CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, has acquired Next Gear Solutions, a market leader in digital workflow platforms and solutions for the property restoration industry. The deal was made official Sept. 15, 2021. Combining Next Gear and CoreLogic’s Claims Connect platforms, property data and analytics, and tools is intended to provide contractors and insurance carriers a compelling choice to enhance and transform the claims experience for policyholders.

In a LinkedIn post to the Next Gear Solutions company page on Sept. 15, Gray wrote, "Today we announce the sale of Next Gear Solutions, which has been the passion of my life for 13+ years. There are many emotions as I reflect on the people who built this company and the tremendous skill and passion they bring every day to our partners."

Gray continued, "While this is a milestone for me and the over 250 people who have dedicated themselves to an audacious vision for the industry we serve, it is only the beginning. We are all excited to join forces with the CoreLogic team to drive positive change for the entire property insurance ecosystem. I can speak for my entire leadership team and broader company when I say we are in this for the long haul and can't wait to leverage the scale and resources of our new company. There will be more to come on this exciting news. Stay tuned."

Next Gear Solutions, headquartered in Oxford, Miss., is a workflow platform provider for property restoration. Next Gear touts its cloud-based suite of products, such as DASH, SettleAssist, and MICA, as having transformed the way property insurers and contractors collaborate, driving better outcomes for those experiencing a property loss.

“The entire CoreLogic team is excited to join forces with Garret and the Next Gear team as we expand our range of innovative, best-in-class solutions for the restoration industry, insurance carriers and other market participants that collectively help millions of people to protect and restore the homes they love," Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic said.

“The combination of Next Gear and CoreLogic creates a leap forward in claims-handling technology, bringing customer focus, innovation and more optionality for all property insurance ecosystem stakeholders," Martell added. "There has never been a greater focus on transforming critical workflows in the insurance ecosystem and CoreLogic is committed to continuing to invest heavily in expanding our state-of-the art platforms and digital solutions that will drive innovation and make our customers more successful.”

Jefferies LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Next Gear Solutions.

Next Gear Solutions is a partner of managed repair networks, franchisors, contractors and insurance carriers looking to run a consistently smarter business. Its range of mobile job management, damage documentation and estimate auditing tools are used by 8,700-plus restoration companies across North America and a majority of the nation’s 25 largest insurance carriers.

CoreLogic, through its enhanced property data solutions, services and technologies, enables real estate professionals, financial institutions, insurance carriers, government agencies and other housing market participants to help millions of people find, buy and protect their homes.

The Restoration Industry Association’s Response

On the evening of Sept. 15, Mark Springer, Restoration Industry Association (RIA) president, and Ed Cross, restoration lawyer and official contractor advocate representing RIA’s Advocacy and Government Affairs (AGA) committee, delivered initial remarks in a public Facebook Live video.

“Another interesting and pivotal day in the restoration industry,” Springer said. “We've had so many of our members reach out to us today to ask: What is the impact and what is all about this major acquisition that we've heard about in CoreLogic acquiring Next Gear? So we thought, what a great opportunity for us is to be able to address some of the concerns, some of the questions that we've gotten about this very, very important event that is transpired in the restoration industry.”

Captured below is an abbreviated version of Springer and Cross’ remarks that speak to the RIA’s initial reaction to the developing news.

Background

Springer: “Now for those of you who are not aware, CoreLogic is the parent company of another restoration estimating platform that is used called Symbility. And so if you're not using it; if you're trying to connect the dots and you're going, ‘Who’s CoreLogic?’ they are the parent company of Symbility, which is an estimating platform and CoreLogic is a very large data aggregation company that works in the property restoration to collect data on all sorts of different data sets that relate to, not only the restoration industry but other property industries as well. So, that's a little bit of background. Certainly a very major event.”

Continued industry change and consolidation

Springer: “We see so much consolidation happening in this industry and so now we can see — with the acquisition here of Next Gear — we can see that this consolidation continues. And as the consolidation happens we can expect that there will be change, and you can expect another thing and that is that the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) will continue to monitor this change, and will be especially monitoring how this impacts our constituents, our members, because we know that this affects all of us sometimes with things that we didn't expect.”

Springer: “You know when I signed on with Next Gear over 13 years ago, I didn't necessarily expect that we would be here today, but here's where we are today. And these changes that we see, RIA is always going to be looking to regardless of the relationships and all the friends that we have, to make sure that we are unabashedly advancing the needs of restorers.”

Springer: “When RIA started the AGA just a few years ago — it seems like it was yesterday, but now it's been over two and a half years ago that we started AGA — we started, AGA because we believe that the restoration contractor needs to have a voice for their interests. A lot of these entities, where we see the consolidations happening are very, very large relative to the size of our companies. And it's important that we're able to draw together and to be able to see through the blueprint that we have developed for AGA, which is to hear and gather our members’ opinions and their issues the things that affect them, and then develop out of those peer-reviewed position statements that we can then have someone like Mr. Cross, our restoration advocate, go on our behalf to speak for us so that we are assured that our needs are represented in a way that's sustainable for the industry.”

Claims ecosystem, data privacy, implications for the future of the restoration industry

Springer: “Now, like I said just a moment ago, we know that there are going to be implications of this acquisition but we don't know yet. So we're not here to necessarily say, right now, that we know how all of this is going to affect the future of the property restoration claims ecosystem. But we know this: We know that our members have concerns — I even have concerns — about how the data in our companies is being used. Who all this data that has now been aggregated and gathered, how's that going to be used, and how is that going to affect the future of our business?”

Springer: “You know, the privacy of entrepreneurs and restoration companies is very important to many of us. We don't know how all these are areas where our privacy will be affected will actually manifest itself in the future. But we know this: We know that there are restoration estimating platforms and restoration management platforms and third-party administrators that are gathering a lot of information about restorers, and we don't know how all that information gathering is going to affect our constituents. But we know this: We know that our members have concerns about it and we know that we need more answers about it. We need to know about how that information is going to be protected. We need to know how that information, as we move forward, is going to be safeguarded. And so these are the sorts of things we're going to engage around and I want everyone to know that as we move forward with AGA, we don't see our priorities as purely static. We know that the future of the issues that we face are going to evolve.”

Next steps the AGA is taking

Springer: “Our board of directors is actually meeting in two weeks in Las Vegas to be able to really identify, work around and strategize around the most important issues for our industry as we look at the path forward, the strategy forward for how AGA can address the specific needs and interests of restoration contractors. So I'm actually very thankful that we are going to be able to address this specific issue when our board meets together to talk about the strategy that we are going to be undertaking for the years to come, and I can expect this: That our board and our volunteers will be looking very carefully at the issues that relate to the privacy and the safeguards of data for our members, and for the restoration industry at large.”

Springer: “So expect to hear more on this from us as we move forward, and, you know, I'm just so grateful that we have so much support from all of you as members.”

Cross: “Well this is obviously a very hot issue. A lot of people are quite concerned about it. First thing this morning my email was absolutely blowing up with people asking questions about it.”

Cross: And although we're so early in this, we're still collecting the facts, we're still trying to figure out, you know exactly what this means and where it's going to lead, we want to give you assurance that we are nimble, that we are monitoring this and we are paying very close attention to this and that AGA, thanks to your support, has the ability, the infrastructure and the critical mass to be able to adjust and pivot as needed. You know, RIA’s interest is contractor-centric. That's the focus. OK, we are here to help the contractors. And our interest is in making sure the restoration contractors are represented in a way that does not give preference to third parties, whose interests may not be in alignment with those of the contractors, and we've had issues with other players in the restoration ecosystem in the past where we needed to, you know, take note and do some investigation and do some analysis, I don't think this is going to be any exception to that.”

Cross: “And, you know, the restoration industry never ceases to surprise me because of the way that it's set up with so much personal financial information of these companies being disclosed. And we talk about this a lot with respect to pricing: What's your overhead and profit? Is it really anybody's business what your overhead and profit is? I'm not going to tell you what mine is. And the insurance companies, you know, I mean, this is something that feels quite intrusive to a lot of restorers. So we want to have everyone rest assured that RIA is watching this very closely and we'll make sure that we can do what we can to, A, keep you informed and to advocate on your behalf, and to investigate how this is going to impact the members and to take whatever positions, publicly, are needed to advocate for the best interests of restoration contractors.”

On Sept. 17, the RIA released its first official statement in response to the acquisition, which read: "Earlier this week, CoreLogic announced the completion of its acquisition of Next Gear Solutions. The Restoration Industry Association (RIA) recognizes that as consolidation continues to happen within the property restoration ecosystem, change can be expected. The RIA will continue to monitor this change and its impact on restoration contractors.

The RIA established the Advocacy and Government Affairs Committee (AGA) to serve as the voice for restoration contractors. AGA gathers restorers’ concerns on the issues impacting their business, develops peer peer-reviewed position statements on those issues, and engages RIA’s Restoration Advocate to advance those positions in support of restorers’ best interests.

While the implications of this acquisition on restoration contractors is not yet fully known, RIA members and constituents have concerns about how their data is being used and how it will impact the future of their business.

Restoration estimating platforms, management platforms and Third Party Administrators are gathering significant amounts of data about restorers. The privacy of entrepreneurs and restoration contractors is very important. Restoration contractors need to know how this data will be used and safeguarded.

Through the AGA, the RIA will closely monitor these issues of data privacy and how they will impact restoration contractors’ businesses going forward. The RIA appreciates the restoration industry’s continued support of AGA as it keeps restoration contractors informed and continues to advance their

best interests."

Xactware’s Response

On Sept. 21, Xactware President Mike Fulton authored an email to Xactware users, which read: "You count on Xactware products to be the solid bedrock of claims estimating, management and collaboration. And the market is evolving. As mergers and new acquisitions occur, you may find yourself wondering how Xactware and Verisk intend to navigate third-party access with the Verisk ecosystem and how our products or your own workflows may be impacted.

Rest assured, we remain committed to an open ecosystem based on sound data protection and security to enable workflows that are important for you and your business. And as stewards of safeguarding data, we strive to work with integration partners who share this commitment and maintain our high standards.

Xactware and Verisk believe in vigorous competition in our free enterprise economy, which serves to not only provide our customers market choice, but also to accelerate our continuing efforts to innovate and develop enhancements to existing industry-leading products, including those that leverage Verisk AI and Automation (Vai) technology. Examples include the new XactScope tools within Xactimate that streamline water mitigation work and estimation for exteriors and roofs, as well as estimate auditing and scoring to meet your needs. Other home-grown advances include object recognition technology for building contents inventories, and the application of AR (Augmented Reality) and Lidar technologies for obtaining measurements in Xactimate Sketch. And much more is in development. All of which are included in your Professional license of Xactimate at no additional charge.

So while the technology industry changes, you can count on Xactware and Verisk to support your workflows, continue to innovate on your behalf, safeguard your data — and most importantly — listen to and work closely with our valued customers.

We look forward to innovating on your behalf for many years to come.”

R&R continues to monitor the developments surrounding the acquisition of Next Gear Solutions by CoreLogic and its implications for the restoration industry. If you have questions you would like us to pursue answers to, please email kingv@bnpmedia.com.