No, TMC isn’t going to eradicate Alexander Graham Bell’s invention, but if its S.16 Service Provider study group has its way, there may be a point in the near future where your service department will no longer need it.
According to information presented during a task force meeting Monday at TMC’s fall meeting in Orlando, S.16 is “making progress” on a recommended practice for ‘Service Event Data Transparency’ that would one day allow service facilities and their end users to speak constantly, and in real time, across various business management systems on the status of a repair.
Using an application programming interface (API) to connect OEMs, fleets and service providers’ business software, Task Force Chairman Bruce Love from DP Solutions says a data transparency RP would offer clear guidance on when — and how — a service provider could proactively update customers on service progress.
Though still in its early stages, Love says his task force is steadily moving forward. The group has created a detailed list of “all points in the service process” that will be built into the RP, including noting when all necessary parts have been acquired, when the truck hits the bay and an automatic update released every 12 hours.
“The goal is to publish what we know to the customer when we know it,” Love says.
Thus far Love says nearly a dozen industry software providers have committed to the task force. He urged Monday’s meeting attendees to help recruit others.
The task force and committed software providers are currently working on a prototype API that Love hopes will motivate the rest of the industry’s software providers to join TMC’s movement. He plans to debut the program at next spring’s annual meeting in Nashville.
