New CAPS platform promises better connected digital claims
CAPS – the Common Automotive Platform Standard – is launching a new and improved platform this month for use exclusively by the collision repair industry in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
The new platform aims to bring more performance, connectivity and capacity to power the whole of the insurance motor claims repair ecosystem, from the first notification of loss to the end of the repair.
The CAPS development team worked closely with industry stakeholders in the upgrade process to create flexible connectivity, maximising the impact of the enhanced platform.
“Any to many” is the biggest innovation and a step change in how users will be able to use the platform to share data. The feature will enable all businesses supporting the motor insurance and collision industry to safely exchange data with any other organisation using CAPS.
This enhanced level of connectivity opens up the repair ecosystem and facilitates data flow, taking away frictional constraints while retaining complete data security and integrity. Enhanced configurability means users will still control who receives information, creating “safe” party lists at each end of the data flow.
The result is reduced keying and administration throughout an insurance claim, the ability to route the claims more efficiently across any provider – and ultimately, better customer service.
Complete schema flexibility extends the number of information types that CAPS can share and makes it easier to add new blocks of data pre-sets such as repair methodology, salvage and parts.
CAPS remains the only claims data platform to offer an “agnostic” open connection that can be used with all the major bodyshop and claims management systems – and the new release is even easier to integrate with existing repair technologies.
Richard Steer, chief executive of Steer Automotive Bodyshop Group, said: “CAPS is a game changer in terms of driving efficiencies and ultimately helping to reduce key-to-key times. It simplifies communication with all parties and works with all our technologies, as well as our partner and supplier systems. It provides accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information that’s central to delivering repairs on time and on target.”
Rob Davey, the CAPS product owner who led the new version development team, added: “The new version of CAPS will mark a significant improvement to the claims process by enhancing existing connections and extending connectivity to all area of the industry.
“All the changes in the new CAPS make exchanging data with your trusted partners easier than ever. Once a connection is migrated to the new interface, integrators will be able to immediately benefit from all the new features as well as all the previous functionalities.
CAPS is said to be the UK’s fastest growing data sharing platform dedicated to motor claims. It powers in excess of 1.7 million claims each year across more than 1,400 bodyshops.
