The name of the game is fixing trucks. Get them in, get them diagnosed and get them fixed. There’s nothing better than a day that comes together—your technicians churning through work efficiently and safely, and happy drivers, fleet managers and customers. And then there’s the business part—the numbers, the phone calls, the estimates. Funny how some days you have to do all the things you don’t like about your job just to get back to doing the stuff you love about your job.
If the thought of payment processing and estimate communication makes your skin crawl, then maybe it’s time to turn to a software solution to ease that headache. We talk a lot about integrating service data to streamline your maintenance operations within FST’s pages, but you can also combine your service data with estimate and payment systems.
“An environment without an integrated service management process is manual, paper-based, intensely inefficient and not easily tracked or monitored,” said Mark Wasilko, vice president of marketing and partnerships for Decisiv. “When we come in and automate the inspection and estimate procedures we start to eliminate the redundant, error-filled manual process.”
The way Decisiv is doing that is via an integration partnership with MSTS’s Credit as a Service (CaaS) technology for its SRM Platform to digitally manage estimate approvals and payments.
“When [we can] automate the inspection and estimate procedures we start to eliminate the redundant, error-filled manual process.”
—Mark Wasilko, vice president of marketing and partnerships for Decisiv
Here’s how it works: At the beginning of the service event, the system queries to validate credit and parts pricing for national accounts. At the end of the service event, the interface enables payment approval for estimates and automatically validates work performed against invoices. After final authorization, invoices are processed for settlement.
“Before the integration,” began Martha Salinas, MSTS senior vice president, “the service event was independent from the payment. By partnering with Decisiv we are providing a seamless end-to-end solution for customers. This reduces billing errors and disputes because of MSTS performs the reconciliation between the estimate and final invoice, minimizing manual process for the service shop.”
MSTS leverages Decisiv’s maintenance processes data—as the technician works on the truck and inputs information into the Decisiv platform (think parts and labor info that you’d find on the repair order), that data is captured and reconciled against the estimate, providing the service manager a clear, in-depth view of what actually occurred during the service process.
When it comes to generating the estimate and sourcing parts, the integration between Decisiv and MSTS allows the system to track pricing that has been set by the supplier and even checks other parts supplier pricing and stock from those that are integrated into the Decisiv platform. From there, once pricing is accepted, MSTS moves the credit process forward.
This is just one example of a solution that could ease your estimate and payment process. Check with your software service provider to see how you might make the process easier. And remember: whenever you have work that you have to do that distracts you from the work you want to do, there might just be a solution that minimizes that. You just have to start asking your software providers about your options.
