Success Stories

Internet of Things Success Stories Series #3
How IoT turned a car-sharing vision into a sucess story
1. Problem: a good business vision with no supporting technology available
After two decades of connecting people (fixed and mobile Internet networks and devices), the things
that surrounds us are now getting connected (cars, buildings, cities, houses, etc.).
The Internet of Things is the next massive trend, and is expected to radically change the environment
we live in: the volume of connected devices (think of a wearable, a smart meter, a connected car, a
billboard, a scale,...) overpassed humans count several years ago and are expected to exceed 50-100
billion of devices that can talk on the network in 5 years.
In this technological environment, speed of product development
cycles is significantly increased, and new innovation
opportunities are showing up in every industry.
D’Ieteren is a key player on the automotive market in Belgium.
D’Ieteren started a car-sharing operation based on an “off the
shelf” technology. This was a great idea to seize a not-yet-born
market allowed by new technologies.
However, despite this great vision, the initial technology
choice was not good enough to deliver the project: they faced
many problems during the project, both technical and conceptual.
It did not fit its needs and the promised features were not
delivered.
We audited the technology for them and offered to consider
changing the approach for something smarter and leaner. After
several months of hard work, Keyzee was born, a revolutionary
device that allows users to share cars via their smartphone.
From early prototypes to a small batch of pre-series hardware
and successful customers test, then mass production.
D’Ieteren’s car sharing operation did pivot dramatically to
become one of the most innovative technological solution to
share vehicles. Today Keyzee is the top listed technology in
most car sharing projects. The future is certainly very promising
for them. You can follow their success here on Facebook.
2. Solution: reinventing car-sharing
Stuck with a great idea but a technology that didn’t work, D’Ieteren
called Harold Grondel & Joost Damad (who will be the
founders of Productize after the project) for help.
After an initial analysis, Productize suggested to pivot the
business model and completely change the underlying
technology: D’Ieteren would develop an innovative car-sharing
system that mixes a SAAS virtual key vault releasing keys to
a smartphone.
D‘Ieteren, the well-known and leading car distributor in Belgium,
wanted to launch a solution to open & close cars at a
distance. This was a great opportunity to seize a not-yet-born
market enabled by new emerging technologies.
Figure 1. Market evolution towards digital car keys
Internet of Things • Success Stories 13 SERIES #3 - November 2015