Posted by Mike Gilliland on Mon, Oct 19, 2009 @ 11:53 AM
Every morning as you walk into your facility you are met with a tsunami of information, usually (if you are like me) all you have available to fend off the advancing wave is a 3/4 empty coffee cup. You'll definitely fill your cup, but as the wave passes and dissipates you know there is a lot of valuable information that you did not capture and you have an uneasy feeling in your stomach that maybe you missed something important.
This scenario is not a unique to collision repairers, most types of businesses experience it, but it is compounded by the fact that in most collision repairs there are 3 party's involved, yourself, the vehicle owner, and the insurer. In an earlier article we concluded there appears to be a need for Business Intelligence within our industry but how we convert a fairly complex technology into usable "Collision Intelligence" that provides real value to shop operations needs to be determined.
Here at AutoHouse, we believe we should start with your most pressing concern. What is going on today and are we potentially off the rails? If so, can I resolve the problems we've identified before they have a negative impact on my business?
We've identified 3 areas of interest:
1) Administration - ensure the proper information is captured during the administrative process and flag exceptions for resolution.
2) Finance - report where there may be potential profit leaks and identify potential areas to improve cash flow.
3) Production - take a snap shot of production and the incoming and outgoing pipeline so you can prioritize and adjust as necessary.
We think there is potential value to be delivered through Collision Intelligence but in the end our clients will decide. We welcome your comments, critical feedback and general thoughts on the subject.
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Posted by Mike Gilliland on Mon, Oct 19, 2009 @ 11:35 AM
Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more widely known and discussed within the collision repair community. Several industry technology vendors have also released products or services with the word "Intelligence" incorporated within their solutions name. That leaves one to ponder... what is Business Intelligence?
A workable definition of BI was provided in a January 2005 Technology Evaluation report. "BI is an umbrella term that combines architectures, applications and databases. It enables real-time, interactive access, analysis, and manipulation of information, which provides the business community with easy access to business data. By giving this valuable insight, BI helps decision makers make more informed decisions and supplies end-users with critical business information on their customers or partners, including information on behaviors and trends."
To summarize in simple terms, BI makes the right information available, in the right format, to the right person, at the right time.
Collision repairers are driven by numbers, from financials to production efficiency ratios to insurance partners key performance indicators so the concept of Business intelligence appears to be a natural fit. The next question, can it be delivered to collision repairers in a technologically and financially viable solution?