Connecting manufacturers with engineers and digital developers to design the software-defined car

Equivalent to similar trends in other industrial sectors, future innovation and growth in the auto industry lies in computing, software, and data. The future of automotive can be boiled down to four characters: C. A. S. E. The C.A.S.E. megatrend stands for connected, autonomous, shared, and electrical, the four key characteristics of the car of the future. But these focus topics can only be addressed by a workforce of highly specialized digital experts. The industry is in dire need of data scientists, cloud architects, UX/UI specialists, embedded software engineers, and other expert developers to take care of for instance advanced vehicle-2-X connectivity, driver assist technologies, car sharing apps, or electric drivetrain design.

Looking at the automotive sector, future investment will concentrate heavily on the digital domain. As driver assist technology is improving, onboard sensors will produce vast amounts of data that require processing. Also, the car will communicate with its manufacturer to receive software updates. And it will transmit driving data, to be used for scheduling maintenance and to be sent to large data lakes used to further refine the systems. The car’s entertainment system will become even more complex and sophisticated, while car sharing apps and other mobility solutions will integrate the vehicle into large ecosystems of smart transportation and logistics.

Developing the software-defined car of the future requires engineers and developers with talent and the right skill set. And not just a few, but a lot of them. All employers seem to be competing to attract the same in-crowd of specialists, as the shortage of talent and skills is a pressing issue across many industrial sectors. However, the automotive industry might very well be especially hard hit because – as industry critics have argued – it has for too long tried to ignore the digital tsunami coming. It has taken its time to realize the full impact of the C.A.S.E. megatrend and has been scrambling to ramp up digital expertise. In addition to that, in many countries automotive OEMs have lost their prime position as most preferred employers - a title held for decades - to global tech giants.

Faced with this situation it makes good sense for the industry to turn to specialist consulting companies with a strong presence in the digital realm, combined with years of expertise and in-depth knowledge of the car industry. Akkodis is such a specialist consultancy company and has for the better part of two decades been at the forefront of vehicle digitalization. Gradually, its expertise in mechanics and design has been complemented with all the skills needed to develop sophisticated vehicles for a data driven world.

As a global tech powerhouse, Akkodis is the connection point between the auto industry and 50.000 engineers and digital experts from across the world. In addition to that, Akkodis is a global repository for tech talent, with 5 million pre-qualified candidates in its multi-national network. Also, to secure its place at the forefront of tech, Akkodis has established several research & innovation labs, experimenting with emerging technologies. Furthermore, there are 50+ Akkodis centers of expertise, dedicated to technology refinement and consolidation.

All this manpower and knowledge is bundled into four service lines, developed to fit the needs of Akkodis’ clients. In our Solutions services we take full responsibility for the end-to-end development of a product. In our Consultancy services we carry out technology projects and provide specialist consultants to our customers. Our Talent services is a proprietary tech talent platform giving customers access to a global pool of candidates, to address the skills shortage in the business. The Akkodis Academy trains the next generation of digital top talents and reskills experienced engineers to new digital experts. To sum it up: no doubt there is a talent and skills mismatch in the auto industry, particularly around software. However, at Akkodis we’re narrowing that gap, helping our clients attract new talent in a highly competitive environment.