University of California, Irvine



University of California, Irvine

Parking and Transportation Services

Application for 2010 Larry L. Sautter Award for

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Information Technology

Project Title

ANTPARK – Automated Networked Transportation and Parking Administration Reporting Kernel

Submitted By

Lynn Harris

Sr. Administrative Analyst

Parking and Transportation Services

200 Public Services Building

University of California

Irvine, CA 92697-4525

leharris@uci.edu; 949.824.1467

Project Leader

Ron Fleming, Director, Parking and Transportation Services

Parking and Transportation Services Team Members

Jennifer Cartnal, Interim Associate Manager

Desiree Fleming, Sr. Administrative Analyst

Kevin Fong, Programmer/Analyst

Clint Maruki, Manager, Information Systems

Jeffrey White, Programmer/Analyst

Project Summary

ANTPARK is Parking and Transportation Services’ (P&TS) primary parking management system allowing single portal entry to an integrated, centralized system for P&TS staff and its patrons. ANTPARK was created by P&TS staff to better manage the variety and complexity of parking products on the UCI campus, to aid in maximizing parking resources on campus, and to create a flexible system for patron needs. ANTPARK is fully web-based and secure, allowing staff to manage campus parking resources and products from any computer terminal while simplifying processes and access to data. Through ANTPARK, P&TS patrons have access to data pulled from several P&TS modules and databases, allowing them to view, change, and obtain products specifically available to their personal account. Patrons may also view their personal product history, citation history, and sustainable transportation history.

Project Description

UCI’s continued campus growth necessitated the implementation of a dynamic and flexible parking product management system that could administer the increasingly wide variety of parking products and services necessary to help mitigate issues such as motor vehicle traffic on campus, increased competition for parking space in high demand areas, and create a more flexible online system allowing for more and better patron options. P&TS manages over 14,000 parking stalls utilizing over 100 permit types so it was imperative that a new system enable patrons to determine their eligibility for permit types and locations. P&TS designed a web-based platform that integrates P&TS’s other systems such as Point of Sale (POS), Sustainable Transportation (ST), Citation Management, and the Event Parking Integrated Computer System (EPICS), P&TS’s event and guest services system.

P&TS endeavored to design a system with ample flexibility to handle various parking rules and methods of delivery needed to serve the parking community. Efforts were focused on allowing patrons greater online access to their parking account while giving non-IT P&TS staff the ability to directly create or edit products, product rules, sale dates, sales caps, acceptable payment types per product, and other items affecting the terms of product dispersal. ANTPARK is more robust than the previous system and commercially available products. ANTPARK’s comprehensive design allows for greater resource management efficiency, while simplifying the compliance process for both P&TS patrons and P&TS staff.

Two main client-side modules allow access to the ANTPARK system; the Staff Gateway for P&TS staff management and myCommute for patrons. Based on their level of management or area of expertise, ANTPARK gives P&TS staff the determined amount of access as designated by management. Staff has the potential to access and modify all of the ANTPARK systems.

Benefits in management and administration processes

• The ability for parking management (non-IT staff) to create rules and limitations via a simple, user-friendly form that directly interfaces with and relates to the back-end of the system for every product in ANTPARK. Changes can be made in a timely and effective manner and are tracked to see when and by whom the changes were made.

• Product rules include but are not limited to product types, product groups, product permissions, product caps, method of product sale (online, over the counter only, etc.), method of product delivery, permit sales dates, product active date and end date controls, and method of payment type (i.e. payroll deduction).

• Simplified query form allows any user to create their own reports based on user-specified requirements.

• P&TS staff may override rules, with manager approval depending on level of access. Rule overrides are tracked for auditing purposes.

• Payroll deduction process encounters fewer mistakes as report submitted to the Payroll Office is generated directly from ANTPARK.

• Accounts update instantaneously which reflect in financial and payroll reports.

• Payroll deducted amounts automatically pro-rate, and update in payroll reports.

• Payroll deduction pulls from various databases to determine correct permit rate based on permit rules (i.e. union contract).

• Integrates permit sales information for other purposes such as for lot and permit utilization studies to ensure appropriate parking models are being used. Also directly updates interactive map (currently in beta testing phase).

• Offers a full range of customizable financial reporting features that automatically matches to UCI ledger system and which generates an audit trail and summaries.

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Improves IT environment

• Integrates multiple parking databases.

• Integrates databases from other campus units including Campus Payroll, Office of Information Technology’s Data Warehouse, the Registrar, and various student housing offices.

• Interoperable and integrated within UCI.

• Eliminates IT staff time to run reports, created or edit rules, or complete relatively mundane tasks as P&TS staff now completes these tasks.

• Works in anticipation of future technology.

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P&TS patrons access parking data by logging in to their personal parking account via the “myCommute” module. All UCI faculty, staff, and students access their myCommute account using their standard campus-issued UCInetID and password. Patrons may view and select parking products that are available to that specific account holder such as permits and sustainable transportation products and incentives, based on information received from the Office of the Registrar, Housing and Administrative Services, Payroll/Personnel, Human Resources, and other campus groups. Patrons also have the option to link to the Citation Management to view and pay citations.

Patron highlights and benefits:

• Patrons are only shown products that are available to their specific account status, based on product rules and product availability (sales caps).

• Patrons are allowed to choose their permit length of time based on selection of a start and end date. This is important for new employees or students who may be waiting for loans or other funding to arrive.

• Patrons no longer are limited to a few permit options but may select their preferred permit zone until sales caps are met, at which time choices are simply dwindled.

• ANTPARK calculates the price of the permit using a pro-rated scale based on the number of active days between start and end date of the permit.

• Faculty and staff who are union members and still under a negotiated contract are automatically charged the correct product rate based on product rules.

• Patron chooses permit receipt method, which for all students can be mailed or picked up at any drive-through manned kiosk, utilizing permit print-on-demand technology, or unmanned Parking Transaction Kiosk (PTK) which are similar to ATMs.

• Students avoid long wait times to buy permits.

• Because ANTPARK integrates various parking databases, including Permit Sales, Citation Management, and Sustainable Transportation, patrons can keep track of their parking account information and be notified of things such as citations, permit expiration, and other product history.

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Technology Utilized

P&TS created their own system because off the shelf products did not provide the level of customization needed to support the department’s various products. IT created unique modules for each P&TS function. Each module is customizable and portable and integrates all P&TS systems into one main system, uploading information from the relevant database to administrative or patron account.

ANTPARK is an SQL back end and ColdFusion front-end system running on Windows servers using IIS. Each user may be granted different levels of access to each module, called tiered access. The system uses SSL encryption to protect all transactions and restricts sensitive areas of the system by IP as well as user login. This allows staff to deploy ANTPARK over any network with proper preparation. The Parking Transaction Kiosks (PTKs) are a peripheral, mobile ATM-like system which allows patrons to purchase or pick up permits at various locations.

ANTPARK uses third party credit card processing APIs, and card swiping technology to process credit card transactions.

Project Timeline

Fall 2008 – ANTPARK build

June 2009 – Launched Beta test of over-the-counter sales; payroll deduction build

Fall 2009 - Launched Phase I:

• all over-the-counter sales

• student web permit sales

• payroll deduction

• Campus Credit Card integration

• citation management integration

• Sustainable Transportation integration

• PTK/EPICS peripherals

Time and step savings

• Measureable error reduction in payroll deduction processing because there is now no need to input payroll information in by hand. ANTPARK offers payroll deduction options on each account so P&TS staff clicks link to select option rather than cut and paste information or manually insert as in the previous system. Complaints about incorrect payroll deductions have been reduced 94%, an 18:1 improvement.

• Updated ANTPARK revenue breakdown report is more accurate than previous system reports. Variance in details of updated ANTPARK revenue account and general ledger account is less than half a percent.  

• Programming a daily cut-off time ensures accurate credit card revenue data.   Revenue breakdown reports from product sales can now be generated for a range of one day to one year.

• There are more options available to generate different reports including:  permit days, average, payroll deduction and extended reports by permit type are available. The automated nature of reporting results in accuracy, time savings and a reduction in manual calculations.

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