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Telematics plays a growing role in automotive care: The technology can send alerts from cars that are due for an oil change, for example, or share information with an online database about a car’s availability for a ride-sharing service. But one thing it’s not known for is the automated online ordering of parts—say, a faulty or soon-to-fail water pump, says Pavana Jain, co-founder and CEO of ShiftMobility Inc., which operates an online service network for automotive parts suppliers, distributors and repair shops.
ShiftMobility is out to change that with the launch this week of Car2Mobile, a mobile app connected to ShiftMobility’s online service network of 165 automotive parts supplies, 16 distributors and 3,500 repair shops, Jain says. Consumers who download the app for either Apple or Android smartphones can have it connected to their car’s on-board diagnostics system, or OBD, Jain says.
Through the app’s integration with the ShiftMobility service network, it can then automatically send alerts to a repair shop on the network. The process continues like this: A mechanic at the shop uses the same network to order the needed part from a network distributor, who would then ship the part to the repair shop; the shop then sends an alert to the driver’s mobile app to confirm receipt of the part and schedule a service appointment.
“Telematics has been missing something—ordering parts, because there was no common platform,” Jain said Monday at a conference in Clearwater Beach, Fla., of the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association.
Jain, a former software engineer at business software giant Oracle Corp., runs ShiftMobility with her husband, Arvind Jain, who co-founded the company with her in 2009 and serves as its president. Arvind Jain is also a veteran software engineer and a former CEO of a healthcare technology provider.
Jain said in an interview at the AASA conference that it was too soon to say how many Car2Mobile apps would be put into circulation, but noted that ShiftMobility has received strong interest from the businesses in its service network to participate with the app. Jain said the company has not yet established a pricing formula for companies that will receive business through Car2Mobile. Companies in the service network pay a basic fee of about $50 per month, which covers transferring orders between repair shops and distributors and manufacturers. Companies pay additional fees for integrating order data with their financial accounting and other business software.
Jain added that the app will also work with an expected future internet standard being developed by the WC3, also known as the World Wide Web Consortium, for connecting with a vehicle’s diagnostics information, replacing the current versions of the on-board diagnostics interface.
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