Munich. The digital revolution is of tremendous
importance for the automotive industry. The BMW Group was quick to
recognise the direction of progress and is fully prepared for the
challenge at hand thanks to BMW Connected and its ever-expanding
digital ecosystem. “It’s not just a question of developing and
integrating new technologies or services for vehicles,” explains
Dieter May, Senior Vice President Digital Products and Services BMW
Group. “ The focus is on the customer and their expectations of modern
mobility. The digital lifestyle they are accustomed to should continue
to be offered to them – seamlessly and without any restrictions – no
matter whether they are in their car or away from it. BMW and MINI
vehicles are being transformed into additional touchpoints for the
customer, just as a smartphone is already.”
The ability to use services virtually anywhere and at any time forms
the cornerstone for an all-encompassing digital experience from the
BMW Group that is geared entirely to the customer. The developments
over recent years underline the concept’s success. As May explains,
“BMW ConnectedDrive is currently available in 45 countries and there
are already more than eleven million connected vehicles on the world’s
roads. What’s more, over four million customers worldwide are now
using BMW Connected.”
The digital customer experience is a top
priority
One of the major consequences of digitalisation
is that the vehicle itself has turned into a touchpoint, making it a
central hub of the customer experience that is so important to the BMW
Group. “The digital ecosystem formed around BMW Connected, including
the link to BMW’s Open Mobility Cloud, enables us to not only better
understand our customers, but also to assist them with personalised
and contextual in-car information,” continues May. The
latest-generation BMW Operating System 7.0, which caters even better
to customers’ personal needs from its digital platform, also plays a
crucial role here. “The BMW Connected ecosystem is invaluable when it
comes to creating a seamless customer experience. This makes it
possible to keep customers connected via all digital channels within
the BMW Group using their BMW ID – and therefore to assist them at any
time,” says May.
The digital experience for customers begins even before they have
purchased their vehicle – thanks, for example, to the kind of virtual
reality technology employed by the BMW i Visualiser app to allow
interactive exploration of BMW i products. Such technologies provide
customers with a brand new and unique way of getting to know their
future car. The same applies to the process of vehicle configuration.
“Taking the customer’s preferences as a basis, we have the means of
offering them exactly the product they are looking for, complete with
digital services,” explains Dieter May. And the experience continues
for customers while they are waiting for their new car, thanks to the
My Car is Born service that forms part of BMW Connected. “The customer
is therefore involved in the production of their vehicle at an early
point. This gives us the opportunity to forge an emotional bond
between customer and car at this very early stage,” says May,
highlighting once again the importance of using digital channels to
strengthen customer ties. By letting customers add new services for a
specific period of time, from their car and whenever they wish, the
BMW ConnectedDrive Store turns the customer experience into a holistic
digital experience.
A new era of digital ecosystems
“This goes to
show that we understand our customers and – within the context of BMW
– know what they want and what they need,” continues May. All of which
acts as an essential anchor at a time when numerous new digital
ecosystems are forming and taking root. “We are in an age of digital
assistants ushered in by Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. For
some time now, we have offered customers the ability to integrate
these assistants from the comfort of their home.” Having kept pace
with this latest development from the get-go, the BMW Group will – as
of March 2019 – introduce its own assistant into its cars in the form
of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant. No matter what new
touchpoints come into play in the future, the BMW Group is committed
to ensuring customers receive the right services at all times – and
that they are seamlessly connected with their digital lifestyles. “The
possibilities offered by autonomous driving, electrification and
ever-greater connectivity are opening the door to completely new
experiences and ways of organising journeys by car. At the same time,
they are changing what people want and the lifestyles they choose,”
stresses Dieter May. “This is precisely where the intelligent platform
comes in useful. It will make it possible to use a single customer
profile, the BMW ID, to switch from one BMW to another, seamlessly and
without limitation, throughout a vehicle’s life cycles. Added to
which, we will pool together all products and services for the
individual mobility of our customers and gradually build them into an
all-embracing BMW ecosystem.”
Together with automated driving, the systematic expansion of
connectivity en route to a digital, emission-free future is one of the
key fields of action for the BMW Group as it seeks to drive the
transformation of the mobility sector as part of its NUMBER ONE
NEXT strategy.