The Birmingham News had an interesting article today about Robinson Adams Insurance, describing the transformation of an old-line, family owned insurance company into a technologically advanced player in high-value emerging markets.

RA did insurance for wholesale auto auctions, working to ensure that no checks bounced and all the titles are valid. From this work, they figured out that it was difficult for dealers to prove that they were on the level, which made business more difficult for the auctioneers. So, they started AutoTech, which tracks dealer information and greatly reduces friction on both sides of the transaction. Next, they started AutoCheck.com a service similar to CarFax to allow buyers to find out service information about any used vehicle. Lately, they moved into insuring automobile auctions on eBay.

What really impressed me about Robinson Adams is the way that they have used IT to really develop profitable businesses that solve very real problems. By reducing the difficulties in buying and selling automobiles at auction they have made themselves an indespensible part of the transaction, a very good place to be. They have taken knowledge gained from years of industry experience, mixed in some proprietary and complimentary data sources, and shrewdly built a service that is very difficult to compete with (and to do business without).

They very much remind me of Thompson (which I had previously written about), in that their core business is providing people with the information they need exactly when and how they need it. I think that this is the business model of the 21st century.

technorati tags:integration, information architecture,eBusiness

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Systems Integration, In the News, People, Transformation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.