Analysis:

Business Process Models and strategy analysis for CC music:

Business process model notation:

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard that helps in providing the businesses with the ability to understand the internal procedures of business through graphical representations. This will help the organizations to understand their own internal as well as external shortcomings and respond to business-to-business B2B management situations more efficiently (Braun and Esswein 2014). Three different business models that abide by the BPMN model are explained in the following paragraphs.

Workflow Technique:

The workflow techniques comprises of a task flow between the different employees as well as computers within an organization. Chris as well as Clive can use this technique to communicate their latest gig updates as well as information about upcoming tours and music albums to the concerned authorities such as the recording studios, producers, event managers using computerized technologies using the workflow technique. This model technique can be used to store the data about the events of CC music as well as the band information, financial calculations in computers (Salnitri, Dalpiaz and Giorgini 2014). It involves analyzing (present scenario) as well as modelling (future scenario) of the business processes within CC Music. Relevant information from the different processes are captured such as gathering of information, modelling of business process, workflow modelling, execution, implementation as well as Verification within CC music (Bocken et al. 2014).

Agile business technique:

Agile Business Model is a comparatively new and lightweight approach that merges business development strategies with different agile principles to form a flexible organization. This model will be immensely helpful for CC music since the organization will also be capable to support itself during any crisis regarding organization and managing shows payment collection etc. Through the agile model, CC Music will have the flexibility to adapt to new and dynamic requirements of the clients as well as the fan during their tours and concerts. Through this model, they will have software in their system through which they can work better as music agents in order to promote their own music as well as other growing artistes. (Casadesus‐Masanell and Zhu 2013). CC Music’s advantages and provisions while taking any kind of business decisions are:

1. Chris and Clive will always be in a process to improve their marketing skills to continuously improve process of delivery and expand their business.
2. They will also be able to improve their communication skills with the different people such as managers from other music companies, producers, event organizers during their meetings. Effective communication skills will help them promote the music off CC Music even better using this model (Chhun, Moalla and Ouzrout 2014).

The inventory management system of CC music also has to be used strategically in the organization. The main functions of the inventor include meeting excessively high demands for the company such as more number of live concerts and demands from the fans for availability of the music of the northern band for live streaming over the internet. Production requirements in the studios during the live recording of any music of the band including their solo albums needs budget decisions to be taken by Chris and Clive which again can be effectively managed using  a proper inventory system (Stevenson 2015). Decisions such as amount of money to be paid as advance deposit to the event managers or in the studios as well as other third party, stakeholders are determined using the inventory or resource management system such as Float. Orders can be processed from the different fans and costs such as holding cost of any gig can be efficiently determined by Chris and Clive.

Flowchart Technique:

The flowchart technique makes use of various kinds of boxes to depict the stages of the management process, and their order of functioning are represented using arrows. The different business situations in CC music such as deciding the dates of a tour, deciding the cost factors, planning their stays, stakeholders to be involved can be chalked out using the flowchart technique.

SWOT analysis of CC music:

Strengths:

Chris and Clive have experience in teaching music, which is one of their biggest strengths since they have the theoretical knowledge of performing arts, and music, which will be extremely useful for them in their new business venture. They have also been a part of the music industry in the north west part of England and have known and worked with a popular Northern soul band, which will be an added advantage and strength for them in terms of having preexisting contacts in the music industry (Conforti et al. 2016). They have prior experience in organizing studio work, playing at parties as well as events, parties, organizing television and radio programs.

Weakness:

            Chris and Clive do not have proper knowledge about the business approach they are planning to have. They are not much aware about the business technologies that should be suitable for the exact needs of CC music. Another weakness is that they do not have a set of proper professionals in their company and adequate sponsors or financial resources now (Rogers 2013).

Opportunities

            Considering CC Music’s future business plans, it is a better business decision that the business hires more professionals instead of just relying on Chris’s daughter and Clive’s niece. This is because Chris and Clive are already quite well known in the market for their association with the renowned northern soul band. Another opportunity is that they should consider is collaboration with other bands and music professionals since music is a kind of business segment that is more into creativity and presentation and more number of people can contribute in more innovative ideas for CC music (DaSilva and Trkman 2014). Chris and Clive also have experience in teaching music therefore they can also manage the available resources within the company using an effective inventory management system, such as Music 3d. It will be capable to follow up with clients and event companies as well as other stakeholders and also lower the costs associated to inventory management (Stevenson 2015).

Threats:

There is always a threat of new entrants since there are different music companies that are coming up and can take the advantage of CC music’s incompetent marketing as well as information management systems. In addition, music is such a domain where users can now freely access songs in YouTube and other online sites by illegally downloading them from the internet. This can cause loss for the company if they do not have proper sales and marketing strategies as well as copyrights for the music (Chambers, Johnston and Slack 2007).

Open Source Software Comparison Table:

Name of the software	Sales force automation	Operating systems supported/features
CRM solution 1: Sugar CRM enterprise edition	Sales force integration is available in this software.	Windows, macOS, Linux as well as UNIX supported. Marketing campaigns as well as customer support are taken care by this software.
CRM solution 2 (Alternative): Open CRX solution	It is not available here.	Windows, macOS and Linux are only supported. Enterprise sales generation as well as customer and partner activities will be monitored and managed within CC music (Herden, Farias and Albuquerque 2015).
CRM Solution 3: (Alternative) Fat free CRM	Sales force not supported	Based on an operating system framework called “Ruby on rails”. It can help in lead management and generating newer opportunities within CC music (Negus 2013).

Name of the software:	Pricing	Features:	Supported operating system:
Resource management solution 1: Float.	Float offers schemes based on the number of users. It offers an initial 14 days free trial with all the features of the software (Richardson 2014). Medium – $49/month billed annually or $59 month-to-month No premium subscription possible for float (Maglio and Spohrer 2013).	ForecastingDetailed structure of drill downBudget decision makingExporting as well as reporting for CC music.Scenario creation based on events by CC music.	Windows, MAC OS, web based solution.
Resource management solution 2: (Alternative) Hub planner.	Hub Planner offers a corporate plan with a pricing plan with a corporate structure of a free trial for 60 days for a particular plan. Plug and play option rates are – $7 per resource per month (Hammer 2015).	Scheduling of resourcesTimesheets as well as approvalsReports and analyticsProject planningMobile user interface Option for premium subscription available with hub planner for the corporates (Passman 2015).	Windows, MAC OS, web based solution (Sparrow 2017).

From the above comparison, it can be decided that the best business management software for CC music will be sugar CRM enterprise edition, which has all the necessary features for the organization. It has the ability to integrate with the Salesforce application that can automate the sales processes. Additionally, it also has the option for running on different operating systems and ensure the smooth execution of the operational as well as the marketing tasks for CC music (O’Reilly et al. 2013). (Leopold, Mendling and Günther 2016). Fat free CRM can be used as a good alternative for customer satisfaction calculation and analysis, it has tools through which Chris, and Clive can directly interact with the fans and the clients and address their concerns on a real time basis at the time of a show or concert. Most importantly, this software has certain features through which CC music can attract more fans and customers by promoting their musc and the northern band even more through the media by offering free initial streaming of the music and other marketing strategies.

The best resource management software for the company should be Float, which has an option of premium subscription for small and medium business that gives all the features necessary for a proper resource management for the organizations (Kossak et al. 2014). Float will be the best resource management software that Chris and Clive use for CC music (Gamble Brennan and McAdam 2017). Float can also be a good alternative that can be used exporting reports within the system, which are auto generated in nature. Real-time problem situations can be simulated using the software so that Chris and Clive remain informed and updated about any possible future issues for the company.

Introduction:

There are different models of operations as well as strategies of information that are being widely incorporated by the organizations in today’s world. Due to the increasing competitive nature of the markets on a global scale, there are different kinds of risks and threats that exist within the organizations such as data security disks and employee dissatisfaction, which have to be counter attacked.

            This report will help in developing a proper information management strategy for a company called CC music so that the overall organizational structure and the management operations can be improved. Data analysis techniques as well as the software’s from the open sources will be studied in details and will be provided in a tabular format for the better understanding of the reader. A reflective section will also cover my own personal views on the management strategy.

Current situation of CC music:

            The present situation within CC music is such that Chris and Clive who have prior experience of being music teacher now want to continue their association with music and wish to work with a northern soul band that they have known since a very long time. They have prior experience in recording music, conducting tours and events and are looking forward to a more professional approach to the same. Since they do not have proper knowledge in the marketing strategies as well as the business aspect of the music industry, they are seeking a professional approach to the same.

Internal communication and organizational culture:

The internal communication within the organization between the Chris and Clive and the other people working in the business is of extreme importance. Any updates within the policies or copyrights of the music or any business policies have to be communicated to any of the stakeholders of the company who should be informed such as the clients and other music agents. They are also the fans of the northern soul band who remain updated with the gig dates and any latest music releases of the band. There should be a proper coordination between Chris and Clive and the band regarding booking of shows and other aesthetic aspects since there might be situations wherein the band wants/doesn’t want to perform in a particular event or location but Chris and Clive directly talk to the client and go about taking a booking without consulting the band. Such situations may cause internal conflicts due of the lack of communications and should be prevented. Mutually beneficial relationship with the stakeholders as well as the decision making based on facts and statistics are the key components of the culture of CC music. (Chambers, Johnston and Slack 2007).

Investment in the system in open source software:

Chris and Clive should also look forward to initial investments that are extremely important for CC music to grow. These investments include the advances that they have to pay to the northern soul band so that they can start writing and rehearsing new music and focus on their new albums that CC music can promote. Then there are investments that CC music have to make in order to record the newly formed music of the band. In today’s trends, there is always a video of the song that has to be created in order to make it a market hit. Therefore, in order to produce a compact and professional quality video there are again related costs. The most important investment or cost factor lies in the costs associated to the band tours all across such as traveling, staying, payments that have to be made to third party sound and light men at the venues etc. There are huge amounts of money also associated to the marketing as well as promotion of the music of CC Music Company. CC music also have to bear the costs of the legal rights and copyrights of their own music that they have to pay to the government.

CC Music should also invest in the Sugar CRM open source software. It will be an extremely fruitful investment for the company since it has options to analyze and study the responses form the customers (fans) and followers in this case as well as the clients who will book the band in the coming future for concerts and events. This in turn will help CC Music to improve their quality of business. It will help the company to keep its fan base updated at all points of time and ensure that all the issues faced by the fan or opinions or feedbacks shared by them regarding the band are properly managed.

Proposed business strategy for CC music:

            In order to meet this ever-changing need of the company and to ensure the fan base is well maintained and increasing steadily, it is extremely important for the CC Music Company to ensure that the Customer relationship management software that they are using is being implemented in a strategic way (Akkaoui et al. 2013). Another important aspect that has to be considered by the company is that there should be a proper over booking capacity maintained by the system. For instance in a live show, not all fans can turn up whoever have purchased a ticket. In that case it a revenue maximization technique for the company in case it has sold more tickets than the venue can accommodate. Similarly, there are ticket discounts that are available for underprivileged children and other categories of fan who want to purchase the music of CC Music or visit the life performances of the northern soul band. Through this, they will be able to sell bulk amount of tickets to third party parties and maximize the revenue generated from there. This will help Chris and Clive to improve the inventory management system even more and ensure a smooth functioning within the organization (Chambers, Johnston and Slack 2007).

Consistency in business strategy:

The BPMN business process has a number of features and benefits that are being maintained by the Sugar CRM and Float business management software’s (Giacomo et al. 2015). The business process model notation (BPMN) can help CC music to consistently deliver results such as successful launch and monitoring of the sales of new music albums and maintaining optimum fan satisfaction consistently. It will help consistency in the success of CC Music, by helping to perform data oriented organizational tasks such as information collection, creation of business processes, creation of workflow models, execution, verification as well as implementation of the business strategies within the organization in a real time basis (Kastalli and Looy 2013). Again, a consistent business strategy instils a sense of a corporate social responsibility within the organization through which CC music will also be responsible towards the environment and ensure that the music that they create and promote does not affect the environment in any way. For example making physical disc can affect the environment since it creates ore wastage of physical products. Therefore, the company should ensure that there is minimum or no physical waste and therefore it should come up with an online streaming strategy wherein the fans will have direct access of the song over the internet and the music will be available for online free streaming. In this way, the stakeholders/customers who are the fans will also be addressed (Chambers, Johnston and Slack 2007).

Avoiding gap between reality and design:

            For the new strategy in CC Music to be a success, it is crucial for the reality of Chris and Clive to match the reality as expected by the users (fans) to the maximum possible extent. For example, if there is a plan of taking four bookings for a particular month for the northern soul band, more bookings should not be entertained and the necessary information should thus be properly communicated to the band members.

Implementing a helpdesk for fans:

An online virtual helpdesk should be incorporated in which the fans and followers can post their queries and concerns regarding the band and seek information about the latest gig updates. CC music can also have a reception at their office from where tickets can be sold, band pamphlets and posters can be collected just to keep the fans happy, and more engaged with CC music. This feature is a part od a model called the toal quality management (TQM), wherein the quality of music as well as the service to the fans and other stake holders are efficiently improved by a dedicated person who will take the initial steps in resolving the customer queries regarding upcoming shows, concert tickets, events as well as bookings on behalf of the band. This will  not insure just in time (JIT) philosophy in the working of CC music but also ensure that the quality of the service provided by them is up to the mark (Chambers, Johnston and Slack 2007).

Use of theoretical concepts:

The SCOT framework or Social Construction of Technology can be used by CC Music that proper well-trained professionals are handling the float and Sugar CRM software has to ensure that the calculations and outcomes are accurate and there are no human errors in the outputs. There should be a proper inventory management system within CC Music. There are different types of inventories that can be the organization which are raw material as well as purchased parts, partially completed goods/tasks replacement parts, goods/services in transit to the customer and finished products/services. Inventories are useful to meet anticipated demands as well as meet stock outs. It can enable to take advantages of using discounts for purchasing the music of CC music and ensures a smooth production system for the music (Stevenson 2015).

Conclusion and recommendations:

The northern soul band should consider playing with other bands and musicians of their genre and welcome suggestions from other musicians, which in turn can help them improve themselves. The can also promote their music on platforms like Reverbnation as well as Bandsintown and SongsKick. This will enable them to allow the users to listen to their music free of cost and if they like the music, they can purchase the entire album from the shopping links that will be provided in the websites. Chris and Clive can also come up with products like T-shirts as well as other band accessories and send email newsletters to its subscribers and fans about their latest updates.

Reflective summary:

            Form the above study I have understood the concepts of business process model notation (BPMN). I have been successfully able to implement, guide the organization regarding the appropriate software for the organizational tasks, and have learnt the different features of the two different software’s that will be used by CC music for their future management operations. I have also provided Chris and Clive with recommendations to hire more professionals in the future to ensure a proper disaster recovery within the organization in order to overcome any unforeseen situations within the organization. I have recommended them to market their music through emails as well as send daily newsletters to the fan to keep them updated about any latest shows or band news (Kalenkova, Leoni and Aalst 2014).

            I have also personally learnt about how to handle a complex project and get it completed in time. I have learnt the different aspects of a project management such as managing time and clearly defining the aims and objectives of the project. I have been able to guide Chris and Clive on their new venture and recommended them strategies to maximize revenues using marketing strategies such as free promotions and charity shows that they can conduct.

            The company did not have a proper strategy about promoting their music and CC music did not know how to exactly work with the northern soul band they have known for years. I have been able to design a complete budget/cost chart for the company that had clearly explained the different cost factors that CC music had to bear by integrating the float software and explaining its working principles. I have explained the working of the earned value method, using float (EVM) and how it can help CC Music to calculate its budget performance in any concert tour etc. I have explained the parameters such as Cost Performance Index (CPI) that measures the spending effectiveness to avoid unnecessary costs for the company. I have helped CC company to develop strategies to achieve its long term goal of establishing itself as a successful music company in the market by optimizing and improving its fan base development and their satisfaction.

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