What is Smart Parking?

Smart Parking is a configurable module designed to automate, on a daily or weekly basis, the reservations your organisation’s car park. This feature allows you to allocate all available parking spaces across all requests received from users.

This allocation will be carried out at random amongst all applicants, although it is also possible to set up a hierarchy of levels and customise allocation criteria to ensure a more balanced distribution if required.

To use the automatic parking allocation feature in your organisation, you must first activate the “Smart Parking” module. You must also ensure that the necessary settings are in place so that the “Smart Parking” feature can function correctly:

1. Create “Smart parking” groups.
2. Link these groups to the resources (parking spaces) and users you want to include in the allocation. See this article for details on how to edit a resource’s settings.

Smart Parking can operate in daily mode or weekly mode, which can be configured at organisation level. Under no circumstances can both modes be active at the same time.

• • • Daily mode: Users request parking for the following day and the allocation is carried out on a daily basis.
    • Weekly mode: Users request parking for the following week in a single request, and the allocation is carried out on the cut-off date set by the organisation.

ℹ️ How does ‘Daily Mode’ work?

1. Users are booking parking for the following day.
2. The system carries out the distribution every day at the times set in the routines.
3. Seats not allocated after routine 2 are transferred to the standard booking process.

ℹ️ How does ‘Weekly Mode’ work?

1. Users submit a single request for several days (from those available as specified by the organisation) in the following week.
2. The system processes all requests in batches on the configured cut-off date.
3. After routine 2, the weekly cycle closes and no new applications are accepted until the following Monday.
4. Any unallocated places are returned to the standard booking process.

There are two possible configurations for customising the distribution system to suit the needs of each organisation: the hierarchical structure and the distribution criteria.

The hierarchy of levels allows you to establish an order of priority for the allocation of bookings of places. Consequently, a user on the top level will have a better chance of finding a parking space than a user on a lower level.

1. Go to ‘Buildings and resources > Car parks and vehicles’ in the side menu.
2. From the ‘Smart parking’ tab, access the settings for the current module by clicking on the ‘⚙️ Settings’ button.
3. From here, you can enable or disable the ‘Set priority order’ option.
4. Define the names of the priority levels using descriptive names. Examples: Management / Department Head / Employee.
5. Click ‘Save’ to apply the settings.
6. Finally, don’t forget to assign these levels to each user. See this article for details on how to edit a user’s settings.

It is also possible to apply additional allocation customisation based on allocation criteria. Each user will accumulate a score based on these criteria, enabling the system to carry out the allocation in a fairer and more balanced manner.

1. Accede a “Edificios y recursos > Parking y vehículos” desde el menú lateral.
2. From the ‘Smart parking’ tab, access the settings for the current module by clicking on the ‘⚙️ Settings’ button.
3. Next, go to ‘Customise distribution criteria’.
4. Select the criteria to be taken into account when the allocation is carried out. Each criterion will be assigned a score (positive or negative).
5. Click ‘Save’ to apply the settings.

Seats are allocated on a daily basis using a two-step process distribution. The following diagram illustrates how both work.

1. Go to ‘Buildings and resources > Car parks and vehicles’ in the side menu.
2. From the ‘Smart parking’ tab, access the settings for the current module by clicking on the ‘⚙️ Settings’ button.
3. From here, locate the “Allocation periods or routines” section.
4. Select and set the start time for each of the two routines.

When you access the Smart Parking section, you’ll find a dashboard that allows managers to easily analyse how the parking allocation system is performing, on both a daily and weekly basis.

This screen provides an overview of the car park’s status for the selected day or period (last 30 days). The key statistics are displayed at the top:

• • Number of places available
  • Applications received
  • Allocation results (allocated/rejected)

At the bottom, there is a list detailing all requests, where you can view the user, the building, the date and the final status of each request, making it easier to review them and provide support in the event of any queries or complaints.