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CIECA 102
​Intro to Services

CIECA Standards are organized by the services they support. In this module, we will take a deeper dive into what constitutes a 'service' and the intended use of the various CIECA services.

What is a Service?

CIECA Standards are organized into 16 services.  Each service supports a specific use case or process. 


If we consider the collision lifecycle from first notice of loss through to final disposition of the vehicle, we have identified 16 unique processes that require communication between trading partners.


These are subject to change over time as new technologies create new business processes.

CIECA Services

The services listed below are organized by general flow of events in the collision lifecycle. This is done to provide a context for where services fit in the collision process. For an alphabetic sorting, please visit the CIECA Services home page.

FNOL

FNOL (First Notice of Loss) is generally the first step in the claims process. The FNOL service is used to capture the initial report of a loss / accident. Typically, this information is gathered by an insurance company, fleet company or OEM. This includes, but is not limited to vehicle accidents. While this initial focus is on vehicle damage, we recognize this can expand far beyond that scope into, and including, medical care, etc.  This notice can be sent from an agent, third-party administrator, a person, or from the vehicle or other automated device(s).

Claims

Auto accidents often involve two or more vehicles, each of which will have its own lifecycle. The Claims service provides a means of aggregating claim information that is related to the same insurance policy and coverages.

Assignment

Assignment services are used to assign a task or project to be completed. This includes original assignment, reassignment, assignment changes, and assignment cancellations. These messages apply to Vehicle Damage and Imaging, Rental, Glass, Property Damage, Tow and Subrogation Demand. The assignment service is broadly used across the industry to support assignment to DRP shops, rental car companies and towing providers.

Location

The Location service is generally used in support of rental car assignments to provide information about rental car offices. This can be in reply to a specific request or can be sent as a scheduled update of rental offices. There may be no offices or many offices provided in this message. If multiple offices are included, the distance and ranking from the service area can be provided. 

Appointment

Appointment services enable the scheduling of an inspection, estimate, repair, tow and rental appointment to include a specific date, time and location. The Appointment services may be used by the collision industry to send and/or receive appointment scheduling message requests and responses. These messages are sent either as a specific message or in bulk with multiple messages. The saved information may also be used for the management of the appointment scheduling process.

Estimate

The Estimate is a key document in the collision ecosystem. In order to assess the damage to a vehicle and initiate the repair process, repairers typically produce an estimate that is shared with other players in the industry, including insurers, parts providers, etc. The Estimate service is used to send estimates back to the party that sent an assignment to the repairer. This includes vehicle damage claims and may include glass repairs. The Combined Environmental Reporting data, SCAN data and Calibration Data can be included in this message. This message may also be sent to salvage vendors. Rental companies receive this message for use in estimating rental periods.

Attachment

This service provides a means of transmitting attachments to other messages. Repair providers often need to submit invoices and receipts for towing, sublet and repair documentation to insurers. The Attachment service is a generic service that can be used in combination with any other CIECA service to provide a digital copy of a document.

Procurement

The Procurement service consists of 12 messages that are used for parts and material ordering and for exchanging repair order information with trading partners. They are used to submit a procurement request in the form of a Quote or a Purchase Order. The information contained in this service provides context to create a meaningful document in order to procure or quote parts or materials and to manage parts inventory.

Vehicle Repair Status

The Vehicle Repair Status service transmits the status of the vehicle within the repair process, including reasons for delay and the current status of repairs. This service includes messages that identify the Repair Facility, Repair Order, Rental, Repair Status, Production Stage Change and Repair Order Close.

Authorization

Authorization is primarily used for rental cars. These messages are used by rental car companies seeking authorization from insurance companies to extend a rental car for a longer period.

Invoice

The Invoice service is used for invoicing payers. It consists of Invoice, Statement and Remittance messages.  It is designed to support an end-to-end billing process. These messages apply to Vehicle Damage, Rental, Glass, Towing and Parts and Materials Procurement.

Survey

The Survey service is used to support surveys related to CSI (customer satisfaction index). It provides a list of customers to be surveyed.  The list is sent from the source (e.g., insurance company or body shop) to the survey provider.  It can be used to provide a list of customers that were or were not yet surveyed.

Valuation

The Valuation service is used to obtain the market value of a vehicle to determine if it is a total loss. Insurance companies, appraisers, fleet managers and others use this service to request a valuation from a valuation provider. Messages enable users to request a valuation, update the request with additional information and to receive a completed evaluation.

Title

In the event a vehicle is deemed a total loss, the Title service is used to communicate with a bank or title processing service to obtain new title for the vehicle. Messages include lien holder information, confirmation of payoff and lien release.

Disposition

The Disposition service is used by the various members of the collision industry to communicate salvage assignment / reassignment. The Disposition and Invoice Services may be used by the collision industry to send and/or receive Salvage Disposition message requests and responses, including invoice requests, remittance requests, and responses. These messages are sent either as a specific message or in bulk with multiple messages. The saved information may also be used for the creation of data reports and for the management of salvage disposition.