CA2870442A1

CA2870442A1 - System and method for third party automotive parts selection and fulfillment

Info

Publication number: CA2870442A1
Application number: CA2870442A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Van Hoabinh; John Schmidt
Original assignee: Accessories On Demand Inc
Current assignee: Accessories On Demand Inc
Priority date: 2014-11-06
Filing date: 2014-11-06
Publication date: 2016-05-06

Abstract

A method for the selection, quoting and fulfillment of third-party parts and accessories orders for use by car dealerships and other automotive providers. A website system enabling or executing the method is also disclosed.

Description

SYSTENI AND METHOD FOR TIIIRD PARTY AUTOMO'FIVE PARTS SELECTION
AND FULFILLMENT
Schmidt et al.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
This invention is in the field of automotive parts and accessories, and more specifically deals with and provides a system and method for the online selection and fulfillment of third party automotive parts requirements.
BACKGROUND:
The proliferation of computers and information systems has changed, primarily in a positive way, supply chain and fulfillment logistics in many industries. An industry however in which there is still a large amount of manual paperwork and records involved is that of the pricing and ordering of third party automotive parts and accessories by car dealerships and the like. As currently stands, the majority of automotive dealerships who would sell through their parts departments various third-party accessories help customers to price procure those parts accessories by selecting them from printed catalogs and then calculating the delivered price of the parts as well as the labor associated with the installation thereof Once the customer then approves a particular purchase, the parts need to be ordered, through additional paperwork, to the dealership and installed or delivered to the customer.
One of the things which makes the procurement of parts and accessories in the automotive industry even more complex is where aftermarket or third-party parts and accessories are going to be sold by the dealership. If the dealership is assisting a customer to select parts or accessories from the automotive manufacturers catalog, they would be able to select from a single catalog and parts listing, which is while still cumbersome in a manual process, less burdensome insofar as it is representative of the procurement of products from a single vendor.
Particularly in the case of automotive accessories, there are massive numbers of aftermarket vendors who manufacture third-party parts and accessories of the customer may wish to consider in place of or alongside of OEM parts or accessories for their vehicle. Each vendor of aftermarket parts or accessories would have at least one catalog which would need to be consulted for the selection and pricing of the appropriate parts.
In the prior art there have in the past been attempts at information systems which allow for the selection and quotation of OEM parts and accessories for insurance applications and the like etc.
¨ for example Canadian patent application serial number 2455414. That system however does not permit for some of the functionality that would be desired in a fully functional quotation and fulfillment system in this vertical.
Some of the limitations even in earlier attempts at automating the quotation and/or fulfillment of accessories orders such as this include limited or nonexistent ability to pricing escalation and labor parts and services in the complete cost quotations, an inability to easily add customized entries to such an information system to allow for "one-off' sales or product quotations, or a limited or nonexistent ability to on a part by part or vendor by vendor basis customize markups and pricing for simplified presentation to the customer.
It would be desirable to provide a system which allowed for a automotive dealership or other similar parts and accessories provider to simplify the parts and accessories selection and quoting process and/or subsequent purchase and procurement thereof, specifically for aftermarket accessories and parts in addition to or in place of those sold directly under the banner of the automotive manufacturers themselves.
Providing such a system which was easily customizable for individual automotive dealerships or the like, which could quickly and appropriately be populated with only the parts or accessories, and vendor lines, that a dealership or similar provider desired and that was otherwise easily implemented or rolled out in their corporate environment would maximize the adoption of this type of the system. Rapid deployment of this type of the system throughout this industry would have supply chain benefits for many parties in the supply chain from the customer back through to the manufacturers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
As outlined above, the present invention is a method and system for the automation of certain aspects of the aftermarket parts and accessories selection, procurement and fulfillment processes typically employed in automotive dealerships and the like. The system of the present invention can be rapidly deployed and highly customized on a dealership by dealership basis, without the need for dealer level maintenance of the underlying data set. The ease of deployment and use of this system will contribute to the attraction of the system in a particular dealership within the parts and accessories supply chain area.
Architecturally it is contemplated that the system of the present invention would be delivered in a client/server or website environment. Many of the architectural requirements and understanding for the programming and delivery of business systems such as this on a web platform will be understood to those skilled in the art of client/server and web programming and all such implementations thereof are contemplated within the scope of the present invention. A
Web server would be provided which is capable of two-way communication with a viewing client of at least one distributor. Software components and system database resident on or operatively connected to the Web server of the invention would be used to provide the method of the present invention. The distributor through their viewing client can configure the datasets which appear in parts and accessories queries through the system as well as to generate quotations or fulfillment orders for customers.
The invention is the website system of the present invention allowing for the quotation and optional fulfillment of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories transactions, as well as the underlying business method therefor. The two key elements from a software perspective to achieve the method of the present invention are a quotation and fulfillment software application and a system database. The system database contains all of the necessary parameters which are used to practice the invention. The quotation and fulfillment software application will, through interaction between the server, the database and one or more client devices facilitate the selection of at least one automotive part or accessory and generate a quotation for the price of that part or accessory delivered from the dealer to a customer, including the application of any necessary labor costs, price markups etc.
There are three key components to the data which will reside in the system database for the practice of the invention. There is a dealer data set, parts dataset, and vendor data set. The dealer dataset would comprise a plurality of dealer profile records, each coffesponding to a dealer who was a user of the system of the present invention. The dealer profile record would include the necessary identifying information for the dealer both from the perspective of authentication to logon to the website system of the present invention as well as address or name information etc.
which could be used for reporting purposes by the system in generating reports for use by the dealer with their customers order suppliers. In addition to identifying and authentication information, the other key aspect of a dealer profile record will be any part limitation criteria.
The part limitation criteria are any limiting parameters which is desired by the dealer to apply to the overall parts dataset including in the database, to provide a limitation to the types of parts and accessories which would be searchable by the user authenticated under the dealer profile record in question onto the system. For example if it was desired to limit the available parts and accessories from the whole parts database down to just those that fit for vehicles for example, or down to just those that were running boards or wheels, as another example, could be included as part limitation criteria in a dealer profile record. Many different types of part limitation criteria will be understood to those skilled in the art and all are contemplated within the scope of the present invention.
In addition to the dealer profile data set, which makes it a part of the system database, another primary datasets which is required to practice the method of the present invention is the parts data. The parts dataset would be comprised of a plurality of part profile records each of which correspond to an automotive part or accessory which it was desired to be able to provisioning Page b quotations prepared in accordance with the invention. Basic part identifying information such as the name, manufacturers part numbers etc. could be included as well as images or the like might also be included which would be desirable from the perspective of presenting a browsable catalog of parts and accessories to the user for selection thereof for inclusion on quotations.
In addition to identifying information or other specifications, the part profile record or elsewhere in the database would also include one or more automotive selection criteria which were intended to limit from a compatibility perspective in conjunction with in session entered search parameters from a dealer or user to limit the available part profile records by compatible automotives and the like. It may also be desired by one or more dealers to specify vendor of all the criteria such that it could be limited in terms of the vendors from whom products would be displayed based upon these default criteria saved either in the part profile record or elsewhere in a separate index or table within the database.
Finally, the database will also include a series of vendor data. The vendor data subset would comprise a plurality of vendor profile records which would correspond to individual vendors of parts and accessories outlined in the part profile records elsewhere in the system. The vendor data would include individual vendor pricing for the parts within the parts dataset which individual vendors were able to sell, as well as any territorial or other vendor availability limitations which could be used again to limit the vendors who can offer particular parts and accessories for sale to particular dealers.
The method would effectively comprises, upon authentication of a dealer user at a client device, presenting to them a quotation builder website interface. The quotation builder website interface, based upon the contents of the related dealer profile record as well as any in session entered search parameters would present to the user a catalog of parts and accessories based upon the selected part profile records and the various types of restricting parameters are criteria in respect of the dealer, the parts in question and/or the vendors available, to allow the dealer user to select first the parts and accessories that they wanted to include a quotation for their customer and secondly, either automatically or by way of the user interface to select from a subset of available vendors for each of the parts or accessories chosen. Following the selection of the parts themselves in the vendors from whom they would be obtained, based upon the pricing information stored within the vendor data set, the system would allow the user to manually override or adjust the quotation by adding or adjusting labor costs, adding individual or local parts which were not stored within the globally available dataset, or otherwise ¨ following this adjustment step, a finalized quotation could be rendered by calculating the total cost to the customer based upon the underlying vendor price information, related markups provided and labor costs etc., to generate a finished quotation report which could be provided from the dealer to their customer. Optionally, the system would store the details of generate quotations and could even be used to either automatically generate fulfillment transactions between the dealer and one or more vendor gateways, or alternatively to prepare the necessary additional back-office purchase order paperwork to ease the instigation of purchase transactions by the dealer or dealers with one or more vendors listed in a particular quotation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale ¨ rather the emphasis in the execution of the drawings is been placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. In the drawings, similar reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the various Figures:
Figure 1 is an entity diagram demonstrating the various parties involved in prior art and fulfillment and quotation transactions accordance with the present invention;
Figure 2 shows an illustrative network environment of the system of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a diagram showing the key elements of the data structure of the system database of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps of an illustrative embodiment of the overall method of the present invention;
Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative server of the present invention;
Figure 6 is a diagram showing the key software modules of the quotation and fulfillment software application of the present invention;
Figures 7A through 71 are demonstrative screenshots of sample embodiments of the website system and implementation of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS:
In the following discussion a general description of the system of the present invention and its components is presented, followed by more detailed discussion of certain aspects thereof As outlined elsewhere herein, the present invention in saying system and method for the enhanced automation and delivery of an interactive information system for use in the quotation and fulfillment of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories orders, for use in automotive dealerships and the like. The client/server delivery model, as outlined in further detail herein, will allow for the rapid configuration of the system for use by a particular automotive dealership or the like, and the quick deployment and customize a nation ability of the system will allow for adoption by a plurality of dealerships or dealers, providing to each dealer the necessary information for flotation fulfillment purposes on hearts that they wish to sell within their aftermarket inventory or client interface.
Business framework:

in order to best understand and describe the system and network implementation of the present invention is desired to first outline the overall business method and the entities or business framework within which the invention is intended to function. With an understanding of this general business framework it will then be possible to further detail outline the system components and architecture which would be required to accomplish the method of the present invention.
Generally speaking what is desired is to provide a client/server or web interface system, by which an automotive parts or accessories dealership can facilitate the rapid selection, price quotation an optional fulfillment of parts and accessories orders for automotives their customers.
Figure 1 shows an entity diagram, demonstrating the relationships between various parties to transactions of this type and in association with which the remainder of the method of the present invention can be described in further detail.
The ultimate beneficiary of the method of the present invention is the customer 1. The customer 1 is the owner of an automotive who wishes to procure aftermarket parts or accessories for their automotive. The automotive will have been at some point manufactured by an OEM

manufacturer 2. The automotive itself could be a car, truck, boat, trailer, motorcycle, snowmobile or any other type of motor vehicle or motive vehicle and all such types of automotives will be understood by those skilled in the art as being contemplated within the scope of the present invention.
OEM manufacturers 2 have their own catalog of parts and accessories which they will sell for automotives that they manufacture. Depending upon the brand and the popularity of automotives manufactured by one or more of these OEM manufacturers 2 in the marketplace, there may also be aftermarket parts manufacturers 4 who manufacture for sale parts and accessories that are compatible with automotives manufactured by the OEM manufacturers 2. In most automotive verticals there is a healthy ecosystem of aftermarket parts manufacturers 4 by and large coexist happily with the OEM manufacturers 2, since facilitating the availability of a wide variety of automotives and aftermarket parts and accessories is good for the business of both parties.

Parts manufacturers 4 would rely upon the OEM manufacturers 2 indirectly for their customers, insofar as the parts manufacturer 4 will only sell parts for automotives manufactured by OEM
manufacturers 2 which are found desirable or purchased by customers 1. As well the parts manufacturers 4 would be reliant upon OEM manufacturers 2 in many cases to provide specifications or interoperability parameters for the parts and accessories to be manufactured or sold by the parts manufacturers 4 for use in conjunction with those automotives. Historically or in the prior art, parts manufacturers 4 would advertise their catalogs of parts and accessories for vehicles to dealers 3 and ultimately to customers by producing large quantities of printed catalogs which allow for the cross referencing of particular parts and accessories to particular makes and models of automotives manufactured by the OEMs 2. Even in newer approaches, the manufacturers 4 where they have departed from the use of printed catalogs to the operation of websites to present in a more dynamic or interactive fashion their catalog of parts and accessories, result in a cumbersome parts selection and purchase process. Once a part is selected from a catalog, the dealer 3 then traditionally would calculate the delivered price of that part to the customer 1 by adding whatever type of a pricing market was desired as well as potentially adding installation labor cost and manually calculating all of that for presentation and acceptance by the customer 1 to create a purchase transaction.
The parts manufacturers 4 could receive orders from dealers 3 for parts or accessories in their catalogs and would ship those to the dealers 3 for delivery and installation to the customer 1. It is also possible and there has been some aggregation of distribution and fulfillment functions in the af'termarket automotive parts and accessories marketplace insofar as where some parts manufacturers 4 would directly receive and service orders from dealers 3, there also exists a plurality of multiline parts vendors 5 who offer a wider catalog of parts and accessories to dealerships 3 by offering the product catalogs of more than one parts manufacturer 4 for the presentation of a consolidated purchase function to the dealership 3.
Aggregation of the distribution function in this fashion, in addition to general supply chain segmentation which is taking place in this industry as in any other, results in really the possibility of two possible purchase channels for a dealer 3 for parts or accessories. The purchase can either be made directly with the parts manufacturer 4 who might sell, ship and service the parts or accessories directly, or alternatively a dealer 3 could enter into a purchase transaction with the parts vendor 5 for the purchase of parts and accessories from one or more parts manufacturer 4. Both such types of transactions will be able to be facilitated in accordance with the method of the present invention.
At the center of these four parties, being customers, OEMs, parts manufacturers and vendors is the automotive dealer 3. The dealer might be an automotive dealership, auto body shop or any other company in the business of the sale and/or installation for delivery of aftennarket automotive parts and accessories to customers 1. The system and method of the present invention would be equally applicable in use by the parts department of an automotive dealership, for example, as it would in certain cases by an automotive parts and accessories resale outlet who may or may not sell their parts and accessories installed. The ability to facilitate the customized rapid selection of compatible parts and accessories using the online method of the present invention, coupled with the ability to quickly present a fully priced quotation for acceptance to the customer, will be useful in a resale outlet context as well as that of the automotive dealerships etc.
In quotation and potential subsequent sale of automotive parts and accessories to a customer 1, the dealer 3 well in a traditional context offer for selection or sale third-party parts and accessories for the vehicle of the customer 1 from a plurality of manufacturers four. The offer for sale of parts and accessories from a plurality of parts manufacturers 4, in a third-party or aftermarket, versus OEM context, is one of the key functions are aspects of the present invention which will assist in the commercial attraction hereof to dealerships and other consumers of this service. In the past, efforts to deliver this type of an information system have been primarily directed towards the offer for sale by a particular dealer 3 of OEM parts and accessories ¨ that is to say parts and accessories from a single vendor to customers 1. The addition of the parts catalog of multiple manufacturers 4, which might also include one or more OEMs

2, will enhance the commercial attraction of the system of the present invention but also provides an added layer of complexity which it is necessary to distill or address in the user interface of the system in order to make it the most attractive to both dealers 3 and customers 1 to use.

One of the key aspects of the present invention which is intended to provide a maximized commercial benefit and to assist in the potential rapid deployment and adoption of the method of the present invention in the industry is the fact that various parts manufacturers or distribute their parts and accessories through a plurality of parts vendors 5 could be preprogrammed into the system of the present invention so that by making the necessary initial parameter choices when setting up the user profile or user environment for a particular dealer 3, the dealer 3 could then always ensure that the pricing of the parts and accessories of a particular parts manufacturer 4 which was available from particular preferred or required parts vendor 5 would be applied to quotations rendered in accordance with the system of the present invention.
For example it may be the case that particular manufacturer of aftermarket running boards sold their products through four different parts vendors 5. Based on the territory in which a particular dealer 3 was located, three of those fulfillment providers are parts vendors 5 might be capable of making sales and shipments of products to the dealer 3 for ultimate sale and installation for the customer's 1.
The remainder of the system of the invention can be programmed such that the dealer 3 in their user profile or parameters on the system can specify a particular vendor preference which would then by default apply the pricing to those parts and accessories provided by that preferred vendor, or alternatively the system could also be programmed to identify and "price shop"
compatible are identical parts from multiple parts vendors 5 so that the dealer 3 and the customer 1 always received the best pricing. Both such approaches are contemplated within the scope of the present invention insofar as they do not depart from the underlying method allowing for selection and application of various aftermarket automotive parts and accessories which can be obtained from one or more parts vendors 5.
The method of the present invention will allow a dealer 3, through a website or similar interface, to prepare and provide to customers I price quotations for the sale and optional installation of at least one aftermarket automotive part or accessory for an automotive. Pricing which would be presented to the customer 1 on the completed quotation would include labor costs, markups or other local charges such that the quotation would be presented in a full retail pricing form for immediate presentation and use to and by the customer I.

The variety of dealers 3 which could beneficially and successfully offer the method of the present invention to their customers will be understood by those skilled in the art and all such dealers and the attendant modifications to the website interface or the like of the system of the present invention that accomplish the goal of making the method usable by each such party without departing from the underlying method and intention thereof are contemplated again within the scope of the invention.
Illustrative environment and system architecture:
Figure 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a network environment in which the quotation and fulfillment system and method of the present invention could be implemented are practiced.
There is shown an overall network environment 6 in accordance with which quotation and optional fulfillment of purchase transactions of third-party or affermarket automotive parts and accessories can be facilitated. The environment 6 includes a system 8 for the facilitation of quotation and fulfillment transactions. The system 8 includes at least one server 11, which is in communication with at least one client device 7 via a computer network 10.
Also shown is at least one vendor system 9, to or through which fulfillment orders or transactions can be placed for various parts and accessories which might be quoted or otherwise accessed through the remainder of the system 8 and the environment 6.
The various components shown in this particular environment 6 are in communication with one another via one or more networks 10. The networks 10 connecting the various devices and components could include the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks, local area networks, wired or wireless networks or other suitable networks or combinations thereof Connection and communication facilitating the interoperability of the components of the environment 8 in accordance with the overall system and method of the present invention will all be understood to be within the scope hereof The server 11 is configured to execute various applications including a quotation and fulfillment application 12 in accordance with the present invention. The quotation and fulfillment application 12 is intended and executed to facilitate the method of the present invention as will be described herein. The quotation and fulfillment application 12 can receive information from authenticated user of a client device 7, identifying the dealer 3 represented, and based upon the dealer 3 who is authenticated at the client device 7, parts data from the system can be filtered for display and interaction to the user of the client device 74 configuration of a product quotation. In setting up a dealer profile in accordance with the remainder of the system of the present invention, the dealer 3 can limit the OEM manufacturers 2 for whom parts accessories will be shown, as well as being a further limit the available subset ¨ system database 17 of the present invention to include only parts from selected third-party parts manufacturers 4 were parts vendors 5. The dealer, for example, if they sell Ford automotives does not need Toyota parts to show up in filtered lists for selection, and similarly it may be desired by the dealer to only deal with one particular parts vendor 5, and as such they could be provided with the option configuration of a dealer profile on the system to limit down the available parts listing to include only those parts vendors 5 which were desired.
The quotation and fulfillment application 12 will, through interaction between the server 11, the database 17 and the client device 7 facilitate the selection of at least one automotive part or accessory, and generate a quotation for the installed price of that at least one part or accessory, by applying dealer markup and labor rates as specified in the dealer profile to yield a completed quotation for the customer 1. The system can then optionally present to the user of the client device 7 a facility by which a purchase or fulfillment transaction can be initiated with respect to the selected parts or accessories, by relaying a purchase request therefor to a related vendor system 9.
System database:
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the key to the implementation of the computer-based fulfillment and quotation method of the present invention is a relational database contains the necessary information to allow facilitate the method. This in the context of the present invention is the system database 17. The system database 17, as shown in Figure 3, contains at least three subsets of data which would be required for the execution of the method of the present invention, being a dealer data subset 18, parts data subset 19, and vendor data subset 20.
The various types of data structures which could be used in a system database 17 in accordance with the software and method of the present invention will be understood to those skilled in the art. Any type of the data structure which is capable of storing the dealer data, parts data and vendor data which was required for the execution of the method of the present invention conjunction with the remainder of the software and hardware combination outlined herein will be within the scope hereof. Other parameters or information in addition to the bare minimum items which are outlined herein for the practice of the method, could also be stored within the data structure of the system database and in such modifications as are understood to those skilled in the art are also contemplated within the scope of the present invention. To a degree that particular construction or structure of the system database will also depend upon the infrastructure design of the remainder of the system of the present invention ¨ again the various aspects of the structure of the system database including those which are infrastructure dependent, will be understood to those skilled in the art of relational database and client/server system design.
The system database 17 might be resident on the server 11, or might alternatively be resident on or administered by another database server which was operatively connected for communication with the server 11. The database 17 might also comprise multiple databases or files, rather than a single data file or structure, and both such approaches again are contemplated and understood to be within the scope of the present invention as the design of the system database 17 otherwise in accordance with the present invention which matched up with those needs will be understood to those skilled in the art.
Dealer data:

The dealer data subset 18 is the first set of data to be stored within the structure of the system database 17 which would be required for the execution of the present invention. The dealer data 18 would be comprised of a plurality of dealer profile records 21, each of which dealer profile records 21 corresponded to a parts or accessories dealer 3, as outlined in Figure 1, who would wish to provide quotations and potentially sell automotive parts or accessories to their customers.
The dealer profile record 21 would contain identifying and/or security and authentication information with respect to the dealer 3 as well as additional parameters which might be used in the limitation of queries to select parts accessories by the remainder of the method, local vendor preferences, pricing markups and the like as further outlined herein. Each dealer 3 who wished to to sell parts or accessories to their customers in accordance with the system and method of the present invention would need to be represented in the system by a dealer profile record 21.
Referring in further detail to the sample structure demonstrated in Figure 3.
Insofar as the primary means of delivery of the method of the present invention is contemplated to be through a secure or authenticated website system, the first information which each dealer profile record 21 would need to include would be login or other authentication information by which the dealer 3 could identify themselves to the website system of the present invention for the purpose of preparing quotations for parts and accessories. Identifying information 22 for the dealer 3 would be stored within or in association with the dealer profile record 21. The identifying information might include such things as the name, address or other identifying information of the dealer 3 which would be desired to be used in the system of the present invention for the preparation of quotation reports or other documents for presentation to and by the system.
The identifying information 22 might also include tax numbers or other pieces of identification which it was required to present in respect of the dealer 3 in the facilitation of quotation or fulfillment transactions accordance with the remainder of the present invention. Figure 7A
is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter dealer identifying information 22.
In addition to the identifying information 22, website authentication information 23 would also be stored with respect to the dealer profile record 21 of the dealer 3. The authentication information 23 might comprise user login, password or other security information which would be required to facilitate an identified or authenticated login to the website by the dealer 3. The authentication information 23 might comprise authentication information for more than one user of the dealer. The authentication information again could either be stored in or in association with the dealer profile record 21. All such methods of storing and/or securing this type of information as will be understood by those skilled in the art of database design and computer and Internet security methodology are contemplated within the scope of the present invention as well.
The authentication information 23 could also be used in the remainder of the method of the present invention to provide for dealer or user level security profiling and permissions to be implemented in the remainder of the system and the website ¨ for example a dealer 3 might specify in the authentication information 3 pertaining to more than one user of the dealer that one or more of the users would have administrative privileges for example to adjust other settings stored within the dealer profile record 21 while others might have transaction only or read-only access etc. Figure 7B is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter authentication information 23.
In addition to the identifying information 22 and the authentication information 23 one of the other key aspects of the dealer profile record 21 which will be necessary to provide the customized rapid deployment of the website and method of the present invention is that the dealer profile record 21 will also include part limitation criteria 24, which will be filter criteria which can be applied to parts stored within the system database 17 to limit the types of parts which are displayed to a user executing a query to only parts and accessories which it is desired by the dealer 3 to present to their customer for potential sale, and for potential sale or fulfillment and procurement through selected vendors. Part limitation criteria 24 could be exhaustive, insofar as there may be a desire to provide the ability to access in the overall system database 17 a very large overall dataset of parts and accessories, which can then be limited down by various search criteria.
The specific part limitation criteria 24 which are explicitly contemplated to be stored in one or more dealer profile records 21 include automotive manufacturer limitations, such that parts accessories that would fit only vehicles or feels manufactured by one or more particular manufacturers would be produced are provided to users of the dealer in execution of a query. As will be outlined in further detail elsewhere herein, an automotive manufacturer limitation could be applied to the overall dataset for parts and accessories stored within the database 17, to limit a query or selection from the database 17 to only those parts or accessories which would be relevant for automotives manufactured by a particular automotive manufacturer.
Some automotive manufacturers may have sublines or subdivisions within their product catalogs which could be presented to the dealer in configuration of their dealer profile record 21 for selection to allow for the further limitation of the parts and accessories which were made available ¨ for example if a particular dealer 3 only wished present using system of the present invention parts and accessories for a particular subdivision of the product catalog of automotive manufacturer that could be stored within the dealer profile record 21 as another automotive manufacturer limitation. It will be understood that varying levels of these types of automotive manufacturer limitations could be used within the part limitation criteria 24 stored within a dealer profile record 21 dependent upon how granular it was desired to be in the extraction of suggested parts and accessories information from the database 17 when selecting a preparing quotations for a customer. Figure 7C is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter part limitation criteria 24 in respect of a dealer profile being particular automotive manufacturers.
In addition to automotive manufacturer limitations within the part limitation criteria 24, another type of a specific part limitation criteria 24 which is contemplated as useful and desirable within the overall method of the present invention would be to allow the specification within the dealer profile record 21 of part manufacturer limitations. As outlined elsewhere herein, parts and accessories from various manufacturers could interchangeably be sourced for use with certain types of automotives, there may be desire by a particular dealer 3 to limit the parts data which would be presented to a user in accordance with the preparation of a quotation in the present invention to limit those parts data not only by their applicability to a particular type of an automotive but to additionally limit them by the source of those particular parts or accessories represented by that parts data. For example it may be the case that the overall system and method of the present invention, and the system database 17, contained information pertaining to 11 different aftermarket wheel manufacturers for a particular automotive, but that a particular dealer in setting up their dealer profile record 21 may only wish to present three of those aftermarket wheel manufacturers to their customers for the potential purchaser sale thereof By providing for a part manufacturer limitation as one of the types of criteria which could be stored within the dealer profile record 21 for the limitation parts data to be presented in the preparation of quotations, the part manufacturer limitation specified by or in respect of the dealer in the population of their dealer profile record 21 could be applied to selection queries of parts and accessories data from the parts data subset 19 within the database 17 ¨
effectively in conjunction with the automotive manufacturer limitation allowing for the presentation for use in quotations of only parts or accessories which will fit particular manufacturer vehicles and which are only themselves manufactured by particular desired or selected parts and accessories manufacturers.
As outlined elsewhere herein, in certain distribution channels, parts and accessories are distributed directly by their manufacturers to dealers. In other cases the manufacturers may have their own distribution network such that they distribute their parts and accessories for sale on various types of automotives through a vendor network Either type of approach could.be accommodated with the general design and structure of the database 17 of the present invention ¨ when populating the database 17 various parts data 19, the availability of those parts accessories represented by the parts data 19 in the part profile records could specify whether there was another layer in the distribution chain or whether the manufacturers distribute their own products. This could be applied on a very granular basis, on individual parts records in the database.
If it was desired however, a third layer of part limitation criteria 24 which could be stored with respect to particular dealer profile records 21 would be indications of acceptable vendors from whom particular parts or accessories otherwise outlined in the database 17 should be procured, namely parts vendor limitations. For example in the case of a manufacturer who distributes their parts or accessories through a wide distribution channel, vendors who provide data to the system and provider of the present invention for listing in the database 17 for the purposes of potentially facilitating sale transactions through their companies to dealers of various parts and accessories might have overlap in their product catalogs such that for example there could be numerous vendors who sell the same part, manufactured by the same manufacturer, for application to the same automotive. The dealer profile record 21, and the administration interface therefore, could allow the dealer or their configuration user or administrator to specify a particular vendors who were either a purchasing preference for the dealer 3, or who were desired to be avoided for purchase. Apart vendor limitations stored in association with the dealer profile record 21 dealer could either be positive or negative in indication ¨that is to say it could either by its endorsement in conjunction with the dealer profile record 21 indicate to the database and the system in the preparation of quotations that products manufactured by a manufacturer and sold by a particular vendor should be presented in the quotation engine, or alternatively in some cases it may be desired to block the presentation of particular parts or accessories in the quotation engine not by the nature of the automotive to which they apply for by their manufacturer, but rather because the dealer does not wish to do business or does not have credit terms etc.
with a particular vendor.
The application of this third layer of granularity in the selection of parts or accessories and appropriate pricing for quotation purposes in accordance with the remainder of the system and software the present invention will be understood to those skilled in the art of database and computer programming and all such approaches are contemplated within the scope hereof It will also be understood that many different types of selection limitations could be saved in conjunction with a dealer profile record 21 in accordance with the present invention to make the system more or less granular in terms of the amount of different types of parts or information which would be presented to users in the preparation of a quotation and all such approaches again are contemplated herein.
Parts data:
In addition to the dealer profile data set 18 which makes up a part of the system database 17 of the present invention, another primary dataset which is required to practice the method of the present invention is a parts dataset. The parts dataset 19 would be comprised of a plurality of part profile records 25, each of which would correspond to an automotive part or accessory which it was desired to be able to provision in quotations prepared in accordance with the present invention.
The part profile record 25 would include basic part identifying information 26 such as the name etc. for the part. The part profile record 25 might also either include or connect to another data repository containing images of the part, specifications or other information which it might be desired to either present to users of the website system of the present invention in the selection of the part and creation of a price quotation, or it may be desired to provide those additional part specifications, photos or the like within the quotation reports generated by the system. All these IL different types of information will be obvious to those experienced in the area of parts and accessories procurement and are all contemplated within the scope hereof In addition to identifying information and other specifications, photographs or the like, the part profile record 25 would need to contain, either directly in the record 25 or elsewhere in the data structure of the database 17, a number of indices which could be used for the purpose of selection and narrowing to the part or accessory in question in the selection of parts or accessories for inclusion in a quotation. Specifically, each part profile record 25 would include one or more automotive selection criteria 27. The automotive selection criteria 27 are anticipated to be indicators of the manufacturer of the compatible automotive for which the part or accessory can be used, along with a specific automotive model number or indicator for the identification and selection of compatible parts or accessories for the automotive of a customer. Some parts or accessories represented by a part profile record 25 might be compatible with automotives from more than one manufacturer, or with more than one automotive manufactured by a single manufacturer. Creation of indexes within the database 17 in relation to the part profile record 25 of either a one-to-one, one-to-many or many-to-many nature, to accomplish these types of links between automotive selection criteria 27 and one or more part profile record 25 will be obvious to those skilled in the art of relational database programming and all such approaches are contemplated within the scope of the present invention. Effectively what is desired with the inclusion of one or more automotive selection criteria 27 in respect of a particular part profile record 25 in the database 17 is that those automotive selection criteria 27 could be used to identify parts or accessories represented by particular part profile records 25 which are compatible with the particular make or model of automotives. Figure 7D is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter or modify automotive selection criteria 27 in respect of a part ¨
the user could specify the makes and models of autos for which the part in question could be presented for selection in respect to a quotation selection query.
In addition to one or more automotive selection criteria 27 each part profile record 25 will contain one or more vendor availability criteria 28. The vendor availability criteria 28 will be indicators in the part profile record 25 of the manufacturer of the underlying part or accessory as well as identifiers of any vendors, configuring in accordance with the remainder of the system of the present invention, from whom the part or accessory can be purchased. As outlined above, in certain cases a manufacturer might be their own vendor in the context of the source of purchase of their parts or accessories, or some manufacturers may distribute their parts or accessories through one or more external vendors. The vendor availability criteria 28, whether stored directly and completely within the part profile record 25 or in conjunction with other indexes or aspects of the data structure of the database 17, will be used by the system of the present invention to identify specific vendors (manufacturers direct, or distributors) from whom a particular dealer can buy for resale the part outlined in the part profile record 25.
The vendor availability criteria 28 could be sited within the part profile record(s) 25, or might more likely form a separate index or table within the database, so that multiple part profile records 25 could be interchangeably linked to multiple vendors territorially or otherwise. The creation of such an index enabling the possibility of many to many record links or relationships between part profile records and specific vendors will be understood to those skilled in the art of relational database programming and again are all contemplated within the scope of the present invention.
Vendor data:

Another subset of data which will be used in the method of the present invention would be stored in an effect of structure or format either within or operatively connected to the remainder of the database 17 is a vendor data subset 20. The vendor data subset 20 would comprise at least one vendor profile record 29 ¨ there would be a vendor profile record 29 contained within the vendor data subset 20 for each vendor who was included in the quotation system of the remainder of the present invention.
The information stored within the vendor profile record 29 particular vendor might include vendor identifying information 30 such as names, addresses etc. which would be useful for preparing reports or for other transactional purposes in accordance with the present invention.
The identifying information might also include logos, graphics, images or other data types which would be used either for identification and internal transaction or reporting purposes, or for the purpose of presenting fully formatted and identified reports from the system to the dealer for their customers. All of this type of information as will be required to present or optimize the necessary or desired format of various reports or otherwise facilitate commercial and quotation transactions accordance with the remainder of the present invention, are contemplated within the scope hereof.
Vendor profile records 29 could include or be stored along with vendor sales restrictions 31.
Vendor sales restrictions 31 would be limiting search parameters which could be used by the system and method of the present invention to limit the selection or availability of certain vendors as possible sale sources presented to a dealer, either when configuring a dealer profile record 21, or at the time of preparing a customer quotation in accordance with the method.
Various types of vendor sales restrictions 31 can be contemplated. For example a particular vendor, detailed in a vendor profile record 29, may only be permitted by a manufacturer to sell certain parts or accessories within a certain geographic territory, and as such a geographic territory limitation could be one type of a vendor sales restriction 31 ¨ so that the execution of the method of the present invention would be simplified by the fact that if a geographic territory limitation applied to a particular vendor such that they could not sell a particular part or accessory outlined in a part profile record to a particular dealer, by application of the vendor sales restriction 31 to the presentation of search results in the quotation method of the present invention, the vendor or vendors who were not territorially or otherwise able to sell that particular part or accessory to the particular dealer would not be presented as a sales option.
There could be other types of vendor sales restrictions 31 in addition to geographic territorial limitations which could all be stored as vendor sales restrictions 31 and any type of the vendor sales restriction 31 as will be understood or logically created by those skilled in the art of supply chain and logistics networks or otherwise in accordance with the remainder of this method are contemplated within the scope hereof In addition to the vendor profile records 29 and vendor sales restrictions 31, another key element of the vendor data subset 20 is vendor pricing data. The vendor pricing data would comprise effectively a data structure containing a plurality of vendor pricing records 32 each of which corresponded to the sales price offered by a particular vendor for a particular part or accessory, where both the vendor and the part or accessory or otherwise the subject of a vendor profile record 29 and part profile record 25 stored within the database 17 various types of specific structures for the vendor pricing data will be understood or latent to those skilled in the art of relational database programming and e-commerce systems and all such data structures which will accomplish the objective of housing vendor specific pricing for parts or accessories outlined in the database are contemplated herein. Figure 7E is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter pricing data either at the vendor or individual dealer level.
Where more than one vendor is able to sell a particular part or accessory, there would be more than one vendor pricing record 32 corresponding to the part profile record 25 for the part or accessory. The remainder of the software could then use the vendor pricing data outlined therein in respect of a particular part profile record 25 to appropriately price or present for selection to the dealer using the interface of the present invention the pricing from various vendors who were able, by application of any vendor sales restrictions 31, to sell the particular part or accessory to the dealer for their customer, and the price for the product from that vendor outlined in the vendor pricing record 32 could be used in the generation of a product quotation in accordance with the remainder of the method outlined herein.

The general data structure of the database 17 including the types of dealer data 18, parts data 19, and vendor data 20 are outlined herein for the purpose of demonstrating the operation of the quotation and optional fulfillment method of the present invention ¨ many variations on the specific structure or data which is stored therein which still accomplishes the same method or objective will not depart from the scope of the invention and the coverage intended.
Method overview:
Having outlined the general nature of the data set and database 17 which is contemplated for use in the delivery of the method of the present invention, we will now outline from a high level the operation of the method.
From a business level there are a number of different subroutines or functions which would be accomplished by the software and method of the present invention. The overall method of the present invention however is the preparation of pricing quotations for automotive dealers to provide to their customers, for the sale and potential installation labor associated with the sale of aftermarket parts and accessories. It is primarily contemplated that the method of the present invention will be provided or executed through a client/server or website interface as will be understood to those skilled in the art of distributed information systems and programming. As outlined above, the key components of the system which are involved in the delivery of the method are a quotation system 8 which comprises the server 11 posting at least a quotation and fulfillment application 12 and a database 17, operatively connected via the network 10 to at least one client device 7. Referring to the illustrative network embodiment shown in Figure 2 there is also shown a vendor system 9, which will be described optionally below ¨ this would comprise a vendor Gateway through which the system of the present invention could automatically facilitate purchase and sale transactions following the provision of price quotations to dealers for their customers.
A dealer who was a subscriber or user of the system of the present invention would need to have a dealer profile record within the dealer data subset 18 on the database 17.
The dealer profile record would contain, amongst other things, the necessary authentication for the dealer themselves via their client device 7 to logon to the website 8 of the present invention for the preparation of parts and accessories quotations. As outlined elsewhere herein, one dealer could have more than one set authentication credentials issued to them so that individual users within a dealership could access, in an auditable way, the website system 8, an individual users can also have specific security parameters assigned to them from the perspective of the administration of the dealer profile record etc.
The database 17 would include part profile records 25 corresponding to a plurality of parts and accessories manufactured by one or more manufacturers and available through one or more vendors to dealers for sale to their customers. In addition to the part profile records 25, the database 17 would also include various vendor data 20 enabling the selection and reporting of the pricing from various vendors of parts and accessories corresponding to the part profile records 25 in question.
The dealer would logon to the website system 8 of the present invention from the client device 7, using security or authentication credentials 23 stored within or in association with their dealer profile record in the database 17. This is shown at Step 4-1 in the Figure.
Upon authentication of a dealer in accordance with this step, and their identification via their dealer profile record, the website system 8 could proceed to facilitate the creation of a quotation for the sale of parts and accessories to the dealer for their customer.
Following the authentication of the dealer via the website 8 and the dealer profile credentials 23 stored within their corresponding dealer profile record 21, the website 8 will present the quotation builder interface of the website 8 to the dealer at their client device 7. This is shown at step 4-2. The quotation builder interface, per se, would simply be the website interface of the website 8 which would be served from the server 11 and its related data repositories to the client device 7 and its related browser or other client software, through which a dealer at their client device 7 can interact with the website 8 the purpose of the selection of the various parameters in the generation of a parts and accessories quotation in accordance with the remainder of the present invention. The specifics of the operation or the design of a quotation builder interface for a website will be obvious to those skilled in the art of Web design and programming and any type of a website or client/server interface which accomplishes the overall business method of the present invention is contemplated within the scope hereof Figure 7F is a sample screenshot of one embodiment of a data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter the selection of parts or accessories for inclusion on a quotation in accordance with the remainder of the present invention.
The dealer via their client device 7 would, either at the beginning or the end of a quotation building session, likely provide customer identifying information for use on the reports which are going to be generated for the parts or accessories quotation in accordance with the method. One of the key elements in the novelty of the method of the present invention is that the parts or accessories which were made available to the dealer for selection in the generation of a quotation would be limited down by a number of restrictions or parameters as outlined herein, so that the list which was presented presented only parts or accessories which the dealer wished to offer for sale to their customers, and only offered them for sale and quotation from vendors with whom the dealer wished to do business. The first aspect of the quotation builder interface would be for the dealer, either on their own or indirect work or conjunction with the customer, to select parts or accessories that they wanted to include in a quotation for the customer.
The dealer might enter some session specific selection criteria such as the automotive make or model or the like which would allow for the limiting or narrowing of the data set presented, as well as the system of the present invention and the software on the server which was serving information through the quotation builder interface to the dealer could also in addition to user entered session specific selection criteria apply other selection criteria to the overall parts dataset 19 to yield only the desirable lists of parts to the dealer for consideration for the quotation.
For example, the plurality of parts profile records 25 contained within the database 17 can be limited by the application of any part limitation criteria 24 included in the dealer profile record 21 corresponding to the authenticated dealer conducting session. For example, the aftermarket parts and accessories that would be offered for selection or quotation building by application of these parts limitation criteria 24 could be limited to particular automotive brands or particular parts manufacturer brands. In addition to the application of part limitation criteria 24 from the dealer dataset 18, the automotive selection criteria 27 or the vendor availability criteria 28 stored with respect to various part profile records 25 could be used to limit the parts, via the part profile records 25, which were shown for selection to only those which matched stored or session entered selection criteria in terms of the compatibility of the underlying parts or accessories with the particular automotive, or the availability of the particular underlying parts and accessories from one or more particular vendors or manufacturers. Application of these various selection criteria would yield an available parts subset 33, and the dealer would select the parts for inclusion on the quotation from the available parts subset 33 via the quotation builder interface presented to them at their browser or client device 7.
Once the appropriate parts for the quotation to be generated were selected, via the quotation builder interface the dealer would move on to the completion of the quotation.
Either by specification of preferred or default vendors in the dealer profile record 21, or by presentation of the selection menu for each part selected of the vendors from whom the particular part is available to the particular dealer, by application of vendor sales restrictions 31, or by allowing the dealer to choose from the vendor pricing data 32 for various vendors of these underlying parts or accessories, the dealer could finalize the selection of vendors and pricing for each part selected for the quotation. It is specifically contemplated that the benefits of the system of the present invention include allowing for the seamless inclusion in a quotation of pricing on parts and accessories to a customer by a dealer of more than one manufacturer or obtained for more than one vendor. A seamless finished report including a complete quoted price can be presented to the customer by the dealer, and part of the reporting package which can be provided by the system of the present invention to the dealer in association with the client or customer facing quotation reports which would be provided would be the necessary additional breakdown or reporting to outline the pricing and purchase details for each selected part on the quotation including the vendor from which it is to be purchased at the quoted price.
Various types of additional pricing functionality could be included in the parts selection or vendor selection aspects of the method ¨ for example the system could be configured to automatically select the price and purchase of a particular part or accessory from a specified vendor based upon the lowest available price from the selected group of vendors following application of any vendor sales restrictions etc. Selection of the vendors or related pricing for each selected part, from the available dealer subset or subsets 34, is shown at 4-4.

In addition to selecting the pricing or vendors for each selected part, the next step contemplated within the scope of the present invention is to present to the dealer via the quotation builder interface the ability to specify quotation customizations 35. Quotation customizations 35 would be the ability to manually adjust pricing on the quotation, add labor or shop parts or other items to a quotation. Markup factors to be applied to the vendor pricing for particular parts selected for the quote could also be adjusted. A default markup factor could also be stored within the dealer profile record 21, so that a default markup could be applied to pricing quoted by one or more particular vendors in the presentation quotations in accordance with the remainder of the method of the present invention. Figures 7G and 7H are sample screenshots of data entry screen in a website in accordance with the present invention, via which the user could enter quotation customizations and price adjustments for individual parts or the whole quotation. These types of interfaces and functionality will all be understood to those skilled in the art and are included herein.
Following the entry or adjustment by the dealer of any quotation customizations 35, shown at 4-5, the website system 8 would generate the necessary quotation and other reports and serve those to the dealers client device ¨ shown in step 4-6. The quotation as presented to the browser of the client device 7 would be presented in a finished format, optionally including as quotation customizations 35 labor costs etc. along with the proper calculation of the finished retail price from the dealer to the customer of the parts or accessories quoted therein by the application of any markup factors and the like. A white labeled or branded quotation report customized for the dealers use could be presented to the customer, and the system of the present invention might also audit or log in the background details any quotations generated so that they could be recalled for the purpose of later ordering, adjusting or the like. Additional business functionality can also be conceived to be built on top of the retained details quotations generated in accordance with the quotation engine and website method of the present invention. Figure 71 is a sample screenshot or report snapshot of a completed quotation in accordance with the present invention.
It is optionally considered that the system 8 could also present the ability to directly facilitate fulfillment transactions for purchases in accordance with quotations written with the method and system of the present invention. As shown in Figure 2, the website system 8 could be connected via the network 10 from one or more vendor systems 9, corresponding to one or more vendors of parts and accessories otherwise listed are contained within the database 17, and it could be modified so that the quotation builder interface in addition to presenting the dealer with the ability to generate finished product quotations for customers would allow some type of a one click or streamlined ability to initiate purchase transaction from the dealer to the vendor or vendors listed on the quotation. This purchase aspect of the system could either be triggered at the time that the quotation was rendered to be user at the dealer client device, or the ability to subsequently recall stored details of generate quotations and generate the necessary manual paperwork or automated transaction requests from the system 821 or more vendors and their business systems to procure for the dealer from those vendors the necessary parts or accessories outlined in the underlying quotation, are both covered and contemplated within the scope hereof Illustrative server:
The primary means of delivery of the method of the present invention would be by way of a client/server or website interface ¨ which would rely upon client devices 7 at the dealer and, capable of sending and receiving and interacting with a server 11 via the network 10. Figure 5 outlines an illustrative embodiment of a server 11 in accordance with the method of the present invention. One or more servers 11 might be implemented in the method of the present invention as a single computing device ¨ a server farm for example or distributed or cloud computing configuration. The server or servers 11 comprise one or more processors 32 and memory 33. The memory 33 may contain various software components and processor instructions for use in the method of the present invention.
The server 11 would be operatively connected to the database 17, outlined above. The combination of hardware and software components within the server or the array of servers would accomplish the method of the present invention. In addition to general operating system instructions and the like, the server 11 would comprise a quotation and fulfillment software application 12, which is outlined in further detail herein. The application 12 would be responsible for the execution of the method of the present invention. The quotation and fulfillment application 12 might itself act as the interface between the remainder of the hardware and software of the server 11 and the database 17, or the server 11 or servers 11 might alternatively include an additional software interface to the database 17 with which the quotation and fulfillment application 12 and its various subroutines could communicate The quotation and fulfillment application 12 would comprise a plurality of subroutines, for the purpose of administering the database 17; creating and modifying, in interaction with the dealer, one or more dealer profile records; and executing the preparation of product or accessory quotations for a dealer in accordance with their dealer profile record in the remainder of the method of the present invention. The details of the operation of the application 12 and its subroutines are detailed functionally below. Also shown in the Figure is a network interface 34 ¨ the network interface 34 could again be any wired or wireless interface using a network protocol allowing the server 11 to communicate with the client devices 7 over a wide or local area network.
Illustrative client device:
Two types of client devices are shown in Figure 2. There is shown a desktop computer 7 as well as a handheld or portable device such as a tablet, iPad or the like. Many different types of client devices could be used in association with the present invention ¨ as outlined the key concept with respect to the types of client devices which would be used is that any type of a device that provided input and output hardware by which a user can interact by way of a browser with a website system 8 such as that disclosed herein are contemplated. It is specifically contemplated that in addition to desktop computers or terminals, smartphones or tablets or the like on various public communication networks could be used as client devices of choice for implementation of the present invention. The same browser interface could be delivered by the server 11 for interaction with any of those devices, or in the case that it was desired to specifically implement the system of the present invention for use mobile devices the content to be served from the server 11 to the client devices 7 over the network 10 could also be modified into a mobile specific format.
Vendor system(s):
The vendor system 4 could also represent one or more computing devices in communication with the server 2 implementing the parts and accessories fulfillment functionality described herein.
The vendor system 4 could comprise a vendor website system corresponding to a parts or accessories vendor whose product line was listed in the system of the present invention, and by which a request for purchase could be sent and/or pre-populated to the browser screen of a user at their client device 1 upon completion of a quotation and fulfillment transaction in accordance with the remainder of the system, or rather than passing a purchase request through for pre-population of a user completed purchase on the vendor system 4 it may also be the case that the vendor system 4 included software and network interface components capable of directly accepting a product order from the system and server 2 of the present invention such that a purchase transaction could be finalized and initiated directly, without the need for user intervention at the vendor system 4, upon transmission of a purchase request from the server 2 to the vendor system 4.
The system of the present invention could be connected to a plurality of vendor systems 4 ¨ each vendor who has parts or accessories listed in the system might have their own vendor system 4 or there may be vendor systems 4 which can facilitate purchase transactions with a plurality of vendors ¨ facilitation of these types of purchase transactions and creation of the necessary related data and transmissions will be understood to those skilled in the art of e-commerce and client/server programming and are contemplated within the scope of the present invention.
Quotation creation:

The key elements of the method of the present invention is to provide a centrally administered and rapidly deployed system which will allow for the dealers of all aftermarket automotive parts and accessories to provide custom generated price quotations for the sale and potential installation of parts and accessories to a customer, from a centrally managed database of automotive parts and accessories and related vendor and manufacturer pricing and information.
Rapid adoption and deployment of the method of the present invention will be achieved in part by the ease of use of the system in the preparation quotations for customers by dealers. By entry of certain session specific selection criteria, coupled with stored automotive selection criteria or vendor availability criteria and other parts limitations, streamlined method of parts and accessories selection is provided, based upon which a customized quotation for the customer including any markup, labor and other costs etc. can be included. The same parts or accessories might be available from multiple vendors and the system can be configured optionally to allow for automated or manual selection based on best price etc. ¨ parts and accessories on one quotation could be purchased from more than one vendor.
The system of the present invention could optionally also provide the ability to automatically submit to one or more vendor systems a request to commence a purchase transaction between the dealer and one or more vendors for the purchase of parts and accessories listed on a quotation.
Local parts interface:
An additional aspect of the present invention which is considered would be in some cases found desirable by dealers wanting to prepare product quotations, and which would be a further benefit to deployment of the system in accordance with the present invention, would be to provide the ability for a dealer to create their own local part profile records, for storage in the central database 17 or in a segregated dataset, so that a particular dealer could store their desired details for either custom-built or locally sold parts or customized packages of parts that they may wish to simply be able to present as a quickly quotable item in accordance with the remainder of the quotation method of the present invention. It is specifically contemplated that either within the scope of the quotation builder interface itself, or in a separate aspect of the website of the present invention, the dealer could be presented with the interface by which to enter the necessary part profile record information to create a local part profile record. The local part profile record 25 could then be presented within the parts dataset upset 19 to the dealer and used in the remainder of the specification of a particular parts quotation.
Parts administration:
One of the primary aspects of the method of the present invention which will be of interest to dealers potentially considering adopting or deploying the method of the present invention business is the ease of incorporation of new parts and accessories into the system for the dealer for sale to their customers. The provider of the website system 8 of the present invention would be responsible for administering the system database 17 and as such the provider of the website system 8 could from time to time create part profile records 25, vendor profile records 29 or other items in the database 17 which would then be automatically deployed to selected or all dealer users of the system the next time they accessed the website 8 to select products for a customer quotation. This would eliminate the need for individual dealers to locally administer a computer system or to maintain a system of paper catalogs which change from time to time as vendors at more parts to their catalogs. This would also be attractive to vendors from this perspective since vendors, particularly those who are currently using paper catalogs to distribute their compatibility and parts information to dealers could speed up the rollout of new parts and accessories without the need to print an entire new set of paper catalogs for all of their dealer customers, since all they would need to do would be to provide the information to the operator of the website 8 for inclusion in the system and as soon as the necessary part profile records 25 were created on the system they would become available to dealers for selection, purchase and sale.
The system 8 could also be configured to provide notification to dealers of parts and accessories as they came available, as new part profile records 25 were created in the database 17, or even to provide notice to dealers by way of an email notification or the like or even at log onto the website 8 as automotive selection criteria 27 respect to existing part profile records 25 were also adjusted ¨ for example as more or less compatibility of a particular part with a particular automotive was on the system, as particular manufacturers of parts and accessories expanded their distribution channels to additional vendors etc. The ability to provide centralized maintenance of this aftermarket parts and accessories database for dealers, for rapid deployment and always refreshed and up-to-date use in their environments is one of the key commercial benefits to the system and method of the present invention.
Quotation and fulfilment application:
The key to the implementation of the method of the present invention is the inclusion of a quotation and fulfillment software application 12 in the software instructions resident on or accessible to the server 11. Figure 6 shows the key components or subroutines which would be contained within the quotation and fulfillment application 12. For the practice of the present invention it is specifically contemplated that the functions of the quotation application 12 would include aspects of parts administration, conducted by the parts administration 13, dealer administration conducted by a dealer administration module 14, generation of quotations conducted by rotation builder interface and quotation module 15, as well as optionally a fulfillment module 16. The specific configuration are crafting of these modules or subroutines within an overall software program could be done in a number of different ways understood by those skilled in the art. Database programming and all such approaches are contemplated the present invention.
Parts administration function which would be conducted by the parts administration module 13 would comprise a user interface by which the operator of the website 8 could create or maintain heart profile records 25 within the parts dataset 19 the database 17. As outlined in further detail elsewhere herein one of the key commercial benefits of the system of the present invention for dealers using it to generate quotations for their customers on various types of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories is the fact that the system is populated and maintain with a centrally administered database of part profile records 25 and there is no need for the dealer to administer the records themselves. They can simply select the subsets of the part profile records 25 that they wish to use or have access to in the creation or maintenance of their own dealer profile record 21, and as the contents of the system database 17 in terms of the parts dataset 19 change, the dealer will also have access to the most recent copy of the material including all of the most recent parts profile records 25 as well as all of the most recent automotive selection or vendor availability criteria 27, 28. Insofar as the remainder of the system will be delivered as a client/server or website interface, it would likely be the case that the parts administration module 13 could also be provided as a administrator user interface or an administrator website interface, whereby various software components resident on or connected to the server 11 in the database 17 could serve back and forth with an operator or administrator at a browser or client device the necessary forms or other interactive content which is required for the user to enter and for the system to log into the database 17 necessary changes or enhancements to the parts dataset 19.
Another key function of the quotation software 12 of the present invention is actual creation and administration of dealer profile records 21 corresponding to each dealer wishes to use the system of the present invention. The dealer administration or creation module 14 would, similar to the parts administration module 13, likely comprise a set of interactive web forms which could interact with a dealer at a client device 7, or a user can configure the dealer profile record for a dealer ¨ either approach is considered within the invention ¨ and based upon that interactive content, forms and the like, the dealer themselves or a user on their behalf could configure a dealer profile record 21 including the entry or updating of dealer identification information 22, authentication information or website logins 23 and related security parameters for different users at the dealer site, as well as any parts limitation criteria 24 that the dealer wished to include in their dealer profile record 21 which would limit either by manufacturer, vendor, automotive line etc. the types or subset of part profile records 25 that the dealer wanted to show up when they conducted searches on the system to create or specify quotations for their customers. Again, there will be multiple approaches which could be taken to yielding this particular software functionality and they are all contemplated herein.
The key software component of the quotation software 12 for the purpose of generating quotations for customers is the quotation builder or quotation module 15. The quotation module 15 what again comprise the necessary software code and other resident on or accessible to the processor on the server 11 to interact with one or more dealers at their client devices 7 in the rendering of quotations for parts and accessories in accordance with the method of the present invention quotation module 15 would serve the necessary content back and forth with the client devices 7, in conjunction with the remainder of the components of the invention, and would based upon the selection of parts from an available parts subset 33 as well as based upon selection of vendors for each selected part from available dealer subsets 34, and generate a quotation which would be served back as a finished report or screen output to the client device 7 of the user for presentation to the customer. As outlined elsewhere herein, the quotation module 15 would rely upon the part profile records 25 stored within the database 17 as well as all of the various limiting criteria for the provision or selection thereof, as well as dealer profile records 21 and vendor profile records 29 to render to the dealer completed quotation reports which would be able to be provided directly to the customer, with the appropriate markups of any costs or pricing as well as labor cost etc. all included. The ability to either enter on a record by record basis in the parts dataset 19, or as quotation customizations 35 in the course of completion of a quotation, labor costs or the like for inclusion in the generation of the quotation is key. Also, as outlined elsewhere herein, is specifically contemplated that the quotation module 15 work in conjunction with the remainder of the quotation and fulfillment application 12 and other software on the server 11 to allow a dealer to create local part profile records 25 for items that they wish to create for their own use in a repeated quotation fashion or workflow.
A final elements of the quotation and fulfillment application 12 would be a fulfillment module 16 to achieve the functions of logging or saving details rendered quotations prepared in accordance with the remainder of the present invention to storage in the database 17 or in another related data structure in or accessible to the server 11. In addition to storing the details of rendered quotations, in certain embodiments of the method of the present invention, the fulfillment module 16 might generate additional reports for use by the dealer to effect the order of parts and accessories outlined on a quotation ¨ for example providing a function by which the dealer wherein a particular quotation was accepted by the customer could run off a set of purchase orders for dispatch to the vendor or vendors from the parts and prices listed on the quotation were used, or in other embodiments, the system could actually also provide and e-commerce Gateway or a direct pass-through of purchase authorization or transaction details from the website system 8 of the present invention to one or more vendor systems 9 to effectively automatically trigger purchase transactions of required parts and accessories from one or more vendors.
While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications thereto can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention and the best mode for practicing the invention are provided for the purpose of illustration only and not for the purpose of limitation.

Claims

CLAIMS:

We claim:

1. A method