Typical benchmarking programs require you to gather data; and either handwrite it, or enter it into some form of document, then submit the results for collation and analysis. Not only is this method time consuming for you, but the end result often contains a certain bias, and accuracy is entirely dependant on the systems from which the data was obtained. The resulting information is often quite outdated by the time it is released, and without the knowledge of each and every job that makes up the submitted totals – cross-section analysis simply can not be performed.
What makes WebTRIM’s Live Benchmarking so special? For starters, the information that we obtain from each of our participating clients would be so difficult and time consuming to obtain manually, that it would require at least one full-time data entry clerk at each repair facility, two or three in a larger site! We literally gather every possible facet of data relating to each vehicle that is repaired, and then have it submitted to our secure central server. This process occurs on a set interval, ensuring that our central data server is updated multiple times a day by each of our participating clients.
When you enter into the reports, the system will first download the latest set of fresh information from our server – a set of literally hundreds of thousands of vehicles that have been repaired across our WebTRIM clients. Processes on the server ensure that you only receive the highest quality of data. For example, if the technicians who worked on a particular vehicle are idle for an unacceptable amount of time, the vehicle is removed from the sample. In addition, we make sure that each vehicle is properly grouped into work provider, vehicle make, and vehicle model. This category based filter is critically important due to the varied quoting packages that we deal with, not to mention that there is no standard naming convention for work provider, make or model – we have already discovered 7 different ways of spelling ‘Mitsubishi’!
Before we continue, it must be mentioned that the data is securely transmitted, stored & downloaded, as well as completely anonymous. There is no way to track the vehicle to customer or facility where it was repaired. We use an implementation of SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), utilising the SSH-2 protocol for all communications.
In essence, we have a lot of very detailed and quality data available for reporting. The end result is a suite of easy to understand reports that allow you to gain perspective into the many facets of the industry. For example, you can compare the average margins achieved from one Work Provider to another, or drill down further to review the margins made per vehicle make per insurer. All of the group information is compared with your own set of results. Is your average repair cost for AAMI the same as metro Victoria, or are you a little high? What about your achieved sale rates in panel & paint, how does that compare?
In a group situation, we provide you with the ability to compare your results to other repair facilities in that group. It is even possible to compare your results with the data collected from a nominated set of repairers. For example – you may be a member of a round table of repairers with similar type shops, with the consent of all shops involved you can easily compare your results with theirs.
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