After thriving for seven years in the UK repairer and insurance markets, ClaimWatch is now starting to repeat its success overseas and has recently signed an agreement with the Advance group; a leading New Zealand (NZ) claims management company that handles around 20,000 claims for insurer clients every year. Advance also has a presence in Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The ClaimWatch software has been rebranded as RepairTrak for the NZ market and Advance has been busily promoting it across both islands. A successful trial in key Advance sites in five major cities - Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Whangarei - has juts been completed and take-up has far exceeded its expectations, with several repairers already using their ClaimWatch system for multiple insurers. ClaimWatch puts the rapid and enthusiastic acceptance of the technology down to a keen awareness of web technology within the New Zealand automotive repair and insurance markets.

Mike Keaney, Managing Director of Advance Group, says, “We’re thrilled to be the first overseas company to benefit from the ClaimWatch technology. The accident repair markets in the UK and New Zealand are very similar and as soon as we saw the presentation we knew ClaimWatch was a product that would work really well for us and our customers. We were particularly impressed by the straightforward sophistication of the software and immediately recognised it as a great opportunity for our networks...”

Steve Wheele, Managing Director of ClaimWatch, adds, “We’re delighted that Advance has come on board. We always suspected ClaimWatch had an international application and now those suspicions have been confirmed and we couldn’t be more pleased! We are hopeful that Advance is the first of many overseas ClaimWatch users. I am currently in discussions with players in some European markets, and there is also every chance that Advance will be looking to introduce ClaimWatch into its Australian operations before too long.”