Top tech company in Burnaby continues to grow

Burnaby-based Digital Payment Technologies has had a good start to the year.

The pay-parking system manufacturer was named one of the top 25 B.C. information and communication technology companies in the Ready to Rocket category by Rocket Builders.

"We are honored to be recognized as one of the rising private sector stars in the B.C. technology market," said Andrew Scott, CEO of Digital Payment Technologies, in a press release. "With the powerful combination of our talented team and a flexible technology platform that helps municipalities, universities and private parking operators implement innovative and efficient solutions that increase consumer satisfaction and drive revenues, we intend to significantly expand our customer base and distribution network in 2011."

Rocket Builders is a management-consulting firm for the technology industry. This is its ninth year of compiling the Ready to Rocket list of B.C. tech companies that have seen high growth rates.

"Each year when we choose the Ready to Rocket companies, we are looking for those companies that have best matched technical innovation with market opportunity," said Reg Nordman, managing partner for Rocket Builders. "Digital Payment Technologies is an excellent example of the right technology for the right customers at the right time."

The list was released at the end of January.

Since then, Digital Payment Technologies has gone on to form a partnership with a parking solution management company based in California.

The partnership was announced Monday.

The two companies will share and integrate data so that clients using Digital Payment Technologies' pay stations and Streetline Form Partnership's parking guidance smart phone application can find parking spaces faster.

Streetline's Parker app allows drivers to find unoccupied parking spaces, and once parked, the customer can pay at a Digital Parking Technologies pay station or over the phone.

Parking can be extended at any pay station, or by phone.

Last fall, Digital Payment Technologies launched a new license plate activated payment system, so parking enforcement officers can electronically scan license plates in order to ticket those who have not paid for parking.

With the license plate as the means of identifying payment, municipalities could get rid of marked street spaces and make more money within existing curb space, according to a press release from the company.

The system includes hand-held and vehicle-mounted license plate scanners that match scanned plates to a database of plate numbers with paid parking sessions. If a scanned plate is not found in the database, the system automatically generates a citation.

Parking-enforcement productivity could improve because the system would allow for increasing the coverage area of enforcement personnel, which would reduce costs and increase revenues, the release said.

The system would make it impossible for drivers to pass on unexpired permits to someone else, or to pass on unused time on a meter.

Parking operators could also use the system to offer services such as license plate-enabled valet parking, gateless parking, loyalty programs and reserved parking based on the license plate.

Most of Digital Payment Technologies' existing pay stations could be upgraded to the system with a keypad and software update, according to the release.

Drivers wouldn't need to remember a space number or return to their cars to place a receipt, because they would enter their license plate number at the pay station.