{"id":2713,"date":"2017-09-27T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:41:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:41:56","slug":"thats-the-ticket-united-public-safety-and-microsoft-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/government\/2017\/09\/27\/thats-the-ticket-united-public-safety-and-microsoft-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"That\u2019s the ticket: United Public Safety and Microsoft Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"

From its inception in 2012, Microsoft CityNext<\/a> partner United Public Safety<\/a> has delivered a simple yet powerful plea to municipal governments: stop handwriting parking tickets, buying servers and paying expensive consultants. Instead, reduce costs, create efficiencies, increase employee productivity and gain visibility into your department with UPsafety\u2019s Azure<\/a>-powered parking enforcement solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greater efficiencies, less expense, quick deployment<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pitch that\u2019s resonating with more and more cities and towns, universities, hospitals and private parking customers, according to Joan Young, UPsafety\u2019s president: \u201cWith our solution, there isn\u2019t a stiff financial barrier to entry in terms of our clients (needing) dedicated servers and consultants to set up those servers on site. The cloud has helped us immensely in breaking this barrier down by allowing us to offer the latest in industry tech at a price any department can afford.\u201d Indeed, Young estimates UPsafety\u2019s cloud-based solution is about half the cost of on premise competitor offerings.<\/p>\n

In addition to avoiding the cost of procuring and maintaining servers and employing the IT personnel to support them, Young notes the significant speed and ease of implementing UPsafety\u2019s parking enforcement solution. \u201cWe can easily set up a client within a 30-minute window,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of our clients are immensely impressed with how quickly we can get them up and running. They sign on one week, and we\u2019re out there doing hands-on training the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

While greater government efficiency is the primary advantage of UPsafety solutions, Young says there\u2019s also a key benefit for citizens: the convenience of doing everything online, from applying for permits to disputing tickets or paying parking fines.<\/p>\n

The single best enforcement solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPsafety solutions are currently deployed in 28 states by approximately 120 clients, the majority of which are municipal governments, including Greenville, N.C., Hood River, Ore., Lancaster, Pa., Middleburg, Va., and York, Maine, to name just a few. \u201cWe handle the best main streets in small-town USA,\u201d Young said. Nicolette James, finance director for Gettysburg, Pa., notes the value of UPsafety to her department: \u201cUnited Public Safety has been our one-stop solution for managing parking enforcement, citations and parking permits in our very busy town. They provide a level of customer service that all companies should aspire to. Choosing the ToCite<\/a>\u00ae system was one of the best decisions we\u2019ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With more competitors rushing to capture the parking and code enforcement market, Young said UPsafety has refined its pitch to prospective customers: \u201cIt\u2019s the single best enforcement solution in the market, combining an ultra-rugged mobile device with real-time data, Microsoft Azure cloud hosting, robust software that is field perfected and customized for each client\u2019s unique requirements, the most comprehensive analytics suite in the industry\u2014InCites\u2122\u2014and there\u2019s no extra fee for our 24\/7, 365 on-shore support.\u201d There\u2019s also UPsafety\u2019s ability to integrate with almost all pay-to-park solutions, kiosk providers and more, allowing departments to create their optimum solution. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Superior Azure tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an early adopter of the cloud for parking and code enforcement as well as moving vehicle e-citations, the Pennsylvania-based technology provider has partnered with Microsoft CityNext since 2012. Lead product manager Andrew Robin is one of the most gung-ho advocates for our trusted Azure platform. \u201cThe tools that were available to our developers through the Azure cloud were superior to what we found available in the marketplace,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthe support Microsoft offered was exceptional.\u201d Lead solutions architect Mike Rubin also acknowledged the benefits of Microsoft\u2019s cloud: \u201cAzure enables our development team to focus on what they do best\u2014creating great software. Azure has proven to be extremely reliable and automates tasks that would typically require a dedicated team\u201d<\/p>\n

CFO David Young credits Azure with empowering UPsafety\u2019s \u201cexceptionally robust system,\u201d which allows clients to make changes quickly. \u201cIf a client wants a specific change\u2014their processes have changed \u2026 they\u2019re writing a lot more tickets, they brought on more officers, they need deeper analytics\u2014we can easily scale that up,\u201d he explained. \u201cEverything in our system is so modular that absolutely any change that a municipality would need \u2026 we can do that in minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve had the good fortune of visiting UPsafety\u2019s headquarters near Philadelphia and seeing their solutions\u2014and fun pillows\u2014first hand. You can do the same at one of several upcoming trade show<\/a>, such as the International Association of Police Chiefs Conference<\/a>, Oct. 21-24, or by visiting:<\/p>\n