Enhancing Parking Services with EV Charging Capabilities

As electric vehicle adoption grows, the demand for integrated parking and charging services continues to increase. To meet this trend, Parkly, a leader in parking software development, expanded its service offerings by incorporating charging capabilities. This case study focuses on the collaboration between Parkly and Timepark, a subsidiary of the Olav Thon group, to deliver a unified parking and charging experience for customers.

Background

Parkly has established itself as a key player in the Norwegian parking industry, providing innovative software solutions that streamline parking management for a variety of clients. As electric vehicles continue to gain popularity, Parkly identified an opportunity to expand its service portfolio by integrating EV charging capabilities into its existing platform. This move was driven by the growing market demand for unified parking and charging solutions, particularly in urban areas where convenience and efficiency are paramount.

Timepark, a subsidiary of the Olav Thon group, manages parking facilities across a diverse range of properties, including hotels and shopping malls. With a strong focus on customer experience, Timepark recognized the need to offer EV charging as part of their parking services to meet the evolving expectations of their clientele. However, integrating these new services required a seamless connection between Timepark’s existing Charge Station Management System (CSMS) and Parkly’s software.

The collaboration between Parkly and Timepark was born out of this shared vision to provide an enhanced service offering that could cater to the needs of EV drivers. This integration project not only involved technical challenges but also required careful coordination to align the strategic goals and operational workflows of both companies. The following sections of this case study detail how these challenges were addressed and the positive outcomes that resulted from this partnership.

Challenge

Integration Complexity: Connecting Parkly’s software with Timepark’s CSMS (Driivz) required careful planning and execution to ensure seamless operation.

Time Constraints: The integration needed to be completed in time for the launch of a new site, adding pressure to the development timeline.

Technical Expertise: Both Parkly and Timepark required additional domain-specific knowledge to successfully implement and manage the integrated system.

Role Definition: Clearly defining theroles of each party in the e-mobility ecosystem (Parkly as eMSP and Timepark as CPO) and the modules necessary for a minimum viable product was crucial for proper system configuration.

OCPI Implementation Issues: Parkly had started with an OCPI implementation but faced several blockers, particularly with Credentials registration and other fundamental aspects.

Solution

To address these challenges, a comprehensive integration strategy was developed:

OCPI Implementation and Optimization

Objective: Establish and improve the connection via the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) protocol between Driivz (Timepark) and Parkly.

Approach:

Implemented OCPI v2.1.1
Fixed issues with Versions and Credentials implementation
Unblocked Parkly’s efforts starting with Credentials registration
Collaborated with Driivz to resolve blockers in the Credentials exchange process
Added paging to most endpoints for improved performance

Testing and Development Tools

Objective: Enhance the development and testing process for both teams.

Approach: Introduced a Postman Mock Server and collections to better test roaming and data exchange between systems.

Functional Module Implementation

Objective: Develop and optimize key OCPI modules for comprehensive integration.

Approach: Implemented or improved the following modules:

Locations: Finished and fixed existing implementation, added additional endpoints
Tariffs: Complete implementation
Sessions: Complete implementation
CDRs (Charge Detail Records): Complete implementation
Commands: Complete implementation

Database Structure

Objective: Ensure proper data storage and management for all functional modules.

Approach: Created database tables and structures to store location, tariff, session, CDR, and command data.

Best Practices and Knowledge Transfer

Objective: Improve overall code quality and team capabilities.

Approach:

Proposed coding best practices and design patterns for building modular, maintainable, and scalable web services
Conducted knowledge transfer sessions with Parkly/Timepark development team

Outcome

The integration project resulted in several positive outcomes:

Successful Launch: The integrated system was successfully implemented and launched at the new site within the required timeframe.

Enhanced Service Offering: Parkly now offers EMSP capabilities for EV charging through their parking services, expanding their market reach.

Seamless User Experience: Timepark can now provide a unified parking and charging experience for their customers across Olav Thon group properties.

Improved Technical Capacity: Both Parkly and Timepark’s internal teams gained valuable domain-specific knowledge, enabling them to better manage and develop their respective systems.

Optimized OCPI Implementation: The improved OCPI implementation ensures reliable and efficient communication between Parkly and Timepark systems.

Key Benefits

Competitive Advantage: By integrating EV charging capabilities, both Parkly and Timepark have positioned themselves at the forefront of the evolving parking industry.

Scalability: The OCPI-based integration provides a foundation for easy expansion to additional sites and potential partnerships with other CPOs or EMSPs.

Customer Satisfaction: The seamless integration of parking and charging services offers added convenience to end-users, potentially increasing customer loyalty and attraction.

Future-Proofing: The knowledge gained through this project prepares both companies for future developments in the EV charging and parking industries.

Improved Development Practices: The introduction of best practices and design patterns will lead to more efficient and maintainable code in future projects.