem.
TIBA’s Vision for Everything Parking
Q: Could you briefly introduce yourself and TIBA to our audience?
Liz Young:
Historically, TIBA has been known as a stable, legacy brand of PARCS equipment, with campaigns such as “It Just Works.” Within the industry, TIBA is well respected and well known for the feature set it provides to customers, the back-end logistics, and its ability to meet the needs of both small and large operations.
What is different today, and what has changed over time, is our innovation. While the industry knows TIBA as a legacy brand, I think there is still a lot of work for us to do in educating the market on our innovation, digital services, and how we are preparing for the future using the historical database we have built over the last 30 years.
Q: How is technology currently evolving within the market, and how is that changing the way companies like TIBA approach the parking experience?
Liz Young:
I have been in this industry for almost 30 years now, and most of that time was spent in the field. That means I really experienced the deployment side of the operation, understanding the logistics from the operations team, how that impacts the user experience, and the importance of that first initial interaction with the PARCS system.
At TIBA, we are learning from those experiences. While we have a steady brand of offerings within the PARCS system and our ecosystem, we are also bringing the user experience into that. As we position our roadmap for the future and look at how we can enhance customer experiences, we are taking input directly from the source: our customers and the operators in the field who work with the system day in and day out.
Q: Is that also how the idea of “Everything Parking” came about for TIBA?
Liz Young:
Everything Parking is a concept focused on making the experience easier for everyone involved, from the end user entering a parking facility to the operator who has to manage the different functions and features of a parking garage and ecosystem.
The idea is to make that as seamless as possible. For much of the time I have been in this industry, parking systems were very proprietary. Everyone operated with closed systems, and there was not really an environment or ecosystem between different parking owners or assets.
Over the last ten years, we have transitioned to become more agile and more connected. TIBA is taking that a step further by really solidifying strategic partnerships on the back end. That means we get to work with the best-in-class providers across the different added features that make up a parking ecosystem.
We do the hard work in the background to make it seamless for the customer, so that as an operator or customer, you are dealing with one platform from end to end, with a smooth user experience that is essentially forgettable.
Q: Why partnerships are so important to TIBA’s approach, and how the market has responded to that?
Liz Young:
I think the response from the market has been good, but also tentative. I think it is tentative because of our history, and because when customers think about integrations and partnerships, they often think of a clunky process where they have to manage five different partners, collect reporting from five different places, and then do manual comparisons.
We are not just trying to change that; we are succeeding at automating that process and making integrations seamless. We are creating partnerships that allow us to provide more features and functionalities to customers without nickel-and-diming them.
It is about striking those partnerships from a commercial perspective on the back end, so that we can grow our offerings and our ecosystem for the customer’s use.
Q: How TIBA looks at supporting operators, rather than competing with them, especially as operators look to bring more value to their clients and customers?
Liz Young:
One of our main focuses and objectives is to empower our operators as partners.
I believe in the ecosystem of the parking network, no pun intended. When we work hand in hand with operators as partners and bring them the best innovation and technology focused on the operations side, they can continue to bring value to the asset owner through what they do best: operating the facility.
We want to make that as seamless as possible for them. We want to give them the tools and commit to bringing them the most innovation as the industry moves forward. That includes keeping up with trends, positioning their functionality as well as our own, and helping them create a loyal customer base as operators.
Q: What makes the future so exciting, and how do you see TIBA continuing to support customers as parking moves further beyond just the gate and the traditional parking system?
Liz Young:
The future looks great. It is really limitless, and that is what is exciting to someone like me, who came from parking at a time when spitters were still spitting out tickets.
Now, we are thinking about what a frictionless environment looks like. What does it truly mean to say “frictionless”? What does it mean, and what is the value to the customer?
One thing I am very proud of at TIBA is that we consider our customers past, present, and future. When you buy a system through TIBA, you are signing on as part of the family and part of our partnership. We want to learn from you and understand what is important to you, your vertical, and your area, so that we can build that into the roadmap.
How do we find those partners that are expanding the world of parking to beyond just the gate? What's happening within your facility and outside of your facility? And bringing to "life" the word ecosystem?
The word may be a bit of a catchphrase, but there really is not a better way to describe when we're thinking about parking outside of the gate.
That core functionality of what parking systems are and what they are meant to do, and how we can help to strengthen and position operators, owners, and users of the system to really be able to acknowledge that it is a technology piece, not just a parking gate in a garage.
Q: How TIBA is positioning itself as the industry continues to change?
Liz Young:
We tried to bring that to life this year with what we call EPX 26, which stands for Everything Parking Experience.
Although TIBA is obviously at the center as the enabling platform, EPX 26 was really about showing in real life how these partnerships come together. It was about proving the concept we have been talking about and focusing on for the last couple of years.
About TIBA Parking Systems
TIBA Parking Systems, a FAAC Group company, is the leader of solutions for the parking and mobility industry. With the most advanced and flexible systems, TIBA products are scalable, reliable, and user-friendly. TIBA is wholly committed to an “Engaged Parking Experience” through a focus on superior products, providing the industry’s most configurable solutions, and delivering a first-rate customer success partnership. TIBA’s flexible cloud architecture enables parking operators to leverage technology and market trends and unlock new revenue opportunities. TIBA serves parking operators and owners both directly and through an extensive network of value-added resellers. Visit www.tibaparking.com to learn more.
About Parking Network
Parking Network is the leading information source for parking. We connect professionals through our online and offline channels. On our online platform parking.net, we publish the latest news, product showcases, job openings, and tenders related to parking. On our platform, you can access the most complete industry and parking professionals directory. Offline, we host niche-specific networking events such as the Airport Parking Network Event.
