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About Tracking Sales History

In the automotive industry, the automobile manufacturers sell vehicles to the dealers. In turn, the dealers sell vehicles to the consumers. The manufacturer sells the vehicle to the dealer at a certain price (Dealer Invoice) and suggests a retail price (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price or MSRP) for the vehicle. As a result, the dealer's profit is the difference between MSRP and Dealer Invoice.

Dealers report their sales transactions to the manufacturers using proprietary interfaces. That data can be used by manufacturers who create targeted marketing campaigns and also for personalized interactions. The manufacturers load that data into Siebel Automotive using Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM).

Dealers need to periodically report back sales of all new vehicles to the manufacturer using a batch mode interface called Dealer Communication Systems (DCS). The information dealers provide to the manufacturers varies from dealer to dealer. In some cases, dealers may only provide the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of the vehicle sold, along with a contact name and address. However, in some cases, dealers may additionally provide the price at which the vehicle was sold along with the VIN, contact name, and address.