The Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) is an initiative that was developed to help improve the quality and accuracy of collision repair estimates, through proactive feedback from the collision repair industry and other “end users” to the Information Providers (IPs) that supply the databases for the various estimating products. The DEG is created, equally funded and maintained by the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP) and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

Today’s estimating databases are large and complex, and the task of building complete and accurate labor times and labor notes for the thousands of operations we perform on existing and newly introduced vehicle models is a difficult and ongoing challenge. The reality is that only a very small fraction of the labor values within these products are based on actual physical time studies; all three Information Providers utilize a variety of methodologies to develop the labor values in their product. This can at times result in information that does not accurately reflect the real world labor requirements of a repair operation which in turn can hinder the ability of an average estimator to consistently produce accurate repair estimates or “blueprints” that match the actual repair process.