Canon’s IDEAS is being offered to automotive dealers for no money down to help assist with financial recovery

Melville, N.Y. – Canon Solutions America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., is pleased to announce it is waiving all set-up and training fees for automotive dealers who are looking to reduce operating costs and increase revenue and profits in their Fixed Operations by implementing the Intelligence Dealer Electronic Archiving System (IDEAS).

IDEAS is an unprecedented document imaging and management solution that automates the manual and paper-intensive repair order (RO) processes. Canon’s unique SAFE™ technology automatically captures documents and other data without having to print and scan the critical documentation that must be archived with repair orders in order to validate OEM warranty claims.

Canon has long been a global leader in the imaging industry in many areas, such as office, medical, ophthalmology, and more. IDEAS, built on this heritage, was developed specifically for the auto dealer industry to help dealers reduce, and in some cases eliminate, expenses associated with printing, scanning, shredding, and storing large volumes of paper.

By transforming the RO process into a virtual paperless model, IDEAS can help to reduce paper handling; this can also help limit contact among employees and customers, in the age of social distancing.

To learn more about how Center BMW uses IDEAS, watch the video here.

“With IDEAS, our techs can now focus on diagnostics and repairing cars, not handling paperwork; and our vehicle turn is now ten minutes faster,” said Chris Previtieri, general manager, Center Automotive Group in Sherman Oaks, California. “By condensing the repair time per vehicle, we can get another customer in more quickly, and in most cases, out the same day.”

“We realize that auto dealers have been severely impacted by the current crisis, with the resulting downturn of new and pre-owned vehicle sales. They are relying on their service departments to generate revenue and sustain profitability during this time,” said Peter P. Kowalczuk, president, Canon Solutions America, Inc. “With a traditional print-and-scan repair order process, the associated expenses can be costly. We are proud to offer this solution in hopes of delivering some economic relief.”

IDEAS can also help to increase service bay turns. An independent automotive consultant study showed that by not having to handle paper, service techs are able to save up to ten minutes per repair, which can result in an extra bay turn per tech, per day. IDEAS captures, indexes, and validates each document against the repair order and VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) in real-time, thereby improving the integrity of the warranty archive. That can mean less chance of document-related chargebacks for OEM warranty audits.

To learn more about the IDEAS COVID-19 Assist program, please visit paperlessIDEAS.net/COVID.