Technology Newsmaker Q&A: Jeff Sweet

Jan. 1, 2020
Jeff Sweet is president of Identifix, a vehicle diagnostic solution provider.
Jeff Sweet is president of Identifix, a vehicle diagnostic solution provider. The company's Direct-Hit online tool is marketed at dealerships and independent repair shops.

Do dealerships and independent shops/aftermarket chains use these types of tools differently?

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No, I don't think so. In the dealership world, they've been trying to broaden their vehicle mix to include all makes, and a diagnostic tool is an important resource for them. For dealership customers, there's also another segment of work they are trying to get, and that's out-of-warranty vehicles. If you look at tech service bulletins that dealers rely on, they tend to be written during the warranty period. They don't have a source for after-warranty fix information.

Have you found that shops are interested in different types of features now?

Scheduled maintenance information gets a lot of attention. I was talking to a shop owner a few blocks from our office a while back. He told me that business is a lot different than it was 15 years ago. Back then, he could roll open the bay doors and wait for cars to show up. Now with the quality of the vehicles, he has to focus on scheduled maintenance if he wants to stay busy.

As a technology provider, what are your biggest challenges in making sure you have the correct vehicle data and repair information available for your customers?

The data challenge is probably the greatest in the OEM information feature we added. We licensed content from the OEs and were able to launch the product with six OEs, the Big Three Detroit and Asian manufacturers. All of that OE information comes in different formats and different data structures, and it has taken a lot of engineering work to be able to deliver the unedited content that they make available to their dealership technicians to the aftermarket.

What do you think is the biggest technology challenge repairers face now?

I don't think there is an industry that has as much technology change forced upon them as the auto repair industry. The automotive technician who has developed expertise to quickly replace a fuel pump on a Ford Taurus, for example, now the next model year comes in and he pops open the hood, and they've changed the entire system. That's not a choice the auto technician gets to make. They are forced to adapt.

The amount of information that is required for an auto technician to do their job is significant. The other thing we see is that there are so many sets of extensive steps just to turn off the check engine light. If you don't have an accurate listing of the steps, it can create all kinds of problems. If you change a customer's oil and the service oil light is still on when they pick up their vehicle, they assume the work isn't done. Even a thing as simple as taking the tires off. The process involved in recalibrating those pressure monitor systems can be complicated. You have to follow it exactly, or you end up with a tire warning light that won’t go off.

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