Cases /

Automotive

Making the digital car buying experience real with costumization
From the dealership to the screen - to ensure that the online car buying experience is every bit as good as the real thing, it requires meaningfully linked data.

More and more automotive groups, but also small to medium-sized vehicle suppliers, are looking for new solutions to offer their vehicles online for configuration and purchase. There are many reasons for this: the choice of appointments at car dealerships is limited, there is not a sufficiently large dealer network or the resources to expand one are not available.

In order to reproduce the dealership experience online as accurately as possible, mountains of data have to be read out and logically linked so that the configuration results make sense in the end. With our know-how, an initially generic platform could be customized to the customer's requirements and offer the car buyer an immersive experience.

Designers and vehicle manufacturers face many problems in the online configuration of vehicles: Different systems have to access each other logically. Plug-and-play solutions? Not a chance. In addition, more and more realistic data has to be transferred to the cloud and from there back to the end device.

A generic platform was already available for the project. However, this had to be customized specifically for the vehicle provider to provide the company's corporate design and a tailored user journey for their vehicles. The main challenge was to transform the manufacturer's existing vehicle data for use in the generic platform to ensure that the vehicles could be fully and correctly represented by the Unreal Engine in the end.

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Our strategy: To create a platform with customer-specific CAD model data and logically output technical data, we first have to read out the vehicle data from the customer's system.

This is done with the help of a specially developed adapter. With this, the data can be retrieved from the customer's SAP system and transformed accordingly. Iteratively, we perform requirements analyses and tests to identify and correct overlaps in the equipment options.

After importing into the generic platform, we calculate live which combinations of equipment are allowed. In parallel, we extend the frontend application based on the backend, which is integrated on the company website in cooperation with other service providers.

Technologies

Throughout the project, we relied on TypeScript. The generic platform was developed using NestJS and extended with custom modules. A frontend library used RxJS to structure communication with the backend. On the frontend, we used React to quickly bring the configurator to life and integrate it with Sitecore on the corporate website. Material UI allowed us to draw on a large pool of components during development, which were easily adapted to the client's corporate design.

Tools

To get the code down on paper, we used VS Code consistently. This created a pleasant development experience and the possibility to unify code standards and settings across all team members.

In close cooperation with the vehicle group and the platform provider, we were able to go live with a light version after just three months. This was replaced as a sneak peak a few months later by the full version, which could be described as a success with several thousand vehicle orders just a few hours after release.

With the customized solution, end-customers can experience the vehicle configuration immersively and almost real, giving them an impressive picture of their future vehicle. As a go-to partner for technical issues, we were able to identify any problems that arose and provide a solution to enable a successful go-live.

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Automotive

Making the digital car buying experience real with customization.

Car manufacturers and dealers are increasingly looking for ways to sell cars online. To make the online buying experience more realistic, a lot of data has to be analyzed and linked in a meaningful way. With our support, an originally generic platform was adapted to the individual needs of customers, creating an immersive shopping experience.

CHALLENGE

Different systems must access each other logically

  • Initial situation: Generic platform was available
  • Difficulty in transferring the manufacturer's existing data to the ? generic platform
  • No plug-and-play solutions available
  • Need to transfer real data to the cloud
  • Adaptation of the platform to the corporate design of the vehicle manufacturer
  • Customized user journey for guided configuration of the vehicle

STRATEGY

Creation of a platform with customised CAD model data

  • Reading data from the customer's SAP system with a specially developed adapter.
  • Iterative requirements analysis and testing to identify and correct overlaps of mismatched equipment options.
  • Transformation of vehicle data into the generic platform to calculate allowed equipment combinations.
  • Parallel to the data transformation, a front-end application is built from scratch
  • Integration of the configurator as an app on the company website in cooperation with other service providers

SOLUTION

Customized solution for immersive and near-real vehicle configuration

  • Close cooperation with vehicle group and platform provider
  • Go-live of the light version after three months
  • Full version a few months later
  • Success through several thousand vehicle orders in the first hours
  • As a go-to partner for technical issues: identify emerging problems provide a solution for successful go-live

TECHNOLOGIES

Usage technologies: Typescript, NestJS, RxJS, React, Material UI

TOOLS

VS Code