parkingtag.ie and cashless parking

Parkingtag.ie launched a few weeks ago to allow you to pay for your kerbside parking in Dublin City. Basically, what happens is that you have a barcode (the ‘parking tag’) on your windscreen, which contains an account number. When you park, you ring a phone number to tell the system that you want to park for a certain amount of time. Then you’re done. When the warden comes around and checks your car, he’ll scan the barcode and get an immediate confirmation that you are fully paid up.

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Aer Lingus needs to get real

David McWilliams thinks that the Irish public is being a little unrealistic in its assessment of the Ryanair bid. He is right. The comments give an indication of how unrealistic the public is. But the reality is that Aer Lingus is a minnow in a world of eagles and it has to be bought by somebody if it is to avoid the disastrous fate of Alitalia and many other flag carriers before it.

It is interesting to see the perception people have of Ireland’s biggest airline. There is an assumption that because Ryanair does one particular thing well, or a particular way, that it cannot do anything else.

Service Design article in the Irish Times

There is an interesting (though slightly hard-to-believe) case study in the Irish Times today, with some interesting observations from experts. It’s strange, some of the observations seemed quite good in the print edition, but seem quite lame on the Internet. Part of the reason for that is that the full details of the contributors aren’t given on-line and these are really an integral part of the article.

Anyway, the important lesson from the article is that service is something that can be designed and improved, and many problems can be solved or at least reduced without always needing more resources.

Consumer rights are not protected

This article in the Irish Times (now free) is an important description of the problems with the National Consumer Agency and other bodies by Michael Casey, a former assistant director of the Central Bank of Ireland.

UPDATE: Ann FitzGerald of the National Consumer Agency responds.

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A business video and podcast

Fergal Quinn on Crowning the Customer and providing great service

David Allen on  Getting Things Done (via Damien Mulley)