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Letter to the Editor

Mitchell Announces Nationwide Availability of Version 7 of ABS Body Shop Management System; Extends e-Business Offerings with Ensera Products

SAN DIEGO -- Mitchell International has announced nationwide availability of Version 7 of its ABS Body Shop Management System, the collision repair industry's leading solution for increasing profitability and efficiency by automating many shop management functions.

The release follows successful beta testing of the new version by 25 repair shops, including both consolidators and independent shops, across the country.

"The beta testing clearly showed that ABS Version 7's feature-rich offerings and new technological architecture provide shop owners even more ways to boost their bottom line, while also saving time and money," said Andrea Letzring, Mitchell's ABS product manager. "Plus, ABS has a proven track record and is the management system used by more body shops than any other."

According to Mitchell, ABS Version 7 can save collision repair shops up to 30 minutes per repair order, increase productivity and streamline business functions. It communicates openly with CIECA-standard EMS files and includes an Internet-standard XML data export for repair orders. This allows individual shops or chains to send management reports and other data, via the Internet, to a central location for analysis by shop owners, and the entire system allows ABS Version 7 to easily accommodate product enhancements.

Shop owners using ABS Version 7 will be able to:

• Import industry standard UDS and EMS estimates. More easily export data to the Internet.
• Save time -- as much as 30 minutes per repair order -- by offering complete supplement support for all CEICA compliant estimating systems.
• View a total of more than 100 available reports, including detailed breakouts of personnel, job functions and locations.
• Track estimating activities to increase sales performance.
• Simplify parts management with ABS' ordering, receiving and costing processes.
• Manage job costs by providing reports that highlight profits and losses generated at every step in the repair process.
• Maximize employee efficiency and productivity by assigning employees to jobs that capitalize on their skills and provide useful reports to detail their performance.
• Track marketing efforts so that money is spent on those that best generate sales.
• ABS 7 will also interface with QuickBooks, the small business accounting and financial management software from Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit Corp.

Jim Wensel, general manager of Riverdale Body Shop in Schereville, Ind., has been an ABS user for the past year and participated in ABS 7 beta testing. Among its many new features, he said he likes ABS' capability to import CIECA-compliant estimates and supplements from other estimating systems -- eliminating the need to reenter data from insurance partners. Wensel said he also likes the new payroll allocation screens that make it easier for him to figure commissions. "It used to take me up to two hours to do the payroll, now I can take care of it in 30 minutes," he said.

By having their ABS data transferred to QuickBooks, users can produce financial statements, print invoice and customer statements, manage AR/AP, perform job-costing analysis and produce general ledgers among other things.

Since Mitchell acquired Ensera, the provider of integrated e-business tools for the collision repair and claims industries, in September the company has begun to execute the integration of the two organizations.

"Together, we have created an e-business solution unparalleled in its functionality, innovation and significant service offerings," said Anthony Aquila, Ensera's founder and CEO, who recently joined Mitchell as executive vice president sales, marketing and product management.

The addition of Ensera's products, such as online automated payment, also advances Mitchell's strategy of providing customers with enterprise-wide technology solutions, Aquila said. "We are quickly moving toward delivering enterprise-wide technology solutions because we recognize the enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced cycle times and lower costs these solutions will offer our customers."

Among the new solutions added as a result of the Ensera acquisition are:

Automated Payment Solution:

This Web-based payment processing solution is designed to replace manual invoice review and paper check processing in numerous areas for insurers. Based on a company's business rules, incoming invoices are reviewed for compliance and reasonableness, and if compliant, electronic payments are issued. Those that fail the compliance test are routed according to the company's claims workflow specifications. With the system, insurers can reduce loss adjustment expense by eliminating paper check processing costs, reduce cycle times and improve customer satisfaction through faster payment and less paper work for customers.

Salvage Management:

With this dynamic online management tool -- the first in the industry to aggregate and report salvage disposal information on total loss vehicles -- insurers gain a valuable window into the salvage process through data integration with the nation's salvage pools. Using this information, insurers can better track their salvage inventory and vendor performance, driving reduced cycle times, increased work flow efficiency and improved ROI. The tool provides daily data feeds, multi-vendor reporting, customized data views and exception reporting, giving insurers consistent, accurate and timely information on the disposition of their salvage inventory, regardless of salvage vendor. Combined with iNTOTAL, Mitchell's total loss settlement solution, Mitchell now offers a complete solution for total loss vehicles, from settlement through the sale of the salvage vehicle.

Online CSI Reports

Insurance companies and body shops can now quickly get a pulse on their customer satisfaction thanks to a new online Customer Service Index (CSI) Reports feature. The service is offered by AutocheX at Autochex.com and is also accessible via eMitchell.com. CSI reporting provides shops and insurers valuable feedback on their performance based on customer satisfaction surveys conducted by AutocheX. With the online version of CSI reporting, daily electronic data updates make customer information available very quickly. This means insurers and shops can learn about customer satisfaction issues much faster than through paper reporting, and can confirm good performance or proactively work to correct a problem situation.

The addition of Ensera's solutions comes on the heels of a major expansion of eMitchell announced earlier this month.

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