IRVING, Texas -

Streamlining data analysis for an industry not accustomed to such a process is taking the American Recovery Association and Subprime Analytics a little more time than they originally anticipated.

But what’s being organized — ARA’s second-ever Industry Scorecard — has executive director Les McCook and Subprime Analytics president Ken Shilson greatly excited about the project’s potential benefit to association members and the entire recovery industry.

“The reason we’ve asked Ken to become involved in this project is because we’ve witnessed what he’s done in the automotive world and in the buy-here, pay-here world,” McCook said in an interview with Auto Remarketing.

“To find someone of the caliber and the trust factor Ken has to come into our industry to help us build that form and strength of analytics is a little scary to some of our people. That’s not something we’ve been well known for in our industry — sharing information. But I will tell you the calls I get every day now is about ‘How can I be sure to not miss the next one?’ People are willing to do more as Ken develops strategies with the information. That’s when the scorecard will really pay off.”

Subprime Analytics created last year’s first Industry Scorecard, but the upcoming version has many more participants and the data points are more scattered. Shilson acknowledged to Auto Remarketing that the dialogue and coordination are strengthening between his company and repo agencies’ service providers who have to share recovery data with Subprime Analytics to determine performance metrics and more.

“Unfortunately, since this is still fairly new to the recovery industry, we’ve had to learn a lot about the data and how to capture it,” Shilson explained.

“We’re in the process of rerunning and expanding this year’s scorecard project to include some people who weren’t included in the first run and those people who are using service providers that weren’t included and to reconcile some data exceptions that were noted when we mined the data,” he continued.

The newest Industry Scorecard originally was to be available to members during last month’s ARA Convention, but McCook and Shilson now anticipate that participants should have results of how they stack up against other recovery agencies later this month.

“The idea of the scorecard was to be able to walk in the door of a client and have something they can have faith and confidence in that was produced by a company with the stature of Subprime Analytics,” McCook explained. “That’s the driving force that’s going to make a difference with this deal in the next 24 to 36 months.”

Even during the ARA annual gathering, Shilson noticed the trends Subprime Analytics were finding mirrored what OPENLANE shared during a presentation at the event. Through its own research, OPENLANE discovered repo agencies average a 50-percent success rate and pick up units in about 12 days.

“There is a real pressure on the repo professional today to get a fair fee for the work he is doing,” Shilson stressed. “When you have benchmarks and statistics like we’re generating, it proves the value of having a repossession professional and adds a lot of creditability to the process.”

“I think it’s going to be an extremely beneficial project not only to the recovery industry, but also to those that employ recovery professional on a daily basis,” Shilson emphasized.

ARA Award Winners

Along with discussing the Industry Scorecard, ARA also handed out several awards during its annual convention. The honorees include:

—Dedicated Service: Brenda Allen
—Key Award: Art Christensen
—Bob Dempsey Award: Chris Dunleavy
—Lorna Lou Barnes Award: Mary Jane Hogan
—Special Recognition Award: Dawn Wellington and Kevin Armstrong
—Rookie of the Year: Dick Frame
—10-Year Member Pin: Joan Hudson, Kenny Lee, Brian Long
—20-Year Member Pin & Plaque: Sam Corolla, Linda Mardock
—30-Year Member Pin & Plaque: Bruce Schneider
—40-Year Member Pin & Plaque: Art Christensen, Harry Forrest, Frosty Thomas
—OPENLANE’s Repossessor Remarketer of the Year Award: Dick Frame

If recovery agencies want to learn more about the Industry Scorecard, they can contact ARA at (972) 755-4755 or email homeoffice@americanrecoveryassn.org