AUDI is one of the leading brands in the premium car manufacturing industry with nearly 1.9 million vehicles delivered in 2017. The increasing importance of connect services in the premium car segment world-wide leads to a more connect oriented strategy at Audi. The implementation of this strategy requires new tools and processes in order to deliver connect functions to the customer.

Due to legal and security requirements, the process of activating the connect services for usage in the vehicle is rather complex. It used to be available only in myAudi, the customer application, as a self-service process. This needed to be improved in order to ensure a premium customer experience during the delivery process.

The application myAudi Go was designed as the interface between the Audi partner and the customer’s myAudi account. It enables the partner to perform various tasks related to the sales and connect process on behalf of the customer, thus reducing the workload on the customer’s side.

Goals and Challenges

The main goals of the project were

• simplification of the connect activation process for the customer
• Integration of connect into the sales process
• Increase of connect activation and usage numbers

To achieve these goals, the new application myAudi Go was supposed to integrate connect functions within the sales process for vehicles equipped with connect services. The application had to be delivered in a fixed and tight timeframe of seven months, running productive in July 2017.

mgm was tasked with designing and implementing myAudi Go as well as the coordination of the project with other system representatives. The application needed to be connected to the myAudi backend systems in order to ensure access to the same data basis. This required regular contact and smooth cooperation with the other service providers.

One of the major challenges of the project was the technical implementation of the backend interfaces. Since most myAudi backend systems were designed to support only the end customer process and major changes were out of question due to the timeline, myAudi Go hat to take over some of the third-party functions. This required a high level of flexibility in the architecture and technical design of myAudi Go.

The legal and process requirements due to partners’ access to customers’ personal data posed another challenge for this project. Although the overall connect process remained the same, it needed additional restrictions for data access, customer confirmation of partner actions and a reporting system. All project participants needed to adopt a new viewpoint at the process and constantly keep an eye out for potential legal risks.

As the final requirements for the application were unknown at the time of the project start and new requirements formed until shortly before Go Live, the timeline itself was yet another challenge of the project.

Methods and Factors of Success

Due to the changing requirements an agile approach has been adopted in the project from the start. A prioritized kanban board along with regular technical review meetings and close cooperation with the business and IT departments helped the team to maintain an efficient and steady development process. Regular coordination with other service providers responsible for the various myAudi systems was also one of the key factors of success for the project.

Due to the very short time available for the development, a thorough requirements engineering process, an experienced technical lead and pragmatic decision-making were decisive for the project success.

Key Success Factors

• Understanding of Audi partners’ and customers’ needs
• Years of expertise with Audi and VW systems as well as understanding of the connect process
• Far-reaching technical involvement with focus on the integrated architecture
• Continuous requirements engineering process, prioritization, documentation and requirements tracking
• Agile approach with regular feedback sessions, technical reviews, very early testing and coordination with other systems’ development teams
• MVP delivery in a short time and iterative improvements with short release cycles

After an intensive development period of seven months, the application was delivered on time. myAudi Go has been received well by the dealers world-wide, while the number of customer registrations has increased. Since go-live as of May 2018 myAudi Go continues to deliver new releases and widen the functionality of the application.

* This reference has been officially confirmed by Audi.