In the competitive automotive industry, speed and accuracy in vehicle configuration and distribution are critical. For GST Gulf States, one of the largest private Toyota distributors in the U.S., managing 26,000 cars every two weeks across 152 dealerships and 594 locations was overwhelming.
The existing legacy IBM system—paired with outdated custom software—had far exceeded its useful life. Sales teams faced extreme inefficiencies: 18,000 units had to be individually configured every two weeks, rule sets had to be managed manually, and last-minute supply chain changes created chaos. With 900+ users able to modify configurations in an external Dealer Portal, errors and inconsistencies were constant.
26,000 cars every two weeks—configured manually on a legacy IBM system with 900+ users introducing errors.
GST’s leadership needed a streamlined, scalable solution to manage thousands of vehicle configurations, align distribution with supply and demand, and empower their 15-person sales team without drowning them in administrative work.
That’s when GST partnered with Canidium. Leveraging SAP technologies—including S/4HANA, Variant Configuration, Vehicle Management System (VMS), and CPQ—Canidium designed and implemented an integrated solution that could handle GST’s scale. They introduced custom CPQ rule sets to manage configurations, integrated non-standard systems like VMS through SAP Middleware and Boomi, and provided a streamlined process flow for both dealers and district managers.
The transformation was dramatic. Manual configuration hours dropped significantly, configuration accuracy improved, and district managers could now manage units at both dealer and district levels without memorizing rule sets. GST gained a maintainable, scalable platform built to handle the complexity of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of dealerships, and rapidly changing supply conditions.
“How do you get 26,000 cars to 150 dealerships in 5 states every 2 weeks? With the right partner and the right technology, it’s possible.”
By the end of the project, GST turned a fractured, error-prone process into a streamlined, integrated system that empowered sales, reduced errors, and ensured vehicles reached the right dealers—on time, every time.