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It's about nothing less than revolutionizing mobility

With the delivery of the first pre-ordered cars from Lynk & Co, an innovative mobility concept is currently being launched in Germany - supported by Arvato Financial Solutions. With Lynk & Co, consumers can not only buy cars, but also use them via a monthly membership or share them with others. As a member of the "Lynk & Co Club," they can decide for themselves when, with whom and under what conditions they share their vehicle. In this way, members reduce their monthly costs, while at the same time the utilization of the vehicles can be increased - a very sustainable approach. Lynk & Co's mobility concept involves complex financial processes due to the combination of monthly membership and use by multiple drivers ("sharing"). When a car is shared between two members, payment between them must be straightforward.

 

The perfect partner

In order to offer users a smooth end-to-end process - the so-called customer journey - Lynk & Co relies on the AQOUNT O2C OS operating system from Arvato Financial Solutions. AQOUNT O2C OS offers a complete solution for the order-to-cash process, with automated accounts receivable management at its core. It also enables a combination of subscription and marketplace functionalities. All services (e.g. risk assessment, subscription management, payment processes or receivables management) interlock optimally and can be individually adapted to the customer's requirements.

Arvato Financial Solutions is constantly on the lookout for growth sectors and trends. Shared mobility was already discovered as a growth market at the end of 2018. In June 2019, they were finally able to win Lynk & Co as a customer.

 

A look behind the scenes

"It was something new for us," says Kevin Rampelmann, IT architect at Arvato Financial Solutions and involved in the project from the beginning: "For Lynk & Co, we had the task of developing a digital platform that was specifically geared to the requirements of the mobility industry. The task was to combine our existing services into a new product while offering the client a uniform look and feel. In addition, we developed new components such as a central integration layer for this purpose." Kevin and his supervisor Daniel Weßling designed a concept of how the already existing systems should interact with each other and managed the development teams.

"If you compare the project to the construction of a house, we were in the role of the architect or construction manager, planning the construction of the building and coordinating the various trades as part of the implementation."

 

Startup feeling in the group

More than 20 employees are involved in the customer project for Lynk & Co. The project team was completely detached from the existing organization - both spatially and organizationally. In specially rented office space in Berlin, a working environment was created in which the team could fully concentrate on the tasks within the project. This startup atmosphere is supported by agile product development methods. In very close cooperation with the customer and regular feedback loops, more and more functionalities of the product were released step by step. "I really like working in an agile way," says Kevin. "You work very closely together as a team, and in weekly sprint reviews you regularly see the progress that has been made in the previous week. So the type of collaboration is very different from traditional project management methods."

A broad mix of technologies was used for product development. "On the one hand, we use established but forward-looking solutions, standard software, such as SAP S/4 HANA," Kevin explains. "On the other hand, we also have high software development expertise in our ranks and use in-house developed solutions, e.g. for the Payments area." Completing the mix are cloud technologies such as Azure API Management and Application Insights. "A high focus on cloud technologies, by the way, is also the long-term approach we take to our products from a strategic perspective."

For Kevin, being directly involved in the development of the product is particularly exciting. "I get excited about using technology to create something new and being part of the value creation process. At Arvato Financial Solutions, I can be directly involved in this and take on responsibility. I really like that about my job."