Maria Junge is studying Business Information Systems at the University of Passau. In the semester holidays she works as a promoter. She loves fashion and her iPhone with all its apps.

She recently got a new tool – the "be mobile - go shopping" app. Since the large retailer in the shopping mall on the outskirts of Passau set up the first charge spots for electric vehicles six months ago, a fully-fledged network has developed. All the retailers in this shopping mall are now involved in the charging infrastructure. And they have even gone a step further by assembling a small fleet of electric vehicles. The shopping mall is specifically targeting the student customer base in Passau with this car-sharing service, trying to coax students out of downtown Passau into the outskirts of the city.

The retailers have agreed on a joint loyalty card that is tied in with discounts in the individual stores. As such, Maria simply needs to spend €100 or more in her favorite fashion store to fill up with free electricity, and have the car-sharing costs waived, too. So Maria often has a free trip to the shopping mall – more often in fact than she would actually like.

As a Business Information Systems student it never ceases to amaze her how quickly new partners are joining this electromobility network, and how compatible their systems are. She asked the shopping mall’s head of IT to explain to her the underlying IT systems. He also showed her how the partners can change the discount conditions associated with the loyalty card very quickly by modifying their business rules contained in a rule model. The number of shoppers in the mall has increased substantially since this system was launched.

Maria is of course blissfully unaware of all this since the app on her iPhone automatically accesses the up-to-date information from the participating stores. The app also allows her to find the next available car nearby and reserve it for her shopping-mall trip. Once there, she is assigned a charge spot. And finally, she sends her hairdresser a message to book an appointment.

Advantages and value-added:

• Customer retention and new customer acquisition 
• Targeted discounts
• Integrated mobility infrastructure