March 2000 Editor's Page
Horsepower or Hype?

In January I commented on this page about the hopeful crash parts e-commerce providers. As our news article on the joint venture between ADP, CCC and Reynolds and Reynolds on page 2 clearly indicates, electronic parts ordering will be a reality in the very near future for collision repair facilities.

Wariness of newcomers’ hype was the focus of January’s editorial, comparing the rush to provide electronic parts ordering services to the California Gold Rush. This month, I must reaffirm that statement.

The entry of the ADP/CCC/R&R initiative, providing they get government approval of the proposed venture of course, will provide a powerful incentive for parts suppliers and repair facilities to participate in an electronic marketplace for crash parts.

Surely, ADP and CCC see this venture as an opportunity to leverage their market penetration with estimating and management systems to speed the process of getting repairers on-board.

This new electronic parts marketplace has the potential to provide an improved parts ordering, tracking and fulfillment experience for shops. Parts, time and again, are listed as a repair facility’s biggest management problem. Parts take time to order, track availability, check for delivery accuracy and follow-up on back orders and additional repair items.

However, to get shops to participate, they will have to move beyond the hype and prove they have the real horsepower to change an industry’s existing practices.

For shops to justify the change in parts ordering methodology, ADP/CCC/R&R or startups such as Carstation.com will have to deliver real value, in quantifiable terms for shops such as decreased delivery times and increased parts deliver accuracy and backorder time, to address these shops’ parts ordering needs.

ADP and CCC market share for shops’ existing computing centers will provide them a powerful advantage over the competition. Much as Microsoft has used their dominance in computer operating systems to develop high market shares for application software, the ADP/CCC/R&R deal gives these existing industry suppliers a decided advantage. The value they deliver will be the key. o