Mitchell, a provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the collision industry, has announced enhanced integration capabilities during the creation of estimates and repair plans, within an update to Mitchell Cloud Estimating. Initially released in early 2018 at the category level, this latest update integrates OEM repair procedures and service information directly within an estimate.
Mitchell’s Integrated Repair Procedures (IRP) automatically searches for and displays relevant OEM repair procedures during the creation of estimates and repair plans. The solution works within Mitchell Cloud Estimating for all OEMs. The latest release of IRP adds two additional layers of integration capabilities for select OEMs. The second level of integration maps repair procedures to individual repair lines, allowing estimators and technicians to see the exact repair procedures that relate to a specific line on the estimate. The third layer of integration adds a Table of Contents option, so that the user has immediate access to the entire catalogue of repair procedures for the OEM. General Motors is the first OEM to have its full suite of service information made available with all three layers of integration in IRP.
“Over the past 12 months our collision repair experts and technical staff have worked tirelessly to design and deliver a solution for the collision industry,” said John Gilmartin, senior vice president of content management for Mitchell International. “Recognizing the importance of proper and safe repair, Mitchell has taken care to integrate the OEM repair procedures in a very specific and detailed way, eliminating the extra steps and clicks required to find the right procedures.”
While vehicle manufacturers have traditionally made repair procedure information available to collision repairers via various websites, Mitchell’s IRP places this critical information directly into the estimate. This eliminates the complexity technicians have historically encountered in both researching and accessing the relevant repair procedures.
At a recent industry event, Collision Industry Conference (CIC), the CIC Governmental and Emerging Technology committees, along with other industry associations, urged industry information providers to integrate and follow OEM repair procedures in their proper and safe repair, and challenged them to make OE procedures available at the estimate line level.
