Trilogy Announces Three Product Suites for the Automotive Industry Demand Chain; Automotive Retail Solution Reduces Costs and Increases Revenue for OEMs, Dealers

    AUSTIN, Texas--Dec. 10, 2001--Trilogy, the leader in Automotive Demand Chain(tm) solutions, today announced three product suites -- Intelligent Transaction(tm), Active Customer Profile(tm) and Automotive Targeted Offer Management(tm) (ATOM)(tm) -- to energize retail distribution for the automotive industry, including enabling powerful locate-to-order capabilities.
    These product suites comprise the Trilogy Automotive Retail Solution -- the result of years of successfully designing software for many of the world's top vehicle manufacturers -- which aims to improve retail distribution efficiency and thereby increase profitability for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their dealers.
    The Automotive Retail Solution provides the answer to a crucial strategic need in the industry. The advent of OEM and third-party automotive Web sites in recent years has enhanced the vehicle purchasing process for consumers but provided little value to an industry that faces reduced profits and increased distribution and marketing costs. Customers who once relied solely on a local dealer for purchase information and to buy a car now interact with multiple information sources and distribution channels. Most consumer-facing auto Web sites have not been integrated with effective offline transaction processes, resulting in higher costs and a disjointed customer experience that exposes serious inadequacies along the current demand chain. These shortcomings include inconsistent data between OEMs and dealers, failure to use the wealth of customer data available from multiple sources, and inefficient use of incentives and rebates.
    The Trilogy Automotive Retail Solution allows OEMs and dealers to share information by consolidating legacy infrastructure and Web-based processes into a single transaction and customer management system. Designed to work interactively, the three suites integrate product, inventory and customer information in order to help OEMs and dealers customize incentives and promotions. This approach enables OEMs and dealers to reduce inventory, increase marketing efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction, all of which lead to increased profitability.
    "The automotive industry finally has a set of products that focuses on its specialized needs," said Sameer Desai, executive director of industry solutions for Trilogy's Automotive Business Unit. "Trilogy's extensive experience in the automotive industry has led to this unprecedented product package developed for OEMs and dealers. Our industry-specific solutions and technical expertise continue to improve the customer's online experience, while they allow OEMs and dealers to boost profitability in an increasingly competitive and complex environment."
    The Intelligent Transaction Suite focuses on inventory linkage, or linking online vehicle configuration, pricing, vehicle location, and order creation. The suite serves as a single platform to power consumer Web sites, dealer point-of-sale and ordering systems. It balances user preferences with the OEM's or dealer's need to promote specific vehicles. For example, Intelligent Transaction allows the customer an interactive way to build a desired vehicle online, while it gives the dealer an opportunity to reduce excess inventory.
    Active Customer Profile focuses on customer information, providing a single source that gathers and delivers information between all consumer touchpoints, such as call centers, Web sites and dealers. OEMs and dealers can use Active Customer Profile to target the consumer more effectively, increasing the likelihood of purchase and decreasing decision-making time. In addition, OEMs and dealers can store the customer profile for the entire lifecycle of the vehicle, leading to future profits on maintenance and vehicle purchases.
    Trilogy's ATOM converges the power of the three product suites into a package that takes information from all parties and delivers it into dynamic online environments that can be manipulated by OEMs, dealers and customers. This solution focuses on incentive and promotional programs, using customer information and inventory levels to create more targeted cash and noncash incentives. OEMs and dealers can develop incentives based on several factors, including a customer's ownership history or shopping activity. OEMs and dealers can also create incentives at specific vehicle and inventory levels, which in turn allows promotions based on inventory age and value. In addition, ATOM allows for improved administration of incentives with multiple tiers (national, regional and local), types (cash, noncash) and channels (online and offline). This provides regions and dealers with more control and enables them to respond more effectively to market factors.
    Trilogy-powered Web sites already allow consumers to configure, price, check availability and/or order a vehicle online for manufacturers like Ford, Nissan and Renault. While Trilogy's three product suites are designed to be used together by OEMs and dealers to gain the most benefit, the products may also be used separately. Nissan uses the Intelligent Transaction product suite for its order-to-delivery project, which includes powerful locate-to-order capabilities. The project enables Nissan's Web customers to locate desired vehicles and receive a guaranteed delivery date. Ford uses ATOM to manage the creation and rollout of targeted online retail incentives annually, based on regional and vehicle preferences. Renault uses Trilogy's configuration and pricing technology for its European Web sites for customers and dealers.

    About Trilogy

    Trilogy is a leading provider of industry-specific e-business software for Global 1000 companies. Its integrated application suites are at work in the automotive, financial services, communications, computer hardware and retail industries, providing solutions to global leaders like Ford, Fujitsu and Lands' End. Trilogy software and services enable the transformation of sales, marketing and customer service across the Web, retail and dealer networks, reseller channels, the field and call centers. A privately held corporation since 1989, Trilogy is on the Web at www.trilogy.com.