Bilprovningen
“The computerized inspection reports save time and money and are an important tool for achieving our goals of improved road safety and vehicle performance, as well as reducing traffic impacts. The system also helps us improve customer services."
Thord Lööw
IT architect
Bilprovningen
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Improving safety and service
Bilprovningen—the Swedish Vehicle Inspection Company—is dedicated to improving road safety, vehicle performance, and reducing the impacts of traffic. One of its principal activities is the regular inspection of the nation’s vehicles, primarily at 180 stations throughout Sweden. Founded in 1963, the company is jointly owned by the Swedish government, Swedish automotive industry organizations, and car insurance companies. Each year, Bilprovningen handles more than 5.5 million customer interactions and completes millions of inspection reports.
A goal of the company is to provide individuals and commercial organizations with vehicle inspections that are fast, efficient, and precise. However, traditional paper-based workflows did little to support this effort. When recorded on paper, inspection findings were written on a form with an attached carbon copy. The customer received one copy, while the other copy was archived in binders at the inspection station. Administrative staff at the center also had to manually enter assessment details into a computer system.
With five million reports a year and a requirement to archive reports for as long as ten years, Bilprovningen faced several problems, including managing such a large volume of archives and retrieving reports if questions arose from car owners, companies, or government officials. Additional problems resulted from having different inspectors write different descriptions for the same vehicle problems; this made it impossible to accurately produce vehicle statistics.
To address the problem, the company wanted to replace its paper-based processes with more streamlined, automated workflows for capturing inspection data and generating required reports. Bilprovningen outlined several criteria for its automated processes, including ease of use, speed, high reliability, and improved consistency and accuracy of inspection data.
Benefits
- Reduced operating costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars annually
- Shortened time to complete vehicle inspections
- Enhanced customer service
- Improved consistency and accuracy of vehicle data reported by inspectors
- Streamlined employee and public access to archived materials
Project Details
Standardizing on an Adobe forms solution
After evaluating solutions for automating forms processes, Bilprovningen selected Adobe software, including Adobe Central Pro Output Server and Adobe Output Designer. As part of the new system, each inspector uses a handheld computer to enter details about vehicle inspections in an electronic template. Adobe Central Pro Output Server then converts the template into a fully formatted, electronic report form ready for printing.
In less than 25 seconds customers receive a printed version of their inspection report, which is nearly instantaneous in their eyes. Bilprovningen managers estimate that the value of the total time saved by the new process is close to the cost of 100 full-time employees (FTEs). Since the automated processes began more than 30 million inspection reports have been entered into the new system.
Better reporting, better results
The use of computerized forms helps ensure that inspectors use consistent terminology to describe vehicle problems. This simple step has allowed Bilprovningen to generate detailed statistics that outline flaws found in automobiles driven in Sweden. These statistics form the basis of an annual publication called Cars—Strong & Weak Points that provides information on the 140 most common models found in Sweden. The statistics are also available via the Internet. By automating processes for capturing inspection data and generating reports, the company is realizing considerable benefits, including faster turnaround, better quality, simpler administration, and above all, improved customer service.
"The computerized inspection reports save time and money and are an important tool for achieving our goals of improved road safety and vehicle performance, as well as reducing traffic impacts," says Thord Lööw, an IT architect at Bilprovningen. "The system also helps us improve customer services."
Independent studies confirm the success of the Bilprovningen solution and serve as a customer-satisfaction index for the company. The solutions have also attracted international interest. Bilprovningen’s concentrated efforts to improve service have contributed to making it one of Sweden’s 10 foremost service authorities, as ranked by Internet World magazine.
The more automated inspection system has not only streamlined the company’s existing activities, but has also opened up avenues for new services. For example, Bilprovningen plans to expand the system with a portal service to enable customers to access inspection reports, invoices, contracts, and other archived content. The increased availability of materials is particularly important for corporate customers, authorities, and other large organizations that often require quick, easy access to vast amounts of information.
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