November 2022 - 15

Sponsored by
Put yourself in
the driver's seat
For more than two decades, Avail Technologies,
Inc., has been committed to
delivering solutions focused solely on
helping make public transit operations
better. We deploy innovative and forward-thinking
intelligent transportation
systems that empower agencies to deliver
the safest, most efficient and most
customer-friendly transit service. With
the latest evolution of our myAvail Enterprise
Transit Management Software
(ETMS), agencies now have access to
a full suite of tools to maximize their
technology investment and increase
efficiency across all departments with
greater control and insight into every
aspect of their operations.
What is the most important
part of a deployment?
Avail recognizes the magnitude of these
procurements for organizations, and the
impact they have on your communities-
these projects don't end at implementation.
We believe the most important phase
of a deployment is encouraging employees
to adopt the technology and leverage it
to achieve its ultimate potential. We have
designed our deployment services to focus
on understanding the roles, responsibilities
and daily tasks of employees. This
allows us to tailor our training and adoption
strategy around empowering them on
how best to apply our tools within their
standard operating procedures (SOPs) to
transform how they do business. When
employees fully embrace their new ITS,
they experience the benefits, such as real-time
data to improve operations and
simplified ADA compliance-which frees
up staff, so they can focus on safety and
rider satisfaction.
What is the biggest challenge for
an agency looking to implement
CAD/AVL or ERP systems?
Change is hard. The amount of features
available through back office systems can
be overwhelming to transit staff and can
lead to frustration, dissatisfaction and reverting
to old practices. Avail understands
the challenges and the need for the staff
to have an easy-to-use system and the
importance of being comfortable using
it. myAvail ETMS is a system that you
grow into, not out of.
At the beginning of your project, it's
important to identify the champions at
your agency who are excited to implement
and adopt this new technology. Share
with them what the process entails and
get them involved in the pilot. Help them
see how efficiencies in their position will
flow across the entire agency.
Getting employee buy-in is crucial,
but you also need public investment.
Promote your real-time information
and let the community know they can
access it on their devices. By integrating
myAvail into your website and advertising
our mobile app myStop® your agency
will cut down on customer service calls
and reduce overhead.
How can you tell if your CAD/
AVL ERP systems are being
used to their full potential?
Ask yourself this: Do you have processes
that still use paper? Do you pull data
from multiple sources then rely on Excel
or another program to interpret it?
Your back-office systems should eliminate
the need for paper and spreadsheet
calculations.
How are you informing the public
about real time changes? If daily schedule
changes and alerts are entered on
multiple platforms rather than coming
directly from your ITS real-time public
information system, there are still improvements
to be made.
How is your on-time performance
measured, and how do you know if ontime
performance has improved? An
ITS system has KPIs and dashboards
that track and analyze data in real time.
This also means adjustments can be made
more frequently to increase these metrics.
What does the post-deployment
phase look like?
Once all new features have been deployed
and are operating at full capacity, your
agency will transition into the operational
improvement phase, with continuing
training assessment, technical support,
ITS upgrade strategies and adoption services.
During this phase, new business
processes and SOPs will be developed.
Avail
THE LATEST evolution of myAvail
Enterprise Transit Management
Solution (ETMS), gives agencies
access to a full suite of tools
to maximize their technology
investment and increase efficiency
across all departments with greater
control and insight into every aspect
of their operations.
The customer experience team will make
regular on-site visits to assess operational
success while the agency will have access
to tools and services, such as training videos,
Wayfinder quick tools, a customer
support portal and our annual User's
Conference. This is what makes Avail's
offering unique. We will work with you
to squeeze every bit of functionality from
your technology.
Sigrid Sharif writes for Avail Technologies, Inc.
NOVEMBER 2022 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 15
http://www.MassTransitmag.com
November 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2022
