DSS Inc., the makers of the estimate auditing software, EMSReview, has been busy this spring. EMSReview helps shops get paid for not-included operations, stay in DRP compliance, ensure repair quality, manage gross profit and track estimating and compliance KPI. 

We recently met with co-Founder and CEO Steve Siessman to find out what's new with EMSReview and to talk about the company's future.

Autobody News: What's happened since we last spoke at NACE?

"We've been busy pressing ahead with our vision to help shops with their most important problems, increasing revenue and profitability on each repair, staying in compliance with DRP rules, satisfying BAR requirements and ensuring repair quality.

"In addition, our patent for estimate auditing has been published and is currently pending approval.

"We were pleased to have Tony Pass-water endorse EMS. He's a well respected consultant in the industry, and we feel his endorsement can only help us.

"We've developed the EZ Implemen-tation™ process to streamline the setup process. We now handle the complete implementation, rather than leaving it up to the shop. That includes setting up profiles that customize the software to the shop's particular operations and providing the hand-holding necessary for a shop to get up and running with EMSReview."

Autobody News: What about interfacing with the estimating software?

"We have created tighter estimate review logic for CCC, Mitchell and ADP that allows a shop to use a single auditing package for all 3 estimating providers. This eliminates extra expense and having to learn how to use and set-up different multiple estimate review systems."

Autobody News: If you help shops charge more isn't that in direct conflict with helping them stay in compliance with their DRPs?

"That's a common misconception. In reality, what we see is that by using EMSReview, shops are able to both charge more and increase their insurer satisfaction.

"Many shops think all insurers care about is severity. There may be isolated adjusters or claims supervisors with whom that is the case, but in our conversations with DRP shops and insurers around the country, what we hear is that insurers care most about repair quality, satisfied customers, that a shop follows their compliance processes, cycle time and then, finally, severity. Don't get me wrong - severity is very important but it is not the only thing insurers are looking to manage. Basically, they want to keep their customers, and so satisfying vehicle owners is the number one priority. I think the M2 Collision debacle shows that you can focus too much on severity and go out of business in the process."

Autobody News: How can you help shops with DRP compliance?

"We've built all the different insurance rules into the program so an estimator doesn't have to remember everything. We've pre-built logic and profiles for State Farm, Auto Club of Southern California, Allstate, 21st Century and Mercury so it's pretty much plug and play. Part of our service is to continually look at the estimating-providers' databases to create compliance and other estimate auditing logic."