megatrends

administration can save considerable costs, for
which companies would be willing to pay a
premium.
Also in the Netherlands, the NS-Business card,
launched by NS trains, allows all modes of
travel to be placed on a single invoice, again
providing significant administrative benefits,
and, more importantly, convenient travel
across the entire country, whilst also allowing
use of additional services such as short-term
office space rental, or access to business class
lounges. These solutions represent the most
comprehensive mobility integration solution
currently on the market.
As part of a recent report on mobility
integration, Frost & Sullivan has identified
three different business models, namely
Mobility Integrator (MI), Mobility Aggregator
(MA) and Mobility Player (MP). Each model
differs primarily on the role that a particular
stakeholder in a value chain plays, and also on
the host of mobility services that are offered.
A Mobility Integrator would link every mode
of transport, whether it operates them or not,
and would be seen by the consumer as the
point of reference for their journey and
associated services. For example, the
aforementioned NS-Business card allows
users to rent office space from Regus, as the
MI - this service would be seen to be offered
by NS, rather than Regus. The business model
for doing so could be either through a
percentage of revenue sharing, licensing, or
fixed cost annual agreement.
A Mobility Aggregator would provide several
travel related services: for example, a leasing
firm offering rental of all types of vehicles,
integrated with public transport networks.
A Mobility Player would be relatively more
conservative, offering services close to the
current business model. For example, an
automotive manufacturer may open its
product portfolio to allow flexible usage of
several models rather than fixed use of one
product, such as the recent BMW on Demand,
or Mu by Peugeot services.
The future is set to provide a continued
focus on integrated, multi-modal and ondemand
mobility solutions, exploiting the
trend towards the sharing economy and
continued technology improvement. In the
short term, this is set to include efforts such
as more sophisticated journey planning
tools and applications, smart parking and a
better understanding of nearest transport
services through continued smartphone
proliferation.
Q1 2013
However, in the long term, this could lead to
complete efficient citywide, national or even
international mobility solutions, provided the
data is openly available. With several large
organisations across the automotive,
transportation, technology and infrastructure
markets now viewing mobility as a long term
pattern, it is surely only a matter of time until
we see more fully integrated mobility
solutions across the globe.
Megatrends
Sarwant Singh is a Partner and Global Practice
Director of Frost & Sullivan’s Automotive &
Transportation Practice. He is author of ‘New
Mega Trends: Implications for our Future Lives’.
Martyn Briggs is Mobility Programme Manager
at Frost & Sullivan, and manages strategic mobility
research and consulting assignments, helping
clients identify growth potential through leveraging
technology and new business models.
Automotive World Megatrends magazine | www.automotiveworld.com
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