The August issue of Collision Management is now available online. You can flip through it here, but first, a few words from the Editor-in-Chief of Collision Management, Huw Evans.
The Next Generation
The future is coming and we need to be ready for it.
Change is inevitable, whether we like it or not. Yet perhaps an even bigger factor to consider is not the concept of change itself, but the pace of that change.
In the collision repair industry today, the pace of change is nothing short of staggering. Vehicle technology has changed more in the last 10 years than it did in the preceeding four decades.
Fresh blood
New substrates, construction techniques and embedded technology are dictating the way repairs are handled, while customer and vendor expectations have never been higher. At the same time, there’s also a changing of the guard as many established professionals retire and younger blood steps in to take over.
Our cover story this month takes a look at Fix Auto’s meteoric rise over the last 25 years as well as the network’s plans for the future. A big part of that includes helping its strategic network partners grow and prosper. In this issue we take a look at several from across the country that are doing just that.
Technology is also changing the way in which we handle the collision repair process. Our Special File section looks at how modern software is helping shops work smarter and more efficiently, whether it’s dealing with customers directly or performing diagnostics on vehicles during the repair process.
Cohesive strategy
And as cars become ever more complex, the need to develop a cohesive software strategy across the entire collision repair spectrum becomes increasingly important, allowing everyone to share information, understand how the process is working and deliver overall better results.
While there’s a lot of emphasis today on technology to perform tasks, its important to remember that software is simply an enabler. How we’re able to use it is what ultimately decides the outcome. And by investing and training in our people as well as providing useful technology at their disposal, the future can remain decidedly bright, no matter the challenges that lie ahead.