The Subscription Model for Premium Cars—A New Service for the “Generation Usership”
4
Countries
6
Months to MVP
Pioneering project for New Mobility: from vision to product in six months
The automotive market is changing. More and more customers are shying away from long-term contracts and usage cycles. Owning a vehicle is no longer as important as it was a decade ago. The “Generation Usership” wants flexibility and variability while always being on the move. To meet the needs of this new generation of customers, we created a new service in collaboration with Lab1886—the former innovation incubator of Daimler AG—and developed it within just six months as part of a pilot project for four completely different markets: a flexible subscription model for premium cars. This “New Mobility” approach closes the market gap between ownership, leasing, rental and sharing. For a period of one year, customers can change models up to eleven times and freely select the engine type, color and equipment.
Four countries, many different systems
We developed the flexible vehicle subscription for four different markets whose legal frameworks and customer behaviors could not be more different: Germany, Russia, China and South Africa. For China, we implemented a very special solution: the “Concierge Service”. The personal pick-up and drop-off service is a must-have for demanding customers. This global setup also brings with it a great deal of conceptual, organizational and technological complexity due to diverse retail contract terms and different fleet control and rental systems. We were able to overcome this tech hurdle with custom-developed middleware that translates the various system requirements and allows us to scale the service quickly without a lengthy IT transformation.
From a technological perspective, we had to take several factors into account in order to integrate the completely new mobility service seamlessly into existing corporate processes. The middleware approach was a crucial point in achieving a marketable MVP over a very short period.
One app for a seamless experience
Users of the intuitive subscription app notice no trace of the complex, multi-layered process operating behind the scenes. The entire journey can be carried out easily via smartphone—from registration and model selection to model exchange, including the coordination of vehicle handovers. This seamless approach perfectly reflects the character of the service and our high standards for a coherent customer experience: smart, mobile and flexible, users find and drive their dream car for a duration of their choosing.
Success factors
Service blueprints and CX analysis
To master a complex task, you need to drill into the details. Initial service blueprints help us analyze the customer experience and filter out pivotal episodes. This design thinking method enables us to think through required processes and systems right from the outset and ensure the development of a market-ready MVP.
Know-how and hands-on
Years of experience with corporate IT systems and processes have endowed us with a wellspring of valuable knowledge for handling complex projects. Coupled with our hands-on mentality, we facilitate an agile set-up that enables us to efficiently develop effective solutions.
Connecting systems
Pilot projects do not lend themselves well to lengthy, large-scale transformations. For such cases, we develop middleware that ensures that new and existing software systems can communicate with one another right away.
Team, facts and figures
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Philip Hoppe
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Markus Mannes
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Sören Voswinkel
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Sebastian Luxem
Director TechnologyWeb Applications & Services, Digital Customer Experiences, Virtual Assistants -
Sebastian Ruhtz
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Pavlo Savenko
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Justin Hiller
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Frank Sesselmann
Director Automotive
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