Bits Data boosts customer value at Volkswagen

Bits Data provides comprehensive IT services to Sweden’s leading vehicle dealers. On Datadagen 2023, company CEO Jennie Rassool gave an account of the current situation and shared some practical tips regarding data and digital transformation.

Bits Data delivers IT services to dealers and workshops within the Volkswagen Group – 
a task that includes guiding the company through the digital transformation that now marks the automotive industry. Previously, everything revolved around providing systems to support the workshops, but now the main focus is on supporting consumers and creating customer value.

”This transformation is not only triggered by electrification and the industry’s promise of sustainable mobility, but also by our needs and demands as consumers for new solutions around car ownership. We don’t want to book a service by phone anymore, we want to book online. We as consumers get closer to the systems and become part of these systems”, says Rassool.

NEW BUSINESS MODELS

The automotive industry has lost approximately 60% of its earnings due to electrification since cars no longer need to be serviced the same way as before. This money must be brought back somewhere, and dealers are now trying to find ways to make money when the product/car is actually working. This means that new business models are emerging – and changing – at a rapid pace. Therefore, it’s not enough to be proactive, according to Rassool, you must also be able to react quickly. New adaptations have to be scalable and ready to be rolled out at short notice. Standardization must be combined with responsiveness.

“It’s too time-consuming to make adjustments based on individual retailers, that time is over. What we’re doing now at Volkswagen is that we’re replacing the business system – a heart transplant for the entire passenger car side – so we must defend standard. For the individual, who might miss out on a certain type of functionality, it might be less effective. But overall, the organization becomes much more efficient and definitely more agile”, says Rassool. 

THE COLLABORATION WITH RANDOM FOREST

Bits Data buys infrastructure and central systems from other companies and then make various market adaptations for passenger cars, heavy vehicles, and financial systems – and this is where processes and data are standardized. On top of this, there’s a communications layer, a cloud platform which makes it possible to operate, bring together and use the data. This is where Random Forest comes in.

“A success factor for achieving a data-driven business that will last over time is to have an analytics solution that makes it possible to reuse the business’ digital footprint many times over – for several different purposes and use cases. This could mean strategic insights, follow-ups or taking advantage of AI opportunities. That’s what we had in mind when we helped Bits Data with a new analysis platform that would last for the future”, says Konstantin Ekström, Business Intelligence Consultant at Random Forest.

TRANSFORMATION TIPS

Rassool concludes by presenting some guidelines for Bits Data’s own strategy. These might be useful to others embarking on a transformational journey:

•Create adaptability and speed through standardization (you should standardize central systems and make adaptations on top)

•Build applications based on prioritized needs (listen to your customers. Only they can know what is prioritized)

•Build for the future – work for today (think about how you can combine the old with the new in a continuous transformation)

•Without data, and without order of data, you cannot accelerate (you should bring together all your data right away. Do this “boring” work at once)

•Stitch together the entire customer journey (offline and online data must be combined. Try to put yourself in the customer’s situation and think about what’s needed)

•Start with the obvious applications (don’t go crazy!)

Kundcase and presenation from Data-dagen 2024 (In Swedish).