Redefining luxury, BMW “proofs” digital transformation

In the era of software-defined cars, the industry often uses the phrase "elephant turns around" to describe the digital transformation of traditional car companies. Over the past 100 years, product development in the automotive industry has been dominated by hardware. In today's global wave of digitalization, how does BMW, a century-old luxury brand, plan for transformation and upgrading?

On October 12, the "2020? BMW China Digital Experience Media Communication Conference" was held online. Gao Le, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, Shen Keyuan, Senior Vice President of Electronics, Electrical and Autonomous Driving of BMW (China) Service Co., Ltd., and Mei Xiaoqun, President and CEO of Lingyue Digital Information Technology Co., Ltd. Guan explained BMW's "customer-centric" digital drive strategy in China from multiple dimensions such as strategy, technology, products, and planning, allowing the industry to see "the speed of an elephant."

Gaulle, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China

Gaulle, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, said: “Before, we used design and product performance such as power to Output, cornering speed and other indicators are used to define luxury, but now digitalization has become increasingly important. Relevant data shows that the degree of digitalization directly affects consumers’ purchasing intentions. It is foreseeable that digital transformation has far-reaching significance for BMW. ”

01

Take the initiative in digitalization

In terms of exploring the digital field, BMW is the first luxury car brand to introduce "connected driving" functions and services into China. Within this year, BMW will complete remote software upgrades (OTA) for 500,000 BMW cars around the world equipped with the seventh-generation BMW iDrive intelligent human-computer interaction system, of which more than 200,000 are in the Chinese market. Gaule said, “Few car companies can achieve such a scale of complete vehicle OTA.”

But vehicle OTA is not the entire connotation of automotive digitalization. According to Gaulle, digitalization has penetrated into BMW's R&D, manufacturing, car-side digital experience, and customer journeys involving countless touch points. The core is to use digital technology and innovation to create value for customers. BMW's digital goal is to create an end-to-end high-end brand experience that integrates interior and exterior vehicles, online and offline integration. In order to comprehensively promote the digital strategy, BMW established Lingyue Digital Information Technology Co., Ltd. in China in 2019. This is the first organization among luxury car brands to specialize in digital services.

BMW’s recently launched My?BMW application in China was jointly developed by the BMW R&D team including Lingyue. Although the concept of SAAS (Software-as-a-service) is currently popular, BMW does not leave digital development work to suppliers. At the online communication meeting, when asked why BMW spent so much money to develop its own software applications, Mei Xiaoqun said: "The digitalization of customer experience and business fields cannot be solved by standard products. Digital transformation is about building business operations and IT systems. and closed loop of data capabilities. BMW Group Chairman Zipze once said that BMW’s core competitiveness is integration capabilities, so Lingyue’s core capabilities are integration of business, systems and data.”

Lingyue Digital. Mei Xiaoqun, President and CEO of Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Mei Xiaoqun further explained that customer-centric digital transformation capabilities are a capability that needs to be internalized. BMW has invested a lot of manpower and financial resources in this effort.

Zipzer recently revealed that BMW will invest 30 billion euros in digitalization and electrification by 2025, and this funding will focus heavily on data infrastructure and software construction.

Shen Keyuan, Senior Vice President of Electronics, Electrical and Autonomous Driving at BMW (China) Service Co., Ltd.

Regarding BMW’s determination to carry out the digital revolution, Shen Keyuan believes that “BMW iDrive people The machine-machine interaction system has been upgraded to the seventh generation. Today, BMW has more than 14 million highly connected cars on the road, which clearly shows that digitalization is BMW’s DNA.”

02

< p>"Localization" and "Counter-localization"

When talking about the digital development work of the BMW Group, the most mentioned one is "customer-centric". In order to provide each user with personalized digital services, BMW has launched a new application My BMW App. In this application, every user will have his or her own BMW ID.

Mei Xiaoqun said that China is the only market that has localized the development of My BMW. My BMW has community, information, membership rights and online payment functions that domestic users are very familiar with. Among them, the three major functions of community, membership and e-commerce are exclusive to the Chinese version and were jointly developed by BMW China software developers and Lingyue team to meet the needs of Chinese users.

Mei Xiaoqun believes that BMW’s digital development in China is not a simple “Chineseization”, but a localized development based on the needs of Chinese users. Customized development, continuous exploration of customers' diverse needs and application scenarios, and rapid implementation are the core capabilities of Lingyue and BMW's digitalization.

When talking about the localization issue, Gao Le said, "In the past, our localization meant localizing foreign functions in China. In the future, we will need to 'counter-localize'. In other words, more and more More product features will be developed in Chinese R&D centers or digital teams like Lingyue and then applied to other parts of the BMW Group in the world." He said that Chinese users have a higher degree of acceptance of digitalization, and China leads the world in digital infrastructure construction. BMW must take advantage of the Chinese market to enhance the overall global digital strength of the BMW Group.

03

Digital integration of online and offline services

Digital advancement is inseparable from the upgrade of user experience. This is what BMW has always emphasized, using digitalization for consumption Bringing you a new luxury experience. Although the digitalization of consumer behavior has become a current trend, when purchasing high-end consumer goods such as cars, consumers are more inclined to go to physical stores to experience them in person. "We are upgrading our dealer network (BMW network pioneering project) and turning dealer stores into a brand experience center, not just a sales transaction center. By then, consumers will need the integration of online and offline experiences, and this That’s what we’re working on right now,” Goller said.

In terms of digital construction of the retail network, Lingyue is about to launch a new "SPARK" dealer operation platform. It can help dealers improve store operation efficiency, enhance marketing customer acquisition capabilities and optimize customer communication effects in an intuitive and visual way. According to Mei Xiaoqun, during the sales and after-sales reception process, SPARK can trace every step of the customer's journey. At the same time, the recorded data information can help staff and management analyze and review, continuously optimize sales and service processes, and improve efficiency. The SPARK platform is also integrated with BMW's other digital customer contact ports, such as the My?BMW application, the "BMW Customer Service Center" WeChat account and the BMW membership system, thereby connecting customers online to offline for test drives, purchases, financial services, and maintenance. and repair experience.

“In the past, information communication between manufacturers and dealers was disconnected. The SPARK platform integrates independent IT systems, which can greatly improve dealers’ operational efficiency and optimize customer experience. This is an important part of BMW’s digital transformation process,” Gaulle emphasized.

Summary: At present, car companies are talking about digital transformation, and even Tesla and new power car companies are already "playing very well" in the field of intelligent network connection. How innovative or high-level is BMW's digital transformation? ? Gaule said at the communication meeting that what Chinese consumers need is not a specific system, but a digital ecosystem that can be seamlessly connected with other systems. This is also BMW's digital positioning. Everything starts from customer experience to create BMW's unique digital ecosystem, and then connects to other local ecosystems.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.