Hitting the Accelerator on Transforming Development for Mobility Solutions

Today, innovations are delivered primarily through software. For companies that have not traditionally specialized in software development, this can be a huge challenge, particularly since the costs and complexities of develop ment are spiraling upward.

THE CHALLENGE

Achieving Maximum ROI While Expanding Complex Development Capabilities

For one leading innovator in mobility technology, it was clear that a major shift in its embedded software development capabilities was a must. The company had teams, tools, and facilities all over the world and needed to integrate and coordinate them to accelerate innovation. However, it was far less clear how to achieve the conflicting goals of faster innovation and lower development costs. 

Specifically, the company needed to radically expand its mission-critical software development capabilities to meet fast-changing market and competitive requirements. This required improving the toolchain to facilitate faster, more integrated innovation; gaining the ability to view and measure ROI through all phases of development; keeping capital expenditure to a minimum and finding ways to cut development costs; maximizing collaboration and communication among diverse teams, from development to IT to security to C-suite executives; and identifying and leveraging cross-project and cross functional efficiencies. 

With all needs combined, this was a tall order. The company had already selected Wind River^® Studio Developer as the centerpiece of its software transformation strategy. Nevertheless, the question was how to quickly and effectively extract maximum business value and ROI.

THE APPROACH

Streamlining the Process Through Teamwork in Education, Advocacy, and Reporting

The answer was the Wind River Acceleration Program and its team of Customer Success Managers. Wind River provided a team charged with defining, planning, and delivering success with Wind River products based on the customer’s business goals. Specifically, the team worked closely with the customer to create:

• A success plan: This collaborative effort defined what success looked like, how it would be achieved, and how it would be measured over the course of the transformation initiative.
• Quantification of ROI and cost-saving opportunities: To maintain executive support and ensure a smooth transition, the customer needed to be able to demonstrate high ROI and cost savings throughout the project lifecycle. Customer Success Managers measured ROI at each phase and helped identify opportunities to cut costs across the lifecycle through automation of core processes and adoption of new technologies and capabilities. Cost-savings goals were defined and are on track to be achieved in each of the following areas:
  • Planning and design phase: Through cloud-based single-platform hosting of the full software development lifecycle and with traceability automation of the linkages among requirements
  • Code/build phase: Through automatic triggering of test cases for continuous certification and the use of containers to isolate software and improve portability across environments
  • Test phase: Through the use of simulation capabilities to test without physical hardware and test automation
• Advocacy across organizations: The Customer Success Managers team provided proactive support within the customer’s organization and Wind River to ensure that the right resources were available at the right time. The team provided advocacy in numerous areas:
  • Education and training: The team created a customized e-learning program and identified additional education and training resources that could help accelerate adoption and success with Wind River products.
  • Communication: Business leaders were kept informed about support ticket trends, including issues and opportunities for improvement. Key issues were escalated to keep the initiative on time and on budget.
  • Oversight: Providing consistency, continuity, oversight, and governance while working with multiple customer pilot teams and the Wind River resources aligned to onboard them.
  • Additional support: Internal resources were lined up to help unblock specific issues that were causing delays.
  • Monitoring: The overall health of the initiative was continually tracked according to quantified KPIs.
• Continuous measurement of satisfaction and success: Through regular interviews with team members and business leaders, and with the use of relationship and net promoter score surveys, the team kept close watch on everything from customer satisfaction levels to employee morale.
• Influence over future roadmap decisions: By advocating strongly for the customer every step of the way, the team became an important and effective evangelist for new technologies and processes that could further improve the overall business value for the customer.

THE RESULT

Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard

For this customer, the net result of harnessing the Wind River Acceleration Program and team of Customer Success Managers was the ability to shift the focus from technological complexity and rising costs to core competence: innovation. The company is now able to create smart, safe, sustainable products in less time, for less money — and isn’t that what every business should be striving for?

ABOUT THE ACCELERATION PROGRAM 

The Acceleration Program is offered through the Wind River Customer Success organization, which works in collaboration with Wind River Professional Services, Educational Services, Security Services, Safety and Certification Services, and more to maximize business value and minimize cost and complexity for customers.

LEARN MORE

Contact Wind River for additional information about our Customer Success Manager capabilities and the business advantages of our core products and services.