Audatex says it’s time for manufacturer’s times
International claims solution company, Audatex, believes the time is right to introduce
estimating technology that replaces funny times and NTAR estimating for manufacturer’s times.
PHILIP COOPER, CEO of Audatex in Australia, says the company spends $30 million a year on keeping-up to date with the detail provided by manufacturers. He claims this process allows Audatex to stand out from the rest.
The way the system works is to create independent labour times produced by the manufacturer. “It is the manufacturers recommended times on how to, for instance, remove and replace damaged panels,” Cooper says.
“The system has the graphics of every model that is produced, not just generic graphics, but graphics directly from the manufacturer. The Audatex system can display all the components of a vehicle.
That is an average of 19,000 parts per vehicle for every model that is on the system. The times are not derived from repairers or insurers, or anywhere else, but directly from the manufacturer,” Cooper added.
Audatex’s CEO believes there is some scepticism about carrying out estimating the Audatex way but there’s also been a lot of interest.
“The question often is whether the manufacturer’s times are more accurate than something you came up with yourself? It’s an interesting market we have here in Australia where some people appear to have their own agendas.”
Despite the huge amount of data in the Audatex system, the company does have a challenge with Australian cars. “We will have 80 per cent of the Australian market by the end of the year,” Cooper says. “We do not, however, have cars in the system that are over 10 years-old.”
Cooper believes the system works best with a tablet. “You are able to go around the car and complete the entire quote on the spot. The tablet using the Audatex system automatically generates all the labour times for the operations and up-to-date part prices that are required.”
“If you want to replace the rear guard, for instance, the system knows what you need to remove in order to complete the work. The system will provide accurate parts numbers and prices so you can go through and order what you need. The prices are attached to it so you can go through and produce a very comprehensive estimate including paint materials and times for applying it.”
One of the challenges, according to Cooper, is sourcing the VIN numbers for various vehicles which makes accuracy in identifying a vehicle easy. Once you have done this the ordering of parts is almost mistake-proof.
Cooper says they have been trying to source VIN information from a company in Australia.”Now I think we have an organisation that can do that. We hope that, by the end of the year, we will have sorted that problem out.”
Cooper also says that the Audatex system provides information from the manufacturer on how a repair should be carried out. “For instance, the manufacturer might say you can cut a section of the chassis rail and weld a new piece in without removing the entire rail. The system is very intelligent in that it calculates what you have to dismantle to affect a repair.”
Audatex says it has been meeting and negotiating with paint companies to obtain their print material price file so that we can calculate the paint material costs in the estimate.”The cost of the paint is just a key stroke away,” he added.
Cooper explains the key to selling the system to Australian bodyshops is dependant upon the cooperation of manufacturers. “We have good working relationships with about 85 manufacturers around the world. Once we have their data it’s a matter of converting it into our system and this is what takes time. For instance, if the data we receive is in French we have to convert that into English and then
package it all up.”
Cooper says Audatex advantages are that the company does a lot of training on the system and if bodyshops are well trained the productivity of an estimator improves enormously.
“If you know what is behind that bumper bar, that can make life much easier. That is why the system is used by over 33,000 repair shops worldwide and in over 50 different countries.”
Cooper says that the Audatex system has a number of modules like Auda Invoice. This process has the capability to turn a repairer’s invoice around in a day.