Towards the end of 2015, Solera companies CAP and HPI revealed plans to work much more closely together within the same office. Jonathan Minter spoke to deputy MD Neil Hodson to find out more about the reasons for the move
When Solera bought CAP Automotive in November 2014, questions were immediately asked about the potential for CAP to work with Solera’s other UK companies, specifically around Audatex and provenance-checking company HPI, which Solera had acquired in 2008.
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Within a year, some of those questions were answered when, at the start of November, it was revealed that HPI was to move into the same head office as CAP in Leeds, and that the two companies were to work more closely together.
However, questions remained over the structure of the two companies. Deputy managing director of CAP and HPI Neil Hodson explains to Motor Finance that both CAP and HPI remained separate legal entities, and CAP experts and HPI experts have remained in their teams.
However, Hodson said the company had identified a middle ground between the two companies where, by working together, CAP and HPI could create solutions to industry-wide problems.
He explains: "So the number one thing is we’ve put the branding together with CAP and HPI. We’ve positioned ourselves as that in the market. And we’ve got some products that we’re thinking of launching over the next coming months."
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By GlobalDataAlthough much of the functionality for HPI has joined CAP in Leeds, Hodson notes that the company is still in the transitional phase.
He says: "In Leeds we now have finished all the main office developments, bar a few bits and bobs. So we are HPI-functional in Leeds."
Asked if he knows of any plans involving a full merger between CAP and HPI, Hodson replies that he does not. He adds: "There is no commercial reason for us to do that, and there’s no pressure on us to do that any further."
While the two companies remain legally separate entities, there’s still plenty of cross-CAP and HPI work going on.
He says : "Where we are today is we can share our back office for things like HR, marketing and finance, which we’re looking at doing.
"Where we’ve got specialists on CAP products, we’re keeping them there, and we’re keeping specialists on HPI with HPI. But those teams are working together to leverage how we build products for the future, and how we think about the industry from a CAP and HPI perspective."
The first product CAP and HPI are planning to release is a vehicle inspection system. This product is currently being pilot tested by a "major" auction company and a few dealers. The plan is to roll it out fully around March.
While there are existing inspection systems already out, Hodson says that these need to use multiple parties to gather data.
"The benefit we’ve got is it will use HPI data, such as HPI Spec, to identify provenance of the vehicle, it will use CAP to bring up valuation data on the vehicle, and link to Audatex to look at things like the true type of damage of that vehicle, and what will be the cost of the refurb," he adds.
The product has developed at pace: when the two companies announced plans to start working more closely together in November, Hodson says they had already spoken to the industry, and both CAP and HPI received feedback that inspection platforms, service data and recall data were areas a joint CAP and HPI product might be able to solve.
"So we very quickly got our development teams together and said ‘let’s focus on an inspection platform’," he says
Audatex has had its own inspection platform for the past 25 years, and using this, plus CAP and HPI data, the product has been turned around quickly. If it launches as planned, this will have been less than half a year from the planning stages to a general release.
Hodson says the combined workforce is the reason behind the rapid turnaround: "We’ve done something in months that probably would have taken our two individual businesses a lot longer. It’s a really rapid turnaround.
CAP and HPI also has plans for two other areas which were highlighted – service data and recall data; however these are a little further out.
According to Hodson, CAP and HPI are looking at launching a recall data service or product in 2016.
The sorts of things related to recall which the brand is looking at, he says, are: "how do we get our hands on that data, and does some of that exist in the CAP and HPI world, and if a vehicle has done a recall, can we tell a dealer that it has a recall that is outstanding, or can we tell a lender?
"Can we help get these vehicles fixed and sorted, which prevents damage or claims for consumers?"
With service data, HPI is currently looking at how to put the service-cost data CAP collects within its provenance checks, as the company feels people conducting provenance checks on cars they intend to buy probably would like to know the service history, or if the vehicle is due a service.
All this amounts to what Hodson describes as an exciting time to be working at the company, and he says things look set to continue on this path, with CAP looking to expand into mainland Europe under the leadership of managing director Ian Rendle.
While CAP’s is looking abroad, HPI will monitor the situation. Hodson says: "At this point in time, we’re being led by CAP into that expansion, because it really focuses on the value and global code.
"But if there are vehicle data assets which we can get our hands on through the Solera family, and we can launch a provenance check, maybe at a different level, as a Stage Two, then we’ll certainly be doing that."
The move by HPI to CAP’s Leeds office is still just a few months old at the time of writing. Yet the companies have three joint products being developed and close to release, while CAP has been looking to expand internationally.
Hodson concludes: "When we have all of our people together, then we can start to truly talk about both of our brands, and how we leverage and build new product in the future."
