The Adesa Indianapolis Auto Auction is a business that allows auto manufacturers to get their products to the car dealers who ultimately sell cars to you, the consumer. Adesa’s customers include Ford, GM, Chrysler, etc. The customers use Adesa’s facilities to auction their products, as well as their staff to provide the necessary auctioneers, auto drivers, car transportation services, title exchanges, and other necessary inventory and paperwork. It is Adesa’s job to keep the process running smoothly to keep their customers pleased, as there are competitive auction companies, such as Manheim, in an equal number of cities across the US and world-wide.

A major problem within Adesa Indianapolis’s infrastructure deals with the three major computer systems they utilize – LiveBlock, used to sell cars online in real time each week during the auctions; AutoVin, used to keep inventory in the multi-acre car lot; and AMS, Auction Marketing Service, used to run the day to day functions of the business. Each system requires the information in the other systems – though they do not currently communicate with one another electronically. This leads to a large number of human hours spent doing redundant data entry, and drastically increases the opportunity for system errors.

Possible solutions to be explored for this problem include hiring IT people to make the current systems communicate, purchasing an already-established computer system that can handle all of this from another business (like Manheim), or creating a blanket department with people from each company (LiveBlock, AutoVin, and AMS are all independent businesses as well) who oversee the processes and work to adjust the systems and train staff to make them more cohesive.