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Information Access
Mitchell puts the right knowledge at your fingertips.
T
he Mitchell Road Show came to Toronto in September, making stops at two very different collision repair facilities: CARSTAR Ajax and Markham Road Collision Centre, part of Formula Honda. Alex Papalazarou is the co-owner of CARSTAR Ajax and CARSTAR Pickering. He started in the business as a tech and a painter, opening his own shop in 1988. He joined CARSTAR in 2003. Papalazarou’s facilities use Mitchell’s RepairCenter, TechAdvisor, and Mitchell Estimating (UltraMate). “We track everything through RepairCenter,” says Papalazarou. “It tracks when estimates move to work orders, tracks the parts, and manages the entire repair process. We keep track of all of our KPIs through RepairCenter.” Keeping an eye on your key per formance indicators is necessary for properly guiding your facility both in the present and into the f u ture, bu t te c hnic ians working on the shop floor need information they can use immediately. “My people love TechAdvisor,” says Papalazarou. “It’s easy to find the information you need, whether that’s a wiring dia gr am o r h ow to remove the d o o r handle from a par ticular V W. We find TechAdvisor easy to use and it provides complete information.” Manuel Paul is the manager of Formula Honda’s collision centre, Markham Road Collision. He’s been with the company since 2005, and started in the business in 1983. Paul says they recently switched over to RepairCenter from the dealership’s internal management system. “For me, it’s changed things completely,”
Mourad Kayyali, Imran Jamaldin, Alex Papalazarou, Anna Karageorgos, Andre Siniakov, Miguel Cruz, Frank Scovino.
Manuel Paul, Percell Thompson, Nitesh Poonan, Jeffery Cole, Paul St. Pierre, Jason Chen, Joe Capano, Neville Robb, Leeann Fowler, Waine Bruno, Edwin Wong, Teddy Ali. (Not appearing in photo, Nial Boatswain, General Manager.)
says Paul. “The dealership system was fine, but RepairCenter is a dedicated system for running a collision repair facility. There are components that deal with how to run a shop, and the way it should work.” The biggest challenge Paul says he has found with RepairCenter is in the culture change. “If you force someone into doing something, you’re always going to have some rejection,” he says. “If it ’s introduced
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gradually, they understand it and buy into it, then they’ll accept wholeheartedly. It may take some time, but they do see the advantages, because there are huge benefits in it.” Of course, switching to a different system means they’re no longer in sync with the rest of the dealership. Or does it? “RepairCenter has an interface that will talk to the dealer system,” says Paul. “It really helps with parts.”