Custom Software Development

The Future of Custom Automotive Solutions Development: Smartphone-Like Experience and Beyond

10 min read

The future is here for automotive software. As the software-defined vehicle comes to market, automotive companies must act quickly and decisively if they want to harness its potential.

The software-defined vehicle is a disruptive innovation that has the potential to change the automotive industry forever. Like other industries, automotive companies must embrace this change and prepare for it now—not later.

Customers expect more from their vehicles today than ever before. They want advanced autonomous-driving features and new personalization options, but they also want to integrate digital services into an automotive ecosystem that goes beyond the conventional car—a smartphone-like experience, –McKinsey report.

The trend toward self-driving and electric vehicles will dramatically increase the amount of software installed in cars. Can the auto industry cope with the rapid advancement of automotive software?


automotive software market size
Infotainment, connectivity, security—and connected services—will grow at pace with the overall software market, –McKinsey.

By 2030 these areas of automotive software will form the second-largest software market segment. This growth is driven by a high share of connected vehicles and demand for in-car payments, location-based services, and music streaming.

As stated in the “How software is eating car?” post, once, software was a part of the car, and now, software determines the value of a car.
The automotive software market is projected to more than double in size from $31 billion in 2019 to an estimated $80 billion by 2030—a compound annual growth rate of 9 percent –McKinsey.

The rapid development of a custom automotive software development market is caused by:

  • The increasing demand for industrial applications to analyze real-time data;
  • The rise of new technologies (AI-drive & robotics automation);
  • The growth of ADAS feature adoption;
  • Increasing adoption of connected car services;
  • The lack of connected infrastructure;
  • The mass adoption of analytics.

The vast majority of this revenue will come from ADAS and AD systems that make up nearly half of the total software market by 2030.

For these reasons, automotive businesses and manufacturers invest millions of dollars in custom automotive software. They need a flexible, scalable solution that can help them stay ahead of the curve. But how are they going to build such an advanced system?

As driving technology and cloud computing converge, it is clear that the open-source concept that has taken over the Internet will now take over cars. Today's trends suggest that the future of the automotive industry lies in the convergence of automotive hardware and software cloud solutions.

A software-driven approach will help you create a new level of integration between your company and its customers while providing unprecedented flexibility and agility in innovation. It can be anything from personalized IoT solutions for vehicles to CRM and ERP systems for internal management. Regardless of the type of automotive software development, custom solutions ensure high personalization and customer service.

Custom Automotive Solutions Development: Main Types

Automotive companies are shifting from making hardware to making code, slowly but surely merging with automotive software companies.

The trend is clear: the auto industry is changing, and companies need to adapt or be left behind. That’s why many automotive companies are increasingly looking towards automotive software as a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors and respond to emerging customer needs.

To make the transition from a conventional car to an automotive ecosystem—a kind of smartphone on wheels—means making changes to the vehicle's electronics and software architecture.

New technology is an unprecedented opportunity to grow and develop the business if you are:

  • an automotive manufacturer;
  • an auto part and accessory manufacturer;
  • an OEM supplier;
  • an auto dealership owner;
  • or an owner of an automotive fleet management business.

The power of custom automotive solutions development allows a business to get into the user's smartphone and communicate with them. Adding personalization will allow you to keep interested and increase the average check.

Types of Custom Automotive Solutions Development
Types of Custom Automotive Solutions Development

Automotive CRM Software

Automotive CRM is a single platform that puts you in control of your data and delivers the experience your customers expect. Direct selling has revolutionized the automotive industry by allowing manufacturers to take back control of their brands. If a manufacturer can get a complete picture of its customers, it will no longer depend on dealers. In turn, car dealers can use automotive CRM to understand customers, target marketing programs better, and create added value across the customer relationship cycle.

Automotive CRM systems for the automotive industry open up a lot of new opportunities. They let you:

  • launch new ownership models, including car sharing and subscription cars;
  • build a global marketplace for your brand's used cars;
  • offer customers contracts, including parts and service packages, and use technology to help them choose exactly what they need.

Automotive ERP

The automotive landscape is under increasing pressure to increase productivity, reduce costs, and quickly identify and respond to changes in customer demand. You can optimize and automate your processes with automotive ERP. Innovative automotive solutions can also add value to your brand, increase market share, and meet ever-growing and increasingly complex customer requirements.

The main function of automotive ERP is to combine all business processes (and company resources) into one system and simplify, accelerate, and optimize. Automating routine processes and avoiding repeated input of the same information by different departments is a big step in the right direction.

However, automotive ERP is more than just accounting, human resources, and procurement in one program. Top-of-the-line automotive ERP systems equipped with the latest technologies, like AI, ML, and IoT, grant management various options to become even more transparent and efficient.

A software product is often built on several levels. The level with core functionality, a level with data management tools, and several additional modules customized to the business needs. It is designed in such a way as to create a single cycle and allow management to cover all key processes, including budget planning, supply chains, and warehouse accounting.

Automotive ERP for automotive industry offers critical business processes governance and support. In addition, enterprise management solutions can benefit OEMs and suppliers, particularly in the manufacturing and supply chain. The ability to model various product configurations, enterprise asset management, warranty service, program and project management, and operational and financial analysis will undoubtedly bring surely benefits.

Automotive ERP

TMS Software

TMS software presented on the market today cannot be underestimated. The latest systems available on the market are not limited to data collection and reporting capabilities. Logistics managers and 3PLs now use transportation management systems for the entire delivery operation, which includes four key processes:

  • Planning and decision-making. Transport logistics management provides vital information in real-time, allowing transport specialists to plan and make decisions according to a given set of parameters. These include choosing between carriers for transport costs, shorter routes, and fewer stops.
  • Implementation of transportation plans. TMS transportation management system allows faster and easier execution of transportation plans due to the automation of vital functions: acceptance of the carrier's tariff, dispatching, and EDI.
  • Visibility. A TMS makes it easy for a logistics manager to track cargo in transit so that everyone involved, including the customer, knows exactly where the cargo is at any given time. Logistics managers have access to this information from point A to arrival at point B, customs clearance, invoicing, and booking.
  • Reporting. Most TMSs have logistics KPI reporting functionality that allows for easy performance measurement.

Automated transport management brings the necessary profitability and efficiency to your business. The task of automobile companies is to provide easier and freer movement for the consumer. One of the keys to its solution is a variety of software services.

TMS Software

Car Diagnostics

Car diagnostic software is a great way to ensure that your customers are getting the best experience possible. This automotive software provides powerful data analysis while also providing real-time information on all parts of the vehicle and its performance. This can help you to improve customer service, reduce costs, improve safety, and increase efficiency.

IoT Car Solutions

IoT car solutions allow you to connect your vehicles to the internet, which allows you to monitor and analyze performance. This automotive software also provides real-time information on the location of the vehicle, as well as its speed and fuel consumption. This can help fleet owners reduce costs by optimizing routes, improving safety through better driver training and monitoring, and increasing efficiency by providing real-time feedback on performance.

RPA Automotive Software Solutions

RPA offers a wide range of solutions that help fleet managers run their businesses more effectively. From service reporting tools, client document processing solutions, or regulatory compliance software to maintenance management software, these products can be tailored to your specific needs. Custom automotive software is designed to meet the needs of any business in the automotive industry—from dealerships and repair shops to manufacturers and distributors.

Car Rental Software Solutions

If you’re a fleet manager in the car rental business, managing vehicles can be a challenging task. You need to ensure that all cars are in good condition and are being driven safely by qualified drivers. You also have to keep track of how much mileage is being driven by each vehicle and how often it needs maintenance. In addition, you may have to manage insurance claims if there are accidents or vandalism on your property.

Custom car rental software can help you manage all of these tasks. It allows you to keep track of vehicle usage, mileage, maintenance records, and other important data to ensure that your fleet is safe and well-maintained. You’ll also be able to track insurance claims and manage customer service issues online.

If you are ready to venture to the next level with next-gen tech, let us know about your ideas.

Benefits of IT Outsourcing Companies Over Off-the-Shelf SaaS Solutions

Custom automotive solutions development can be a new horizon for business development. If you do everything like everyone else, use the same software everyone uses, and maintain processes at the same level, you will not succeed. But with custom automotive solutions, your company will go through a digital business transformation ending up with a successful and stand-alone digital product.

Custom automotive solutions development is more than just a way for you to improve the performance of your existing products and services; they’re also a way for you to expand into new markets. The key features of custom automotive development are flexibility and scalability. This technology allows you to choose the features that best suit your needs, so you can customize the system for your specific business model.

Car dealerships already practice instant messaging to communicate with clients. With custom automotive software, car dealerships enable swift and seamless interaction between businesses and customers, improving customer satisfaction.

Add as Many Unique Features as Needed

Custom automotive software is unique for each company. The automotive software you develop will be designed specifically for your business, so it’s not just a generic solution that works for everyone. It can be used to improve the performance of your existing products and services, or it can help you expand into new markets. What’s more, you can add new features to your system as your customer base grows, ensuring that it’s always up-to-date and meets their needs.

Easy to Customize & Scale

IT outsourcing services can help you create new business models that take advantage of the data generated by connected vehicles. You can use this data to offer services such as fleet management and driver monitoring or to improve the performance of your existing products and services.

  • Personalization. All functions are “automotive software” designed specifically for business processes and organizational needs. Therefore, the new automotive industry software will be easy to implement and use by the company's employees.
  • Full control. The company may be fine with the presence of certain functions because they completely own the software. However, the organization decides which functions must be enabled and disabled.
  • High competitiveness. The company is independent of updates of the finished automotive industry software and can independently decide how it will work and what solutions will be emphasized. This will help you work more efficiently and achieve your goals faster. At the same time, competitors can use ready-made software, which restricts the introduction of new solutions.

The flexibility of solutions. The company independently adds or removes functions and adapts them to new processes and needs.

Dedicated Team at Your Service

Most of the time, the company can’t fulfill such complex software requirements within its in-house team. That’s when they address the service of an outsource dedicated team of software developers. The automotive software development company on IT project outsourcing has more expertise to turn your business software ideas into reality.

If you collaborate with a dedicated team like ElifTech for your IT project outsourcing, you have specialists working on your automotive solutions and able to cover all development cycles. The established team of experts performs greater results at the maximum efficiency due to smooth interaction between departments and their constant experience.

IT Outsourcing Process at ElifTech
IT Outsourcing Process at ElifTech

Instead of Conclusions

The software of a modern car is over 100 million lines of code. That's ten times the code for the Android operating system and twice the code for Facebook. By advancing tech, automakers can focus on vehicle opportunities in terms of comfort and entertainment for owners rather than traditional car performance.

Most solutions on the market are closely related to IoT, and automation, sometimes using machine learning. Each year automotive technology is focused on research and the creation of algorithms. Thus, the future of custom automotive solution development is maximizing the impact of the “software” part of the equation.

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