PARIS, Jan. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, today announced the launch of its new Automotive Insights Laboratory, as part of its new AutomotiveConnect offer. The new digital virtual lab will help vehicle manufacturers gain value from data to enable improved customer experience in car purchasing and aftermarket service. It leverages a global specialized team of consultants, analysts and data scientists who collate and dissect data in real-time to provide customer insights and predict future consumer behavior.

Klas Bendrik, Vice President & Group CIO, Volvo Car Group: "We are close to an automotive revolution where technology in and around our vehicles will drive and enable opportunities which we have only just started to consider. Eventually this has the potential to change the way cars are driven, consumed, owned, designed, manufactured, sold and also paid for. Automotive OEMs will need to stop thinking about selling cars as a moment-in-time transaction but more as the means of forging a lifelong relationship with the customer. Technology and experience from other industries is at the heart of how customer relationships will evolve and grow. The future product and service solutions from the Automotive sector will need to fulfill much higher expectations and requirements from both customers, authorities and other stakeholders in a faster, global, more sustainable and an ever more connected world."  

Through the virtual lab capabilities, information is collected from multiple sources, including macroeconomic trends, geographic habits and social media, and transformed into practical insights that can inform business strategy, define customer service offerings and identify new business opportunities. In early programs with automotive clients across multiple geographies[1], these insights have led to an improvement in consumer profiling and targeting, renewal and loyalty, and enhanced predictions for pricing, demand and warranty claims:

• Campaign revenue increased through four-fold improved customer targeting
• 10 percent cost reduction through smaller target group sizes
• Warranty claims predictions were more than twice as accurate
• Sales conversion doubled or tripled due to up-sell and cross-sell

"The industry needs to improve its ability to combine intelligence about vehicles and consumers to produce insights that can be actioned. Companies should, for example, be able to predict when a consumer will be looking to change their car, and what sort of car they are likely to buy," explained Kai Grambow, Global Head of Automotive, Capgemini. "Companies need to start treating data like the new oil powering this industry. Like oil, data can be difficult to find and extract, but becomes a hugely valuable asset once refined."

The Automotive Insights Laboratory has been developed as a key part of AutomotiveConnect, Capgemini's new service to support automotive manufacturers and dealerships respond to disruptive changes in consumer behavior and expectations. AutomotiveConnect, which leverages both Capgemini's broad consulting and technology expertise combines a range of digital services that address the entire customer lifecycle, focusing on three specific areas:

• Connected Insights, underpinned by the Automotive Insights Laboratory, allows companies to gain competitive advantage by producing insights to enable the features and services and build consumer loyalty
• Connected Customer helps manufacturers to better understand their customers by communicating in the way they prefer, and individualizing offers. This means segmenting data at the micro level, so they can provide the right channel, for the right consumer, at the right time – especially important in growth markets and for today's younger consumers
• Connected Vehicle helps automotive clients find ways to make the car an extension of the consumer's home and office, enabling communication between individuals, cars and buildings in real time.

Ola Kallenius, Member of the Divisional Board, Mercedes-Benz: "We are at the beginning of using data from connected cars in the auto industry. The integration between the digital and the physical world has to be and will be a seamless one."

"Our 2014 Cars Online report of 10,000 consumers confirmed that the industry is set to be acutely influenced by social and digital shopping habits, in addition to a definite consumer desire for connectivity. However, today a customer is still likely to be met by a showroom salesman with no knowledge of their history with the brand or how they arrived at the door," Grambow concluded. "With our Automotive Insights Laboratory and overall AutomotiveConnect service, we have combined our extensive experience in working alongside some of the world's most well-known car manufacturers with our expertise in digital transformation to enable the smarter driving experience, that we know customers are now expecting and which has the potential to revolutionize the business models of OEMs in this sector."

About Capgemini
With more than 140,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini is one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2013 global revenues of EUR 10.1 billion (more than $13 billion USD). Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business and technology solutions that fit their needs and drive the results they want. A deeply multicultural organization, Capgemini has developed its own way of working, the Collaborative Business Experience^TM, and draws on Rightshore^®, its worldwide delivery model. Learn more about us at www.capgemini.com.

Rightshore^® is a trademark belonging to Capgemini

[1] 10 pilots across India, China, Sweden, UK and North America

SOURCE Capgemini

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