Auto Trader

Typically, you're an automotive vehicle dealer wondering how easy it might be increase turnover via online advertising.

If you've plenty of VW Golfs or BMW 3 series vehicles, you're in luck. They are the best selling online models - twice as popular as their nearest rival, the Ford Escort - according to those in charge of the biggest database in Europe of online (and offline) used vehicle sales.

According to Peter Comber, data mining and new product development manager for Auto Trader Interactive, this top level information, coupled with more sophisticated information which lies beneath it, is opening up new markets, both for his company and for the vehicle trade.

"We have around 180,000 vehicles advertised online at any one time so the potential Oracle based database is huge. We can tell not just what is selling best online but the parts of the country in which online buyers are most active".

"We are discovering how far people are prepared to travel to buy a car online, how old they are and what is the typical gender split".

"The information we have, and the analysis we can do on it, is becoming of significant value to the vehicle trade. Some dealers are using it to buy particular models purely to sell online, so creating a new market for themselves."

It's a good example, says Comber, of the way that raw data can be transformed into commercially valuable Business Intelligence (BI), given the right analytical tools.

Just a couple of years ago, Auto Trader would have struggled to get access to such information. It had started a pilot website, which was going well, but the data it contained was inconsistent in format and therefore incapable of really useful analysis.

"We had been running a very successful offline business, 13 regional Auto Trader magazines in different parts of the UK, but we realised that, when the Web came along, we had to embrace it or be strangled by it. There was no choice."

The first step was to create a robust national database. To help develop this, the company turned to Simpson Associates, consultants who specialise in devising and implementing total BI solutions for businesses, using market leading Cognos software

"They were realistic about what could - and could not - be done with the data available. Together we defined what we really needed to know - as opposed to what was simply nice to know - and we built up our knowledge on a logical step-by-step basis, largely through overlaying new software on to our existing systems," said Comber

"I really rate them as an IT partner. They were just the sort of people I wanted to be working with. I was never sold anything that couldn't be done. When we ran into any problems they would sit down, go away, think about it and come back with the solution.

"They have excellent project management skills and very good methodology. Because of their knowledge of our business processes, their application software and Cognos BI software, they were able to deliver basic information very fast and then gradually work our way up.

"Unlike many consultants, they keep their feet very firmly on the ground and they are not proprietorial about their considerable knowledge. They are very happy to share it with you so you can take the project forward with your own people."

The project had its critics who wondered if it was all worthwhile but they were soon silenced by the results - incremental sales which easily outweighed its costs.

Among the first to benefit were the national sales team which dealt with accounts worth around £8m a year from manufacturers and large chains of dealers.

"They would go to a dealer and present them with the specific information they needed. How many of their cars were in Auto Trader each week ? What proportion were newer models ? What was the split between the more upmarket models and the rest ?" recalled Comber.

"For the first time, we could give them highly targeted information that we had never been able to access before. The manufacturers loved it and came back with requests for more information. They were so impressed that they ended up spending more money with us."

Now the manufacturers - and the used vehicle dealers - are getting excited about the prospect of discovering more about buying patterns as Auto Trader gets smarter at analysing its online information. (All vehicles in the magazine automatically appear online too as well as others specifically marketed online).

"It's one thing having offline information about what is being sold in which parts of the country. But, as every search on our Website is analysed by postcode, we can see where the buyers are living who search for particular types of vehicle. That is very powerful information, a valuable commercial resource which can be exploited through increasingly sophisticated BI tools to everyone's benefit".