Solera Acquires Provider of Auto Body Shop Management Software to Accelerate Tech Expansion

Westlake-based Solera Holdings has made a strategic acquisition that’s meant to strengthen its intelligent data automation solution that supports the automotive industry at every touchpoint across the claims process.

Solera is known as a leader globally for its risk and asset management data and software solutions for the insurance and automotive industries. In acquiring InSyPro, a developer of web application software for the automotive repair industry, Solera hopes to strengthen the development of its entire tech ecosystem.

InSyPro—or Innovative Systems Provider—touts a well-known, state-of-the-art system for bodyshop management called PlanManager.

The result of a three-year strategic partnership with Solera, PlanManager gives real-time visibility into tasks and vehicle repairs on any device. It’s meant to enhance the entire repair management process: As a digital-first management and triage solution, customers can communicate via apps and bodyshops have access to intelligent data-assisted automated planning.

According to InSyPro, the software can increase technician utilization by 10 percent and reduce administrative time by 60 minutes per claim.

“Solera delivers efficiency gains through intelligent, integrated solutions that provide a superior customer experience,” Solera CTO Evan Davies said in a statement. “PlanManager delivers this by providing users the tools and intelligent data needed to run an efficient workshop, enabling real-time tracking of all bodyshop management tasks and vehicle repairs.”

With the deal, Solera plans to invest a significant amount of resources that can help globally scale PlanManager. Solera also will accelerate its product enhancement roadmap, according to a statement.

InSyPro leaders Tony Delodder and Martine van Campenhout are joining the Solera team with the deal. Both will be part of the Global Product and Delivery Organization to support PlanManager’s international roll-out.

“It felt [like] a natural evolution to join our closest technology partner,” Delodder said in a statement. “As part of Solera, we plan to invest and rapidly scale our new software to deliver competitive advantage across the claims ecosystem.”

[Photo: Solera]

Solera announced its relocation from San Diego to North Texas back in 2010. The company was founded by Tony Aquila in 2005, launched in the stock market as a publicly traded company in 2007, and taken private in 2016.

Vista Equity Partners purchased Solera with key investors including Goldman Sachs, an affiliate of Koch Industries, and others in March 2016 for a reported $6.5 billion. (Vista is Solera’s private equity parent company).

Aquila was replaced by CEO Jeff Tarr in 2019. Then, after around 6 months, Tarr stepped down and Darko Dejanovic, an operating principal at Vista, was appointed interim CEO.

Solera aims to support connectivity across the vehicle value chain. Its solutions are built on smarter decision making in the the insurance and automotive industries; they serve more than 235,000 customers and partners in more than 90 countries.

The company deploys service, software, enriched data, proprietary algorithms, and machine learning, all in the effort to deliver insights that can ensure customers’ vehicles and property are optimally maintained and expertly repaired.

“Repairers now, more than ever, need innovative, intelligent, technology to run tomorrow’s bodyshop,” Dave Shepherd, Solera’s regional managing director, said in a statement. “The combined expertise of the InSyPro and Solera teams will enhance the PlanManager platform to build integrated solutions which continue to grow and develop with the changing needs of vehicle repair complexity, heightened customer expectations and work provision requirements.”