The hours that go at the service desk
The car is on the lift and the technician already knows what to do, the time isn't lost there, it's lost in front of a screen, with the chassis number typed three times in three different places, with the warranty claim that wants the fields in a certain order, with the parts order to do again because the code was for another version
- Opening the carmakers' portals for warranties, recall campaigns, authorization requests, each with its own login and its own rules
- Looking the part up in the parts systems, checking availability, carrying codes and prices across somewhere else
- Making the quotes with the estimating tools, then putting them back by hand into the workshop software
- Filling in the job cards, with the times, the parts used and the technician's notes
- The claims, the attachments, the photos, the documents to upload wherever they're needed
- Chasing whatever is still open, the warranty claim with no answer, the part ordered and never delivered
Nobody is going to change those portals for you
It's the point that people outside the trade don't see: the carmakers' systems aren't yours, you can't decide how they work, you can't ask them to give you a direct integration and you can't refuse to use them, you just use them, and if you carry more than one brand you use as many as there are
That's why anyone who turns up talking about integrating the systems hasn't understood where you work, an integration assumes somebody on the other side opens a door for you, and here that door doesn't exist
There's only one road left, a system that uses those screens the way the person at the service desk would, it opens the portal, logs in, searches, fills in the fields, attaches, saves, and it's exactly the work we do on programs with no direct integrations
Examples of what it can do in a workshop
- From the job card the system takes the chassis number, the plate, the parts and the times, opens the carmaker's portal and fills in the warranty claim field by field, then saves the receipt where you keep it
- It reads the order confirmation the supplier sends as a PDF, checks codes and quantities against what you had ordered, and carries the lines into the workshop software
- It takes the quote that came out of the estimating tool and turns it into the job, without retyping the lines one at a time
- Every morning it goes round the parts systems to see what has arrived and what is still stuck, and leaves you the list of who needs chasing
- It checks that a claim has all its attachments before sending it, if a photo or a date is missing it doesn't send it, it sets it aside
The trade stays in your hands
The system does the mechanical steps, it doesn't decide whether a fault is covered, it doesn't decide which part is the right one, it doesn't answer the customer who wants to know whether the car will be ready for Friday, those are the things you get paid for
When something doesn't add up, a code that doesn't exist, a missing value, a screen different from usual, it doesn't improvise, it stops and leaves the case to you, because a rejected warranty claim costs more than a claim filled in slowly
At the start it's worth keeping it on a short rein, with more confirmations, then you widen it on the cases you have seen work
Why it's worth it
The hours that today go into portals and retyping come back free, and you use them to fit in one more car or to stop keeping a person glued to a screen while the workshop needs them, how many those hours are isn't for me to say, you put your own numbers into the savings calculation
You change nothing of what you use, the system works on top of the programs you have
Where we start
I'm Antonio Fuccillo, I build the automations myself and I answer the messages myself, the office is in Nove in the province of Vicenza and the VAT number is 04650850243, so you know who you're talking to
You show me a procedure, a screen recording is fine, I look at whether it can be done and I tell you the monthly fee before we start, that figure stays and you approve every addition yourself, the steps are set out in how it works, and if you already have a procedure in mind write to me and we'll talk