Paris, July 25, 2017 – Groupe Renault today announced a prototype for a digital car maintenance book, leveraging the power of Blockchain technology, built in collaboration with Microsoft and VISEO. Blockchain technology ensures that data in the car passport is stored in a secure and transparent manner.
Currently, information about customers and their vehicles is spread across multiple information systems maintained by automakers, insurers, repair shops, and more. This new digital car maintenance book, with its open architecture, gathers all important information in one place accessible by the customer. For instance, if an owner wants to sell a vehicle, he/she can make information about the history of the vehicle more transparent by authorizing the potential buyer to access all the data in the digital car maintenance book, creating more trust between the buyer and the seller.
“This digital car maintenance book will enable us to provide our customers with new services in an ecosystem alongside insurers and dealers. Blockchain technology is able to create a reliable trust protocol,” explained Elie Elbaz, Digital & Connected Vehicles Director for Groupe Renault. "Beyond this project, this technology will be a major step forward for connected vehicles and the micro-transactions and security requirements associated with them.”
As part of the project, Microsoft provided access to the Microsoft Azure Blockchain technology, the open, agile and cost-effective platform and toolset used to develop and deploy the solution.
“As a continuation of our partnership in the realm of connected vehicles, we are pleased to be able to support Renault with its digital transformation and to work together to create an innovative Blockchain solution that has the potential to consolidate an entire vehicle ecosystem and ensure that the information shared by all can be trusted,” states Bernard Ourghanlian, Microsoft France CTO.
Microsoft collaborates with customers and partners to understand the primary industry scenarios and develop the technology and ecosystems that will enable businesses, governments and individuals to successfully utilize Blockchain technology.
VISEO, a consulting firm with cutting-edge expertise in Blockchain technology, oversaw the overall technological implementation of the project (working closely with BitSe, a Chinese start-up) as well as the user design.
“We believe in the potential of the Blockchain technology, especially for what it can bring in the evolution of the transparency of relationships between economic partners of a B2B ecosystem. We have dedicated Blockchain teams in our digital factories, which allows us to incubate projects such as the one conducted with Renault. We have been able to deliver in a few weeks a complete digital asset ready to scale-up,” explains Eric Perrier, Managing Director of VISEO.
Through this collaborative approach, Groupe Renault and its RCI Bank and Services subsidiary were able to access expertise that is not yet commonly available in the market, enabling them to grasp the various technological options and identify business opportunities early on in the process.
For more information about Blockchain technology: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/blockchain/
About Groupe Renault
An auto manufacturer founded in 1898, Groupe Renault is an international corporation with a presence in 127 countries and sales of 3.2 million vehicles in 2016. Today, the company comprises over 120,000 employees, 36 manufacturing sites and 12,700 points of sale throughout the world. To rise to the major technological challenges of the future and pursue a profitable growth strategy, the company is focusing on international expansion and synergy between its three brands (Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors), electric vehicles, and a one-of-a kind alliance with Nissan. With a new Formula 1 racing team and a strong commitment to Formula E, Renault is leveraging motorsports to drive innovation and boost brand awareness.
About Microsoft
Microsoft is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
At the heart of the French digital ecosystem for more than 30 years, Microsoft France, chaired by Vahe Torossian since June 2016, brings together more than 1 500 collaborators within its campus of Issy-les-Moulineaux, under the sign of openness, creativity and collaboration.
With a fabric of more than 10 000 business partners, technology, public sector actors, researchers or start-ups, responsible actor, Microsoft France is committed to promoting equal opportunities and digital education alongside associations across the territory. Follow us on Twitter: @microsoftfrance & on Facebook
About VISEO
VISEO, a consulting and digital services firm, supports companies with the concrete, operational implementation of their strategic transformation plans, whether this means optimizing what already exists or launching the development of new business lines. VISEO is an expert in the fields of digital consulting, software development for IoT, web and agile mobile applications, and data science, which the company leverages to develop new offerings, new distribution channels and new modes of collaboration. With 1,200 employees on five continents and sales revenue of €132 million in 2016, VISEO has enjoyed uninterrupted growth since it was founded in 1999. For more information, visit www.viseo.com or follow us on Twitter @viseogroup