An Interview with Johannes M. Biermann, President & COO, aicas GmbH
WardsAuto speaks with Johannes M. Biermann, President & COO, aicas GmbH, on his automotive tehcnology career.
Wards:
Could you introduce yourself, and describe your career history to date?
JMB:
In my current role as President & COO of aicas, I lead the company’s strategy and oversee its operational execution. During my 30-year international career, I have gained experience in a variety of global organizations, including industry leaders such as Siemens and HP/HPE, as well as smaller companies such as aicas. Throughout my journey, my focus has always been on understanding and capturing evolving market dynamics and customer needs, and translating them into actionable measures that drive financial results.
Wards:
What is your proudest achievement at aicas so far, and are there any difficulties/ obstacles you’ve faced? How did you overcome them?
JMB:
It is great to work every day with a highly motivated and agile team of business leaders and technical experts with diverse backgrounds from some 15 nations. I am particularly proud of the fact that over the past few years we have made aicas the global partner for software in the car, with an attractive edge-to-cloud portfolio in the automotive segment and use cases ranging from efficiency plays, to global scalability of software deployments, to enabling the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem aimed at accelerating the capture of insights from vehicle and vehicle usage data. Even during the pandemic, we were able to maintain our valuable employee base while investing in innovative products with our local funding partners in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was a real balancing act, but one that is now paying off.
Wards:
aicas creates, deploys, and operates edge-to-cloud solutions for the automotive industry. What is the future of cloud processing in automotive, and how will this advance CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric)?
JMB:
For example, cloud capabilities will help accelerate use cases such as automotive testing by leveraging scalable off-premise capabilities. The advancement of AI-driven technologies for a variety of use cases, such as improving the user experience in vehicles, expanding monetization opportunities, and creating better and higher quality products, will rely on cloud processing at scale. Autonomous systems will learn from the availability of data points at scale across cloud-based technology ecosystems and applications.
Wards:
You’ve partnered with industry leading names such as AWS, Google, NXP and Bosch. Operating in a traditionally siloed industry, how do you see the future for partnerships in automotive technology? Are there any challenges you’ve faced or opportunities you’ve noticed from partnerships?
JMB:
Partnerships have been, are, and will continue to be the key to better automotive technologies. No single company will be able to provide the full stack of technology options and benchmark capabilities. This is evidenced by the various in-house vs. mixed in-house and outsourced approaches among OEMs. Automotive OEMs have always relied on strong partners to bring together different products and solutions. This will continue, while from aicas’ perspective as a software company, there will be a growing and direct interaction with technology teams in the automotive companies, in addition to remaining connected to other suppliers. Working horizontally will drive best-in-breed joint solutions that better serve global automotive companies and provide them with the assurance that the combinations needed to run the software-defined vehicle of the future will leverage the best technologies and capabilities. Working in partnership requires transparency about each other’s objectives to achieve win-win situations. This is never static and therefore requires close interaction and integration and multiple levels, especially with large partners, from business management to technology functions and along peer levels.
Wards:
Where do you see the industry heading? Are there any trends or developments we should be keeping an eye on?
JMB:
Increased use of commercial offerings rather than in-house to gain competitive speed and faster access to the most efficient and profitable technology stack in the vehicle.
Also, increased and pervasive use of AI in both automotive manufacturing and vehicle-to-customer operations from sales to after-sales, including dealerships. Data extraction and processing technologies will enable faster deployment of AI methods and tools as they rely on the scale of observations. Improving the operational time to production of a vehicle line by leveraging both edge and cloud capabilities will be a key focus in the intensified race to transform from ICE to EV and more and more autonomous automotive systems.
Wards:
And finally, what advice would you give to a young person looking to pursue a career in automotive technology?
JMB:
Be willing to take risks, move fast, and enter with the understanding that this is one of the most exciting technology areas to work in for the next decade or more. Focus on the combination of building both technical expertise and business acumen, as both will be required to succeed in an area where the technological complexity of a vehicle, measured in parts, will be reduced, but the value will increasingly come from profitable vehicle platforms and the ability to leverage the software and data content associated with the vehicle to drive better business outcomes from fleet managers to individual consumers and – EV and its charging capacity is key here – entire national infrastructures.
