Brandon University – Brandon, Manitoba

About Brandon University

The Department of Ancillary Services at Brandon University is responsible for Residences, Parking Services, Campus Book, Food Services, Special Functions and the Student ID Centre.

It is committed to excellence in providing services, environments and facilities that support and contribute to the mission of Brandon University, the academic achievements of students and the personal well-being and success of staff.

Client Overview

Brandon University is located in downtown Brandon, Manitoba. They have 13 parking lots, including daily permit parking. There are approximately 3,000 students and generate around 1,000 violations per year.

Parking and Security Challenges

• Unable to properly identify repeat offenders (KEY)
• Low revenue in 2017 compared to 2016 – Unable to determine why due to their parking management solution at that time (KEY)
• Use of outdated excel sheets made records unsearchable (KEY)
• Departments working together as a single entity
• Keep community safe
• Ensure a high quality of service
• Meeting their mission

One of the key benefits of using OPS-COM for Brandon University is the ability to have all data easily accessible under one parking software platform. Their main challenges are now non-existent with the OPS-COM solution, saving them both time and money.

OPS-COM parking and security platform

• Meets the mission by having all parking and security functionality within one application
• Reporting that interlinks the overlapping areas of parking, enforcement, and incidents
• Improved collaboration, improved efficiency, and better audit trails

ParkAdmin for parking management

• Allows users to self-manage parking and payments
• Used to audit parking lot usage
• Expose opportunities for overselling
• Provides flexibility in permitting to maximize revenues

ViolationAdmin for parking enforcement

• Allows users to pay and dispute violations online
• Remote data access using Android handhelds
• Supports virtual chalking with remote sharing to all connected violation devices
• Easily attach multiple images to support virtual chalking and violations

The OPS-COM parking and security platform is a perfect fit for Brandon University. They are a small school and were hesitant about switching

The cloud-based management system makes data access available to staff members securely. Through the use of role based permissions, the staff have access to only the areas they need to be able to fulfill their specific job function. The OPS-COM system interlinks data allowing for quick and efficient access to information whether in the field or in the office. Self managed profiles means that their customers are able to select and pay for parking or violations at any time of the day and from anywhere.

In addition, their use of IncidentAdmin allows them to generate reports that can be easily passed to the local police department or other third parties in a format of their choosing, ensuring a seamless hand-off when necessary of important security related materials.

Resulting Benefits

• Create a fully searchable database of permitted drivers and repeat offenders
• Move a lot of the individual account management to a user self-serve portal saving lots of labour hours in the parking office
• Provide a simple means of providing temporary legal parking access to any legitimate vehicle with a few clicks of a mouse
• Track all financial activities on the system in order to properly evaluate the revenues and use the reports to improve for the future

Future

• The basics are in place with a full parking permit management and a partial violation management solution.  Since the City of Brandon has specific bylaw requirements for municipal violations the University is using our violations system to provide tracking of repeat offenders and violations analytics for future evaluation.
• The OPS-COM install will save them both time and money based on their past processes but the potential is there to also link in their temporary permit meters for better enforcement.