Digitization of the automotive industry

On the one hand, companies in the industry have to provide financial resources to launch innovative products, services and business models. On the other hand, they have to ensure long-term liquidity and profitability - the current crisis shows how important this is. The various finance disciplines are the basis for this.

Digital transformation offers the opportunity to increase the performance of the finance area and make it fit for the challenges ahead. Where OEMs and suppliers in Germany stand in this respect was investigated by the management and IT consultancy MHP together with the Georg August University of Göttingen and the University of Groningen. The results have been published in the study "The digitalization of finance in the automotive industry".

77 percent of participants agree with the statement that IT solutions will play a greater role in the finance department's task portfolio in the future. However, only 48 percent are satisfied with the current technical infrastructure (the hardware and networks), 40 percent with the system landscape (the software).

This is probably one reason why only 27 percent of the study participants use digital technologies regularly. The solutions are more suitable for simpler tasks such as the provision of data (63 percent agreement) or its analysis (49 percent agreement). The analysis of polystructured internal and external data, on the other hand, is possible for only eleven percent of the participants.

In the study, for which more than 100 managers from automotive companies - including all German OEMs - were surveyed, the empirical results are clearly presented and reported according to various criteria. This also allows dependencies to be identified and differentiated statements to be made. The assessment of the goals of a digital transformation depends to a large extent on whether a digital strategy is in place. If so, all the objectives surveyed are assessed more positively.