Geelong Waterfront eScooters

Background:

For tourists, the Geelong Waterfront precinct is one of the most popular places to visit in Geelong and is one of the most favoured destinations for all visitors, including locals after visiting the Central Business District (CBD) of Geelong. There are numerous attractions for sightseeing along the Corio Bay foreshore, stretching from Rippleside Beach in the West to Limeburners Point in the East. With many located within walking distance to excellent accommodation and some of the best places to eat in Gelong.

Historically, the Geelong Waterfront has been an integral part of the city's economic and social community for over 150 years and is the basis upon which the city was built. What you experience as you walk along its beautiful wide boulevards is the outcome of over 100 years of vision, focus and dedication.

The Geelong Port had its early beginnings as an official port for the exportation of gold due to its closer geographical location to the nearby Ballarat Goldfields, enabling the gold miners to avoid travelling through Melbourne with large amounts of gold.

In 1868 the first Wool Mills opened in Geelong and massive wool storage sheds were built along the foreshore near Cunningham Pier. At this time most of the Waterfront was dedicated to the wool trade and for a time Geelong weas known as the 'wool centre of the world'.

At the turn of the 20th century, Geelong had become a major agricultural trading post and by the 1940s wool was the second largest commodity exported out of the port.

In the 1980s with the Port's decline as a major agricultural trading post. A rejuvenation plan was conceived, and Stage One of the Waterfront beautification plan began. This involved the landscaping of Corio Bay Crescent between Rippleside and Limeburners Point.

However, it was not until 1995 when a partnership was formed between the Victorian State Government and the City of Greater Geelong to redevelop and beautify the area. With the aim of transforming the area into a local and tourist destination capable of drawing tourists from those en-route to the Bellarine or the Great Ocean Road, which to this day, remains one of Victoria's busiest tourist areas.

The outcome is that today the Geelong Waterfront is now a major Victorian tourist attraction hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Case Study Details:

You are part of small team who has been hired to design a mobile app for the Ibis eScooter Company who have been granted sole supply and operating rights for providing electric scooters (eScooters) for hourly rent throughout the Geelong Waterfront and CBD.

Jie Scott and Mary Chung, who met while studying Commerce at the nearby Deakin Waterfront Campus situated in the old and now refurbished Dalgety Wool Store, were enjoying the sunshine at a nearby cafe one day and conceived of the idea of rental eScooters as a means for people and tourists to get around the entire Waterfront and to access the CBD.

After having created the start-up business Ibis eScooter Company Pty Ltd they sold the idea of sole access to operate eScooters for hourly rent to the City of Greater Geelong and they are now seeking your help and expertise.

They have reached the point in their business setup that they need to develop a mobile app for the business. Both Jie and Mary understand that the success of their business and potential growth rests with engaging mobile customers and their mobile phone technology to monetise their business.

Their view is to deliver their dockless eScooter share business via numerous eScooter rack locations situated around the city and waterfront, which provide a first and last mile transport option from nearby all-day car parks. Convenient access to eScooters will reduce the reliance on cars, ease congestion on the roads of the CBD and help locals and tourists alike get around the city and waterfront in a fun, safe and easy way.

Stakeholders:

Mary Chung is the Managing Director of the business and Jie Scott is the Operations Manager, and your team is tasked with designing the mobile app that will actively engage with their potential customers via their mobile phones. You are part of an agile project team, which will oversee its development to market and enable online reservations and/or on-the-spot mobile rental transactions. You will also work closely and communicate directly with Jie Scott during the planning and implementation stages of this project.

Project Scope:

To take the Ibis e-Scooter Company mobile you will use an agile project management approach. This project starts with the development of an overall basic app design to ensure that the company's mobile presence aligns with its vision of providing e-Scooter rental options to customers. You will need to work with Jie to map out the app content and oversee its design to meet the target launch date.

Jie, who is also a keen photographer, has set up an account for the Ibis e-Scooter Company on various social media channels in the past year and posted some of the images. However, those accounts need to have consistent branding with the new app. Jie wants the app to promote the service and ensure that customers can easily subscribe to the range of rental plans and find all the tourist information they need linked to Jie's social media channel to promote customer engagement.

Project Budget and Timeline:

The entire cost of the development of the digital strategy and set-up of the mobile app has an initial budget of $82,000. Further budgetary constraints might be advised throughout the phases of the project.

Jie expects to launch the first version prototype of their mobile app focusing on promoting the self-rental of eScooters plans that can be ordered, reserved and processed via the mobile app within the next 8 weeks, followed by a fully functioning app a month later that will allow customers to set up user profiles, subscribe to rental plans online, reserve eScooters, and track e-Scooter numbers available at different locations along the Waterfront and around the CBD. Mary will attend a meeting with prospective investors in Sydney, in 12 weeks. Therefore, they need the initial mobile app to be up and running well before her trip!

If the company manages to get additional funds, Mary is keen to extend the business to the rental of push-bikes to promote the health benefits and joy of cycling along the Waterfront. This would require a separate section for users to access the mobile app. Jie is not yet sure whether he wants to go in this direction as it will require establishing close connections with a network of push-bike as well as e-Scooter maintenance providers. She is also worried about raising the required working capital, knowing that it can take a long time to break into this market as experienced in other places like Christchurch in NZ, but she has promised to keep an open mind.

App Details:

The initial app needs to have an inviting landing page, a section for the company background, mission and 'philosophy', a connection to Jie's social media channel with great pictures of various e-Scooters and users and a contact page aimed at facilitating eScooter rentals payment via the mobile phone app.

Later in the project, Mary and Jie want to see the login facility where repeat customers can create profiles, book (reserve) an eScooter and pay for their discounted rental, pause, and re-start subscriptions. Jie also thinks she might need a separate section for business partners at some point in terms of an eScooter maintenance program. At this stage, he expects that the app will cater for Australian customers only, while the app could also provide basic functions for international tourists. She also hopes to be able to expand the eScooter rental concept to other regional cities soon.

Question 1

Agile projects are characterized by having at least one flexible element of the triple constraints. Which elements do you think will have to remain fixed for developing theIbis eScooter Company app, which constraint(s) do you think Mary Chung might allow to be flexible? Please justify your answer.