Daimler to boost role of IT, says official

With digital life becoming pervasive and entering all fields of daily social life, German automotive major Daimler AGA plans to be a data and metric driven, while offering a mobile first' experience to its customers.

"As part of our new strategy, we want to boost the role of IT in areas spanning production, development, marketing and sales," said Daimler Chief Information Officer (CIO), Jan Brecht, on Wednesday.

Admitting that IT was everywhere, Brecht told reporters on his maiden visit to India that without IT solutions, product development, order processing, production, simulation, testing, after sales service, billing and payment cannot be done.

"With IT permeating product development, infotainment and connectivity applications, our new strategy is to get closer to customers and code while being more data/metric driven to be universally connected," Brecht said at the Mercedes-Benz research and development India centre at Bengaluru.

The Indian centre is also Daimler's largest of its kind facility outside Germany and contributes to its various R&D domains and IT engineering.

Noting that new business fields with new services could be created in the transportation sector, the CIO said though digital transformation was a long-term change, it was essential for Daimler to stay ahead of competition in the industry.

"I see IT driving this transformation through understanding our customers with knowledge of software and technology to re-shape the industry, as data is the new oil," Brecht reiterated.

Asserting that the auto major would look for specialised talent for its Indian centre, Brecht said R&D and IT units were on tract with strategic growth agenda.

Ranked fifth among cities with the most innovation hubs, Bengaluru is a city of digital natives with a blooming start-up ecosystem.

"We have a lot to leverage to provide competitive edge to parent company (Mercedes- Benz) and expand the digital envelope of Diamler," centre's Chief Executive Manu Saale said on the occasion.

Four entities of Daimler operates across the country, with Mercedes-Benz India Ltd at Pune, which is responsible for production, sales, service and marketing of its passenger cars.

Similarly, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles operates under brand name Bharat Benz in Chennai, covering activities for commercial vehicles. Daimler Financial Services operates under brand Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for passenger cars and Bharat Benz Financial Services for commercial vehicles.

--IANS

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