Digital Innovations that Redefine Automotive Aftersales and Maintenance

Gone are the days when car mechanics diagnosed car problems by looking under the hood. With digital disruptions invading all walks of life, the automotive and aftermarket industries have evolved drastically. From car mechanics opening the bonnet to look for a possible breakdown, to modern technicians getting notified about the issue on their computer screens, the car repair and maintenance sector has changed.

The industry is also highly driven by today’s customer behavior and expectations. According to a study by Accenture, nearly half of all drivers surveyed do not want to physically go to a workshop or dealer service location to get their car repaired. It says drivers and customers prefer frictionless after sales and service and they are willing to pay more for it. They research everything on the internet, and hence auto service shops and independent garage owners must provide access to all vehicle maintenance options through their website and social media platforms.

This blog will take you through the roles and impacts of emerging technologies on the automotive aftermarket. Read on to know how digital transformation in automotive is reshaping garage chains, independent workshops, and car dealerships.

Vehicle Telematics and Remote Diagnostics   

A telematics system constantly monitors and shares data from the vehicle to the outside world. Vehicle telematics collects information and metrics such as the vehicle’s fuel consumption, the working condition of its spare parts, and possible wear and tear. This information is relayed over to the vehicle owner through the wireless medium. The vehicle sends alerts of possible malfunctioning or breakdown in the car to the driver or passengers. Repair and maintenance providers receive this information in a remote monitoring system, and automatically schedule service appointments and keep a check of the overall vehicle health. They also use the data to identify the exact part that needs to be repaired or replaced in a vehicle make and model.

Big Data and Predictive Analytics

Big data and predictive analytics remove the guesswork from car maintenance and gives accurate data about when and why the vehicle needs maintenance or replacement. Advanced analytics gives detailed information about the exact vehicle part that needs replacement, and saves the workshop people a lot of time in identifying the broken part. Data is collected digitally and fed into a monitoring system, which is shared with the connected workshop, giving them real-time monitoring and performance analysis.

Connected Car Technology

Connected cars are no less than computers on wheels. The connected car technology keeps the driver always connected with his vehicle through cloud-based storage and wireless connectivity. The system constantly monitors the devices you are connected to, the places you frequently visit, helps you find a parking spot, and alerts you whenever your car needs a service or maintenance. The system also looks for the owner’s schedule and a convenient time slot with the workshop or repair shop, and automatically books an appointment.

How Gateway Digital can help?

Gateway Digital offers futuristic automotive solutions that help in streamlining and automating end-to-end processes for garages, workshops, and automotive dealers. We have a rich portfolio of offerings around custom solutions, products, and frameworks for automotive players. Some of our solutions include Workshop Capacity Planner, Digital Work Order, Dealership Management Performance Dashboards, Service Intelligence Dashboard, Customer Service Portal, Telematics Predictive Analytics System, and many more. To know more about our garage and dealership solutions, visit www.gatewaydigital.no or write to us at hello@gatewaydigital.no.

Center of Excellence- Building Intelligent Solutions for the Enterprises of Tomorrow

Digital transformation has led to the adoption of emerging technologies and the implementation of new processes across businesses. Whether you are a startup or a large corporate, you need to keep up with the changing trends to emerge successfully.

Making the right strategic decisions and implementing the right tools to drive innovation can help businesses to tackle this disruption. For this, you need to hire the right technology and digital partner, who can study your business requirements and help you implement the apt solution that solves your business challenges.

Does your business need help with making strategic decisions and implementing the right technologies and tools? The Center of Excellence (CoE) model from Gateway Digital can help! Read on to find out more about this engagement model.

What is Center of Excellence (CoE)?

The Center of Excellence is an engagement model that features a team of experts in technology, consulting, digital transformation, and product innovation, and focuses on understanding the specific business requirements of the client and driving change in the technology landscape. The team works closely with the client to envision and execute the project.

The CoE consists of a core team and project-specific run teams, that are identified and agreed upon during the different stages of the engagement with the client.

Core Team: The core team will be involved throughout the tenure of the project. This team can be based on-site or offshore based on project needs. The core team will envision product development, perform necessary technical, management and coordination activities, and be the single point of contact for the customers throughout the engagement period. This team will identify the right resources for each stream and manage the project development teams while adhering to the project delivery milestone.

Project-Specific Run Team: The run team is an on-demand team responsible for project execution. This flexible team will work with the core team to address specific project requirements and enable timely project delivery.

Benefits of Center of Excellence 

The Center of Excellence provides business consulting and works as a virtual product development team. Here are the key benefits of the CoE model.

Higher Accountability: The customer team will be directly involved in the entire project planning process. They can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the work process and make necessary changes in the progress of the project. The assigned core team and project teams report to the customer team on the project status, giving the customer higher accountability.

Continuous Development and Delivery: When the customer has an expert team working dedicatedly for the project, the customer requires less time to improve the existing functionality and roll-out new features. All the assigned resources have a deep familiarity with the project, due to which the changes can be implemented faster and without major errors. The team is well-structured, and regular meetings and status reviews will help everyone to be on the same page.

Cost-Effectiveness: Having a dedicated CoE team is economically more effective than having individual software developers. It improves productivity and reduces the cost of multiple hires while bringing transparency and control in the actual investment required.

Faster and Flexible Workflows: The core team and project-specific teams are more scalable and agile. They are also more open to iterations and changes in the project scope.

At Gateway Digital, we understand that when it comes to innovation and digital transformation, there is a lot of scope for product envisioning and management. Our dedicated execution teams work with the client teams and offer services in the areas of technology consulting, digital transformation, and product innovation across diverse domains. Our Center of Excellence (CoE) teams help businesses to bring innovative solutions and services to life with quality product envisioning. To know more about us and the engagement model, get in touch with us at hello@gatewaydigital.no or visit https://gatewaydigital.no/center-of-excellence/.

Top Mistakes that Kill Startups and How to Avoid Them

Getting customers on board is a matter of battle for any business, especially startups. With new startups popping up every day all around the world, customers have ample options to choose from. It is therefore vital for new business owners to do something revolutionary to make a mark on their target audience.

As per a recent research from Small Biz Trends, it is estimated that 90% of startups fail. Most of the startups that fail have the following common characteristics:

• Incompetence
• Inadequate planning and knowledge
• Lack of experience

Learning about the challenges and mistakes of other entrepreneurs and building the groundwork with the insights will lead startups to success. So, before you take the plunge, here are the common reasons why startups often fail.

Product-Market Misfit

Poor synchronization between the startup idea and market need is a common challenge for most startups. According to a survey by entrepreneur.com, 20% of startups fail because the market demand for their product or service is too low. They quite often fail to understand the demands of the target market or lack a focused approach for catering to them. The common causes of poor product-market fit are as follows:

• Poor market research, which leads to the misunderstanding of the target audience
• Inadequate demonstrated value of the product or service
• Launching a product ahead of its market by a few years
• A solution that does not solve the problem for a large set of people

Identifying the exact market problem and filling the opportunity gap is not easy. Creating a solution that is insignificant to the market problem will lead all your resources and efforts into failure.

The solution: To avoid this issue, entrepreneurs must conduct proper market research and look for a gap where their product can fit in. Also, before launching the product, startups should validate their product by building Minimum Viable Product (MVP), using pilot projects, or conducting beta testing. Build the core features of your product, test them for response and then develop the next version according to the user feedback. This will save you from market rejection and reduce the risk of failure.

Cash Crunch

Cashflow is what keeps a business going. Many startups fail because they run out of cash. While creating the business model, you also need to build a revenue generation model. No matter how great your idea is, you will still need cash to pay for your marketing activities, pay dues to your employees and clear your bills. Startups that do not measure their spends and gains or do not keep a record of their accounts will eventually go down the drain.

The solution: The management and CEO need to work well in advance to secure funds and explore funding options. Have a clear strategy about how you will recoup investments and make money with your startup.

Lack of Focus

Entrepreneurs mostly get carried away with their ideas. Some startups include too many features at once or try to expand their offerings so soon that they deviate from their central idea. Some even lack good competitor research, which results in a disaster.

The solution: The idea people or founders must keep their focus right and solve the most painful problem first. Instead of getting carried away with too many ideas and features, work for one ideal business goal.

Premature Scaling

The goal of every new business is to make it big in their respective market. Startups are often in a hurry to do too much too soon. They hire new people, release new features, enter new markets, and begin to scale up. This leads to things going out of order.

The solution: Avoid acquiring a new market before your business is completely up and running. Follow a step-by-step procedure to take your startup forward:

• Learn about your audience
• Chart out the issues that your product will solve
• Launch an MVP in the market and get feedback
• Fix issues, add additional features and launch again
• Promote the product to reach the right people in the right way
• Find ways to retain customers
• Scale up your business

Conclusion

While launching your startup, consider these common factors that often lead to failure. Partnering with an experienced technology partner can solve half of these challenges. Gateway Digital is a digital transformation partner fuelling innovative startups with a range of new-age technology services and solutions. With our digital consulting services, we have helped startups across various industries to shape their success curve.

Do you have a great startup vision? Tell us your ideas and our team will help you with the right strategy, tools, and technologies, to make it a success.