Qoros, the name means extensively absorbing all merits to achieve the ultimate perfection.

On June 24, a five-door version of Qoros 3 was released, which continued Qoros 3 sedan’s superior product quality, by highlighting dynamic design and innovative interconnectivity, it aims to become the fashionable choice for urban elites.

So what’s your view? With the progressive unfolding of Qoros Auto’s distribution network, consumers of more and more regions are able to experience and purchase its products. Meanwhile, judging from the company’s IT construction achievements, Qoros is now ready to embrace business takeoff.

Seeing is believing, the following is a record of an exclusive interview with CIO Wolfgang Grottke, the core builder of Qoros auto IT system, by the reporter of r5u5c.cn:

Mr. Wolfgang Grottke, CIO of Qoros Auto (left) and Mr. Wang Zijun, IT Manager of Qoros Auto (right)

IT brings about superior Internet of Vehicles life experience

Onboard smart interconnectivity life is one of the key selling points of Qoros Auto.

In the age of mobile internet, we have become inseparable with interconnectivity life. Today, convenient and smart interconnectivity life is concurrently accessible inside the vehicle. Based on free 3G network, Qoros Qloud^TM is able to provide users with more than 30 industry leading innovative functions and services including exclusive navigation, social-media sharing, booked repair and maintenance, as well as knowledge of vehicle condition etc. The aim is to let mobile interconnectivity experience accompany the vehicle, and let users’ life become simple and gratifying because of technology. Obviously, this package of onboard interconnectivity system is one of the masterpieces of Qoros Auto IT team.

Wolfgang Grottke said that Qoros vehicles includes outdoor and indoor systems, in which indoor system is the convenient and smart onboard interconnectivity life as mentioned above. At present onboard interconnectivity service is based on 3G network, in the future it will be upgraded to 4G. What’s more, any interconnectivity services enjoyed by the user inside the vehicle in fact come from Qoros Auto’s data center, with services supplied by Qoros Qloud^TM, currently the service varieties are still constantly growing.

Wolfgang Grottke said, Qoros Auto’s onboard interconnectivity system not only brings more convenient onboard interconnectivity services and driving pleasure to users, but also helps improve users’ driving habits. The system can track users’ some driving control behaviors and accordingly put forward improvement suggestions, so as to help users better drive the vehicle and enjoy safer travel life.

“In summary,” Wolfgang Grottke said, “We are now dedicated to making onboard system more human-oriented and capable of offering better operation experience, today, users are now able to enjoy comfortable interconnectivity life, in the future when any other new technologies are available, we will consider offering them to Qoros users as a top priority on our agenda.”

“In addition, we will continue to make more progress in big data and business intelligence (BI) field, based on more user data, we can not only give users more guidance in the aspect of vehicle control, we can also better cater to user preferences to introduce individualized vehicles that can fit their preferences and operation habits to users in a nearly custom-making approach. Obviously, this is one of the development directions of the entire automobile industry, and also a unique prestigious experience expected to be offered by Qoros Auto to users.” Wolfgang Grottke said.

The mysterious IT developer behind Qoros

In addition to onboard interconnectivity system, behind the launching of Qoros 3 sedan, IT is almost ubiquitous.

Qoros 3 sedan was selected as “Safest Small Family Car 2013” by European New Car Assessment Programme

For instance, Qoros 3 sedan‘s another selling point is safety. As the “Safest Small Family Car of 2013”, Qoros 3 sedan was not only awarded five star grade by European New Car Assessment Programme, its score is even the highest in the year. So, how many cars were lost in the process of acquiring this ranking by Qoros 3 sedan? Wolfgang Grottke said with a smile that in fact, not a single car was lost in the Qoros plant house, all the internal tests were completed on a simulation system.

There are many similar cases, Wolfgang Grottke said, apart from the simulation collision system, now the entire Qoros Auto has 60~70 sets of IT systems, in comparison with the traditional sense in which IT only serves as the operation support system behind the enterprise, Qoros vehicles’ IT systems now more play the role of a value provider.

Examining Qoros Auto IT with a magnifying glass

Dear readers, if you wish to learn more about IT secrets of Qoros Auto, please read this paragraph carefully.

“Qoros Auto’s IT system construction started from scratch, and was put into place in one step. Today, there are five major systems most closely linked to business operation, which respectively correspond to all stages of vehicle life cycle from design, production, to sales.” Wolfgang Grottke said.

1. Product Lifecycle Management: The core value of this system is called Bill Of Material (BOM), these BOMs may include several dozen thousand to several hundred thousand different materials, this bill represents the vehicle itself. How to better manage this bill is the core factor in considering the construction of this system.

2. Production Management System: As the second most important system in the workshop, Production Management System is responsible for taking care of existing stock volume and venue of all components to facilitate arrangement of production. At this stage, it uses SAP solutions to control production quality. SAP considers the overall production plan by combining all estimated data and dealers’ original demand data with the actual production data.

3. Manufacturing Execution System: The MES is responsible for mutual allocation among all workshops, in order to fulfill the production plan. After the body workshop builds the whole vehicle’s basic structure, this vehicle will be directly sent to the painting workshop via MES, the painting workshop will determine which color should be painted on this vehicle, and what kind of sheet metal should be prepared based on MES system’s instructions. Subsequently, under the management of MES, the vehicle passes an assembly line to enter the assembly workshop. The assembly workshop will integrate all necessary components such as engine, transmission, and chassis, carry out a performance inspection before delivering this vehicle to the dealers for sales.

4. Dealership Management System: Before selling the vehicle, Qoros Auto must first build Dealership Management System (DMS). Users can place orders in the DMS system, make out invoice, demand warranty repair, or apply for accessories.

5. Customer Relationship Management: This is the currently very hot CRM, CRM will collect customers’ interests and hobbies from different media and steps before conducting analysis, and match them with needs. Some needs are related to vehicle themselves, which will help improve vehicle design. Some needs are related to dealers, so as to drive forward automobile sales and services.

Changes in three years: How can Qoros build top-class vehicle IT by starting from scratch

Who could have imagined that within a matter of three years from its all-round kickoff in 2011, Qoros Auto’s IT system started from scratch and reached the ultimate target.

“From product design to R&D, to production execution system, to pre-sales, and after-sales guarantee system, including all the systems related to customer experience, everything starts from adding modules on a blank sheet of paper, so to speak. This is unique among domestic enterprises.” Wolfgang Grottke said.

Obviously, as CIO, Wolfgang Grottke had experienced tremendous challenges in time and cost over the past three years. Fortunately, he also has the big magic weapon of IT outsourcing: Only retaining core production data system, other IT businesses can be outsourced as much as possible, so as to ensure business flexibility and budget controllability.

Exclusive tip: Choosing the best supplier

For many companies, IT outsourcing is not an easy thing, especially when you meet unreliable suppliers.

One of Wolfgang Grottke’s biggest advantages is his penetrating pair of eyes capable of detecting the truth.

He said, when it came to suppliers evaluation indicators, what Qoros Auto value is not price or enterprise size, instead it’s past service quality and product quality.

“What we need is a corporate system capable of very quick execution, with proven track record in many mature enterprises, this is exactly what we need. In fact, as far as we are concerned, choosing these best solutions on the market not only saves time, it can also reduce our operation cost when viewed from longer perspective.” Wolfgang Grottke said.

“Here, I wish to praise Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications(SST), the network service provider of Qoros Auto, its globalized premium network services, high SLA guarantee, plus one-stop coordination services are simply the best.” Wolfgang Grottke said with raised tone.

About this point, Wang Zijun, Qoros Auto’s IT Manager explained to the reporter:

“Qoros Auto’s data center, call center, and training center are all distributed in different places, between these sites we need to fulfill interconnectivity at different SLA grades. As the IT system and infrastructure construction are gradually completed, the entire network’s security and complexity become increasingly highlighted.”

“Between Kunshan Data Center, Jiangsu Changshu Data Center, and Shanghai Office, they need three dedicated lines for connection, with three mutually backup exclusive lines.”

“Many international suppliers provide Qoros Auto with design and component supply work, Qoros Auto needs to build complicated international special lines with them.”

“Furthermore, the training center and the call center also need dedicated line connection with the data center.”

“All these needs are satisfied by SST one by one.”

“Cooperation with SST began form international network. The earliest international dedicated line of Qoros Auto was supplied by SST. Back then, we needed network connection with Magna, a major automobile design company, SSY built a dedicated line in Austria. After that our overseas VPN in Frankfort and the current German Munich Design Center were all designed by them. Beginning from this year, our domestic network connection is handed over to SST, including the company’s internal Internet lines, they helped Qoros Auto coordinate and develop contact with carriers such as China Telecom and China Unicom.”

“SST’s one-stop service enabled Qoros Auto to spend much less time in dealing with multiple network suppliers, meanwhile they offer long-term and stable service quality guarantee.” Wolfgang Grottke summarized, “This is the meaning of choosing the best supplier. It’s very important to assign the most professional people to do professional jobs. This is the primary criterion for us to choose suppliers.”

Co-existence of conservatism and innovation, smart trend to embrace the future

“Are you satisfied with work in the past three years?” Before the interview was closed, the reporter asked Wolfgang Grottke.

“We punctually and efficiently fulfilled all system requirements and tasks, of course we cannot say we are completely satisfied, for this means there is no room for making improvement.” Wolfgang Grottke gave a clever answer.

“Automobile industry is a mature industry, but at the same time it often needs to introduce new technologies. Qoros Auto is no exception, because IT is exactly one of our products’ core selling points. In the future, while striving to maintain the stability and efficiency of existing systems, we will continue to consider how to take advantage of technologies to make vehicles more human-oriented.”

“Consider the iOS onboard system CarPaly introduced by Apple, and Tesla which hopes to revolutionize the electric automobile industry, Qoros Auto IT team will also rely on its own way to determine the future with more human-oriented and more intelligent onboard system.” With these words Wolfgang Grottke concluded the interview.

SST official website: http://www.sst.net.cn/en/

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