Bringing Innovative Technology to North American Auto Repair Shops

Shop-Ware was founded in 2013 with a clear vision: bring modern software to an industry that had been underserved by technology for decades. Auto repair shops were managing complex workflows — vehicle intake, diagnostics, parts ordering, customer communication, and payments — with tools that weren't built for the job. Shop-Ware gained traction quickly, but growth created its own pressure. The product roadmap was ambitious and the feature backlog was growing faster than a small internal team could address. The challenge wasn't a lack of ideas — it was execution capacity. Building a specialized technical team in-house for a niche vertical takes time that a fast-growing startup rarely has. Shop-Ware needed engineers who could move quickly, integrate deeply, and build software that real auto shops would actually use.

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In 2018, Shop-Ware brought Admios in to help execute their product vision. A team of five engineers worked directly with Shop-Ware's CTO and lead engineer, embedded into the existing development process from day one. Over the course of the engagement the team delivered a significant expansion of the platform's capabilities: new shop management workflows, quick vehicle lookup by license plate number and VIN, automated vehicle diagnostics, integration with a third-party parts database, and a streamlined QuickBooks accounting integration. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person payment collection became an immediate problem for auto repair shops across the country, the Admios team delivered remote payment via phone — giving Shop-Ware's customers a critical lifeline at exactly the moment they needed it. The platform was built on React for the frontend with Ruby on Rails powering the backend.

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The features Admios delivered helped power Shop-Ware's expansion from a promising startup to a nationally recognized platform serving 300 clients across more than 1,000 locations in the US and Canada. The growth attracted partnerships with Bosch and Lyft, and in 2019 Shop-Ware showcased their software at the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas — one of the largest automotive industry events in the world — as an industry-leading product.
Perhaps the most telling measure of the engagement's success came at the end of it. Shop-Ware hired one of the Admios engineers directly, sponsoring his H-1B visa and relocation to the United States. It is the kind of outcome Admios actively encourages — an engineer who had proven his value over the course of a long engagement, trusted enough by the client to become a permanent member of their team. It reflects something Admios believes about the work: when the fit is right, the relationship outlasts the contract.

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