Developing an In-vehicle Connectivity and Data Management User Portal for an IoT Leader

Success Story

Scalefocus partnered with a leader in IoT connected solutions to create a user portal for managing in-car internet connectivity and data plans for a global vehicle manufacturer. Our experts worked in collaboration with multiple distributed teams and created a solution offering best-in-class user experience. Apart from managing connectivity and data plans, the portal allows drivers to add or remove vehicles from their account, suspend the service temporarily and top up at any time, wherever the road takes them.

The Client

Our client is an industry leader in connected software solutions with a global portfolio of mobile network partners. The company operates on the Internet of Things (IoT) market in three primary industries — Agriculture, Automotive, and Transportation. With a team of over 250 professionals and locations in 15 countries, our client’s focus is connecting devices end-to-end securely for the entire life cycle of the device.

Recently, the company expanded its portfolio by analyzing connected vehicle data to unlock the value of insights and provide access to reports for performance monitoring. Our client’s technologies help automotive manufacturers offer next-generation mobility services to meet the ever-increasing consumer demands.

The Challenge

As part of delivering high-quality in-car Internet connectivity to users across different regions, our client needed a technology partner with a proven track record of successful Front-end and .NET projects. They were looking to design, develop and deploy a consumer portal for a luxury vehicle manufacturer that would enable vehicle owners to create an account, choose and manage their Internet data plan quickly and safely. The portal had to offer best-in-class user experience and simplify connectivity management across the carmaker’s fleet that boasts some of the most technically advanced vehicles on the market.

To deliver this portal, our team had to integrate multiple platforms into one — our client’s end-to-end solution, the car manufacturer’s, and the mobile provider’s networks. The end goal was clear — users taking advantage of robust and high-speed connectivity wherever they happen to be. On the one hand, the vehicles needed to communicate with their owners; on the other hand, the premium-class connectivity would turn the car into a Wi-Fi hotspot for passengers. Through the portal, we had to ensure drivers activate local networks whenever necessary, experiencing uninterrupted connectivity.

The Solution

The Scalefocus team designed the user portal from scratch and had to integrate multiple platforms together seamlessly — our client’s core .NET based platform, the car manufacturer’s platform, and the mobile network provider’s platform. We were responsible for the full SDLC, from development, testing and deployment in the actual environments to managing the CI/CD pipelines.

We implemented UI/UX best practices and created simple, user-centric interface allowing smooth and uninterrupted navigation. To avoid the trap of complex sign-up and log-in processes across different devices, we created a simple flow. Since customer interactions with smartphones have raised the bar when it comes to intuitiveness, we wanted to offer the comparative ease of one-click smartphone solutions.

First, the customer completes their registration by providing information such as sex, first and last name, country of residence, language, email and sets up a password. Once they have added a VIN to their account, they verify themselves and complete the Key User Nomination procedure. Next, the user can activate a B2C data plan. They can then manage their accounts, add, or delete a VIN, add or remove a vehicle, as well as suspend the service temporarily.

Our engineers worked with PI planning events that aligned all Agile Release Train (ART) teams and allowed for fast and effective decision-making across the project. This helped us lay out priorities and objectives and highlight the dependencies among teams. Another of the project’s specifics is that the portal’s infrastructure is based on Azure Service Fabric, which supports multiple messaging protocols and offers many features to tune the application.

• Utilized Azure Service Fabric for the infrastructure
• NServiceBus with Azure Service Bus as underlying transport for messaging
• Used SignalR for real-time messaging/notifications
• Used Angular 14 for the Front-end part of the portal
• Used .Net Core 3.1 for the Back-end of the portal
• Utilized CosmosDB for manipulating data
• Worked in a distributed environment processing data

The Results

McKinsey reports that by 2030 around 95% of vehicles sold globally will be connected, as opposed to their share today – about 50%. As customers are demanding more from their mobility experience, our team provided the technological foundation for the client to enhance the carmaker’s Integrated connected software to meet drivers’ expectations. The user portal our Front-end and .NET teams developed delivers true end-to-end connectivity safely and securely. Scalefocus proved to be an expert in Connected Intelligence enhancing in-vehicle experiences for an evolving auto industry. 

Features of the user portal for managing vehicles and data plans:

• End-to-end security
• Device lifecycle management
• Adult Content Filtering Flag
• Remote device connectivity management
• B2C data plan usage information in the in-car HMI
• FAQ section providing price information of tops-ups