Case Study

Vjumi: a connected solution for car maintenance and repair

Concept Reply has developed a mobile vjumi app and IoT-platform for Select AG.

Condition analysis and predictive maintenance

Digitization is increasing in the automotive sector. Software technology is increasingly finding its way into vehicles and many control devices are being networked. When it comes to vehicle faults, they are currently solved in the following way: vehicle owner goes to a vehicle repair shop where the data can be read from the vehicle.
The repair is carried out based on this, and the vehicle is unavailable for a period of time.

These "breakdowns" should be avoided.
The future belongs to regular maintenance, carried out proactively: predictive maintenance.
Drivers want to be informed before the brake pads are worn out. They want an email reminder or push notification, so they can promptly set up the next vehicle test appointment.

Seamless communication

Drivers benefit from digital communication between the repair shop, the repair shop customer and the vehicle. Concept Reply has created the vjumi product for Select AG, which combines these requirements.

This presented some challenges. Initial solutions only covered the communication between the vehicle and the customer. However, customers are not able to interpret complex messages from control units, or errors. The repair shop and its expertise are needed. Select AG forms the link. As an association of several automotive parts wholesalers, it is in constant communication with many repair shops. One important component of the solution is the direct integration into existing repair shop systems, such as the parts catalog or the dealer management system.

Interpreting data

The interpretation of data is at the core of this solution. There is no uniform standard in the automotive sector via which vehicle information can be exchanged. Therefore vjumi is based on an intelligent hardware and cloud solution, which processes data from several thousand vehicles almost in real time. These can be interpreted by different OEMs. It is thus challenging to access vehicle information. For example, with BMW CarData, BMW has taken the first step to providing third-party suppliers with this information. This has been integrated into vjumi.

Easy to use

The focus here is on connectivity. The robust IoT solution is easy to use for end-users and repair shops. To ensure a good user experience, complex registration processes, appointments and data evaluations are stored in the cloud. Data security is the priority.

Concept Reply developed the vjumi product for Select AG. An OBD 2 Dongle sends the data from the vehicle to the cloud via mobile communication. A highly available backend, based on an Azure serverless architecture, processes the dataflows from the vehicles in real time. These are completely integrated into the customer systems in the repair shops, such as the vehicle parts catalog or the WAP (repair shop billing pilot), via external APIs.

Digital repair shop service for any eventuality

Customers communicate directly with the repair shop via the mobile vjumi app, developed based on Flutter. vjumi provides support in the event of a vehicle breakdown, provides reminders of upcoming repair shop appointments/vehicle tests or oil and brakes servicing. The driver can see important vehicle information and vjumi interprets the diagnostic data. Another service is the journey history, where the driver can see trips for a single vehicle or an entire fleet.

A success story

Feedback from customers and repair shops is overwhelmingly positive. vjumi provides a digital vehicle service via your smartphone, and generates safety and trust. This results in long-term and improved customer retention.

Picture

Concept Reply is an IoT software developer specializing in the research, development and validation of innovative solutions and supports its customers in the automotive, manufacturing, smart infrastructure and other industries in all matters relating to the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing. The goal is to offer end-to-end solutions along the entire value chain: from the definition of an IoT strategy, through testing and quality assurance, to the implementation of a concrete solution.