Professional Distributor - 45

SMARTER DIAGNOSTICS

scan tool company to begin developing
their products.
Plott reported that the outlay for one
year of data licensing may run in the
ballpark of $75-125,000, which would
cover approximately 90 percent of the
car parc. From there, the company could
then begin developing their product so
it can be packaged and distributed to
the market. As you can see, it takes a
substantial investment and commitment
by these companies to even begin developing scan tools to help you do your job.
Please keep this in mind when you're
looking at making an investment in a
diagnostic scan tool.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
A subscription model is becoming more
commonplace nowadays and from what
was mentioned earlier, it makes sense.
But I wanted to take a moment and distill this a little further. For those of us in
the service market to continue to thrive,
we need recurring revenues which come
from the vehicle services and repairs
we provide. The same holds true for
these scan tool companies. They need to
continue licensing new data, developing
their tools to support new models, and
come up with new, innovative products
that help us do our jobs more efficiently.
To support those initiatives, the tool
company needs a revenue model that
supports it. This is why the subscription model is popular. It's sort of like
becoming their business partner. You
certainly want to see them succeed so
that they can continue to develop and
innovate. Just like your great customers
want to see you continue to be there for
them when they need you.

THE FUTURE
Security will continue to provide challenges for us all. Now, I'm not talking
about keys and key fobs. I'm talking
about gaining access to certain modules or networks in the vehicle so we
can conduct business. If you've come
across a 2018+ FCA vehicle, you've

likely encountered the "Secure Gateway" obstacle. This is a security measure implemented by FCA in order
to protect critical systems like driver
assistance and telematics. In order to
gain passage into the secure gateway,
FCA has worked an arrangement with
a third party called Integrity Security Services who runs a service called
AutoAuth. According to AutoAuth.com,
they work with OEMs, independent tool
manufacturers, and independent service
providers in order to create a working
security relationship with all parties.
The National Automotive Service
Task Force's (NASTF) Secure Data
Release Model (SDRM), is another
security subscription worth looking
into. One can obtain a Vehicle Security
Professional (VSP) license by visiting
NASTF.org. There's definitely a process
to get signed up, but one that can help
you smooth out the challenges that lie
ahead, especially when dealing with
vehicles that contain what the OEM has
classified as theft relevant parts or even
reprogramming modules. In our shop,
we've had to use our VSP in order to
purchase transmission parts in the past.
We are operating in a complicated space, as vehicles are complicated
machines. And for you, the service
professional, the stakes are high and
the motoring public is counting on you
to be able to competently service and
repair their vehicle. A lot has changed
in the past forty years, but in the past
ten years the technology curve has
grown exponentially, and I don't see it
slowing down.

Training resources:
*	ETI - etools.org

STARTS
HERE
MS909

MAXIFLASH VCI NEW PROTOCOLS

- OR -

MS919

MAXIFLASH VCI FIVE-IN-ONE VCMI

--- BOTH TABLETS FEATURE ---

INTELLIGENT DIAGNOSTICS
. REPAIR ASSIST
. GUIDED DIAGNOSTICS

TOPOLOGY MODULE MAP

. ALL SYSTEM STATUS SCREEN
. COLOR CODED FAULTS

POWERFUL HARDWARE
. OCTA-CORE PROCESSOR
. 128GB MEMORY

AU T EL .C O M / ULT R A I 8 5 5. 2 8 8 . 3 5 87
@ AU T ELT O O L S

*	Toyota - techinfo.toyota.com
*	NASTF - nastf.org
*	AutoAuth - autoauth.com

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