Digital Motorworks InfoIQ SM Solution. Transforming Automotive Information Management

Transcription

1 Digital Motorworks InfoIQ SM Solution Transforming Automotive Information Management DIGITAL MOTORWORKS Turning data into opportunity.

2 Digital Motorworks 8601 FM 2222 Building II, Suite 400 Austin, TX p (512) f (512) info@digitalmotorworks.com Copyright November 2001 Digital Motorworks, LP. All rights reserved. Digital Motorworks, InfoIQ, PhotoLoad and Digital Motorworks logo are trademarks of Digital Motorworks, LP in the U.S. and other countries. Digital Motorworks disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

3 Table of Contents Executive Summary...4 InfoIQ Solution Overview...5 InfoIQ Service...6 Data Acquisition...6 Data Processing... 7 Information Delivery...11 InfoIQ Administrator...12 InfoIQ Support...13 Incident Tracking InfoIQ Applications...16 InfoIQ Pricing, Promotions and Incentives...16 InfoIQ PhotoLoad...16 Conclusion...16

4 Executive Summary In recent years, automotive companies have begun implementing a variety of marketing related business initiatives, including online inventory and customer relationship programs. They are also increasingly focused on refining business operations such as inventory and pricing analysis, asset management and parts replenishment. These initiatives require vast amounts of business data for example, trim details on hundreds of thousands of cars, product information on millions of parts, and countless customer sales and service profiles. Automotive companies typically have this data, but they struggle to gain access to the specific information they need, when and where they need it. Collecting and distributing the relevant information in a timely manner presents numerous technical challenges: Data is stored in a variety of data systems and formats across more than 22,000 car dealerships and thousands of manufacturers and suppliers so it is often inconsistent, inaccurate and incomplete. Efficient information management requires experienced technical staff that can anticipate data quality problems, offer 24-hour support to dealers and other users, and implement effective decision support tools. Data collection systems must scale rapidly, but performance often degrades after 100 dealers have been brought online. Reliability and availability are hard to guarantee. Online marketing and business operations initiatives are crucial to the future success of automotive OEMs, portals and major dealer groups and accurate, comprehensive data is critical to these initiatives. Yet few companies have the expertise or resources to aggregate, standardize and distribute data efficiently. This paper will demonstrate how Digital Motorworks (DMi) InfoIQ SM solution provides the data quality, information management expertise, and ASP infrastructure today s automotive companies need to support their business initiatives seamlessly and with minimal resources. By addressing each of these challenges in an efficient and cost-effective manner, InfoIQ is already providing many automotive market leaders with a competitive advantage in their business endeavors. 4

5 InfoIQ Solution Overview DMi s InfoIQ solution collects data from geographically dispersed and technically varied sources, enhances it and delivers it for use in a variety of business initiatives, including inventory management, customer relationship management and decision support. A fully outsourced solution, InfoIQ consists of three unique but closely related components (Table 1): The InfoIQ service automatically collects data from existing data systems, transforms it into transactable information, and delivers it to any number of business applications. InfoIQ support guarantees that the InfoIQ service delivers consistently accurate and comprehensive information. It also minimizes the involvement required from dealers internal IT resources. InfoIQ applications, such as InfoIQ Pricing, Promotions and Incentives and InfoIQ PhotoLoad TM extend the capabilities of the InfoIQ service and enable DMi customers dealer base to derive additional value from their business information. Table 1. InfoIQ Solution Architecture InfoIQ Service InfoIQ Automated Service (Collect, enhance, deliver) InfoIQ Infrastructure (System & network resources, reliability, security, availability) InfoIQ Administrator InfoIQ Solution InfoIQ Support Process Monitoring Dealer Set-Up Problem Resolution Quality Assurance Incident Tracking Daily Project Management InfoIQ Applications Sales Lead Management Financial Analysis Inventory Management DMi provides InfoIQ through an application service provider (ASP) model. In other words, InfoIQ is maintained on central servers, delivered through the Internet and provided to DMi customers as a managed service. As part of this service, DMi handles all implementation and maintenance remotely. This enables DMi customers to begin their information management 5

6 initiatives quickly and easily, with minimal IT resources and without modifications to existing data systems or processes. To guarantee the highest levels of reliability and security, DMi co-locates its InfoIQ servers at state-of-the-art third party facilities. Co-location also enables DMi to scale its customers solutions rapidly, without additional hardware requirements or service disruptions. InfoIQ is offered on a cost-effective, pay-per-usage basis. InfoIQ Service The InfoIQ service forms the core of DMi s comprehensive information management solution. It collects data from geographically dispersed and technically varied data systems, transforms it into transaction-ready information, and delivers it to business applications. This section will describe the data acquisition, processing and delivery procedures in detail, discussing both the technical aspects of the InfoIQ service and the benefits it offers automotive businesses. Data Acquisition With over five years of real-world technical development and implementation experience, DMi has developed the ability to handle a range of automotive data acquisition problems. InfoIQ routinely extracts numerous types of automotive data including inventory, sales, service and parts information from over 40 types of dealer management systems (Table 2). Currently, it collects data from over 9,000 dealerships nightly. Table 2. Data Types and DMS Systems Accessed Data Types Inventory Sales Transactions Service Transactions Parts Inventory Parts Transactions Financial and Insurance Data Warranty Information Customer Listings Payroll DMS Systems Reynolds & Reynolds ADP UCS EDS/Saturn Automate Autosoft Debuque Data Systems Kelly Blue Book Many others To efficiently aggregate this wide variety of data, InfoIQ supports all common data acquisition methods. Built-in drivers connect to all types of dealer management systems 6

7 (DMS) and an intuitive graphical interface allows DMi to implement new systems quickly and easily. Because architecture, technology and data storage structures vary across dealerships and dealer management systems, DMi supports a variety of operating systems, file formats and direct access methods and also implements custom solutions when necessary (Table 3). InfoIQ s data acquisition processes are completely automated and require minimal involvement from individual dealers even during setup, which is managed entirely by DMi. Table 3. Data Acquisition Flexibility Acquisition Methods Scheduled Modem Dial-up TCP/IP Connection (Internet, VPN, WAN) Asynchronous XML Messaging FTP File Transfer Online Forms Other acquisition methods Operating Systems Unix Linux AS400 Windows Mac Other systems File Formats Comma and Tab Delimited Microsoft Excel DBF XML EBCDIC Fixed-width Files Nonstandard file formats Direct Access Methods ODBC JDBC TM SQL*Net Other vendor methods This flexibility allows DMi to work within its customers existing data environments without modifying their systems. In addition, all data extraction processes are monitored remotely through DMi s web-based application management tool, InfoIQ Administrator. Many errors are addressed automatically, which reduces manual troubleshooting by DMi s staff and minimizes involvement on the part of the customer s IT staff. (For more information, see InfoIQ Administrator on page 12.) Data Processing After the data acquisition process is complete, InfoIQ begins a 5-step process to prepare the data for use in specified business applications. 7

8 Parsing and Standardization First, all forms of raw data are parsed and stored in tables. All values are then standardized to ensure consistency (Table 4). Once again, the web-based InfoIQ Administrator streamlines this process by bringing errors to the attention of the InfoIQ support team and facilitating communication between everyone involved (see page 12). Table 4. Data Processing Before: Comma-delimited Text file 99, , JAN After Parsing: Fielded Data YEAR DATE JAN00 AMOUNT After Standardization: Formatted Data YEAR DATE 01/25/ /25/2000 AM OUNT 28, , Data Enhancement Next, InfoIQ enhances the data by correcting errors introduced during data entry and adding any missing information. DMi maintains three types of reference tables for this process: Thesaurus data developed at DMi is used to standardize abbreviations and misspellings, including interior, trim level and color information (see Table 5). Customer data is used to map processed data to customer-defined codes, IDs and standards, such as internal vehicle IDs and service categories (see Table 6). Licensed third-party data provides vehicle identification number (VIN) validation, including the decoding of make, model, engine and body style. Third-party data also provides trim/package features, USPS address validation and national change of address information (see Table 7). 8

9 Table 5. DMi Thesaurus Mapping Table INCOMING COLOR TYPE MAKE MODEL DETAILED COLOR COLOR FAMILY FOREST GR/DW6 GLOBAL FOREST GREEN GREEN FOREST GRENE GLOBAL FOREST GREEN GREEN DW6 VEHICLE NISSAN FRONTIER FOREST GREEN GREEN DW6 VEHICLE NISSAN XTERRA FOREST GREEN GREEN FORSTGRN GLOBAL FOREST GREEN GREEN Table 6. Mapping to Customer Requested Code/ID INCOMING SERVICE DESCRIPTION DMi CODE DMi STANDARD DESC CUSTOMER CODE (REPLACED LEAKINGTRANSMISSION OIL LINE) 41 Transmission Repair / Replacement 56 * TRANS SERIVCE COMPLETED 44 Transmission Service 56 (7060)TRANS. SERVICECOMPLETED 44 Transmission Service 56 $64.95 AUTOMATIC 42 Transmission Service - Automatic 56,NEEDS CLUTCH,PRESS 40 Transmission Repair / Replacement - Manual 56 7B MANUAL TRANS SERV 43 Transmission Service - Manual 56 Table 7. Licensed 3 rd Party Data VIN VALID VIN? 19UYA Y YEAR 2001 MAKE MODEL TRIM LEVEL BODY STYLE DRIVE ENGINE ACURA CL 3.2 TYPE-S 2DR FWD 3.2L V6 CARBURETION FUEL INJECTION BRAKES FUEL 4 WHEEL ABS STANDARD GAS 9

10 These data enhancement procedures provide DMi customers access to more and better reporting on all aspects of their business. For instance, a query on a standardized op code like Lube Oil Filter will return all Lube Oil Filter transactions, regardless of how they were entered into the DMS. Comprehensive vehicle records that include VIN, make, model, and other details of specific vehicles enable dealers to more accurately and efficiently manage their inventories. Application of Business Rules In the fourth stage of data processing, InfoIQ applies its customer s business rules to the enhanced data. Business rules enable DMi to support the flexibility dealers require in the administration of programs. For example, at an inventory portal s request, DMi could use a global business rule to filter out all vehicles over ten years old. If one of the portal s dealers then wanted to filter out all vehicles over five years old, DMi could set up a dealer business rule. Because InfoIQ can implement specific, customer-defined rules at both levels, DMi customers gain more control over the data process and can easily accommodate dealer specific requests or data peculiarities. Business rules also allow DMi to accommodate idiosyncrasies in dealers data entry practices. For instance, because not all dealers use the Department field the same way, determining whether a repair is service, parts or body shop can be a challenge. In this case, DMi would set up a business rule that that looks at a different field (such as RO Number) to identify department. Such business rules are crucial, since high dealer turnover rates lead to frequent changes in data entry practices. Quality Assurance Once the data is processed, InfoIQ conducts a number of quality assurance procedures to verify that it is accurate and comprehensive: File Based Validation. InfoIQ ensures that the size of an extracted data set falls within a pre-determined deviation of the expected file size. To reduce the possibility of processing outdated inventory data or duplicating customer transactions, InfoIQ validates the age of a file before processing it. Record Count Validation. InfoIQ maintains average volumes for record counts for every system. Deviations of more than 10% from the historical average are identified as possible errors and written to a staging table for quality assurance review. Field Population Validation. InfoIQ monitors data fields to ensure that they are populated at expected percentages. This ensures that changes in data entry 10

11 procedures, as well as changes in system fields due to system upgrades, are caught immediately. Mathematical Validation. Certain fields, such as sales amount and financing terms, are often mathematically related. At the direction of its customers, the InfoIQ support team implements mathematical validation of such relationships. Logical Validation. Certain combinations of field values and population patterns are illogical. For instance, the selling price of a vehicle is expected to be greater than the unit cost for a retail sale. Specific rules for identifying such logical errors are implemented at the direction of DMi s customers. Each of these automated quality assurance procedures can be customized to meet the specific needs of individual DMi customers. Once implemented, they will work in conjunction with the InfoIQ support team to ensure that InfoIQ consistently delivers only the highest quality data. (For more information, see InfoIQ Support on page 13.) DMi s unique approach to data processing guarantees that its customers business initiatives always operate using accurate, comprehensive data. For instance, DMi customers are able to conduct customer relationship campaigns knowing that the sales and service transaction records they re working from contain validated addresses and standardized operations codes. In the case of online inventory initiatives, they can be confident that customers visiting their website won t encounter inconsistencies or other data entry errors. Information Delivery Data that has been fully processed and validated is considered transactable or transaction-ready and can easily be delivered to a variety of locations. InfoIQ supports a virtually unlimited number of customer delivery formats based on configurable data sets, file formats, and transmission modes (Table 8). This enables it to deliver automotive data to numerous online applications, including major Internet portals, dealer websites and CRM tools, as well as to third party sites, like direct mail vendors and call centers. InfoIQ can deliver data to a single location or multiple locations; or it can store processed data on DMi servers, which are co-located at a state-of-the-art third-party facility. 11

12 Table 8. Sample Delivery Formats Data Sets File Formats Transmission Modes Encryption Full Delta By Region By Date Range Eligible Criteria Customer Defined ASCII Fixed Width Comma Delimited Oracle Database Export Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet XML Custom FTP VPN WAN Dial-up HTTP Hard Copy PGP 3DES Blowfish Though InfoIQ is capable of collecting all kinds of automotive data, DMi customers select the combination of data types they need and receive only that information. Essentially, customer data is delivered when and where it is needed, in the form required for specific business initiatives. Both self-sufficient and non-intrusive, the InfoIQ service allows DMi customers to focus on their business objective whether that is optimizing online inventory initiatives, streamlining customer relationship programs, or refining internal operations rather than on maintaining the information management process. InfoIQ Administrator The InfoIQ service includes an intuitive interface, called InfoIQ Administrator (IA), that allows DMi customers to audit the InfoIQ service and view reports on their data (see Figure 1). Specifically, this graphical, Web-based application enables DMi customers to: Audit every step of the data integration process View data and quality assurance reports Configure services and tools Maintain a catalog of service incidents Access other Digital Motorworks utilities Remain in constant communication with the InfoIQ support team Using IA, DMi customers can track progress and error resolution without having day-to-day responsibility for the information management process itself. 12

13 Figure 1. InfoIQ Administrator IA is accessible over the Internet from any location, and its hierarchical structure provides multiple access levels for national, regional, and local entities and users. Unique user IDs and passwords provide role-based security, ensuring that individual users gain access only to information and tools relevant to them. As a result, customized reports can be created for specific projects and made available only to the appropriate project teams. Other reports, such as standard export-based reports documenting statistics of all aggregated files, might be sent only to the correct IT contact. InfoIQ Support The information management process is technically complex and resource intensive, but InfoIQ support enables DMi customers to implement effective information management solutions easily and affordably. From the time a customer signs a letter of intent throughout the life of the relationship, DMi provides individualized and consistently high-quality customer service. Each DMi customer is assigned a project or account manager who manages the implementation of the customer project, acts as a liaison between the customer and all DMi departments, and is responsible for the ongoing success of the project. Project managers 13

14 work with DMi customers to identify project requirements and with DMi software developers and customer support representatives to ensure that any problems are resolved efficiently. While business solutions analysts act as the primary technical and business contact for DMi customers, customer support representatives provide first level support for customer projects and the dealerships that supply data to them. DMi s customer support team processes all work orders for new dealerships, extracts data from dealer systems (as often as daily for most DMi customers), notifies dealerships of modem or access issues that hinder the data extraction process, and exports data to DMi customers. Customer support representatives also augment InfoIQ s built-in quality assurance procedures by proactively identifying and resolving data exceptions and other errors. Support representatives review customer content and information processes daily to identify additional automated solutions. They notify customers of system enhancements and improvements in advance and actively utilize customer feedback to improve DMi services. This problem-solving approach enables the InfoIQ support team to build relationships that facilitate open communication and rapid turnaround. InfoIQ s automated service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Support for the InfoIQ service is available Monday through Friday from 8:00-6:00 (central). More extensive Premium Support options are also available. Incident Tracking InfoIQ Administrator includes an innovative online Incident Tracking system that facilitates the InfoIQ support process by streamlining communication both between DMi customers and staff and between different users within the customer s organization (see Figure 2). Using the Incident Tracking interface, customers and customer support representatives can enter new errors into the system, track the status of issues that have not yet been resolved, and view a record of all incidents. As incidents are entered into the system, they are added to the permanent record. Once recorded, they can be accessed at any time, whether to assist in resolving future incidents or to evaluate the data aggregation process. To ensure that the online incident report is comprehensive, DMi support representatives record all incidents reported by phone or . 14

15 All incident reports include a time and date stamp, priority indicator, assigned owner, and visibility level, which determines who has access to a particular report. When an incident is recorded, the online tracking system automatically generates an message notifying all involved parties (both at DMi and in the customer s organization) of its status. Additional messages are generated as the incident s status changes. Figure 2. Incident Tracking InfoIQ s Incident Tracking system offers many advantages: Multiple DMi customer support representatives can help resolve the same issue. By reviewing the online record, any DMi support representative can become informed on a new project in a matter of minutes. DMi customers can track the status of a project throughout the entire data aggregation process. Customers can remain in constant communication with DMi. By ensuring that all incidents are addressed efficiently and knowledgably, the Incident Tracking system improves end-user satisfaction and reduces the number of time-consuming communications required by each party. Dealers benefit from rapid problem resolution, while IT staff benefit from an intuitive, user-friendly support process that encourages dealer participation. 15

16 InfoIQ Applications The InfoIQ solution includes a number of optional value-added applications that are tied directly to the data InfoIQ collects, processes and distributes. These applications include InfoIQ Pricing, Promotions and Incentives and InfoIQ PhotoLoad. InfoIQ Pricing, Promotions and Incentives Beyond a vehicle s equipment and features, three main factors help drive sales: pricing, promotions and incentives. InfoIQ Pricing, Promotions, and Incentives (InfoIQ PPI) allows dealers and dealer groups to better manage the online display and marketing of their vehicle inventory. Accessed over the Internet through InfoIQ Administrator, InfoIQ PPI improves promotional awareness and effectiveness at the dealership level, while also providing corporate management with greater insight into the practices and performance of individual dealerships. InfoIQ PhotoLoad InfoIQ PhotoLoad allows DMi customers to enhance their online inventory offerings by displaying photographs of individual vehicles alongside detailed information about those vehicles. This is particularly valuable for used vehicles, which may vary widely in condition. Like InfoIQ PPI, PhotoLoad is accessed over the Internet through InfoIQ Administrator. Using a graphical interface, dealers can easily upload digital photos to their websites and associate each with a specific vehicle. They can also run reports to identify the stock number, year, make, model, color, and VIN of any vehicle without a photo. Conclusion Before the development of InfoIQ, automotive businesses struggled with information management. They would often wait days, or even months, for access to the critical business information stored in their own data systems or those of their customers and affiliates. When building solutions internally, a lack of information management experience forced many companies into the costly and time-consuming habit of addressing problems only as they developed. For others, the high cost of computing resources prevented information management initiatives altogether. In response to these challenges, DMi s InfoIQ solution offers three pillars of value: 16

17 Integrity. The success of many automotive business initiatives depends on the quality of the data that powers them. DMi consistently provides accurate, comprehensive and timely data to its clients. Insight. Automotive businesses often struggle with the technical challenges of information management, but a unique combination of automotive and information management expertise enables DMi to anticipate and address these challenges efficiently. Infrastructure. DMi customers need to bring their business initiatives to market rapidly and maintain the highest levels of reliability and availability, even as large numbers of dealers (100+) are brought online. DMi's ASP infrastructure delivers this level of performance and scalability both quickly and affordably. By providing unparalleled data quality, industry-specific information management expertise, and affordable scalability, InfoIQ enables DMi customers to bring their business applications to market rapidly and thus accelerate the return on their investment. 17