Industry leaders react to proposed merger
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When CCC Information Services and Mitchell International complete their $1.4-billion merger-of-equals transaction later this
year, the two privately held companies will have combined annual sales of about $460 million and 2,000 employees.
"We have the opportunity to bring two companies together with a combined strength that will be more than the sum of its parts,"
says Alex Sun, president and chief executive officer of Mitchell. "It is like one plus one equals three."
Sun and Gihtesh Ramamurthy, chairman and chief executive officer of CCC, participated in an exclusive phone interview with
ABRN shortly after the deal was announced. They said they are excited about the opportunity to combine the two companies into
one called CCC-Mitchell, which they say will accelerate innovation, offer enhanced service levels, and over time simplify
the lives of customers through greater connectivity and more seamless workflow between a broader portfolio of services.
"This transaction will be a transforming event for the insurance claims and collision repair industries," says Ramamurthy,
who will become the chief executive officer of CCC-Mitchell. "Our customers are under increasing pressure to achieve new levels
of efficiency and customer satisfaction, which requires their service providers to offer new and enhanced products, services
and solutions. CCC-Mitchell will be positioned to meet these needs as we bring together our two talented teams to create greater
value for our customers and business partners through increased innovation and network connectivity." The combined companies will need to find additional ways to drive value for customers, said Sun, who will become president
of CCC-Mitchell.
"There are increasing pressures on everybody to take their products and services to new levels," says Sun. "Customers are
demanding more innovations and improved products from us. We need to be better able to serve customers."
Ramamurthy said the combined company will offer customers:
- an expanded communication network to deliver greater connectivity between insurers, repair facilities and other industry service
providers and suppliers;
- expanded research and development resources and a greater ability to enhance current products and services, deliver new technology-based
claims solutions, and provide faster time-to-market product delivery;
- an expanded sales and service organization, providing broader and better customer service across North America;
- a larger, more comprehensive data warehouse that will improve the company's ability to deliver industry insights through benchmarking,
data analytics and predictive modeling; and
- a broad and widely used portfolio of claims and collision repair solutions from one source.
Over time, all the benefits will combine into a single platform that offers comprehensive solutions, Sun said.
"Collision repair shops will enjoy the benefits of simplified efficiencies," Ramamurthy says. "It will ease the pains they
have to deal with. The notion of having multiple systems in each shop is a pain point to the industry. As we move to a single
platform, that will provide a huge benefit to the shops. We want to take our vision to the next level to address all the areas
that shops face challenges in. Our focus is not just solving yesterday's problems, but solving customers' problems of tomorrow
and one, two and three years from now."
"We want collision repair shops to spend their time getting benefits from our technology, not trying to figure out how to
use them, Sun says.
After the integration is complete, there is the potential for shops to save money by subscribing to the services of one company
— CCC-Mitchell — rather than two, according to Ramamurthy.
"The industry has been clamoring for that," Ramamurthy says. "This will not happen from day one, but as we go through the
integration process we will move toward a single platform and the shops will enjoy the benefit of our cost efficiencies. This
will allow them to invest in new technology to drive their business.
Posted Jun 03 2008 04:35PM
