ABOUT TAPCO

Founded in 1956 and recently acknowledged by INC™ Magazine’s 500 list as one of the Nation’s fastest-growing privately owned small businesses in America between 2007–2017, TAPCO (Traffic and Parking Control Co., Inc.) manufactures and distributes a wide range of intelligent traffic and parking control solutions.

These industry-leading solutions showcase solar, wireless, and eco-friendly ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) products designed to support safer, more efficient traffic management systems. TAPCO’s customers include private contractors and governments at every level, which the company backs with a customer service center, national sales team, comprehensive product catalog, and full-featured online store.

TAPCO’s complex systems have one primary objective:
To Save Lives.

Learn how this transportation and manufacturing company partnered with ISM and ServiceNow to digitally transform its business internally and externally.

THE CHALLENGE

TAPCO operates thousands of IoT devices across the U.S., supporting a range of customers, including the millions of people those customers are trusted to protect. With traffic safety reliant on real-time data collection and communication, minimizing system downtime is critical.

While TAPCO’s systems are highly reliable, the company sought a more proactive approach to ensuring business continuity/disaster recovery. This approach would require more robust capabilities to detect, diagnose, and resolve operational issues in near-real-time — long before they can lead to system failure. In turn, this would allow TAPCO to mitigate the risk of an unplanned outage and readily restore the system to the expected level of functionality for its customers.

To achieve this transformation, TAPCO knew it had to connect its customer service and field service workflows. By leveraging IoT data within these combined operations, TAPCO could sync and streamline its processes to improve visibility and responsiveness.

ISM’s ServiceNow Solution

TAPCO engaged ISM in 2019 to support this business transformation. ISM brought a powerful combination of expertise in both ServiceNow’s capabilities and the customer’s sector-specific pain points. With an understanding of the company’s goals, challenges, and requirements, ISM helped TAPCO identify how ServiceNow could improve operations with…

  • A consolidated platform for tracking activity for all service silos and product lines
  • A single source of truth for asset tracking with mobile capabilities for field service technicians
  • Mobile capabilities in field service management (FSM), with the ability to send notes and images to customer service for better case resolution
  • Initial visibility into service contracts/SLAs
  • A consolidated knowledge base and reporting platform, supporting proactive customer service and actionable data for leadership
  • An expandable platform for improving service maturity over time, including the ability to build on the initial install base to enhance the quality of data
  • Knowledge transfer to TAPCO administrators, using a “teach to fish” implementation plan
  • Automating inefficient tasks and processes, such as swivel chair activities, workflows, and the engineered-to-order (ETO) process

The Successful Outcome

After working with ISM to implement and adopt ServiceNow, TAPCO saw significant improvements in its communications. TAPCO’s systems can immediately alert customer and field service teams when any IoT components report statuses outside acceptable limits, allowing TAPCO to plan its maintenance in the area rather than rushing to provide emergency service for one failed device. The result of this proactive approach is improved safety, increased service efficiency, reduced downtime, better customer experience, and a lower total cost of ownership — a win-win for TAPCO and its customers.

Benefits:

  • Enhanced safety for the general public
  • Improved visibility in all areas of business
  • Real-time awareness of equipment status
  • Improved customer experience
  • Higher productivity
  • Streamlined workflows for customer support, field services, and system operations (i.e., for wrong-way alert systems)
  • Improved equipment autonomy, leading to a decrease in customer-impacting equipment autonomy issues
  • Reduced downtime

Looking Forward

These enhancements are giving TAPCO the forward momentum it needs to continue its digital transformation journey. Like the majority of enterprises today who are successfully transforming through IoT, TAPCO’s strategic priorities include…

• Adding new service offerings

• Further reducing cost with preventive maintenance

Learn More

TAPCO is one of a select group of businesses chosen to participate in ISM, and ServiceNow’s Connected Operations Pilot focused on IoT. ISM is the first North American Partner for this offering. Contact ISM to schedule a demo and discuss the offering in a live session with ISM and ServiceNow.