Removal of SureTrack & ProDemand Integration

[Gerald Martin]

Today I received this email:

Hi MARTIN'S AUTO SERVICE,
In keeping with our motto, “Driving Innovation in Automotive Software,” the BOLT ON team never rests in our pursuit to develop new and better ways to help your shop deliver the best customer service experience. We make it a point to communicate any changes with our software partners which could impact that commitment.
Recently, we have been unable to resolve a licensing challenge with Mitchell 1, therefore, we will need to discontinue the ProDemand and SureTrack integration. However, you will still be able to access both tools via your web browser login.
Due to these required changes, some of the functionality that you may use will soon be ending. Please be sure to inform your technicians that this change is scheduled to occur on Wednesday, July 18th, 2018.
We remain committed to providing your shop with the tools and services that you’ve come to expect from BOLT ON, so look for additional communications from our team in the coming days that will further address this matter.
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to call your BOLT ON sales representative at (610) 400-1019 should you have any questions.
Sincerely,
The BOLT ON Team


Removal of key features like this over a licensing disagreement is unfortunate and does not demonstrate a good working relationship between the involved companies. I hope that this can be resolved ASAP. I will be talking to my contacts at Bolt-On and Mitchell.

Why do i expect that each company involved will try to blame this on the other instead of fixing it? Come on Mitchell and Bolt-On. You can do better than this. For both companies your job is to innovate and bring about better integration. Not remove working features we depend on daily.

Shame, shame, shame.

Gerald

[ricmorin]

Well that is not good news. I use ProDemand daily through the tablet.

[Pauls Automotive]

Yeah this is not good. Mitchell and Bolt-On need to work this out!!

[nickscarcare]

Our rates will probably get a big jump if they do resolve, this is not good.

[Cory]

Maybe Mitchell has something up their sleeve they will release soon that is going to compete with Bolt On....

[ricmorin]

From what I understand, this integration was added after the original tablet integration was started and was not properly licensed to access the information. The agreement between the people that M1 gets the information from and M1 was at risk because of this unlicensed access. Bolt-On decided not to enter into a licensing agreement with M1 and instead decided to discontinue it.

I use that integration a lot. It will be missed.

[spencersauto]

I was on vacation while this change took place and caused a bit of disruption ini our daily routine. This one of the reasons I purchased bolt on and the ease of use for my technicians. We are now back to losing time since the technician has to go to the computer and get on mitchell look up the labor and transfer. Hope they are able to resolve this soon as we are looking at are options.

[ricmorin]

You can still use the tablet to get to Prodemand. Go to the Vehicle page in Bolt On and touch the three dots in the upper corner. Touch Repair Information and you be brought to the ProDemand site. The vin is copied to the clipboard so tap on the vin selection and paste. Definitely more work than before.

[Tim Martin]

While the loss of integration is a disappointment, we like the products too good to look at our options. The way ric suggests doing it, it is a matter of a minute or few seconds of time to take the scenic route. Certainly better than what we had here at our shop.
Having said what I did, I would most certainly welcome integration back.

[nessauto]

Tim while I really wish the integration would come back too. I believe there's something more to this than we're hearing about. The fact Bolton immediately integrated with all data ( Mitchels competator) in that spot makes me wonder if there's some hard feelings between the two. I can't help but think there's more to this than a simple integration issue.

[Gerald Martin]

Does anyone find it odd that there has been no comment from either involved party here - Mitchell or Bolt-On - in a couple of weeks? Hmm.

Gerald

[timbre4]

We have been busy crafting the message for our customers, sales teams and support teams. Today we added a blog post link with screenshots to show setup for repair information access from the MMP Vehicle screen. All Mobile ManagerPro customers will receive this message by email starting as early as tomorrow:

Dear Mobile ManagerPRO customers,

We understand that you recently lost access to ProDemand or ShopKey Pro in certain areas of the Mobile ManagerPRO program. We wanted to take a couple minutes to describe how you can still access ProDemand or ShopKey Pro repair information through your Mobile ManagerPRO device and also to explain why certain types of access to ProDemand or ShopKey Pro were lost.

Accessing ProDemand or ShopKey Pro on your Mobile ManagerPRO device: You can still access ProDemand and ShopKey Pro through the “Vehicle” tab in Mobile ManagerPRO if you follow a few simple steps. Click https://mitchell1.com/shopconnection/ac ... anagerpro/ for an illustrated guide or follow these steps: First, click on the menu (three stacked horizontal dashes) in the top left corner of Mobile ManagerPRO. Then click on “Settings.” Under “Repair Information” place a check mark next to ProDemand or ShopKey Pro. Then, from the “Vehicle tab in Mobile ManagerPRO click on the menu (three stacked dots) in the top right corner and select “Repair Information.” Of course you can always access ProDemand or ShopKey Pro on any device that includes an approved internet browser. For assistance, contact Mitchell 1/ShopKey technical support at 1-888-724-6742, option 4.

OEM Licensing Limits Data Usage: Since our ProDemand and ShopKey Pro products rely in part on content from vehicle manufacturers (OEMs), it’s important that we maintain our license agreements with the OEMs in good standing. Bolt-on – our partner in providing Mobile ManagerPRO – implemented the integrated repair information without going through the proper licensing process. Without this authorization, Mobile ManagerPro created a violation of our license agreement with the OEMs. Bolt-on opted to remove the integrated access to ProDemand and ShopKey Pro instead of licensing the access.

We’ll continue to work to improve your access to ProDemand and ShopKey Pro. Stay tuned for further updates.

[nessauto]

Thanks for "Crafting" that message Tim. Although I'm sure most of us knew this as it happened. I still believe there's more to this than meets the eye .... or at least that Mitchel and Bolton are letting be seen and heard. If I was Mitchel I'd be asking myself why people are so up in arms on this? Maybe it's the fact that it was so much quicker to get to? or maybe it's the fact that it was layed out in a format that was useful? Or maybe it was the fact that you didn't have to "Search" the information and it was just there. Maybe Mitchel should take a look at what they're doing.....or maybe get with the times and integrate a tablet based DVI right into their program so there's not all the glitches and connections?

Sorry to seem a bit raw on this but I hear about this every day from my techs.

[brianp87]

SO basically bolt on was not wanting to pay for the license and put Mitchell at risk over it.

[Pauls Automotive]

SO basically bolt on was not wanting to pay for the license and put Mitchell at risk over it.

That is what I am getting out of this. I have heard those licences can be very expensive on a scale Bolt-On would be using it. I would have to imagine they couldn't do it without some sort of rate increase. Not a good place for any company.

[ABOVEANDBEYOND]

Looks like Bolt on has it worked out with alldata. looking at switching repair info to alldata and only keeping my manager for writing repair orders