The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) believes the Estimating Management System (EMS) standard, while still fulfilling its intended purpose, is outdated and turn-of-the-century technology from both a design and content perspective.
The Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA) developed the EMS to transfer an estimate from the estimating system to the shop management system. This process transfers all the information contained on an estimate and is used by repairers on a daily basis.
Over the years, the EMS file has been used for purposes other than its original intent; for example, it has been used to report the repair status of a vehicle. Using the EMS in this manner results in all the estimate information being transferred (in addition to the repair status information). As a result, repairers incur the risk of violating state and/or federal privacy laws. Moreover, repairer’s and vehicle owner’s information has been sold to other companies, unbeknownst to the repair facility.
Today, there is a replacement for the EMS – the Business Message Specification (BMS). The BMS is built on new specifications that are scalable and technology neutral. Rather than sending the entire EMS file and all the estimate data, the BMS provides repairers with the flexibility and security to transmit specific subsets of estimate information.
The BMS is not available to collision repairers. Implementing the BMS for repairers will address many of the privacy and data security risks, according to SCRS. It will also assist in reducing other manual processes, such as the manual keying of a vehicle’s repair status into multiple systems.
If you are in favor of moving to the new BMS standard, which would assist repairers in protecting their data as well as their customers, contact SCRS to have your name added to the petition. SCRS will send the petition to all three information providers requesting they provide the collision repair industry with the BMS format.
Contact SCRS Executive Director Dan Risley at [email protected] or (708) 598-3384. SCRS will need your name and your company’s name for validation purposes.
