ESC Pau Business School is facing the saturation of its parking lot by sharing its 200 spaces between its 1400 users (students, permanent staff and lecturers).

Context of ESC Pau Business School

When Julien Urruty took up his position as Director of Resources at ESC Pau Business School, he was immediately faced with a problem that had become an everyday irritant : the parking lot was too small! Thanks to internet, he was able to identify new and innovative solutions and the people behind them. He wanted to give priority to services that were rooted in modernity and to move ahead with effective deployment for the start of the new academic year.

For the past 2 years, access to the parking lot has been unrestricted, with the entrance gates constantly raised. But this choice of simplicity was not without its problems. Students were arriving late for classes because they were trying to find somewhere to park, dangerous parking was taking place in front of fire exits or in double queues, students were parking on spaces reserved for teachers, and so on. However, the previous solution of access control by badge had been abandoned because it was too much trouble. It was no longer an option to reassign a part-time employee to this tedious task of managing badges.

This business school has 207 parking spaces for 1,400 users, not all of whom drive. As a result, there are occasional but regular situations of saturation, unpredictable at first sight. That’s why Sharvy was chosen, as it allowed a different analysis of the problem. Indeed, if we take into account the staff who are absent – due to leave, illness, time off – and reallocate the vacant places to an applicant, we recover some capacity.

Setting up of Sharvy

At ESC Pau Business School, the first step in setting up Sharvy was to pool all the parking spaces. Previously, some spaces on the teachers’ side were visibly unused, while the student parking lot was full… In the end, the project has been completed successfully. The project was launched in April 2020. The decision was then taken to sign a contract with Sharvy in June 2020, for implementation at the start of the new academic year in September 2020.

At the end of August, students received a first general information email. The system was then advertised on campus. At the same time, on the administrator side, the tool was fed with a file of all the users’ email addresses. Finally, an email has been sent to all email accounts, enabling students and staff to connect to the platform.

To control access and prevent abuses, an IoT module has been installed on the parking lot barrier, displaying an “open” button in the application only for people with a reservation.

Favourite features

Benefits noted

In less than 6 months, the app had been implemented and was a real success: both in practical terms, as it was acclaimed by all users. And from an ethical point of view : ESC Pau Business School chose the solution provided by a French start-up, thus satisfying the culture of entrepreneurship promoted on campus.

By sending their requests for a space on the application, users are notified 24 to 48 hours before their arrival. When they leave for school, they know if they can count on a space, and that they won’t find themselves in front of a full parking lot. On the other hand, if Sharvy doesn’t notify them, they’ll have to leave a little earlier because they’ll have to park further away. In any case, by becoming predictable, the parking lot has totally lost its power of annoyance! We know how to anticipate, adapt and control!

What’s more, the parking lot is becoming a shared asset managed collaboratively. When a user plans to be away from the campus, they free up their space themselves and put it back in the common pot for others to use. It’s a responsible attitude, respectful of the community and a way of affirming the conditions for living together.

Do you need to optimize your company parking lot? Do you want to modernize its access and management?

Follow the lead of ESC Pau Business School and opt for Sharvy!