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Information Systems
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Dec 6, 2023
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MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
[INSY 5375-003]
Fall 2022
Professor Name:
Dr.
Atieno Amadi
Complete Paper
–
GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and
Growth
Submitted By
Gowtham Gopalakrishnan - 1001990580
1
Introduction
GasBuddy, a Boston-based company founded in 2000, enables customers to look up and compare
retail gas prices at stations in the US, Canada. The largest pure-play gas price discovery platform in
North America, GasBuddy boasts 70 million downloads and price data for 150,000 gas stations.
This team evolved from a well experienced staff in payments, convenience stores, social and
mobile media, digital transformation, point-of-sale systems, modern technology platforms, agile
development who set out to change GasBuddy from a media firm focused on apps to an agile,
scalable organization that would add value throughout the ecosystem of pit stops and for drivers
everywhere.
When gas buddy first came out, it provided its users with a number of free resources, including a
trip cost calculator and a list of current gas prices. Furthermore, GasBuddy created a team of
renowned fuel experts that studied consumer and industry data. In its first year of operation,
GasBuddy.com helped establish 110 regionally focused websites in the US and Canada that
gathered and shared information on gas prices in local areas. More than 250 websites, such as
sanfransiscogasprices.com, bostongasprices.com, and others would soon be included to this list.
The GasBuddy app provided a useful and greatly improved user experience. Customers could more
quickly contribute gas prices at the time the price was noticed as well as more easily acquire
location-relevant gas prices when they wanted them. Additionally, GasBuddy was able to compile
more thorough data on its users thanks to the phone's location sensors. As the app's user base and
popularity grew, the infrastructure and design remained largely unaltered. During periods of high
demand, the GasBuddy app can experience pauses. People frequently bemoaned their inability to
get the most latest GasBuddy data..
As time went on, it became obvious that the brand needed to evolve if the app was to remain
useful and draw people in, which is essential for the sustainability of the business. But constantly
altering to accommodate shifting consumer demands comes with a host of issues. There are more
trade-offs between app users and advertising, which is the main issue GasBuddy is now dealing
with. Although users would want to see as few advertising as possible, GasBuddy will need to
run more of them in order to generate revenue. If GasBuddy wishes to stay clear of these
potential issues in the future, it has various options to consider.. The worst thing that could
happen would be for them to lose some of the people who use their app now.
2
In order for GasBuddy to be profitable, customers must be able to utilize the app quickly after
receiving information from the company and having it returned to them. The secret to keeping
clients using GasBuddy is for them to be able to utilize it fast. There are several ways to assess
and manage success, and these methods are continually evolving as the focus of the business
shifts. Utilize agile management and measurement techniques on the digital platform to keep up
with, get ahead of, or adjust to the newest technology being used by rivals. According to the
report, GasBuddy needs to concentrate on agility, scalability, and security in order to be effective
as a mobile app. dividing the business into smaller, more agile, and more successful quality
smaller teams can promote better management.
Objective:
GasBuddy's success is based on its users, thus the major goal of the rebranding is to
provide an app that is simple to use and offers goods and services that users are interested in both
at the pump and in the convenience store they regularly visit. Limiting potential downtime that
might interfere with users' use of the app or website is another thing to concentrate on
.
Information Resources
Nearly all of the gas price data on GasBuddy comes from user inputs that are crowdsourced.
Users of GasBuddy provide 2
–
3 million data points every day on gas prices in the US and
Canada. GasBuddy uses a points-based reward system to encourage user data submissions. Users
receive points for doing specific tasks (such reporting a price) and may redeem those points for
raffle tickets for daily draws of $100 petrol gift cards. Additionally, GasBuddy promotes point
leaderboards to add a gamification and social rivalry component to the network.
By allowing users to compare gas prices and discover nearby gas stations in case of a gasoline
scarcity, GasBuddy's platform offers tremendous value to customers. For instance, during the
massive evacuation in September 2017 before Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida,
GasBuddy assisted evacuees in finding gas stations that still had supplies when many others had
run out.
Despite the fact that GasBuddy generates a lot of value for its consumers, its value capture
methodology is just B2B. GasBuddy is free for users, which lowers adoption hurdles because
user-generated data is the platform's primary enabler (unlike Weathernews, for instance, where
user data is supplementary to weather station data). The company derives value from its business
clients in 4 different ways:
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3
Keeping data accurate is the key issue with crowdsourced data. GasBuddy needs users to be
geolocated within range of the gas station they plan to enter data for in order to handle these
difficulties. To provide accurate price information, GasBuddy occasionally also collaborates
directly with the gas stations. The possible decline in desire to participate as the network gets too
big is another issue with crowd-sourced data. Due in part to its incentive mechanism and in part
to users' perceptions that their submissions have more influence with a wider audience,
GasBuddy has looked resistant to this problem even as user submissions have continued to
increase.
Competition from other sources is one issue; in example, popular navigation applications like
Waze also provide information on petrol prices. But a number of things mitigate the effects of
competition. First off, GasBuddy's first-mover advantage
—
it launched 12 years before Waze
—
has given it a big platform that increases the value of using it. Second, users often only use Waze
when they are traveling to new locations, but GasBuddy is the preferred app for all sorts of daily
use (e.g., people commuting to and from work). Finally, GasBuddy's payment options and
upcoming in-app payment features ought to strengthen the platform's hold on users and shield it
from rivals.
GasBuddy looks to be in a good position to continue maximizing the benefits of its crowd-
sourced platform approach as the leading gas price discovery platform in North America with a
portfolio of additional value-added products.
4
Business Process & Technology
The Company:
Launched in 2000, GasBuddy started out as a web-based social network for
consumers to freely share gas price information. GasBuddy's main purpose is to help consumers
find competitive gas prices and save money at their convenience. Over the years, GasBuddy
made important to decisions in order to adapt to the changing market. In 2010, GasBuddy
launched its first smartphone app. In 2017, GasBuddy announced "Pay with GasBuddy." This
service which is built into the app not only helps to make payments, but it also gives discounts
on gas purchases. Despite these big changes, it is interesting to see how GasBuddy has not lost
its core purpose, which is to help consumers find competitive gas prices and save money.
GasBuddy is a smartphone application free of charge.
This makes it clear that Gasbuddy's
revenue does not originate with its customers directly, yet without customers, no money would
be generated. The majority of the company's income comes from the app's advertisements as
well as the sale of customer data to convenience shops. Given this, it's critical for GasBuddy to
realize that they must maintain a happy customer base. Customers' satisfaction depends on how
much effort is put into the app itself and how it is presented, including the presence of pop-up
ads and how frequently they appear. "The more advertisements the team sold, the more adverts
had to be accommodated in the app, and the more this encroached upon the app user experience,
the more this may inhibit consumer use, and the more this could diminish the value of
GasBuddy's consumer audience and associated services to corporate clients." Yes, selling more
advertisements increases a company's income, but it may be a tough game to play as many of us
have found that having too many pop-up ads can be rather inconvenient. Most importantly,
GasBuddy understood this and made sure to prioritize customer delight over 'quick' profit.
Business Problem
:
GasBuddy will need to find a means to keep their consumers involved and
striving to improve the GasBuddy data as the advancement of technology opens up a new world
of rivals. In order to have sufficient resources to deal with any necessary modifications,
GasBuddy will need to maintain operating expenditures that are far lower than operational
income
.
Important Factors & Analysis:
Although GasBuddy has made considerable strides, the
competition has constantly shown itself to be unyielding. Because Waze offers navigation
functions that GasBuddy does not, in addition to providing information on gas station prices,
Waze's application has faced competition since Google launched it. The shift to Big Data can
have a negative financial impact on any firm, which is another drawback. Strategic alliances and
partnerships between businesses are an advantageous element in which GasBuddy has engaged
itself, with the hope that these ties will be expanded to include additional businesses over time.
Walt Doyle is GasBuddy's greatest weapon and their strongest asset
.
Through his visions,
5
GasBuddy has made changes that will keep the company, not only afloat, but thriving in a
technologically focused world.
Technology & Methodology:
There are various system design methodologies that could be
considered when beginning a project, the two most common are waterfall and agile. The
waterfall methodology works from a top-down view, hence the name waterfall, and is the most
traditional step by step approach to the systems development life cycle (SDLC). It involves
specialized tasks that are completed one phase at a time, in which each phase must be completed
before moving onto the next phase, and final documentation approved by the stakeholders must
be signed off before moving on. The agile methodology does not involve continued documentation
throughout the phases as it does with the waterfall methodology, it focuses more on the expertise
of the people who will be assigned the various tasks, than the tasks themselves, and is more
flexible than waterfall in that it is operated under the presumption that change is inevitable
throughout the SDLC. The methodology that makes the most sense for this project is that of the
agile methodology. The agile methodology will allow GasBuddy to focus on the people (current
long-standing employees and new staff) and what they can bring to the rebranding of this app
and website. With the flexibility of this method, by not having to go through a final sign-off at
each phase by the stakeholders, and knowing that change is inevitable, allows for everyone
involved to communicate and collaborate throughout the whole life cycle. As GasBuddy is in
hopes of developing a new culture, the agile model will bring about necessary collaboration
amongst all parties concerned.
A scrum-like strategy was used, including the elements of scrum that had been successful for
him in the past, to increase the team's agility and each developer's degree of engagement with
project results. The team divided projects into smaller, more focused mini-projects that had
different priorities from the few major teams that had previously existed. In two-week sprints,
the teams tackled their backlogs, followed by retrospectives and sprint planning.
Additionally, GasBuddy established a beta forum with 5,000 of its most devoted users. Together,
these users provided about half of the data on gas prices. These important and active users have
the chance to share advice on the forum as well as voice their displeasure with any proposed
modifications. As the firm increased customer services, this offered GasBuddy the ability to
justify the improvements, including the advantage of a home screen. Gaining support before
launch turned out to be beneficial. Participants in beta forums frequently responded to criticisms
voiced in open forums at the time of rollout. A/B Testing 33
Heavy use of A/B testing fine-tuned the new design and solved the occasional internal debate
involving an app decision. For its A/B tests, GasBuddy would create two experiences within a
beta version of its app and then watch the data. For example, in test A, one version of the beta
app forced one set of new users to fill out three screens of registration information.
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6
GasBuddy's modernized digital platform would deliver the following:
The corporation would leverage integrated technologies to power-up a new
microservices-based architecture by adding resources like more CPU or memory. This
was the foundation of the approach.
The ranking of the firm in Time Magazine's Top 50 Apps listings, user retention rates,
user acquisition rates, and user engagement rates are used to gauge its growth
.
Addressing the Challenges faced by GasBuddy:
Recruiting a new team and developing a more efficient and powerful smartphone (mobile)
application and website that increases the app and website's agility, scalability, and security.
7
•
In order to compete, the business needs focus on more creative strategies as well as its cheap
gas slogan, such as developing a location-based nearest shop, how the service is ranked at each
site, and a list of the amenities each station offers..
•
A video advertising platform to engage the customers is required to keep customers and
business customers. These advertising must enhance the company's offerings rather than detract
from them. They also need to be few in number so that consumers won't become weary of them.
•
The corporation might benefit to some extent from placing devices at the affiliated shops and
petrol stations collecting customer input and adjusting the prices..
•
The business might grow and reach more individuals by offering incentives and doing joint
surveys..
•
Giving consumers evaluations or rankings based on their loyalty and reliable data may assist
prospective customers decide whether to accept that specific data or not..
•
To have their application pre-installed on the infotainment system, GasBuddy must secure an
agreement with the main automakers. This will help the firm grow and spread its reputation
among a much larger audience.
Rebuild for two years or ten years?
At first, I believed it was time for the firm to be acquired due to the escalating competition, but
the most recent makeover in 2016 was a huge success.
•
With this achievement, GasBuddy has demonstrated a thorough awareness of the gas station
marketplaces. The business must take heed of this achievement and begin incorporating new
features, forming alliances with different other mobile manufacturing firms, and expanding its
market potential..
•
According to the report, Doyle's first aim was to give the organization a start-up mentality.
GasBuddy must adopt a two-year strategy to do this.
•
Instead of losing market share to rivals, GasBuddy's strives to have the newest technologies. It
is crucial for the business, which was founded in the 2000s and has a sizable market share, to
avoid losing that share to rivals. To remain competitive in the present market, the firm must as
quickly as possible revamp its organizational structure and business strategy..
Comparative analysis of company:
8
One of the most popular and well-known standalone applications for monitoring gas prices is
GasBuddy, which has been around for quite some time. The GasBuddy app is available for both
Android and iOS, and yes, it is also available for PC. It can show you a map of nearby gas prices,
calculate the cost of your journey, notify you when prices increase, and more. Additionally,
prices are crowdsourced, providing you some of the most recent data available.
In comparison to GasBuddy, the battle between Google Maps and Waze is more challenging to
evaluate. There are several similarities between the two applications, including shared
functionality and a common parent organization in Google. It almost seems as though as time
passes, the two become more and more similar.
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9
Google is infamous for having its hands in every metaphorical cookie jar, so both Waze and
Google Maps are readily accessible. Both applications are compatible with Android Auto and
Apple CarPlay and are available for iOS and Android smartphones. Therefore, you have the
choice to utilize both regardless of the device you use or the vehicle you drive
..
Both Google Maps and Waze will, at their core, get you where you need to go. Having said that,
they are rather dissimilar even though both are run by Google. The "winner" ultimately comes
down to how you get about. However, they differ from GasBuddy in that they do not provide
daily changes in gasoline prices so that users may choose the one that is less expensive.
GasBuddy continues to expand because to this service despite competition from Google and
Waze.
The standard navigation app is Google Maps. No matter how you intend to get there, if you
punch in a destination, the system will find a method to achieve it. Google Maps includes
information for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, or bus. In contrast to Gasbuddy, Google may even
warn you about potential hazards or traffic along the road and give you the opportunity to choose
an alternative route.
Waze, on the other hand, is designed solely for motorcycle and automobile users. Waze
constantly assesses the environment to attempt to bring you to your destination as quickly as
possible, rather than just selecting the quickest single path and leaving you to it
..
Despite coming from the same firm and doing comparable tasks, the interfaces of Google Maps
and Waze are very unlike to those of GasBuddy. Waze has a much more straightforward strategy
with less elements and a cartoony style, in contrast to Google Maps, which has the appearance of
a more conventional software and all the on-screen information that it delivers..
The primary similarity between GasBuddy, Google Maps, and Waze is that each service is based
entirely on user-submitted data. A large portion of it is automatically gathered by Google Maps
and Waze, merely by the fact that you are using GasBuddy while driving. Users can report any
risks or barriers that can cause difficulty for other drivers in Google Maps, Waze, and reports
regarding Gas Prices.
Analysis of all that information paints a picture of what is going on on the roads, gas stations and
can be utilized to direct or redirect users where necessary.
Despite the Fact that Google Maps and Waze are Navigational App they are major threat to
GasBuddy as they have huge amount of data collected which puts them in higher advantage
while comparing the app with the future development. Both apps have a number of similar
features helping you find important businesses and locations in the area around you.
10
Conclusion & Recommendation
Conclusion:
GasBuddy's revamp should take two years. As they stay in the market, corporate
and consumer expectations get more aggressive. With time, competitors' barriers become
easier to overcome. GasBuddy will need more and more money to compete with more
established companies, like gas stations. Gas stations provide gas cards and have agreements
with banks for pay-at-the-pump and gas savings per fill up. Anything beyond maintaining
operations will reduce profitability. In this case, all groups might win. On one hand, they
save money by not having to invest in their own payment center. GasBuddy negotiated a
cheap price with a business colleague.
Doyle said Cumberland Farms didn't need to pay banks because they owned pumps, payment
services, and stores. They only had to pay a charge to clear all the payments. Having a
retailer handle payments benefited everyone. If the publisher and middleman work together
to help customers with payments, both will benefit. Possible. GasBuddy must always
respond to competition. GasBuddy must utilize technologies from other industries. Delivery
services provide clients more convenience. GasBuddy can choose its course by listening to
users and learning how the app is utilized. GasBuddy's continued success depends on the
speed at which information is received and returned to customers.
Customers will keep using GasBuddy if it's easy to use. Success can be measured and
managed in many ways, which change as the organization evolves. On the digital platform,
use agile approach to stay on par, ahead, or adapt to competitors' technologies. GasBuddy's
mobile app needs agility, scalability, and security, according to the article.
Better management can result from dividing the organization into smaller, more flexible
teams. This can be assessed by their performance in Time Magazine's Top 50 iPhone App
listings, excellent user retention, and the number of new and active users. Hiring, training,
goals, and productivity determine team success. Using third-party companies to monitor
employee happiness can boost success.
These companies could provide continuing feedback services. This feedback from
management down would stress culture and underline that everyone's job is important. Most
profit-driven firms focus on increasing sales. This is assessed by annual income and
convenience shop agreements. The approach must also consider customers' ever-changing
11
culture and the extension of services in times of need, like
storm Harvey.
Recommendation:
Throughout the introduction of GasBuddy 3.0, Walt Doyle has teleported the
business into a new age. However, every new age is riddled with competitors that will do
everything possible to come out on top. GasBuddy has a large opportunity for development
within the industry of data as shown in GasBuddy 1.0 with the success of their fuel analysts,
GasBuddy 2.0 with location-based data, and GasBuddy 3.0 with Business Pages for fuel retailers
and convenience stores. It is my recommendation for GasBuddy to pursue Big Data in a
constantly changing technological environment.
More data scientists and analysts would enable GasBuddy to develop into a legitimate business
that offers more than just gas pricing. GasBuddy has the chance to sell this data to the natural gas
and petroleum sectors for significant rates thanks to the reputation of innumerable Big Data
specialists. GasBuddy will be better able to assist customers by collecting consumer data such as
location, frequency of gas station usage, amount of gas, turnaround time for each consumer to fill
up, etc.
While the process of growing the Big Data team will result in higher operational costs, there are
chances for quick returns through analysis of the currently available data, while fresh data has
the potential to accumulate. There will be more potential for data monetization after a sufficient
volume of data has been accumulated following the appointment of additional Big Data team
members.
GasBuddy has a huge competitive edge over rivals since there is a dearth of data about customers
and businesses in the petroleum sector, which will be helpful in the rapidly evolving world of
technology.
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12
Summary
YEARLY STATS AND ADVANCEMENTS IN GAS BUDDY APP DEVELOPMENT
Year 2000 - GasBuddy was launched in 2000 as a web-based social network for consumers.
Year 2008 - DoubleClick, a platform for programmatic ad exchange that Google had just bought,
wasused by GasBuddy to start automating the sale of advertisements
Year 2010 - Gas Buddy launched its first smartphone app.
Year 2016 - GasBuddy introduced Business Pages for fuel retailers and convenience stores
Year 2016 - GasBuddy unveiled its new branding.
Year 2017 - GasBuddy had achieved over 70 million downloads of the GasBuddy app.
Year 2017 - GasBuddy announced new Business Pages contracts with Gulf Oil42 and Philips6.
Year 2017 - GasBuddy announced "Pay with GasBuddy" as the first-of-its-kind gasoline savings
program.
Year 2017 - GasBuddy's app became one of the three most popular apps in the country.
The GasBuddy app provided a useful and greatly improved user experience. Customers could more
quickly contribute gas prices at the time the price was noticed and more easily acquire location-
relevant gas prices when they required them..
Additionally, GasBuddy was able to compile more thorough data on its users thanks to the phone's
location sensors. As the app's user base and popularity increased, the infrastructure and design
stayed largely the same..
There may be interruptions in the GasBuddy app during times of high demand. It was common
for someone to lament their inability to acquire the most recent GasBuddy information.
Reference
13
1.
GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth. (March 2018) Retrieved
November 17, 2019, from
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/download?
url=/courses/592046/items/BAB420-PDF-ENG/content&metadata=e30=
2.
Source: Babson College based upon GasBuddy published information
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GasBuddy, accessed January 2018. S
(2)
http://then.gasbuddy.com/Announce.aspx, accessed January 2018.
Gillan, Babson College, Boston MA, September 22, 2017.
25