Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator Private Preview

We are excited to announce the Private Preview of the Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator which includes the Microsoft Common Data Model (CDM) for Automotive! Sign up is available at https://aka.ms/CDMEngage . All requests will be reviewed, and you will receive a status email indicating approval or the need for more information.

The Automotive Common Data Model (CDM) extends the Microsoft Common Data Model for deals, sales contracts, specifications, fleet, warranties, inspection, test drives, branding, business, customer-vehicle relationship, vehicle and equipment, lead, service and after-sales management, and more. The Automotive CDM came from working with some of our top tier partners such as Annata and Oxlo, sitting with, observing, and learning from many of our automotive customers about their desire to quickly drive digital transformation, starting with consumer experience, and the challenges of managing data across many systems of record.

Our approach includes:

• Create enabling technology that lowers the barrier to entry for vehicle OEMs, mobility providers, dealer groups, and importers, and to introduce standards that make for a richer customer experience.
• Microsoft partnering with leading thought leaders in the automotive industry as well as a Steering Team comprised of global customers and partners to create an automotive common data model (CDM) that reflects the common automotive scenarios.
• Learning from data model challenges of the past and design a streamlined, open foundation for customers and partners to rapidly build applications and connectors.
• Incorporating data standards into the model against widely adopted data standards like STAR.
• Harnessing the power of our partner solutions, along with the Microsoft technology stack - Azure, Office 365, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Power BI, Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP), Virtual Assistance, – focused on delivering omnichannel customer experience and streamlining back office operations.

The Microsoft Common Data Model for Automotive is the first of its kind to provide a model that reflects industry best-practices, insight and integration across existing vehicle retail networks, and also incorporating emerging mobility businesses.

[Marketing, Sales, After Sales, Branding - Service Center dashboards providing insights into service appointments based on IoT data from devices/vehicles]

Challenges

Some of the key challenges that were considered while creating the Microsoft Common Data Model for Automotive include:

• Customer Insights: Transform transactional and behavioral omni-channel data into a data estate that enables customer experience management
• Digital Marketing and Customer Engagement: End-to end customer experience management integrating digital marketing, contact centers, loyalty, mobility, shopping and purchase, service, and lifetime engagement
• OEM-to-dealer integration: Enable data insights and managed consumer experiences across franchised dealer networks
• Standards and openness: Establish publicly available standard data schema and integration standards that address the concerns of our vehicle OEM, mobility provider, dealer group, and importer customers, whose legacy systems slow down innovation with limited data transparency and interoperability.

Preview

The primary goal of the private preview is to allow a broader audience to review and provide their feedback about the Automotive CDM. In addition, we want to showcase some sample applications based on a set of Connected Scenarios. This highlights the integration points between the Power Platform, the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, Office 365, and Azure. A TestDrive environment has been provisioned in AppSource for all private preview participants to explore.

We strongly encourage you to join our community! The Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator, including the Microsoft Common Data Model for Automotive is now available for private preview at https://aka.ms/CDMEngage.

The community and ISV ecosystem

We want to recognize two of our key partners, Annata and Oxlo, who have been instrumental to achieving this Preview milestone.

During the preview period we will finalize our first wave of ISV and services partners, and will announce these ISVs during our launch at Microsoft Inspire in July.

Annata

“At Annata we have over 15 years of experience in building solutions for the Automotive and Equipment industry, connecting marketing, sales and services for OEMs, importers, dealers and associated services. By partnering with Microsoft and sharing our industry insights and experience to establish the Common Data Model for Automotive we believe we serve our customers even better by driving more business value, synergy and insights across their solutions, helping them modernize, optimize, automate and digitally transform their business across the value chain on the Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform. These are very exciting times and we are enthused to be an integral part of the development of the Microsoft Common Data Model and solution set moving forward.“ 

- Jóhann Jónsson, CEO Annata

Oxlo

“Oxlo is a specialist in automotive retail integration, building integration-as-a-service solutions that streamline OEM and dealer business processes and provide rich data insights. We are pleased to announce support for the Dynamics 365 Automotive Accelerator and the Microsoft Automotive Common Data Model. These, along with solutions from Oxlo and our other partners, will enable OEMs, importers and dealers to build transformational solutions, based on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure and the Power Platform. This will be the foundation of ground-breaking possibilities for customer experience in automotive retail.”

- Richard Ward, VP Business Development Oxlo

In Closing

Our goal is to build a community around customers and partners that want to collaborate and continue to improve upon industry best practices. A goal of the Automotive Accelerator program is to build a "Community CDM", and not simply a "Microsoft CDM".  

We plan to iterate the Automotive Accelerator and Automotive CDM, and look forward to continued engagement with our customers and partners about their unique business processes and about how Dynamics 365 and all of Microsoft’s technologies can support your digital transformation journey.

Learn more about the overall Microsoft Dynamics 365 Industry Accelerator Program here.

• Business Applications ISV news at Build 2019
• Dynamics 365 Industry Accelerator program updates podcast