Digital Ecosystems – Automotive Industry Trends and Data Integration

The Automotive Industry is facing a paradigm shift. Rapidly advancing technology on the one side and changing customer demands on the other are challenging OEMs to rethink their traditional way of doing business. New cooperation models form digital ecosystems and will open new perspectives for the automotive industry. Data integration plays the key role in this scenario.

The latest Global Automotive Executive Survey 2019 by KMPG is quite clear about the number one key trend in the industry up to 2030: connectivity and digitalization. According to this survey, “a new future mobility ecosystem is evolving, which is based on the pillars seamlessness, individualized, safe and on-demand.” What does this mean for an industry, the success of which is built on processes and structures that have been well-established over many decades? It means fundamental transformation and a new way of doing business by forming ecosystems, networks and collaborations in order to innovate and stay ahead of the curve, and by creating new visions for customers. The trend is leading away from a mere product-oriented way of thinking to a flexible and agile digital era.

At a talk with Microsoft CEO Nadella at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Dieter Zetsche, former CEO of Daimler AG, stated that “Many are afraid of the decline of the automotive industry, however, a new market, worth billions, is evolving directly in front of our door step. The key to this party is software.” And KPMG concludes that “The companies who will be first to combine application thinking (city, rural, countryside) with ecosystem-driven technology set-ups (electric / connected / shared / autonomous) and infrastructure joint ventures (connectivity (5G), electricity grid and traffic infrastructure) will be the future leaders in mobility and transportation offerings.”^[1]

To meet these requirements, ecosystems are forming already.  Not only are two giants of the automotive industry, BMW and Daimler, cooperating on various mobility projects, something that would not have been even thinkable a couple of years ago, the trend towards cloud computing and Industry 4.0 also fuels cooperations between automotive/car manufactures and IT companies like BMW and Microsoft or Volkswagen with AWS and Microsoft, for example. To better understand the benefits and challenges of cloud computing, Porsche brought together leading IT experts.  On top, entire conferences like the Automotive System Architecting Conference 2020 are dedicated to digitalization in the automotive industry.

Apart from industry-driven or product-driven scenarios like, for example supply chain optimization or IIoT landscapes and robotics in production, customer-oriented visions like leasing services, usage-based vehicle insurance, and automation in new finance plans or car health trackers as well as Wifi to give access to music, social media and advanced mobile apps while driving and many more API based integration scenarios, are huge playing fields where IT-, tech- and automotive companies are forming new digital ecosystems.

What does this mean for you as an OEM, parts and component or module and system supplier, as an e-drive and battery specialist, mobility service provider or aftermarket service provider, as an advanced engineering or digital services and software provider? Cooperations, networks and ecosystems are the solution for the automotive industry to prepare for the future and successfully react to new technological developments and customer needs. Data integration is the key to bring these ecosystems to live. Be it B2B & EDI-Integration, API Management & EAI, Managed File Transfer or Industrial IoT & Industry 4.0 – SEEBURGER is your partner for professional business- and data integration to support you in forming your new network families.

Learn more about digitalization in the automotive industry

^[1] https://automotive-institute.kpmg.de/GAES2019/downloads/GAES2019PressConferenceENG_FINAL.PDF page 10