ALLDATA is putting the power of its library in the technicians’ hands with a new app and online shop management feature for subscribers.
The company at AAPEX this week unveiled ALLDATA Mobile and ALLDATA Manage Online. Paul Marshall, program manager, ALLDATA, explains ALLDATA Mobile as a true app now available for the iPad and soon to be Android platforms.
“We took the existing ALLDATA repair information, brought it through an app and added vehicle connectivity on top of it,” he states. “What you do is leverage the power of an app to connect to a vehicle using a third party device. You can read VINs, translate VINs, have an ALLDATA subscription and bring up the information on its own.”
ALLDATA Mobile allows technicians to access the ALLDATA database of vehicle manufactuer diagnostic and repair information. They also can connect to vehicles through the OBD port, read VIN information and pull standard P Codes. Those codes are linked to specific manufacturers’ repair articles.
Marshall says the company believes that tablets are the next big thing in terms of bringing repair information to customers. It is available for existing ALLDATA subscribers as an add-on to their subscription. To use it, technicians should download the app and contact ALLDATA, which will give them an authentication PIN that allows that tablet to access ALLDATA at any time.
“You don’t have to worry about losing a password,” Marshall says. “We’re incrementally improving the process.”
In addition to the app, ALLDATA is improving the shop management system process, says Michelle Jowers, program manager for management systems.
“ALLDATA Manage Online is an online shop management system. It’s something that can be accessed anywhere, anytime as long as you have a browser. It’s no mess, no fuss,” she states. “It’s a very simplified shop management system, which only takes a couple hours to learn.”
The system can be used on a computer, laptop or tablet. “They can even take it right out to the vehicle and work with them there, as long as the shop has WiFi,” Jowers adds.
She adds that the tool is a good way to improve customer relations, as well as use more features of the shop management system.
“We’re starting off with just this basic one, but we’re going to be moving toward modules that they want,” Jowers says. One such module in the next six months is electronic inspections, a dashboard that gives a quick look at the vehicles in the shop, parts that need ordered, what’s coming up and who is available.
ALLDATA subscribers interested in the Manage Online simply need to sign up for the service.
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