Kelley Blue Book Implements Industry-Changing Data System, Providing Consumers, Industry With Heightened Precision, Transparency

Sophisticated Forecasting Models Allow Automotive Businesses to Transact on Future Values Instead of What Happened Last Week

News provided by

Kelley Blue Book

Jun 29, 2010, 05:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, the leading provider of new- and used- vehicle information, today announces that the company has implemented a new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art vehicle information management system (VIMS), positioning the company to deliver unprecedented market insights. With a massive increase in data collection, transparency into its processes, sophisticated forecasting models and formidable analytic capabilities, businesses and consumers can now, more than ever, look to Kelley Blue Book's weekly values as the most trusted in the industry.

"We have eliminated the standard paradigm of inflexible systems that can only provide values based on historical vehicle sales," said Paul Johnson, president and CEO of Kelley Blue Book. "The advanced statistical models we employ take into account current economic factors and catalytic events to project what values will be next week, next month, and even further in the future. Events like Cash-for-Clunkers, major vehicle recalls and spikes in gas prices can't be predicted without some precedent, so we built an amazingly sophisticated system that records the market reaction to these events, successively improving our models in a ceaseless effort to help consumers and partners make better car buying decisions."

Building and operating VIMS required a significant investment in staff and data. In the last few years, Kelley Blue Book has hired market analysts, statisticians, mathematicians, data management and technology experts with extensive industry experience, growing its analytic team almost threefold. During the same period, the company has taken data acquisition to a new level, obtaining vehicle-related information from more than 250 sources. The company collects more than 100 data points for every vehicle and is the only valuation company that manages vehicle values and data spanning the life of the vehicle within a single database; from new, used and residual values. Its transaction database houses 256 million observations, which includes over 1.5 million vehicles that were physically inspected at auctions across the country by the company's national field force.

"Kelley Blue Book's new analytic capabilities provide dealers, banks, finance and insurance companies with unrivaled insights into the future of the automotive marketplace, continuing the company's preeminence in vehicle pricing and values," said Johnson. "With these game-changing enhancements in data collection, advanced statistical modeling and personnel, businesses can manage an entire portfolio of inventory more effectively and profitably than ever before."

VIMS' integrated valuation forecast feeds more than 15 products, including KARPOWER Online, the company's flagship valuation and inventory product. With the combination of VIMS, SAS statistical software and blazingly fast data warehouse architecture, Kelley Blue Book can help users to better assess risk, project profits and have the broadest understanding of the vehicle marketplace possible.

"The deployment of this new vehicle information management system has inherently changed the way we do business, it has changed our DNA," Johnson added. "The company's 85-year history has earned us our pedigree, but the implementation of this new valuation system changes the future of our business."

About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)

Since 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource®, has provided vehicle buyers and sellers with the new and used vehicle information they need to accomplish their goals with confidence. The company's top-rated Web site, www.kbb.com, provides the most up-to-date pricing and values, including the New Car Blue Book® Value, which reveals what people actually are paying for new cars. The company also reports vehicle pricing and values via products and services, including software products and the famous Blue Book® Official Guide. According to the C.A. Walker Research Solutions, Inc. - 2009 Spring Automotive Web Site Usefulness Study, kbb.com is the most useful automotive information Web site among new and used vehicle shoppers, and half of online vehicle shoppers visit kbb.com. Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com also is a W3 Gold Award winner, sanctioned by the International Academy of Visual Arts. Kbb.com is a leading provider of new car prices, used car Blue Book Values, car reviews, new cars for sale, used cars for sale, and car dealer locations.

SOURCE Kelley Blue Book