TVS auto solutions company plays disruptor in after-market sector

Its innovations are revolutionising the automobile after-market sector

Three-and-a-half years ago, when TVS Automobile Solutions Ltd (TVS ASL) began its transformation from a brick-and-mortar company into a “phygital” (physical plus digital) one, it was a challenge to change the mindset of those in the after-market space that the TVS Group company caters to — retailers, distributors, garages and vehicle owners.
 

It began on the right note, bringing in in G Srinivasa Raghavan, then heading the India business at Tata Consultancy Services, to lead the transformation. He, in turn, put together a team of some 50 members headed by Natarajan Srinivasan, chief information officer and chief operating officer, TVS ASL.
 

The independent automotive after-market in India is a fragmented one, with over 40,000 retailers, 100,000 garages and thousands of small distributors. Even though original equipment makers such as Hero, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Toyota and others provide after-sales service, they do so only for their own brands. TVS ASL, on the other hand, is a multi-brand after-market service platform, and a clear market leader in this space.
 

The company, which already offers service, insurance, breakdown and accident assistance across India, aimed to position itself as a one-stop solution in the sector. To this end, it aggregated the unorganised garages and integrated its various after-market services so as to offer quick, standardised service across the country. In a short span, it has already developed over 20 solutions and created over 10 intellectual properties.
 

While expanding through an offline model, TVS ASL is bringing all stakeholders — distributors, retailers and garages — onto a single digital platform. “We have taken the lead in transforming the Indian automotive after-market by creating an ecosystem of retailers, garages and fleets, where each stakeholder benefits in terms of growth, efficiencies and profitability by actively participating in the value creation for end-customers,” says Raghavan.
 

India’s independent after-market sector comprises full-service franchises, outlets dealing in over-the-counter parts, workshops and garages. The industry, estimated at Rs 55,000 crore, is growing at 8-12 per cent a year.
 

Raghavan reckons that there are 30-35 million cars and some 600,000 commercial vehicles outside the warranty period, which need to be serviced. On average, a truck owner spends about Rs 1.75 lakh and a car owner Rs 30,000-40,000 a year on services.
 

Recently, TVS ASL partnered with Google to create a “Super Platform”, to be rolled out in India in the next two or three months and scaled up to other parts of the world. This initiative looks to bring vehicle owners, retailers, garages and insurance companies from a fragmented marketplace into one seamless digital technology architecture to provide service, parts, roadside assistance and insurance. Through this, TVS ASL hopes to capture 10 per cent of India’s after-market share by 2023, up from the current 4 per cent.
 

All of the company’s digital assets, including the offline-to-online automotive aftermarket platform myTVS digital, the proprietary connected car platform myTVS Connect, a customer-facing mobile app and myTVS Cloud, have been seamlessly interconnected.
 

The customer-facing app offers customers advanced track and trace capabilities along with features like driver behaviour tracking and geo-fencing. The app is a one-stop shop for service booking, accessories, insurance and roadside assistance.

The artificial intelligence layer in myTVS Connect helps in performing vehicle diagnostics and identifying potential issues.
 

This is generated as an alert to the myTVS central command centre, which reaches out to the customer in the event of a service need. The AI algorithm aggregates these service needs as well as the on-demand service requests from customers and directs them to the group’s network of mobile service infrastructure and myTVS garages — own and franchised — to provide service delivery.
 

The entire closed loop offline-to-online (O2O) digital infrastructure helps in creating an on-demand repair order, so that the customer is informed about the estimated price of the service repair even before the vehicle reaches the garage.
 

The company has also developed TVS Partsmart, an integrated e-commerce platform for its network of retailers and garages, and TVS FIT, a service management platform for garage partners. TVS Partsmart provides retailers and garages with India’s largest cross-referenced online spare parts catalogue along with Google-powered multi-search capabilities and a recommendation engine.
 

Moreover, all customers are connected and protected 24×7 when they are on the road. TVS ASL has created a garage ecosystem through TVS Auto Assist, which has already brought in 6,500-7,000 garages for last-mile service.