Patent ID: 8239292

Claim:
A system for automatically determining the retail sales and goods inventory of a manufacturer and a plurality of dealers forming a distribution network, the system comprising: a plurality of dealer business systems, wherein at least one of the plurality of dealer business systems differs from the other dealer business systems, each dealer business system including a processor, a database for storing information related to the retail sales of goods and the inventory at a particular dealer, the database having a first predetermined data format, and a memory for storing programs; a manufacturer business system including a processor, a database for storing information related to the retail sales of the goods and the inventory at the plurality of dealers, a database having a second predetermined data format, and memory for storing programs; a communication network operatively connected to the plurality of dealer business systems and the manufacturer business system; and a direct access program stored on each of the dealer business systems, the direct access program arranged and configured to: directly query and obtain database information from the corresponding dealer business system database independent of a program associated with the corresponding dealer business system, and wherein the database information is obtained without the operation of the program associated with the corresponding dealer business system, translate the database information directly from the first predetermined data format to an intermediate standard data format of the manufacturer business system, and transmit the database information to the manufacturer business system via the communication network, wherein the database information is further translated to the second predetermined data format for storage in the database of the manufacturer business system.