FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                 April 13, 2005

For More Information call:                       Fred M. Iantorno                      (847) 498-6945

                                                                      Executive Director                   (847) 562-0739 FAX

CIECA announces the establishment of a Repairer Advisory Panel

Northbrook, IL – The Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA) announced today that it has established a Repairers Advisory Panel to help meet two of six core strategic initiatives.

In September 2004 at CIECA’s annual Strategic Planning Meeting, the committee identified six strategic initiatives. Two of the initiatives were to ‘remain focused on our core competencies and provide even more robust standards within the collision industry’ and ‘demonstrate CIECA’s value proposition to each market segment within the industry.’

The CIECA Marketing Committee has met and recommended to the Board of Trustees that a Repairer Advisory Panel be established to “Listen to their pain” and hear “first hand” from repairers. On April 13, the Board of Trustees approved this motion and established the Repairer Advisory Panel.

The first Panel will meet in July 2005 during CIC week. Date and time will be announced in the coming months.

Between now and the first Panel meeting, CIECA will work with ASA, NABC, and SCRS in developing the membership of this panel. It is anticipated that members will represent shops from the smallest to the largest in size and volume.

“We want a good cross section of the shops represented,” said Bill Garoutte, Elite Dent, Marketing Committee Co-Chair. “Our objective is to have broad representation from the large multi-store owners to the smaller independents,” he added. Co-Chair John Webb, CSi Complete, added that CIECA is looking outside for direct input with the repairers. “Hearing and understanding what they have to say is of vital importance to the mission of CIECA,” he said.

CIECA Board Chairman Paul Krauss of Craftsman Auto Body believes the Advisory Panel is a key step in meeting CIECA’s Strategic Initiatives. “I believe this panel will go a long way toward bridging the language gap between repairers and the standards developers, as well as provide direct input to our planning and standards projects,” he said.

More information about CIECA can be viewed on the CIECA web site: www.cieca.com.

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About CIECA: CIECA assists the Collision Industry in the effective use of electronic commerce and the National Information Superhighway. It is directed by a Board of Trustees and has offices in Illinois. Its members jointly work on Standards Development Committees (SDC) addressing standards for Electronic Data Interchange, Interoperability, XML and Imaging.

CIECA addresses Electronic Commerce issues on a national scale. It has developed processes for identifying and prioritizing industry issues, establishing SDCs to design solutions, and then working these solutions through the broadest base of acceptance mechanisms possible, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).