A joint journey towards digital transformation at Q-Park

"Parking provider Q-Park strongly believes in the power of digital transformation. Looking for a collaborative sparring partner to help achieve its crucial objectives, Q-Park teamed up with Cegeka. The cooperation led to a futureproof platform that helps make digital transformation tangible. And, more than that, it forged a long-term partnership."

Customers at the center

With more than 835,000 parking spaces in over 6,100 facilities across ten countries, Q-Park is one of Europe’s leading parking providers. The company has a very clear vision when it comes to the role of parking – and mobility – in the world tomorrow. Confident that parking is an effective instrument to keep the urban engine from ticking over, Q-Park wants to make it as convenient, secure and reliable as possible.

“Today’s digital natives are used to having online access to everything quickly and easily,” says Q-Park’s CEO Frank De Moor. “They should find that same convenience when parking. That’s why we kicked off a massive project to rethink our business processes/business model. Technology would, of course, play a key role in the transformation, but merely as a way to meet our customers’ needs. Customer focus is always our starting point.”

Driven by an SME spirit

Q-Park took Cegeka on board to help brainstorm about transformation ideas, reshape the business processes and develop IT solutions that best fit their plan. “Cegeka has the know-how and experience – which it has amassed in the course of many projects at different companies – and the right spirit,” Frank continues. “Although it’s a big company, it works like an SME: flexibly, pragmatically and close to the customer – just like Q-Park, in fact. On a European scale, we are big, but as our approach differs by country, each regional branch operates like an SME.”

Hybrid solution

After many brainstorming sessions, Cegeka and Q-Park designed a central, integrated platform to transform the four key business processes (A2A, R2R, A2E, C2C) at every Q-Park branch, from Finland to France. Combining standard Microsoft solutions like MS Dynamics CRM and MS Dynamics Navision with custom-made applications (Software Factory), the platform is a true hybrid. It combines a powerful, reliable backend system (e.g. contracts/billing/invoicing) and a user-friendly frontend (website/shop), which are seamlessly integrated into the parking management systems (PMS). The frontend is accessible to different types of customers (B2B, B2C, B2B2C, ...): people who want to park, and the landlords, cities and municipalities, project developers and car park owners with whom Q-Park collaborates.

Uplifting the customer experience

The platform was first rolled out in the UK at the end of 2015. The France branch (10th implementation) will be the last one to go live later this year. The benefits are legion for everyone involved. While Q-Park employees work much more efficiently and correctly, customers enjoy a whole new level of services. The ability to seamlessly plan, pay and park makes the whole experience much easier. Municipalities, landlords and third parties like event organizers wanting to pre-book temporary parking spaces, appreciate the ability to access the portal and manage their requests and profiles.

Complexities like the use of QR codes and the required compliance with the payment card industry (PCI) data security standard (DSS), to name but two, made the project challenging. But the joint Cegeka - Q-Park team worked together openly and on excellent terms to overcome these and other challenges, and will continue to do so in the future.

The start of the digital transformation journey

“This integrated platform is just the start. Digital transformation is a continuous process and Cegeka will remain our partner to inspire, inform and help us as we keep looking for ways to connect and engage with our customers,” Frank concludes.