A WORD WITH THE IT ROLLOUT TEAM
In this interview, we talk to Max-Luca, Martin, Fabian, Justin, Torsten and Michel from the IT Rollout team in the After Sales department at the Hanover site about their current projects and the challenges of their work.
Marketing & Communication Team:
Dear Michel, what tasks and roles do you take on as the IT Rollout Team in the Aftersales department at VWGIS?
Michel: The IT Rollout Team has existed in VWGIS since the end of 2018 at the Hanover location. Since the start, we have been involved in the D!AS programme, which develops new systems for aftersales in global trade. Our job is to make these newly developed systems and functions available in the trade worldwide. In the beginning, we mainly implemented many stand-alone rollouts, which means that we rolled out products from the D!AS programme independently of other software solutions in the trade. In the meantime, we have developed more and more expertise in the area of integrated rollouts. In doing so, we link the systems from the D!AS programme to the local systems in the market, mainly dealer management systems (DMS).
Max-Luca: In our main activity, the DMS-integrated rollout, our focus is on the integration of third-party trading systems into our OEM product portfolio. This is done via a central cloud-based integration layer, which provides various APIs for product-specific connection via the Internet. Our main task here is to ensure flawless end-to-end communication. This includes, for example, clarifying technical requirements and, in particular, technical end-to-end tests, which we carry out as a quality gate before go-live in the market.
Michel: Directly after go-live in the market, an intensive hypercare phase follows, in which we monitor for one to two months and check whether errors occur or everything works smoothly. As soon as we have ensured an error-free connection, we hand over the integration to support and thus to the responsibility of the respective product.
Marketing & Communication Team:
What are your goals as an IT rollout team? How do you implement them and make them measurable afterwards?
Michel: On the one hand, we naturally contribute to the achievement of the D!AS goals, which include the reduction of administrative time in the dealership, system stabilisation, enhancement of the customer experience and increase in turnover through cross-selling. Especially through the DMS integrations, we contribute to the reduction of administrative time. Dealership employees save several minutes per workshop visit due to system interruptions.
Martin: By creating satisfaction among our stakeholders (e.g. importers, trade, product teams from D!AS) with our work, we also want to establish ourselves further and further as rollout experts for group systems - I think we are succeeding quite well at the moment.
Torsten: Ultimately, of course, we also have the goal of standardising our processes in the rollouts more and more in order to achieve our qualitative and quantitative goals.
Fabian: We measure our progress through regular "lessons learned". In addition, we track completed rollouts and receive feedback from stakeholders. The number of follow-up orders is also an expression of our successful work.
Team Marketing & Communication:
What are your day-to-day challenges and how do you overcome them?
Justin: One of the big challenges is the high complexity that arises from the number of stakeholders in the rollout process. On the other hand, we have to keep track of the information gathering and technical coordination between these stakeholders: From Asia to Europe, including the different time zones. Our solution approach is therefore transparent communication to all stakeholders.
Max-Luca: In addition to the stakeholder diversity and the resulting project complexity, we also operate in an environment that can also hold technical challenges. In our daily work, we deal with cloud-based state-of-the-art integration technologies and IT standards in order to integrate the variety of different third-party systems in the best possible way. Here it is particularly important to have a great willingness to further develop one's own knowledge and to proactively educate oneself in these areas. In addition, we always make sure to share new knowledge within the team and thus keep each other up to date with the best possible information.
Many thanks to all of you for this exciting and interesting interview! We wish you lots of fun and success with the upcoming rollouts!