BMW has begun prototyping ‘telematics’ (combining computing and telecommunications) and online services for a new generation of luxury cars, in which its customers played a major role as designers....

BMW has begun prototyping ‘telematics’ (combining computing and telecommunications) and online services for a new generation of luxury cars, in which its customers played a major role as designers. This effort to harness the creativity of its customers began in 2003, when BMW posted a toolkit on its website allowing ideas to be developed to take advantages in ‘telematics’ and in-car online services. From the 1000 customers who used the toolkit, BMW chose 15 and invited them to meet its engineers in Munich. Some of their ideas (which remain under wraps for now) have since reached the prototype stage, says BMW. Customers were delighted to be invited into this scheme, and did not expect payment. This success has led BMW to broaden its customer-innovation efforts further, and more and more companies are looking toward active customer engagements of this kind. Westwood Studios, a developer now owned by the computer games company Electronic Arts (EA), first noticed its customers innovating its products after the launch of the game ‘Red Alert’ in 1996. Gamers were making new content and posting it freely on fan websites. Westwood made a conscious decision to embrace this phenomenon, and was soon shipping basic development tools with its games. Three years later, it had a dedicated department to feed designers and producers working on new projects with customer innovations.