For Expleo’s customer, a global automotive manufacturer, the after sales division has grown into a vast operation and a strategic revenue source, with tens of thousands of dealers and millions of transactions every year. Given the importance of sales efficiency to customer satisfaction, this division also has a key influence on brand value.
In the last decade, the OEM took the decision to bring its entire after sales business under one roof, to ensure efficiency and standardisation for repairs, manuals, warranties, release planning, tracking parts etc. This shift required a strong management system to centralise all its brands worldwide.
The Challenge - test and management of a centralised after sales system
From an organisational perspective, this meant digital applications needed to be consolidated within a single system to reduce the risk of duplication and potential loss of productivity. Given the extent of interdependencies in such a large organisation, the successful management of after sales centrally has proved transformative in growing revenue in recent years. Expleo was hired to test and manage the effective quality of this centralised digital after sales system.
Next year, Expleo will celebrate 10 years as lead test and quality assurance partner for the OEM’s digital after sales division. Worldwide, our 70-strong team fulfils two roles: traditional testing of processes, services, and technology as a final validation of quality, as well as proactive quality consultants earlier in the production lifecycle to ensure highest quality is an end-to-end consideration.
Expleo’s longevity in the role owes everything to the respect its people have developed with their counterparts. The team understands and speaks the language of the customer, offering valuable experience and knowledge of all the many interdependencies of the after sales division. Expleo has built close, harmonious relationships with the customer and its huge network of stakeholders. This deep trust is extremely important to the team, who see the role as more than a job –it’s an everyday mission to maintain quality throughout the OEM’s after sales division.
Solutions - shift left mentality based on trust
Through test automation and performance testing, Expleo raises the quality of software development further, ensuring that systems are stable and reliable. Team members fulfil several different roles: test managers, test architects, requirement engineers, performance testers, test automation engineers, all combining to ensure systems are stable and performing well before they go-live.
Expleo is also very proud of its independence. Being a step removed from the business allows the team to question and challenge as a quality watchdog – a perspective that is highly valued by the customer. Far beyond testing, Expleo’s experts can also use their knowledge to influence and accelerate important projects. Communication is therefore a critical skill, as advice may require a significant redevelopment to implement.
Outcome - quality and customer focus
Expleo has finetuned a maturity-based approach that helps the customer to define, follow and optimise processes, monitoring the maturity of dependent systems at the start of the test period and offering guidance for areas of improvement in the development phase. The aim is to raise maturity at all phases, so only small details need fixing at the final integration stage.
Quality in the production area has remained high under Expleo’s watch. The team has helped to shape a complex architecture of interdependencies into a system that really does work – and which provides excellent after sales care for millions of drivers. And all this during a time of extreme technological change.
Looking to the future of e-mobility
The next decade will prove equally exciting for the customer as it positions its after sales business towards meeting the upcoming challenges of digitalisation and e-mobility. Electric vehicles typically reduce maintenance costs by 20 to 30 percent compared with conventional vehicles, therefore the OEM aims to grow customer loyalty through digital services. Expleo is ready to maintain quality at every turn.
