If your head is too full, it's time to think about a Management System

A good management system helps you manage workflow, job costs, and task assignments and provides key financial information in real-time… without having to keep everything in your head.

By Stacey Bernier
Collision Quarterly
Summer 2002

Nowhere in North America is the consolidation of the collision repair industry going to have more significant impact than in British Columbia where repair shops are currently facing significant change in terms of its insurance claims handling experience. For almost 30 years the Government run Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has continued to handle the administration of claims estimates and supplements using a manual process where ICBC viewed each claim, and an ICBC estimator completed a hand written estimate (CL14). This estimate was then taken by the customer to a repair shop where, in a majority of cases, the vehicle could only receive a final estimate after it was disassembled by the repair shop. If there was any hidden damage, the shop called an ICBC Road Estimator who came to the shop and write a hand written supplement to the original estimate.

The total process relied on ICBC’s ability to manually view claims in real time, and since there was no use of technology to connect shops to the insurance company (as has been common throughout the rest of North America since the mid-eighties) the actual handling time, effort and cost to administer and manage the claim and vehicle repair in British Columbia became more and more expensive. Sensing an opportunity to compete, private insurance companies in recent years have become more aggressive in marketing the optional insurance portion (additional liability, collision and comprehensive) of policies to consumers in British Columbia. With a growing number of private policy holders needing repairs, many shops in BC have already embraced the concepts of “Preferred Supplier” and “Direct Repair”. Many others have not.

Observing the private model in other jurisdictions during the early nineties had already prompted ICBC to take a look at the way it was doing business as well. As a first step ICBC introduced it’s “Accreditation Program” called CarShop in 1995. This program was aimed at helping consumers to more easily identify quality repair facilities meeting a minimum standard of consumer focused qualification criteria. It also had the effect of beginning to improve ICBC’s working relationship with the professional repair industry.

Coupled with situation specific claims now being handled directly between the Telephone Claims Department (TCD) Adjusters and certified shops, repairers in BC are finally beginning to understand what the outside world of collision repair shops have been evolving to for over two decades. A more efficient and effective method with which to manage claims is to let the customer deal directly with the repair shop as soon as possible after coverage is verified.

This type of change brings with it, however, a much higher degree of responsibility and participation by the repair shop in terms of managing additional administrative portions of the claim. A common complaint heard recently from the industry is; “the insurance companies expect me to do so much more, and they continue to introduce even more programs. I am struggling to keep up with the changes and it is affecting my cash flow.” This may be true, but unless you can see your company evolving itself into more of a claims management company, you will get caught up in the past and lose out on the opportunities associated with taking your company to the next level.

So Let’s Start at the Beginning
How will estimates be handled in the future? As an example, let’s look at how an estimate from ICBC’s new ARIES Pen Pro system will work.

When a shop has completed an estimate using ARIES Pen Pro they will be able to export the content of that estimate into the shop’s management system and also send (upload) the actual estimate, via the web, to ICBC. Once exported to the shop’s management system the estimate content cannot be imported back into Pen Pro as an estimate; the shop will be required to go to the uploaded ICBC ARIES file, via the web, to retrieve the original estimate. This ensures only one version of the estimate exists. If the shop modifies the original estimate in ARIES Pen Pro they would re-export the updated estimate to the shop management system and send (upload) the modified estimate, via the web, to ICBC.

Return to top   Page 1  2  3  4