Background
Midland County Title Plant (MCTP) is a joint venture between multiple title agencies in Midland County. All partners have a long history of success in issuing title in their county, as well as providing outside access to their title plants to elements of the energy sector. Landmen, energy attorneys, and other related entities all need access to county records to perform their jobs. Title plants are refined and improved versions of the public data located at the County level. On-site abstracting by landmen has been the industry standard, until recently.
Indirect competitors to title agencies are county record databases that sell subscriptions to their indexed versions of the county data set. Though there are numerous subscription-based models out there for the energy sector to utilize in addition to the county courthouse, title agencies have a unique opportunity to monetize their own versions of that county data. Why? Their versions are deeper, better organized, and oftentimes much more accurate.
Takeaways
The partners of MCTP provided on-site access to their title plants. However, this client traffic can be disruptive unless your office is set up well for these walk-ins. Though this dynamic was welcomed by both sides of the table, it was a limited offering to greater market demand. The energy sector has a regional footprint. Landmen could be reached from afar if MCTP’s plant could be accessed accordingly. This would give landmen access to the best data sets and do so with little expense compared to the necessary travel expenses for on-site searches. Our software and hosting services created an opportunity to expand landman market share through the cloud and compete directly with online subscription services.
IIX partnered with these agencies by giving them the necessary tools to grant remote access to their title plants through a revenue sharing model. iiExperts does all the heavy lifting of billing prep, user training, and usage tracking. This allows MCTP to focus on their main revenue generating activity, issuing title, and let their plants work for them by way of an presence.
