Microsoft for Automotive: Driving the future of mobility
Regardless of the industry, every organization is undergoing a digital transformation. The automotive industry is no exception. Since Karl Benz and Henry Ford revolutionized transportation with the initial development and mass production of the automobile over a century ago, the automotive industry is poised to transform transportation again. Technology and partnerships are at the forefront of this transformation to a connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicle future (commonly referred to as C.A.S.E.). This is the third post of the industry partner opportunity blog series and you can read the introductory post here.
Understanding the opportunity
Five key customer scenarios summarize the biggest areas of transformation and growth in the automotive industry. This industry is expected to become a $6.6T industry by 2030, with disruptive technology and business models accounting for 50 percent of all revenues, according to consulting firm, McKinsey & Company.
Automotive industry priority scenarios
- Connected vehicles: Create new in-vehicle experiences and revenue streams beyond the initial sale, with a digital chassis for connected vehicle value added services. Learn more about the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP) and how partners have helped complete the overall value of MCVP here.
- Autonomous vehicle development: Accelerate the development, testing, validation, and management of new advanced driving assistance and autonomous vehicle solutions. Find out more about the Microsoft for Startups for Autonomous Driving program here.
- Smart mobility services: Deliver personalized, convenient, multi-modal and multi-device experiences for more accessible and sustainable urban mobility.
- Connected marketing, sales, and service: Develop distinct brand identities and omnichannel customer experiences by combining new mobility services with existing retail practices (see more on our industry accelerator for this scenario below).
- Intelligent supply chain: Keep pace with vehicle innovation while creating efficiencies and reducing costs with an intelligent supply chain powered by the factories of the future.
Microsoft partners paving the way
Microsoft understands the importance of our partner ecosystem, and we need our partners to build solutions that will help automakers drive the future of mobility for their customers, as well as with the digital transformation of their internal operations and processes needed to deliver it. Microsoft’s technology across our intelligent cloud, edge, IoT and AI services, and industry accelerators, like Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator, help speed time to market for partners to sell and deploy their solutions, and we are seeing partner success as they shift towards going to market with an industry focus.
I’d like to highlight a partner solution from Microsoft’s 2019 Automotive Partner of the Year, Annata, that leverages Microsoft’s technologies and industry accelerators and illustrates how they are helping automotive companies transform their customer experiences with their product Annata 365.
Annata
Annata 365 helps automotive customers eliminate manual paperwork and unify business and analytics data collected from internal processes, digital interactions, sales transactions and more. This gives them access to in-depth business insights, which allows them to identify sales opportunities such as seasonal patterns for summer or winter tires and scheduling service appointments at the correct time. The new Annata 365 Sales solution also helps to drive relevant, timely and personalized customer engagements driven by data and connected systems with seamless and unified customer experience, across multiple channels through different levels of interest and ownership. Automotive dealers can be more agile, run pricing simulations quickly, in near real-time instead of relying on time-consuming manual processes. Armed with new data insights, Annata’s customers can increase sales opportunities by targeting specific customer segments at critical points along the customer lifecycle, from buying a new vehicle to encouraging after-sales purchases.
Take these next steps:
- Access the Automotive partner guide here to gain a better understanding of the business challenges faced by automotive companies, and your opportunity to help these customers.
- Speed time to market to sell and deploy your automotive solutions by using the Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator.
