Source- and venue-specific inventory data processing and identification system

• US 8,055,544 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CDK Global Incorporated
• Original Assignee: The Cobalt Group Incorporated (Automatic Data Processing Incorporated)
• Inventors: Worsham, Brian T., Ullman, Matthew Royce
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Amsdell; Dana
• Application Number:
  US11/446,011
• Publication Number:
  US 20070282711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: 705/22, 705/26, 707/740, 707/758
• US Class Current: 705/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An inventory manager processes and assigns data from data records for a product in accordance with rule set that correspond to a source and venue associate with the product. The inventory manager may delete, modify, and create data within a data record. The data may be selectively made available for use by a venue based on the rule set. The inventory manager may include a style identification manager to determine a product style value for the venue based on the data currently available for possible use by the venue and on instructions and logic within the rule set.

Claims

1. A system to determine the availability of attributes of a vehicle in an inventory in a plurality of different venues for providing vehicle information, comprising:

a network server, comprising;

a computer-readable storage medium to store a vehicle record comprising a plurality of source attribute pairs corresponding to the vehicle in the inventory, wherein each source attribute pair comprises an attribute value pertaining to the vehicle in the inventory and specifies a source of the attribute value, wherein two or more of the attribute values are of different sources;

the computer-readable storage medium further comprising entries representing each of the plurality of venues, each venue associated with a respective venue entity and comprising a plurality of availability rules specifying sources of the source attribute pairs that are available to the venue, wherein the availability rules are based upon business relationships between the venue entity and the attribute value sources, wherein a business relationship between a venue entity and a source of an attribute value is one of a sponsored dealer and a manufacturer of the vehicle and a dealer group and a manufacturer of the vehicle; and

an assignment manager communicatively coupled to the computer-readable storage medium and configured to select a first set of the plurality of attribute values of the plurality of source attribute pairs of the vehicle record to be available to a first one of the plurality of venues based upon availability rules of the first venue and the source of the respective source attribute pairs of the vehicle record, and

to select a second set of the plurality of attribute values of the same plurality of source attribute pairs in the same vehicle record to be available to a second one of the plurality of venues based upon availability rules of the second venue and the source of the respective source attribute pairs,

wherein the first set includes one or more attribute values that are not included in the second set.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transformation manager configured to modify a first one of the selected attribute values available to the first venue based on one or more transformation rules.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a rules engine activated by the transformation manager and configured to process the transformation rules to modify the first one of the attribute values.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by a source of one or more of the plurality of attribute values.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the transformation rules are configured by the first venue.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an augmentation manager configured to add to the computer-readable storage medium attribute values corresponding to the vehicle from reference information associated with the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a rules engine activated by the augmentation manager and configured to add the attribute values corresponding to the vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further includes a master data record comprising all of the attribute values corresponding to the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rules engine activated by the assignment manager and configured to process the availability rules, select the first set of attribute values to be available to the first venue, and to transmit to the venue the first set of attribute values.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the availability rules include a determination of associations between sources of the attribute values and the plurality of venues.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the availability rules include a determination of associations between a manufacturer of the vehicle and the sources of the attribute values.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a business relationship between a venue entity and a source of an attribute value is one of a dealer and a manufacturer other than the manufacturer of the vehicle, a dealer and a dealer group, and a dealer and a dealer franchise.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the availability rules include a determination of an association between the vehicle and a particular one of the plurality of venues.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium comprises a plurality of source attributes pairs comprising attribute values of a particular attribute of the vehicle, each of the plurality of attribute values being associated with a different respective source, and wherein an availability rule selects one of the plurality of attribute values available to the first venue.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by the first venue.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the assignment manager further determines attribute values available for actual use and viewing by the first venue.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first venue comprises a website accessible over a network and the assignment manager determines which attribute values may be accessed by the first venue and which attribute values are available to be actually used and viewed by users accessing the website of the first venue.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the first set of attribute values includes all of the attribute values corresponding to the vehicle on the computer-readable storage medium.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the first set and the second set include the same set of attributes corresponding to the vehicle, and wherein a value of one of the attributes in the first set differs from a value of the corresponding attribute in the second set.

20. A method for determining the availability of attribute values corresponding to a vehicle in an inventory within a plurality of different venues for providing vehicle information, wherein each venue is associated with a respective venue entity, the method comprising:

accessing at a computing device a master data record stored on a computer-readable medium and comprising a plurality of source attribute pairs corresponding to the vehicle in the inventory, each source attribute pair comprising an attribute value pertaining to the vehicle in the inventory and a source of the attribute value, wherein two or more of the attribute values are of different sources;

selecting by the computing device a first set of attribute values from the plurality of source attribute pairs of the master data record to be available in a first one of the plurality of venues, by

accessing availability rules of the first venue that specify attribute value sources that are available to the first venue based upon business relationships between the entity of the first venue and the attribute value sources, wherein a business relationship between the entity of the first venue and a source of an attribute value is one of a sponsored dealer and a manufacturer of the vehicle and a dealer group and a manufacturer of the vehicle, and

selecting attribute values available to the first venue based upon the source availability rules of the first venue and the source of the respective source attribute pairs;

selecting a second set of attribute values from the same plurality of source attribute pairs of the same master data record to be available in a second one of the plurality of venues, by

accessing availability rules of the second venue that specify attribute value sources that are available to the second venue based upon business relationships between the entity of the second venue and the attribute value sources, and

selecting attribute values available to the second venue based upon the source availability rules of the second venue and the source of the respective source attribute pairs;

providing the first set of attribute values to the first venue over a network.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising modifying one or more of the attribute values in the first set using one or more transformation rules.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by one or more of the plurality of sources of the source attribute pairs.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by one or more of the plurality of venues.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting the first set of attribute values to be available to the first venue includes determining an association between a manufacturer of the vehicle and the sources associated with each of the plurality of attribute values.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein a business relationship between a venue entity and a source of an attribute value is one of a a dealer and a manufacturer other than the manufacturer of the vehicle, a dealer and a dealer group, and a dealer and a dealer franchise.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting the first set of attribute values to be available to the first venue includes determining an association between the vehicle and the first venue.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining which of the first set of attribute values are available for actual use and viewing by the first venue.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first venue comprises a website accessible over a network, the method further comprising determining which of the first set of attribute values are accessible by the website of the first venue and which of the first set of attribute values are actually used and viewed by users accessing the website of the first venue.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the first set of attribute values includes attribute values of each source attribute pair.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein the first set and the second set include the same set of attributes corresponding to the vehicle, and wherein a value of one of the attributes in the first set differs from a value of the corresponding attribute in the second set.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer readable instruction code stored thereon for performing a method for determining the availability of attribute values corresponding to a vehicle in an inventory within a plurality of different venues for providing product information, each venue associated with a respective venue entity, the method comprising:

accessing a master data record stored on a computer-readable medium and comprising a plurality of source attribute pairs, each comprising an attribute value corresponding to the vehicle in the inventory and specifying a source of the attribute value, two or more of the attribute values are of different sources;

selecting a first set of the plurality of attribute values of the master data record to be available in a first one of the plurality of venues, by

accessing availability rules of the first venue specifying attribute value sources that are available to the first venue, the availability rules based upon business relationships between the entity of the first venue and the attribute value sources, wherein a business relationship between the entity of the first venue and a source of an attribute value is one of a sponsored dealer and a manufacturer of the vehicle and a dealer group and a manufacturer of the vehicle, and

selecting the first set of attribute values based upon the availability rules of the first venue and the source of each respective source attribute pair;

selecting a second set of the plurality of attribute values of the same master record to be available in a second one of the plurality of venues, by

accessing availability rules of the second venue specifying attribute value sources that are available to the second venue, the availability rules based upon business relationships between the entity of the second venue and the attribute value sources, and

selecting the second set of attribute values based upon the availability rules of the second venue and the source of each respective source attribute pair, wherein the first set includes one or more attribute values that are not included in the second set; and

providing the first set of attribute values to the first venue over a network.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises modifying one or more of the attribute values in the first set using one or more transformation rules.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 32, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by one or more of the plurality of sources.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 32, wherein one or more of the availability rules are configured by one or more of the plurality of venues.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises generating the master data from a plurality of attribute values received from the plurality of sources.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein selecting the first set of attribute values to be available to the first venue includes determining an association between a manufacturer of the vehicle and the sources of the plurality of attribute values.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein a business relationship between a venue entity and a source of an attribute value is one of a a dealer and a manufacturer other than the manufacturer of the vehicle, a dealer and a dealer group, and a dealer and a dealer franchise.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein selecting the first set of attribute values to be available to the first venue includes determining an association between the vehicle and the first venue.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises a source configuring one or more of the availability rules.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises the first venue configuring one or more of the availability rules.

41. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises determining which of the first set of attribute values are available for actual use and viewing by the first venue.

42. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the first venue comprises a website accessible over a network, the method further comprising determining which of the first set of attribute values are accessible by the website of the first venue and which of the first set of attribute values are actually used and viewed by users accessing the website of the first venue.

43. A system to determine the availability of attribute values corresponding to a vehicle in an inventory within a plurality of different venues for providing product information, the system comprising:

a network server, comprising;

a computer-readable storage medium to store a vehicle record comprising a plurality of source attribute pairs values corresponding to the vehicle available in the inventory, each source attribute pair comprising an attribute value pertaining to the vehicle in the inventory and specifying one of a plurality of attribute value sources of the attribute value, wherein two or more of the source attribute pairs specify different sources;

the computer-readable storage medium further comprising entries representing each of the plurality of venues, each venue associated with an entity having a business relationship with a manufacturer of the vehicle and comprising a plurality of availability rules specifying sources of the source attribute pairs that are available to the venue, wherein the availability rules are based upon the business relationship between the venue entity and the vehicle manufacturer, wherein a business relationship between a venue entity and a source of an attribute value is one of a sponsored dealer and a manufacturer of the vehicle and a dealer group and a manufacturer of the vehicle, and

a processing manager communicatively coupled to the computer-readable storage medium and configured to select a first set of the plurality of attribute values of the plurality of source attribute pairs of the vehicle record to be available to a first one of the plurality of venues based on availability rules of the first venue and the source of the respective source attribute pairs of vehicle record,

to select a second set of the plurality of attribute values of the same vehicle record to be available to a second one of the plurality of venues, the selections being based on availability rules of the second venue and the source of each of the respective source attribute pairs of the vehicle record, and

to modify one or more of the attribute values in the first set using one or more of the transformation rules, wherein the first set includes one or more attribute values that are not included in the second set.