Automotive Business Magazine – Q3 2026 – Digital edition - Flipbook - Page 30
OPI N I O N
R E TA I L
Digital transformation,
essential insight
→ Bodo Philipp is CEO at MHP Consulting UK
A
utomotive manufacturers
have long been lauded
for highly efficient
manufacturing and logistics
processes. But in a fastchanging market, agility is
now a priority. New market
entrants, a changing sales
model, and fundamental
technology changes combine to create
a new customer driven paradigm that
demands faster, dynamic reaction.
While the priority for many
organisations’ SAP S/4HANA migration
strategy has been adding efficiency to
manufacturing and logistics processes,
the adoption of modern cloud-based
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
also provides the opportunity to drive
additional value from customer data.
Automotive is not alone is facing
pressure on market share, changing
customer perception, even core values,
alongside agile and innovative new
market entrants. Industries globally face
changing customer demands, and in
response, tailored customer experience
is scaling new heights – from AI-led
engagement to real-time customised
offers and new routes to market.
For successful brands, personalisation
and customer recognition must become
part of the automotive buying – and,
critically, owning – process. Customers
expect brands to reflect their needs,
whether that is AI-driven air conditioning
or seamless integration with social
media accounts.
Informing change
One of the most pressing issues is how
to counter the rise in vehicle brand
defection, up to 56% in the UK in 2025,
according to Deloitte’s 2026 Global
Automotive Consumer Study.
In addition to responding to customers’
continually evolving attitudes towards
‘ICE versus EV versus hybrid’, the
industry must also address changing
30
AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q3 2026
perceptions of vehicle ownership. There
is a marked shift towards Mobility as a
Service (MaaS) over vehicle ownership
among younger consumers.
The migration from legacy ERP to
cloud-based SAP S4 HANA provides the
foundation for automotive companies
to respond to changing customer
behaviours. With a single source
of all operational data, automotive
manufacturers can leverage powerful
analytics to understand customers.
This insight can transform customer
engagement throughout the changing
sales model. It can flag opportunities to
safely use AI, both within vehicles and
throughout the ownership experience.
Critically, it can surface information to
support complex decisions about future
business models and brand direction.
In an industry that is enduring change
from every direction, future success will
require a different approach at every
level, from the way brands engage
customers throughout a vehicle’s lifespan,
to the pace of innovation and evolution of
vehicle sales and finance models.
The migration to SAP S/4 HANA is now
pressing, but with the right approach,
the shift to the cloud-based ERP solution
presents an essential opportunity to
redefine the automotive industry.
It will enable automotive
manufacturers to gain enormous value
from highly accurate predictions and
forecasts; it will transform agility and
offer the chance to drive rather than just
respond to customer perceptions.
It will introduce new opportunities
to leverage AI, both to support faster
product iteration and to improve
customer engagement.
Improvements in efficiency and
productivity will underpin the business
case for migration; but it is the
information held within an integrated,
end-to-end ERP system that will play a
vital role in creating the foundation for
future automotive success.
