Connected cars require collaboration
The next wave of connected cars will require increased OEM and supplier collaboration, according to the finding of a recent Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) multi-client study.
Connected car services are on their way to becoming one of the major business drivers for the automotive industry and present an opportunity for establishing a sustainable position in the global market. To achieve this, even closer collaboration between manufacturers and suppliers, and also between automotive and IT companies, will be necessary. This is the finding of a recent Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) multi-client study led in cooperation with management and technology consultancy BearingPoint as premium sponsor.
According to BearingPoint, connected services will be mainstream automotive offerings by 2020, with 80% of new vehicles connected. ‘From a technology point of view, the market is currently shifting from in-car connectivity to car-to-x connectivity, and companies are going to put a stronger focus on the design and provision of third-party services,’ said Matthias Loebich, partner at BearingPoint and firm-wide automotive leader.
The study highlights that the market for connected car solutions has already reached a ‘second wave’ of maturity. The first generation of connected cars consisted of solutions such as infotainment and environmental information services which are already rolled out and operated by manufacturers and services providers. The second generation, currently being in development and testing phases, will see services such as security, after-sales and driving assistance. The launch of OnStar in Europe marks a step change in the growth of connectivity as both volume and premium brands launch services with embedded solutions. ‘BearingPoint worked with leading OEMs to launch the first wave of connected services, which have primarily focused on overcoming the technical challenges to embed core connectivity. OEMs and suppliers have had to navigate a complex journey to launch connected car: differing standards; legislation and launching agile digital services within a seven year waterfall vehicle development programme,’ said Sarah-Jayne Williams, partner at BearingPoint for connected car. ‘The study shows the key challenge for the next wave of maturity is to create new business models packaging multiple connected car services and creating a holistic customer experience.’
To be a leader in the next wave, OEMs and suppliers must work more closely together to deliver and bundle their services, and package, sell and provision them into vehicles seamlessly. Connected car commerce solutions, such as those based on the Infonova R6 digital services & ecosystem enablement platform, play a vital role in addressing the end-to-end customer journey using pre-integrated services and applications as a cloud service. They provide the market place with a seamless bundling of services for the customer from a community of partners, such as information, entertainment, telco, insurance and automotive services, whilst maintaining separate billing, financial and profitability reporting in the back-end. As well as simplifying customer payments, the R6 platform automates the complexity of different supplier charge models. In this way the connected car leaders will not just deliver innovative services but will also drive collaboration and innovation across the connected car ecosystem to create leading customer experiences.
For the study “Connected Car in Europe” PAC conducted a survey among 250 CxOs in European automotive companies (in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK) with more than 50 employees. The study is available for free download at: http://www.bearingpoint.com/en-uk/7633-11178/capitalizing-on-the-increasing-demand-for-connected-cars/
