EUROPEAN COMPANIES TURN TO IBM AI AND HYBRID CLOUD TO HELP DRIVE THE NEXT CHAPTER OF IBM DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
>> Volkswagen, Moovster and Vinturas work with IBM to provide business insights across the automotive value chain
PARIS - IBM today announced relationships with European companies - Volkswagen (Germany), Moovster (Germany) and Vinturas (Netherlands) - that could redefine the future of their auto industry with hybrid cloud and AI.
"Our relationship with vehicles and the way we experience mobility is expected to change drastically over the coming decade," said Dirk Wollschlaeger, General Manager Global Automotive, Aerospace & Defense Industries at IBM. "AI and Hybrid Cloud are viewed as key drivers of evolving business models, such as personalized digital services in and around the vehicle."
A September 2017 IBM survey of automotive executives from around the world revealed that 73 percent surveyed believe future mobility services will need to be co-created with consumers as digital technologies redefine our relationship with our vehicles.1 IBM is working to introduce hybrid cloud and AI solutions - including IoT and Blockchain - to automotive companies to help them enable their digital reinvention.
IBM Announcing Relationships
Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH, in Zwickau, Germany, is laying the groundwork to meet Volkswagen Group's commitment to sell more than one million electric vehicles annually by 2025. VW Sachsen has been working with IBM to implement SAP S/4HANA™, which serves as a pilot to streamline financial processes worldwide for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
Moovster, the Munich-based mobility and artificial intelligence start-up, developed a new Mobility-as-a-Service platform for employers, employees, citizens and smart cities that want to change mobility in big cities for the better. Moovster makes everyday mobility more flexible, saves the user money and rewards sustainable and healthy mobility behavior. As a response to the increasingly congested cities, Moovster motivates users to choose alternative transport options for example personal bicycle, electro scooter, sharing offers or public transport. The solution is running in the IBM Cloud.
Vinturas, a Netherlands-based automotive logistics company, is deploying IBM Blockchain technologies to help improve the experience of buying a new or used car. By using blockchain to replace previously paper-based systems, the Vinturas platform will build greater transparency and efficiency into the movement of vehicles between manufacturers, dealers, and leasing companies – helping to increase the confidence of buyers and reduce VAT, mileage and import-tax fraud, which costs billions of dollars in Europe every year.
Improve customer journey
Creating visibility in the supply chain can help dealers to inform their customers about the location and the estimated time of arrival of new vehicles and thus considerably improve the ‘customer journey’ for their customers. The Vinturas platform will allow OEM’s and fleet owners to manage their European flows on a near-real time basis, improving planning, optimizing inventories and networks and saving costs. Vinturas will contribute to a more efficient, sustainable supply chain infrastructure in Europe.
Founding members
Behind the initiative are four ‘founding members’, all respected logistics service providers for the Industry. Axess Logistics, NVD, Koopman Logistics Group and Autolink Group ensure that the services of Vinturas can be delivered in a large number of European countries from the launch of the platform in September 2019.
EML, a large sea-carrier in Europe will also contribute to the platform to provide visibility for the sea-bound part of the automotive supply chain.
Partners
Vinturas is supported by strong partnerships. IBM (NYSE: IBM) as technology partner will provide the expertise to build the Vinturas platform. Grant Thornton, with its auditing, legal, advisory and blockchain expertise, will be a partner of Vinturas.
Leading platform
The CEO of Vinturas is Jon Kuiper. Kuiper formerly CEO of Koopman Logistics Group brings a wealth of senior executive experience in supply chain management from various global corporations. Jon Kuiper: "Vinturas aims to be the leading platform in Finished Vehicle Logistics. We strongly believe in the power of collaboration. The launch of Vinturas with four well-known logistics service providers and our choice of IBM as technology partner shows our long-term commitment to delivering sustainable value".
Democratic data-sharing
Vinturas is an open eco-system and thus accessible to all players in the field of Finished Vehicle Logistics. Therefore software companies, logistic service providers and other application providers are also invited to work with Vinturas. The key benefit of working together is the ability to share data in a secure distributed blockchain infrastructure. Kuiper: "We do believe the future of our industry is in collaborating and democratic data-sharing. By working together, we can unlock significant value for all players in our industry". IBM provides Vinturas proven blockchain technology, ensuring secured data-sharing, immutable records and creation of a full digital record of a vehicle’s lifecycle in the supply chain.
