As more vehicles are equipped with at least one advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) feature, the need for proper repair and calibration of them has never been greater, said Cris Hollingsworth, president of Repairify, DBA asTech.
“Our entire industry has to be prepared to repair a much more sophisticated piece of machinery,” he said. “I like to say it’s become pretty much a piece of technology on wheels.”
He said asTech’s acquisitions this year fit its four pillars of focus: diagnostics, calibrations, remote services, and automotive intelligence.
BlueDriver, which offers an aftermarket quick-scan device, was acquired in January. That was followed in February with the purchase of adasThink, a software platform that scans an estimate to find ADAS calibrations that need to be performed on the vehicle based on its build data. Also that month, the company announced a strategic investment by 3M Ventures, followed by its March acquisition of RED (EU) Ltd. and Red AutoCentres, a United Kingdom-based designer, supplier, and service solutions provider to the automotive aftermarket of diagnostic tools and technical support.
The parent company, founded in 2010 to offer its namesake asTech device and remote OEM scanning and calibration services for the automotive aftermarket, later expanded into mobile scanning and calibrations and also offering the same services from permanent on-location (“in-shop”) asTech technicians. The company continues to look at new use cases and markets for its products and services, Hollingsworth said.
“We will continue to focus on diagnostics, especially in our core market, the crash and collision space. But other, adjacent markets, such as mechanical, which has some obvious overflow, are where we feel that our product solutions can deliver a good value proposition to customers.”
He said asTech’s dynamic and static calibrations serve collision repair centers, dealerships, and mechanical repair shops. Although he wasn’t able to discuss specifics, Hollingsworth mentioned that in addition to remote calibrations, the company is working on additional uses for its remote services.
“If we have the ability to solve or help solve for that event for the customer, that’s where we’re going to present our solutions to the marketplace.”
The company performs diagnostic and calibration events on multiple millions of cars per year, Hollingsworth said.
“And from that, we are able to extrapolate some trends and analytics that we feel are helpful to our customers. We call our fourth pillar ‘automotive intelligence.’ It’s in and around what we can extrapolate from the entire ecosystem to effectively say, ‘Hey, here’s some of the trends of what’s going on’ with the events we see that we think potentially can make our customers more efficient or provide them with data that helps them to be more productive in how they run their businesses.”
The company uses data compiled from its diagnostic calibration events, but another source of automotive intelligence is through its acquisition of adasThink, Hollingsworth said.
“We see it as a very nice integrated aspect of what we’re adding to our tool portfolio. Effectively, we take the data from the build sheet, all the way to the data in which the shop is engaged with the vehicle, to effectively identify the ADAS and the calibration events that should be happening on that vehicle.”
Hollingsworth said BlueDriver fits well with asTech’s tool strategy.
“Customers have been asking us, ‘We would like you to provide us with tools that can be used in all the use cases we have, whether it is in our shop or in our collision lane. And it does fit in very elegantly with what our customers have been asking us for.”
BlueDriver offers DIY customers a simpler scanning solution that suggests common fixes for a multitude of vehicle-specific error codes, as well as a simple way to clear them.
“It’s the most powerful aftermarket quick-scan device available to consumers,” Hollingsworth said.
But there are also many uses where BlueDriver has proven useful for collision and mechanical repairers for triaging a vehicle, he said.
“There are lots of use cases in which the BlueDriver can fulfill those needs. But if somebody comes to us with a use case to say ‘I want to engage in an ADAS diagnostic or some type of ADAS calibrations,’ our response would be, ‘Great, hook up your asTech.’
“BlueDriver has a very strong presence in the consumer market, and it provides insights that we normally wouldn’t have or be acquiring through our existing assets. But at the same time, too, BlueDriver also does have wholesale and business-to-business applications in the portfolio. We are extremely pleased with the results we've already seen from BlueDriver in and with existing customers and with new customers.”
Three-pronged approach to scanning and calibration is catered to customer needs
AsTech will continue to offer its three service options to shops for scanning and calibration: remote, mobile, and in-shop.
“We’re very much focused on what are the right models in each of the markets,” Hollingsworth said. “We have blended that model completely across the country, based upon really what our customer needs are and where the demand is. In some markets, we’re engaged with a person in a van doing that mobile type of activity. There are a lot of customers who want assistance with the actual repair, they want assistance with the diagnostics, and they want assistance with the calibration. And we’re going to respond to them with the appropriate type of service offering, based upon what they’re asking us for.”
The company’s in-shop program, which places an asTech technician in the shop full-time, is one option available anywhere in the U.S. when a good business-volume case can be made for that arrangement.
“We kind of become almost part of the DNA of the workflow in the shop, and then we also augment that with our remote services around the diagnostics and the calibration,” Hollingsworth said. “So we’re very much focused on what are the right models in each of the markets. We have blended that model completely across the country, based upon really what our customer needs are and where the demand is. And today, with those three service channels, we feel very confident in our ability to service the market nationally with our full national footprint of combined mobile, in-shop, and remote services.”
3M strategic investment
Although he could not yet speak on what projects would be made possible by 3M’s strategic investment, Hollingsworth said, but “coming closer every single day” is an announcement of such movement.
“With the quality of partner and with the brand presence, we couldn’t be more excited, and we think the industry will find it very exciting. We’re very pleased with the relationship we have with 3M and the things we feel that we’re going to be doing working with them.”
