"In the pilot program several years ago, we were facilitating a parts discount through the OEs," said George Avery, State Farm claims consultant. "This one will be a more complete electronic parts ordering process that will include all part types." All, he said, except aftermarket parts.

Avery says State Farm was encouraged by the results of that pilot program and saw that electronic parts ordering "has some advantages." This latest endeavor, he says, is simply the next step, but he emphasized it is in its very initial stages.

Avery believes that electronic parts ordering will benefit all parties involved in collision repair transactions: shops, insurers, customers and vendors. But top of the list, he says, is the vehicle owner.

"The focus is the customer," he said. "We have a clear message from the customer: 'We want efficiency.' That happened early on in the Select Service agreement and is why we asked the shops to give the customer a promise date. The customer said, 'If you're going to tell me my car will be done on a certain date, then I want it done on that date.' So [electronic parts ordering] will get them back in their car quicker."

As far as how State Farm will benefit, Avery listed savings in rental costs, cost of repair and less time "touching the claim." For repairers, he said efficiency means more profit.

"[Repairers] continue to tell us that more efficiency and moving more cars through their shop equates to more success and profit," he said. "Plus, it makes things go more smoothly."

If State Farm moves forward with the electronic parts ordering program, all Select Service shops will be required to use it. Asked if it would factor in to the "scorecard" unveiled by State Farm last year to allow Select Service shops to measure their performance, Avery said it could.

"If [electronic parts ordering] does make repairers more efficient, then those efficiencies will come out on that score," said Avery. "This could be a tool to allow them to be more efficient and perhaps impact their competitive price and quality – because we want [electronic parts ordering] to allow them to get quality parts as well."

Avery emphasized that this program was not conceived to control what kind of parts repairers should get or where they should get them from. He said State Farm puts that decision and others in repairers' hands.

"The thought was, if you're going to hold a repairer accountable across the board for the scorecard, you should allow them to make those decisions on those individual repair jobs that make sense," he said. "That's our message: the choice will be in their hands. State Farm has a deep desire and commitment for repairers to be able to make those decisions."

Avery did add, however, that if technology changes or a new system comes along that is mutually agreed upon by State Farm and the repairer, that scenario could change.

Asked if there would be a cost to shops related to this new program, Avery said he didn't think so but admitted it was too early to tell.

"Our intent is to have agreements that fit all stakeholders. I don't think that our desire is to put an additional load on repairers," he said. "But as technology goes, you might find a repairer who says, 'I'm willing to do this because it helps me get to my goals and is totally worth it.'

"We've worked very hard to not be disruptive to the repairer. We don't require them to use a certain software program, CSI vendor, education process, etc. That's a signal from us to them to try not to be disruptive to their business. That spirit will carry forward in the parts environment."

Avery said there is no timetable in place yet for establishing the program and no particular region or area selected for testing.

"We are just beginning and have a long row to hoe," he said. "You've got the testing process, identifying shops in certain areas, performing the test, analyzing results and rolling it out. I hope that the industry sees that, in the past, State Farm has been consistent with trying to communicate as much up front about what we're doing and where we're going.

"We don't know where we're starting. Obviously, it will be our Select Service providers. Knowing what we did in the last test, there was a lot of work putting the program together before reaching out to the zones and saying, 'Hey, we want to try it in these areas because it makes sense for us.' We are so far from that right now."

View video distributed to Select Service shops explaining the program