Tuesday in Israel brought me to TIBA. This is the Israeli PARCS manufacturer that seems to be taking the US Market by storm, at least in the Southeast and Chicago Areas (Over 30 systems installed in the past year in the Chicago area alone). My hosts here was Isaac Tavori, the Company’s president, and Erez Cohen, the software development manager. Here’s Issac in an assembly area:
That’s Issac in the back. He founded the company almost over 25 years ago and partnered with the larger Alcon Holdings, in 2002. Their factory is a part of Alcon’s operations in a Tel Aviv suburb where they manufacture heavy industrial equipment.
Isaac sits at a desk that telegraphs his ‘hands on’ approach. His desk is covered with design documents and circuit boards. “I cleaned it just for you,” he noted. Then laughed. This president and his software VP are committed.
“Our soul and our blood is in this product,” says Erez. And he means it.
The few minutes we spent with Jerry Schenirer, the CEO of Alcon Holdings, TIBA’s parent, was telling. This charming man knows his stuff about parking and is committed to the US market. “We started slowly in 2006 in Atlanta. We made some progress and ensured we had the support on the ground to properly take care of our customers. We made the adjustments necessary to the product to fit the US market. We have had some good success in Chicago and other markets, and now we are ready.”
I took that to mean, “Look out, USA, here comes TIBA.’
Isaac and Erez took me to their flagship installation in downtown Tel Aviv. Here is the entry plaza, not too visible are LPR cameras in every lane. This place was so clean you could eat off the floor.
The POF system included a fully integrated parking guidance system of TIBA design.
The garage is under this beautiful plaza, adjacent to a new museum and concert hall. If you walk down the steps into the garden, you can hear classical music playing softly. can’t hear it from outside the garden. What a place to relax.
From here we went to City of Tel Aviv’s parking operations center where they control 60 parking locations from one master center. The Deputy Manager, Koby Elkayam, told me that they could run the garages with only two people here at the control center. They assist parkers over intercoms, and monitor financial transactions from each location. Its TIBA equipment everywhere.
At lunch Erez told me about living on a Kibbutz. His is located near the Gaza Strip and can receive a few rockets from time to time. He said Kibbutz living is wonderful, particularly for raising children. At one time all one’s income went into a single fund at the Kibbutz and was divided equally among the residents. That changed when they realized that people could live there, do nothing, and get an equal share. Now each resident buys shares depending on their investment and is provided profits based on those shares at year end. Many people, he said, live on Kibbutz but work on the normal Israeli economy.
If these souls flow through their products, then there is something there.
Tomorrow I’m joined by a colleague and visit OTI
JVH
