How to be in Two Places at Once

Problems Encountered during Developmental Transformation

Since its establishment in 2003, Dongfeng Honda Co., Ltd. has worked hard for more than ten years to eventually become a leading joint venture brand in China’s automotive market. Faced with changes to the competitive landscape in the Chinese automotive market in recent years, Dongfeng Honda also faced challenges to its development — should they stand by and hope to be chosen by the market, or innovate to succeed in the market and develop? After careful research, the company decided to gradually switch their market focus towards third- and forth-tier cities in China. At the same time, they would improve their operating efficiency through vigorous ICT-based development. However, there was a considerable discrepancy between the reality and their goals — Dongfeng Honda carried out forecasting on problems that may occur during market expansion and ICT-based development:

• With only five network experts at HQ, it is not possible to construct or upgrade networks in hundreds of dealerships over the coming years.

• The low-voltage engineers in dealerships have poor network-related technical skills, and they cannot carry out professional Wi-Fi network management.

• Dealerships hope that newly recruited after-sales engineers can quickly and independently carry out professional work.

Huawei CloudCampus Remedies These Issues

• HQ experts provide remote guidance for network deployment in half a day

Huawei CloudCampus solution leverages its public cloud platform to carry out network planning. Field operation is simple and does not require experts from HQ to go on business trips to provide guidance. Dongfeng Honda planned to reconstruct the networks of seven dealerships across China in one month, including Tonghua (Jilin), Chengdu (Sichuan), Shenzhen, Taizhou (Zhejiang), and Tianjin. If the traditional network deployment process was followed, network engineers from HQ would be exhausted. However, CloudCampus can offer a solution. The following uses the Tianjin dealership network upgrade as an example:

During this upgrade, HQ did not send engineers to go on site. Instead, the engineers provided guidance from HQ. One week prior to the deployment, the network engineers at HQ used drawings provided from the dealership to complete network planning on the cloud platform. The devices were then sent to Tianjin. On the day of network deployment, engineers in the Tianjin dealership used the cloud management App to scan the MAC and SN on the device, and then installed and powered on the devices. It was then calculated that less than half a day was spent deploying the devices. Due to savings made on travel expenses, the cost of network delivery was 30 percent less than expected.

GIS map-based management of dealerships across China

• Centralized network O&M means troubleshooting no longer requires days

After upgrading the network in an older Dongfeng Honda dealership, the network was upgraded to a cloud management network. This significantly improved the network’s operating efficiency. A few days later, a low-voltage engineer received the following customer complaint: “While sitting in the waiting room waiting for the car to undergo maintenance, I couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi.” The engineers immediately informed the IT experts at HQ of the problem, who then used the CloudCampus map management system to find that one AP in the dealership was offline, and told the local engineer the location of the faulty AP. From discovery to rectifying the fault took only 45 minutes. Previously, solving similar problems would take at least two days, or even require experts from HQ to go on business trips to deal with the issue.

The above example is just one of the benefits of cloud-managed deployment. After several months since the new network was deployed, the network O&M efficiency was significantly improved for Dongfeng Honda, and great savings were made in travel costs.

• With its openness and compatibility features, the cloud platform is integrated with Augmented Reality (AR) for automobile maintenance guidance

It usually takes a few years for Dongfeng Honda’s after-sales engineers to go from beginners to experts. In that case, how can the automobile after-sales engineers be helped to grow and quickly engage in automobile maintenance services?

Huawei CloudCampus cooperates with third-party partners to realize interconnection with an AR platform. Dongfeng Honda experts at HQ do not need to travel, and can guide the maintenance of after-sales engineers at the dealerships in real time. After HQ receives a booking from the dealership, engineers can log in to the cloud platform, select the AR glasses screen, call the dealership, and then give instructions for the maintenance operations.

With the help of Huawei CloudCampus and third-party applications, young engineers in the Dongfeng Honda dealerships are able to quickly take on the duty of automobile maintenance. Scenes of panic can no longer be seen, and the dealership’s operating efficiency and customer satisfaction are greatly improved.

Ding Fang, Head of the Infrastructure at Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., said: “Huawei CloudCampus solution is based on cloud technology, and therefore does not require the engineers to travel from HQ to the dealerships to carry out O&M and troubleshooting. In addition, this solution offers various data analysis capabilities, calculating customer flow, number of visits, and duration of visits, helping us to deliver precision marketing.”

As a leader in the cloud industry, Huawei is actively leading the innovation and development of cloud-based network management, enabling digital transformation for customers in every industry. Huawei provides more users with the CloudCampus solution with fast deployment, simplified management, and various applications, helping customers compete in the cloud era.

Customer Testimony

“Huawei CloudCampus solution is based on cloud technology, and therefore does not require the engineers to travel from HQ to the dealerships to carry out O&M and troubleshooting. In addition, this solution offers various data analysis capabilities, calculating customer flow, number of visits, and duration of visits, helping us to deliver precision marketing.”

— Ding Fang, Head of the Infrastructure at Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd.