 MOTOR Information Systems was founded in 1903 by William Randolph Hearst, and is now part of the privately-held media conglomerate- the Hearst Corporation. Whereas every entity that is part of the Hearst organization has been part of an acquisition, MOTOR was started by Mr. Hearst himself, and therefore holds a special place within the Hearst Corporation.
MOTOR Information Systems is the sole company in the automotive industry service both the mechanical and collision repair markets, and MOTOR also is the publisher of MOTOR magazine. There are over 100 employees at MOTOR's Troy, Mich., headquarters, where all core business functions are operated.
MOTOR magazine boasts readership levels in excess of 500,000 readers per month.
MOTOR publishes over 100,000 pages of service information annually, and also is the content provider to the most renowned information program for the mechanical repair industry, Alldata, which boast in excess of 50,000 subscribers. The MOTOR/Alldata repair system at one point contained over 100 CD-ROMs, although the decision in recent years has been to offer the repair information solely via online access due simply to the complexity of managing such a high volume of repair information.
MOTOR is partnered with CCC in the collision industry. CCC and its brand CompEst, together have the largest position in the collision repair industry, now serving over 30,000 Repair Shops.
The mechanical "OE Parts and Labor Database" is used exclusively by nearly every automobile dealership in existence, including Reynolds and Reynolds, as well as ADP, two firms that together hold over 80% market share in the dealer management systems market. The OE Parts and Labor Database is also used by a majority of companies in the aftermarket warranty business, which use the MOTOR data to audit claims. This program has saved a "who's who" list of companies many millions of dollars due to how they facilitate more accurate and automated claims procedures.
With the 1999 acquisition of the Chek-Chart company, founded in 1929, MOTOR is ideally suited to serve the needs of the convenient services market, as evidenced by the fact that there is a Chek-Chart product of one form or another in every shop in the U.S.A. In the lubricants market the Chek-Chart brand is used by such customers as ExxonMobil, BP Castrol, Valvoline, Shell, Chevron, and many others.
Since the late 1990s, MOTOR has become the largest provider of automotive repair information to the Internet, and is expanding to serve the needs of customers worldwide.
|