IRVINE, CA – Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, a provider of new- and used- vehicle information, announced the company implemented a new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art vehicle information management system (VIMS), positioning the company to deliver unprecedented market insights. With an increase in data collection, transparency into its processes, sophisticated forecasting models and formidable analytic capabilities, businesses can look to Kelley Blue Book’s weekly values as the most trusted in the industry, according to the company.
“We eliminated the standard paradigm of inflexible systems that can only provide values based on historical vehicle sales,” said Paul Johnson, president and CEO of Kelley Blue Book. “The advanced statistical models we employ take into account current economic factors and catalytic events to project what values will be next week, next month, and even further in the future. Events like Cash-for-Clunkers, major vehicle recalls and spikes in gas prices can’t be predicted without some precedent, so we built an amazingly sophisticated system that records the market reaction to these events, successively improving our models in a ceaseless effort to help consumers and partners make better car buying decisions.”
Building and operating VIMS required a significant investment in staff and data. In the last few years, Kelley Blue Book has hired market analysts, statisticians, mathematicians, data management and technology experts with extensive industry experience, growing its analytic team almost threefold. During the same period, the company has taken data acquisition to a new level, obtaining vehicle-related information from more than 250 sources. The company collects more than 100 data points for every vehicle and is the only valuation company that manages vehicle values and data spanning the life of the vehicle within a single database; from new, used and residual values. Its transaction database houses 256 million observations, which includes over 1.5 million vehicles that were physically inspected at auctions across the country by the company’s national field force.
“Kelley Blue Book’s new analytic capabilities provide dealers, banks, finance and insurance companies with unrivaled insights into the future of the automotive marketplace, continuing the company's preeminence in vehicle pricing and values,” said Johnson. “With these game-changing enhancements in data collection, advanced statistical modeling and personnel, businesses can manage an entire portfolio of inventory more effectively and profitably than ever before.”
VIMS’ integrated valuation forecast feeds more than 15 products, including KARPOWER Online, the company’s flagship valuation and inventory product. With the combination of VIMS, SAS statistical software and blazingly fast data warehouse architecture, Kelley Blue Book can help users to better assess risk, project profits and have the broadest understanding of the vehicle marketplace possible.
“The deployment of this new vehicle information management system has inherently changed the way we do business, it has changed our DNA,” Johnson added. “The company’s 85-year history has earned us our pedigree, but the implementation of this new valuation system changes the future of our business.”
