Staying entertained and informed – Telemotive

German company, Telemotive AG specializes in the areas of engineering services and product development, including technology areas involving complex networked systems such as LIN, CAN, FlexRay, MOST and Ethernet. The medium-sized company, founded in 2000 by 4 individuals, is active in the automotive industry primarily in the areas of infotainment, entertainment and telematics and counts meanwhile more than 250 employees. Telemotive AG serves a customer base consisting of national and international automotive manufacturers and suppliers. The company’s products are represented not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, and other countries.

They ensure proximity to their customers via their offices in Mühlhausen in Täle, München, Stuttgart/Sindelfingen and Ingolstadt. In 2009, the company was honored for the second time with the award “German’s best employers” for its comprehensive introduction programs, its further educational facilities and its career opportunities.

Telemotive AG is also an associate member of the FlexRay consortium as well as the MOST cooperation. Apart from implementing complete OEM projects, Telemotive’s hardware and software departments also undertake contract projects. The company says it has the requisite R&D skills to offer a broad spectrum of expertise in various technologies.

The motto of Telemotive is “we drive your ideas”. The company says its goal is to actively speed up developments and be customer-oriented in its approach.

Automotive Industries caught up with Markus Fischer (Project Management & Engineering Consulting South West) and Markus Stolz (Marketing & Finance), both on the board of management of Telemotive AG.

AI: Why did you choose the two business segments of engineering services and product development?

Markus Stolz. Any development department needs tools for testing. In the area of car and embedded electronics we have our engineering and development services and for this area we develop tools like our multi bus data logger blue PiraT. So we have a very good understanding of customers technology wise and process wise.

Markus Fischer. Since we have deep expertise how a Tier 1 works and how an OEM works, we can provide this link between these two worlds. The Tier 1 is mainly focused on his product and the cost of it. The OEM has to look at the total car and the field quality for the end user.

AI: So what are some of the latest developments that have impacted your business?

Markus Stolz. The greatest impact is that the OEM’s reduced or almost stopped their engineering efforts or investment. There are still many projects planned but nobody wants to invest. We see this quite critical since the delay of projects will hurt at least increase the cost on the OEM side. But unfortunately at the moment the focus is very short sighted.

Markus Fischer. The whole car industry is changing very fast, and only suppliers who can operate and react quickly will be able to master this challenge. We think that we are very well prepared for that. Since the topical market situation is above all a very big chance. One should never forget this.

AI: Which engineering services do you offer specifically?

Markus Fischer. We offer solutions. The new cars are always more complex. This makes it rather difficult to achieve 0 Error to SOP. With our special knowledge on the different bus systems like FlexRay, CAN, LIN, MOST, even MOST 150 we are able to be a strong partner for the OEMs. Another advantage is that we can relay on several years of experience in automotive development on OEM side as well on Tier 1 side.

Markus Stolz. Even Bluetooth logging is what we offer. The point is that with a good analysis you can save huge amounts of dollars later in the warranty. But not only that also it speeds up your development process. At the moment data analysis is mainly an issue at premium OEM’s we wonder when the others will acknowledge that this kind of investment can save a lot of money.

AI: The electric mobility is at the moment a big issue. How does Telemotive react on this?

Markus Fischer. We already involved in new projects with that background. For example the new projects are for hybrid or electrical cars. We already set up a worldwide system to get the related information/data out of the car to the server from the developers. These data are sent via LAN/WLAN over the internet or via mobile to special servers. That allows the OEMs to get all related needed Information just in time.

In addition we provide for the data analysis data mining systems, so we are rather quick able to check if this is a serious error or some error which is not so urgent.
Markus Stolz. At the moment there is a fierce competition between the OEM’s who can bring the best and most reliable product to the market.

AI: Please tell us a little bit about your Customer Support? How is the process?

Markus Stolz. This is a bit sensitive to answer. But in the electronics we do almost anything. This starts with resident engineers for project management or testing, with SW / HW developer in projects. But we do also some prototypes for very new technologies. We have helped some Tier 1 to build up there branch office and build up a strong relationship with their OEM. So all the new topics like new chips, development platforms are supported be Telemotive.

Markus Fischer. To gives you an example how Telemotive works and what kind of spirit we have. There was once a Tier 1 who had mayor delay in his project and had a meeting at the OEM to explain the situation. In this situation this Tier 1 told the OEM that Telemotive will support him to make the project successful. For your understanding, at this moment Telemotive didn’t know anything about this project. But one week later a team of Telemotive developers started within this project, even though the financials where not fixed. This shows a bit our spirit “we drive your ideas”. The only problem is that this kind of behavior relies on trust. But unfortunately some of the decision makers forgot how important trust and loyalty is. In spite of that we encourage our employees to relay on old fashion behavior.

Markus Stolz. Unfortunately this will have big impact and will cost the industry money, but nobody will be in charge of it. It is a bit like the problem in the finance system. Focus is on very short sighted controlling numbers but the overall sometimes not defined in numbers is ignored. Telemotive has won the last two years a price for its cooperating culture. We believe that this will be one of our main features for success. Especially in engineering services the individual person is the key!

AI: Where do you see Telemotive AG in the next 5 years?

Markus Fischer. In the past 10 years Telemotive has shown a steady development. We estimated that after the crisis is gone we will continue. We will increase the depth of our services and issues. We will support Tier 1 more in their development and we will broaden our customer base. And always we keep our slogan:” We drive your ideas” in our focus.

Markus Stolz. We started with 4 people and today we have more than 250. Our biggest challenge will be to develop the company in that way, that our customers still get a Telemotive service. Not a “rental” engineer who doesn’t identify with his work, customer and Telemotive. Many OEM’s ask us how we cultivated our spirit. This is the biggest challenge. When you look at the frustrations people have at their work, you can see how much potential you have for motivation and innovation.

AI: In which branches except the Automotive could the enterprise be active as well?

Markus Fischer. Our focus is on the automotive world but we know and we look at other industries. There are much potential which can benefit from our experience.

Markus Stolz. As always the need and demand has to fit. But we think that we are actually working on technologies and topics which will be needed also in other areas.