PITTSBURGH, Pa., April 21, 2017—As the Collision Industry Conference wrapped up its two-day gathering on Thursday in Pittsburgh, a panel formed to examine the effects of BMS data for collision repairers sparked a lengthy discussion, in reaction to CCC’s recent launch of its Secure Share program.
The panel was led by industry veteran Frank Terlep, CTO of Repairify, Inc., who recently spearheaded a task force to examine how shop operators can best react to the Secure Share program, which was launched in early April. CCC’s Secure Share program will be fully implemented by April 2018.
The main question posited by Terlep's panel was: Who owns customer information data that’s transmitted through the Secure Share program? One panelist deemed CCC Secure Share a threat to the e-commerce of the collision repair industry.
Terlep said his main mission on Wednesday was to further examine what CCC’s measure is going to fully cost shop operators, considering that any company that uses the decades-old EMS setup that switches to Secure Share will incur fees of 50 cents per unique workfile transaction. Third-party application providers will be required to agree to specific conditions in order to work with the Secure Share program (a third-party application provider, as part of the CCC marketplace, is any provider that wants to get basic estimating data from the CCC estimating platform or management system; the CCC model allows shop operators to pick who their data is sent to.)
“None of this would be an issue” said Virginia shop owner Barry Dorn, “if you didn’t have a player [CCC] that was 70 percent of the market. … That’s a huge implication.”
CCC did not have any representatives in attendance in Pittsburgh, but issued a statement in response to Terlep’s task force, reading in part: “We do not believe that Secure Share provides CCC with any competitive advantage …”
Shop owner Brett Bailey of Kansas City, Mo., expressed concern about how third-party businesses may react to CCC’s requirements for its BMS setup.
“I may walk in tomorrow―well, April 2018―and one of my third-party partners that I do business with .. they may choose not to participate,” Bailey said.
