CHICAGO — CCC tackled questions and uncertainty of its new cloud-based program head on during a presentation at the Collision Industry Conference in Chicago.
CCC Information Service’s Mark Fincher, Vice President of Market Solutions, explained the reasons behind the company’s launch of the CCC Secure Share Network earlier this year and system features.
The CCC Secure Share Network will use a cloud-based program to connect its 22,000 member shops to vendors. Secure Share will utilize the Business Message Suite (BMS), the current digital messaging standard published by the Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA), and eventually phase out the older and less secure Estimate Management Standard (EMS).
For the past few years, there has been a growing need in the collision industry to upgrade from EMS — which is still commonly used by information providers — to the newer BMS format.
According to the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, the EMS data standard was originally created to facilitate the transmission of data between the body shop estimating program and body shop management system to allow repairers to choose the technology platform of their choice. However in doing so, shops may inadvertently allow third-party sources access to sensitive customer information. The BMS format better allows collision repairers to improve data security by only transmitting the relevant information to vendors, whether they be a rental car company, parts procurement system, shop management system, social media company, repair information company or CSI tracker, among others.
“This is a significant investment in a new platform to help repairers exchange their information more securely with the partners they work with,” Fincher said. Security, customer control, innovation and cloud are the drivers.
Security is the main driver. It also gives the customers more control, as repair facilities can send just the relevant information to their partners, he said. It also will eventually do away with EMS, which Fincher called “a barrier to the industry today.”
Although security is the primary catalyst for the new system, “there has not been a significant compromise from a security perspective” to date, Fincher said.
“But we don’t want to be in a reactive mode. We don’t want to be in a mode where the data completely shuts down. We don’t want to be in that reactive situation. We want to be proactive. We didn’t do this overnight. We want to give the industry plenty of time to acclimate to this new solution,” he said.
The cloud-based system also allows customers more freedom, as they don’t need to be tied to a laptop or desktop. “Allowing cloud-to-cloud applications frees you up to choose how you want to do business with app providers,” Fincher said.
Secure Share enables vendors, also referred to as “app providers,” to deliver their services to CCC’s network through a single connection, eliminating the need to create individual connections with hundreds or thousands of collision repairers, the company states. Vendors will incur a one-time registration fee of $2,500, with an additional $.50 fee per estimate.
Despite CCC’s assurance that the per-estimate fee will not be passed on to the shops, there have been arguments in the industry as to whom will ultimately absorb the cost.
“We believe this is a fair price that will help us recoup our cost. It is going to take us a while to recoup this initial investment. This is based on the ongoing expense and cost of maintaining these purposes,” Fincher said. “Down the road we will make a profit, but we are a software company.”
Fincher also fielded questions about who ultimately owns the data. “Repairers, insurers, OEMs, all claim ownership to the data. CCC does not,” he said.
CCC was a logical choice to take the lead in making the data more secure, as it is originating in the CCC ONE system. “The problem is the data is sitting on a server completely unencrypted. Putting the burden on collision repairers to put the needed data security in place is too much,” Fincher said. “It makes the most sense for us being the ones to transmit the data.”
CIC involvement
Frank Terlap with asTech presented his concern regarding the system at CIC in Palm Springs earlier this year. Terlap raised questions about the cost and process—including that the data from all 22,000 of CCC’s members will be flowing into and out of one source. He also presented his view on other potential ramifications, including shops losing ownership and access to their data; less competition; less innovation; access to basic industry data limited or cut off; existing business models upended; and one company gaining control of an industry standard and basic industry data. His presentation led to the creation of the task force to further pursue information and resolutions regarding the new CCC system.
This led to the creation of the CIC Database Task Force — comprised of Dan Risley with the Automotive Serice Association; Mark Algie with 3M; and Rick Palmer, Computer Logic — which earlier this year met with CCC representatives at their headquarters in Pittsburgh.
A nine-page document came from the meeting, which outlined CCC’s responses to industry questions and concerns. CCC also agreed to create an Advisory Board to help address issues and possible value-added benefits for app providers.
The task force provided eight potential solutions to CCC regarding Secure Share:
- Delay the implementation of Secure Share until the industry issues are adequately resolved.
- Allow the industry the option to choose EMS or BMS depending upon business need and business partners.
- Once the BMS enters the shop’s information system, there is no interruption in business flow as the shop can choose, where and with whom they share the data. No downstream restrictions.
- The shop is provided a comma delimitated, un-encrypted data file to utilize.
- Allow the BMS file to continue as the EMS file does with the shops' current process flow.
- Consider an alternative model and charge for EMS as opposed to BMS usage.
- Charge a transaction fee when BMS PII (personally identifiable information) is being exchanged.
- Offer a subscription-based fee in addition to the transaction-based fee.
CCC is reviewing and considering revisions to contract terms based upon issues raised by the task force.
Vendors have until April 2018 to migrate their apps from EMS to BMS, after which the EMS format will be retired and no longer available. “The implantation date is not going to be delayed,” warned Dan Risley, executive director of the Automotive Service Association and task force member, cautioning attendees who may be delaying data conversion.
Fincher reiterated Risley’s sentiment. “I urge the app providers to please start your implementations now. We’ll help you with that process. If you wait to February or March of next year, we may not be in the position to help you as much if everyone is rushing,” he said.
