Nestled just east of the Golden Gate Bridge lies the Port of Oakland. Spanning 20 miles of Bay Area coastline, the Port of Oakland operates one of the West Coast’s busiest seaports and the area’s third-largest airport, San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK).
Some 11 million travelers pass through San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport every year. Ed Coates, the airport’s ground transportation and parking coordinator coordinates all ground transportation operations from shuttles and taxis to ride-share and charter services — ensuring that passengers arrive at their flights on time. His secret for keeping travelers moving? Jotform Enterprise.
In the past, Coates relied on thousands of paper application forms to manage processes like issuing parking permits. Then the COVID pandemic happened. “When lockdowns hit, face-to-face transactions became problematic. We needed to provide forms to our customers in a remote environment,” he says. “This provided an opportunity to adapt and leverage technology to interact remotely with our internal and external customers.”
The lockdowns of 2020 gave Coates the perfect opportunity to digitize the Port of Oakland’s paper processes. He specifically needed a solution that would provide online forms and automated workflows while also being easy to use. He chose Jotform Enterprise to facilitate the transition.
“What we really needed was an off-the-shelf solution, not requiring coding experience, which allowed us to stand up a product quickly and get it to our customers in a timely manner,” says Coates.
Automating applications with Approvals
The Port of Oakland now uses Jotform Approvals to automate the permitting process for over 8,600 airport parking spots. For Coates, Approvals have been a game-changer.
“Jotform Enterprise changed a days-long permit process into a five-minute application,” he says.
“For us, approvals used to be time, labor, and paper-intensive. With Jotform, we created an end-to-end parking application. Applications are routed to the employee’s primary supervisor for approval upon completion. Once that supervisor approves the application, Jotform routes it to our department, where we can provide final approval and prepare employee parking permits for pickup.”
“The new application is user-friendly, completely automated, and has significantly reduced the time required for various administrative tasks,” he says.
For Coates, the successful implementation of workflows led to an expanded use of Jotform Enterprise across his entire department.
“The shift empowered us to transform how we handle applications department-wide,” he says. “After our first workflow, we expanded our usage to include ground transportation applications, employee parking applications, taxi voucher sales appointments, feedback forms, and more.”
Jotform Enterprise changed a days-long permit process into a five-minute application.
Ed Coates, Ground Transportation and Parking Coordinator, Port of Oakland
Simplifying payments
With so many travelers passing through San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport every day, payment collection processes need to be lightning-fast. The Port of Oakland has slashed payment collection times by integrating payment processors with online forms and approval flows using Jotform Enterprise.
“Jotform Enterprise has allowed us to reduce the amount of time per transaction across all phases of the Airport Parking Ground Transportation Department. It’s essentially allowed us to do more with less,” says Coates.
“Transactions via credit card are no longer done in person,” he explains, “but through our Jotform Enterprise app, which integrates with Authorize.net, PayPal, and other payment providers. We were also able to customize a receipt that customers receive from Jotform immediately after any purchase.”
“Jotform has turned around our billing process,” he says. “What once took months now takes a week.”
For the Port of Oakland, digitizing payment collection has had a two-fold benefit. First, automating invoices and payment requests has significantly reduced the number of manual tasks Coates and his team are required to complete. Less time chasing payments has meant more time to focus on important projects. In addition to saving time on internal processes, online payment collection has also significantly simplified and improved the customer experience.
“We have a workflow that automatically sends a payment form once the initial application is approved,” says Coates. “With this system, we reduced our average customer wait times from 30 minutes to just five. Customers have already made their payment and filled out the application online; they just need to sign off on their permit as they pick it up.”
Jotform has turned around our billing process. What once took months now takes a week.
Ed Coates, Ground Transportation and Parking Coordinator, Port of Oakland
Supercharging forms
Online forms are the front line for all of the Port of Oakland’s permit application processes. Despite having complex workflows on the backend, Coates and his team have leveraged the Enterprise form builder to create intuitive, user-friendly customer-facing forms.
“What’s great about Jotform Enterprise is that we can quickly create forms with the easy drag-and-drop interface,” says Coates. “The customization features also allow us to address both our end-user needs as well as our staff needs.”
Jotform Mobile Forms and QR codes have also given Port of Oakland customers increased flexibility for on-the-go form-filling.
“The Jotform Enterprise mobile app gives us flexibility. We’re able to monitor, process, and handle applications on the go as well as give our customers the ability to complete applications on the go,” Coates says. “We also use QR codes so that employees can access mobile-friendly forms wherever they are, including right at our customer-service counter. They are a quick and easy way to access forms.”
Coates has also further streamlined online forms with conditional logic and e-signature collection from Jotform Sign. “Conditional logic was extremely instrumental in allowing us to tailor applications to the large number of companies that work within the airport,” he says. “Of course, we collect signatures with Jotform as well. We’ve been able to integrate e-signatures with our forms to centralized data collection and record retention.”
Reporting in real-time
With all sorts of ground transportation efforts running around the clock, from taxis and shuttles to cars and buses, San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport is a dynamic environment. Managing it requires the ability to adapt quickly and make changes on the fly. In Coates’s eyes, this flexibility is one of the most important benefits offered by Jotform Enterprise.
“What I like most about Jotform Enterprise is the customization, as well as the ability to quickly update anything and have the changes immediately reflected in the form itself, whether it’s the app version or the online version of the form,” he says. “For example, if we need to close an application due to staff being unavailable or change a scheduling form due to bad weather, we’re able to make those changes without pulling any forms offline.”
In addition to updating forms in real-time, Coates has also found great use in real-time reporting.
“One of the great things about Jotform is the real-time information. The moment a user submits an application or makes a payment, we see that information on our end and are able to respond immediately,” says Coates. “We’re able to run reports and easily download them into Excel. This lets us provide reports to both internal stakeholders and our external customers.”
Ready for takeoff
From online forms that flow into automated approval flows to vastly streamlined payment and e-signature collection, the sheer amount of automation that the Port of Oakland has achieved with Jotform Enterprise is incredible. For Ed Coates and his team at San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, an Enterprise plan has meant reduced administrative burdens, huge time savings, and happier customers.
If you’re interested in learning more about what your organization can accomplish with Jotform Enterprise, get in touch with our sales team and check out more of our customer stories.
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