Tata Motors fuels digital transformation with Red Hat

Tata Motors Limited

Tata Motors Limited (TML) is a leading global manufacturer of cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups, trucks, and buses. Realizing its system of record (SOR) could not keep up with growing expectations of digital solutions, it turned to Red Hat to lay a foundation for improved processes and agile delivery of new services.

Part of the USD 113 billion Tata Group, Tata Motors is the largest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in India to offer a broad range of integrated, smart, and electric solutions. Red Hat supports Tata’s operations in India, the UK, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, and Indonesia, through 103 subsidiaries, ten associate companies, and three joint ventures.

2022 Red Hat Innovation Awards honorable mention

Tata Motors is India's largest automobile manufacturer, and the primary architect of the country’s commercial vehicle industry. It produces passenger and sports cars, commercial trucks, vans, coaches, buses, construction equipment, and military vehicles. They strive to incorporate power, performance, and comfort into all of their vehicles while managing costs.

Few would doubt the benefits of adopting digital solutions, but as expectations around its digital business grew, Tata realized that its system of record wasn’t up to the task. The business had to develop an agile integration platform using application programming interfaces (APIs) to exchange data with other apps and interface with the SOR to create better services, improve revenues, and uphold its mission.

Their first task was to streamline the process of onboarding dealers, partners, and mobility aggregators. Tata’s current dealer management system managed over 1,000 dealers but was proprietary and extremely expensive. It needed a platform that would unite the internal and external systems of all of Tata’s stakeholders, which it could then extend to its connected vehicle project and deploy more widely to other IoT use cases.

Tata laid the groundwork for improved processes and agile delivery of new services using Red Hat® OpenShift®, Red Hat 3scale API Management, Red Hat Fuse, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Red Hat AMQ. The immediate benefits went beyond retiring Tata’s expensive, proprietary dealer management system. 

The new open source, container-ready architecture enabled complex integration patterns. Testing and deployment of the service was greatly reduced by the out-of-the-box functionality that eliminated the need for complex add-ons that could have delayed time to market.

The automobile manufacturer is now able to provide APIs for its various digital applications, making integration easier. Red Hat’s hybrid architecture support also gives Tata the flexibility of moving into the cloud with public providers such as Microsoft or AWS. This helps provide the advanced telematics and connected-car solutions that their customers demand.

Software and Services

• Red Hat Openshift
• Red Hat AMQ​
• Red Hat 3scale API Management​
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux

With the help of Red Hat's comprehensive open source solutions, Tata was able to speed up critical processes, improve integration, and enhance security. 

Dealer onboarding time was reduced from more than 30 days to just seven. API-driven transactions have risen dramatically from 20% to 95%. Red Hat 3scale enables Tata to control and monetize its operations on third-party aggregator services with better security.

The solutions worked in concert to enable the manufacturer to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.