BodyshopConnect founder Sharon Ashley reflects on the company’s 10th anniversary and the evolving role of technology in collision repair. With four decades of industry experience, Ashley argues that technology should reduce administrative workload rather than add complexity. She emphasizes improving shop processes before automating them and sees smarter technology helping collision repair facilities streamline workflows, reduce duplication and give teams more time to focus on repairs and customers.
- 10th anniversary: BodyshopConnect marked its 10th anniversary in September 2026.
- Founder: Sharon Ashley.
- Industry experience: Ashley has approximately four decades of collision repair experience and more than 30 years of experience when BodyshopConnect launched in 2016.
- Company launch: BodyshopConnect was launched in 2016.
- Technology evolution: Collision repair technology has progressed from standalone desktop programs to connected, cloud-based systems.
- Key challenge: More technology and information have not necessarily reduced the administrative workload for repair facilities.
- Administrative pressures: Shops increasingly manage documentation, approvals, supplements, parts issues, customer updates, photographs and records across multiple systems.
- Process first: Ashley emphasizes that shops should improve and simplify workflows before automating them.
- Future of technology: Smarter systems could identify what requires attention, support decision-making and reduce administrative tasks.
- Core objective: Technology should help make shops easier to operate, return time to employees and allow teams to focus on repairs and customers.
Ashley, now a four-decade collision repair veteran, brought more than 30 years of experience to BodyshopConnect when it launched in 2016.
Having worked throughout shop operations, ownership, consulting and training, she had seen technology move from isolated desktop programs toward connected, cloud-based systems. Today, shops have access to more information than ever and can see what is happening across the business much faster.
But more information has not automatically made the work easier. The administrative burden on collision repair facilities has continued to grow. Documentation requirements are heavier, vehicles are more complex and the burden of proving what was done increasingly rests with the shop. At the same time, teams manage approvals, supplements, parts issues, customer updates, photographs and documents, often across several systems, inboxes and conversations.
“Technology should make life easier for the people running the shop,” Ashley says. “It should reduce duplication, connect information and help the team act. It should not become another layer of work they have to manage.”
Re-entering the same information, searching for an authorization that already exists or responding to a status call that could have been prevented may each seem like a small interruption. Together, they consume hours without moving the repair forward. The cost may not appear in a technician efficiency report, but it is reflected in cycle time, customer confidence and the shop’s profitability.
FIX THE PROCESS FIRST
Ten years of watching facilities implement technology has convinced Ashley that software alone does not create results. The shops that gain the most combine the right technology with the right processes and commit to the change.
“You cannot take a broken or inefficient process, automate it and expect a better result,” Ashley says. “You need to understand the workflow first. Remove the unnecessary steps, decide how the work should move and then use technology to make that process easier to follow.”
That work never truly ends. As vehicles, documentation requirements and customer expectations change, shops must continue reviewing their workflows, reducing duplication and looking for ways to streamline the administrative workload.
Ashley believes the next evolution will be smarter technology. Rather than simply storing more information, it will help shops recognize what needs attention, support better decisions and reduce the amount of administrative work placed on their people.
“The tools will continue to change, but the objective should remain the same,” Ashley says. “Technology should make the shop easier to run, give people time back and allow them to focus on the repair and the customer.”
