As the world places sustainability at the forefront, it is imperative to assess key value industries with the potential for exponential transformation. The electric vehicles (EV) industry is one of the exciting segments with scope for massive innovation and accomplishes some of the most significant tenets of sustainability. For one, when paired with the right technologies to meet its objectives, it can smoothly spearhead operational eco-efficiency and achieve continuous profitability, thus catalyzing responsible global growth for enterprises.
The demand for EVs in the past few years has witnessed a meteoric rise in the market. Much of this could be attributed to increasing urbanization, rapidly shifting consumer preferences, and the availability of electric vehicles by the mainstream manufacturers. Government initiatives across countries to lower greenhouse emissions and harmful environmental effects have also played a key role for auto manufacturers and consumers to increasingly prefer selling and purchasing of EVs in recent years.
This, in turn, has generated a massive rise in demand of effective charging management infrastructure for the electric vehicles. To make a charging management infrastructure efficient, we need the right combination of a charging management system (CMS) hardware and a pluggable solution which can easily integrate both with CMS and market leading utilities meter-to-cash platforms. At the same time, it should provide highly personalized self-service functionality for the EV owners.
Streamlining the Journey of EV Owners: Our Versatile Charging Management Solution (VCMS)
VCMS is a modular one stop solution which seamlessly integrates and reads the consumption data from CMS and processes the same leveraging Oracle’s state-of-the-art C2M and CCS utilities platform for billing and payment management, credits and collections and various transactions as part of a Post-Paid plan for an EV owner. On the other hand, this solution’s self-service portal and mobility application manages all the expectations that an EV owner may have while travelling in their EV. These include:
- Ability to locate public charging stations on the map
- Ability to book charging station
- Ability to view real time charging status
- Ability to receive message from CMS
- Ability to view total energy used
- Ability to view amount to be paid
- Payment gateway integration for drive in customers
- Ability to provide feedback to on charging station
- Ability to seek help for any issue
- Ability to receive any marketing notifications
- Block/unblock charging stations for public (fleet operators)
This can equally benefit an electric utility planning to roll out the EV charging management Infrastructure, an automobile manufacturer selling an EV or a fleet operator who is looking to boost their revenue by leasing out their charging station infra to public when their own vehicles are not using the same.
VCMS is also capable of interacting with EV charging stations, utilities, and fleet operators to control user permissions and invoicing, access status updates, and decide on rates and charges in real-time. This makes it imperative for the VCMS to be user-friendly, scalable, and offer easy connectivity with existing systems.
Highlights of VCMS include:
- Offer management, tailored plan creation for contestable market and customer onboarding for utilities leveraging Oracle’s C2M/CCS, CX and OU analytics platforms.
- In-depth monitoring of charging activities with extensive analytics to optimize network consumption. It can also modify charging behavior within specific parameters.
- Automated processes; offers authorized access and advanced troubleshooting capabilities in case of system changes.
- Helps consumers or EV owners to control and manage consumption.
Adopting the Next-Gen Versatile Charging Management Solution from Tech Mahindra
At Tech Mahindra, our initiatives towards the sustainable transformation of utilities have helped reduce carbon emissions and build profitable practices for organizations worldwide. VCMS for EVs is a comprehensive, future-ready, compliant solution offering a 360-degree capability of vehicle charging processes with the deployment of a well-connected network across utilities. Our proven expertise in the EVs space combined with the market leading Meter to cash platform of Oracle; C2M and CCS, helped us create this solution which aids the utilities, auto manufacturers, fleet operators and the EV Owners to operate with improved productivity, contribute towards sustainable future, have personalized recommendations, and manage costs.
- VCMS on Oracle platform can help organizations leverage smooth configuration, monitoring, and intelligent administration of EV charging stations, with better analytics to monitor and manage energy consumption.
- Automated billing and payment systems make charging incredibly easy.
- Simplified EV station tracking and reservation with a consolidated platform generating automated alerts for smooth communication. The solution features seamless integration capabilities with third-party ERP systems and actionable insights to help you facilitate agile operations.
- Facilitation of administration of charging station networks from a single dashboard, helping organizations make the most out of differential pricing, optimized consumption, seamless management of different user personas, and much more.
The Tech Mahindra Advantage
1. Driving an enhanced customer experience
- Personalized customer journeys: The VCMS utilizes high-quality machine-augmented data to assess Charging Station demographics and offer intelligent, personalized recommendations, beginning right from the first usage. Leveraging unique ML algorithms, the VCMS can help determine Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) with predictive analyses for increased engagement and meaningful interactions with your audience. It also offers the option for smooth searchability.
- 24x7 support: With complete monitoring of EV usage, customers can reach out for support on the app smoothly via an integrated ticketing system in-built into the app.
- Seamless payments: Offers a smooth gateway for public charging with automated billing and payments modules to maximize cost savings and make faster payments.
- Access to critical information: With quick notifications and availability alerts, users can access the nearest vehicle with map directions to the location. Further, real-time recommendations for fast charging and battery saving make for a smooth, hassle-free experience.
2. Accelerating efficient ops for charge point operators
- Real-time monitoring and maintenance: With enhanced servicing capabilities in-built for charging station operators, the VCMS allows for all-round tracking and management of sessions, drivers, and asset utilization. Charging point operators can leverage real-time reports on asset usage and EV performance, thereby maximizing operational efficiency exponentially.
- Differential pricing capabilities: It offers intelligent load balancing capabilities with dynamic pricing based on user behavior and energy consumption.
- Smooth partner management: The solution also delivers insights into common customer problems and partner management on the app to facilitate quick conflict resolutions.
3. Maximizing service value for utilities providers
- Visibility into EV usage and performance: VCMS from Tech Mahindra offers access to smart enterprise graphs with insights into EV utilization trends and consumption load. The solution delivers in-depth analytics for anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, time-series charts, EVSE downtime, and linkage to revenue loss, with the option for over-the-air upgrades. Gain an overview of charging station sessions and viewership into station session lengths, average session lengths, and real-time downtime updates.
4. Fostering streamlined fleet management
- Distinguishable, unified data for smooth processes: Access unified data on vehicle data, scheduling, nearest stations, maps, available charging power, and many more.
- Geo-Distribution of charge stations and drivers: Leverage advanced mapping capabilities to locate the nearest drivers and available vehicles, status in real-time with relevant geo-tagging capacities.
Paving the Road to Smart EV Infrastructure
Building an interconnected infrastructure for EV charging management is critical. Taking control of data and streamlining vehicle charging management across a vast, connected network of stakeholders can mobilize value and transform the potential of sustainability in the automotive industry. Make the most out of your EV investment and improve your servicing capabilities in the arena with a cutting-edge VCMS solution that is:
- An end-to-end solution for EV charging management with an emphasis on smooth CX journeys.
- Domain-centric, designed to integrate utilities as partners.
- Built on Oracle’s proven meter-to-cash platforms and can be extended to other ERP Systems
- Unique analytics to validate real-time customer usage behavior
- Customizable with specific, bespoke requirements
Connect with our service experts and get started today!
About the Author
Shantanu Chaudhuri
Head - Oracle Presales, Solutions and Oracle Utilities Practice, Tech Mahindra
He is a seasoned IT professional with more than 26 years of experience in digital CoE and solutions management, Oracle cloud applications knowledge, thought leadership, delivery management, presales, automation, and innovation.
