A 17% increase in the use of the 1link Service Network e-commerce platform for service plan administration during the last 12 months is being reported by epyx.

A number of service plan providers have started using the platform during the last year as a means of authorising and auditing work carried out under service plans sold to their customers.

David Wallace, sales and business development director at epyx, explained that 1link Service Network had been used for warranty administration by a number of providers for several years and that service plan usage was following a similar pattern.

He said: “Service plans are clearly growing quite quickly in popularity, providing a means of fixed cost service and maintenance. However, any company that sells a service plan needs a way of managing the processes behind the product.

“1link Service Network provides an infrastructure that means a new service plan product can be put in place and offered to customers quickly and easily, offering the ability to track and authorise all service plan work and then produce detailed reports.

“Usage of the platform for this purpose has grown rapidly in the last 12 months and we expect to see a further increase into 2013.”