The connected car is with us for good. When I present to organizations or groups such as at this year's IBIS symposium in Barcelona or the ICAR Conference in Detroit, I always clarify that up front. For me that is an important component when looking at the strategic landscape.

The second point of clarity I like to make is that technology is compressing time in the auto space. At telematics conferences, the predicted timelines continue to decline. When experts discuss driverless vehicles, autonomous driving and especially vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), what was once seen as arriving in 2025 is now coming in 2020, and what was once 2020 is now 2017. So if we take as fact that the connected car is here and the changes it will bring are ever closer, that sharpens the focus for organizations in terms of how they position themselves for this new future.

You only need to log onto automotive web pages or those of USA Today or the New York Times to see the almost daily announcements by one auto manufacturer or another regarding ever-changing vehicle technology. What you don't see much of is "what does that mean" for the claims and collision repair segments? Certainly opportunities exist to streamline the process and make it a better experience for all. If we look at this in more detail, then I can see a future claims and repair workflow very different from today. I can also see new entrants into the market who will have a different perspective on how to "manage" claims and a radically different business model.