Business Process Modeling And Information Management For CC Music

CC Music’s Business Requirements

Chris and Clive had recently taken early retirement; they both are former music and music technology teachers. They have played in many bands and being session musicians. Chris and Clive always use to manage all aspects of the band that includes studio work, playing at parties, events, radio programmes, and tv. They use to publicise their band through the website, booking deals over the phone, and receive contracts and cheque payments through the post. Other members of band members simply turned up and play. The band always used to play at least gigs per year, but this is likely to increase substantially. Thus, they require a much more professional approach.

Chris and Cive were about to start the agency and they are aware that they will be needing a good business approach for the agency. They will be responsible for keeping business accounts, marketing, providing an updated calendar of events, and keeping track of the communications, client lists, and bands connected to CC Music.

Technology plays an important role in business, they both were not sure which kind information technology support they really need as a small to medium enterprise(SME). They require professional business information technology advice before final decisions regarding investing in business software. In order to keep the cost to a minimum, they are also keen on the potential of Open source software.

In this report, we will discuss Business process models to capture business processes for CC music. Strategic analysis for CC music will also be discussed. A suitable software solution will be required by CC Music, for which 4-5 alternatives will be mentioned in detail. Among these, one would be suggested.

Further, critical analysis of theory, concepts, and models of operations and information management will be discussed. The strategic importance and fundamental principles of information management in global organizations will be understood. The significance of a socio-technical approach to CC music will be mentioned. Moreover application of the appropriate problem-solving and improvement approach for CC music’s information system.

It is concerned with the design and control of a process of redesigning of production of business operations when goods and services are produced. It ensures business operations to be efficient while using resources to a minimum and effective in fulfilling customer needs. It involves managing production system, it is a process of converting raw materials into finish goods.

Operations are concerned with the production of products, manage the quality of goods and create value-added services. Many sectors are covered under operations management like hospitals, the banking system, companies that are working with customers, using technology, and suppliers. Operations are one of the main function along with supply chains, marketing, and human resource. Both strategic and routine production of goods and services are required in operation functions (Stevenson, et al., 2007).

It is an organizational activity cycle, which includes the collection of information among various sources, collection and distribution of that information when required. Information in this cycle involves stakeholders, who are responsible for quality assurance, accessing and utilizing acquired information; those who store the information safely and those who need that information in making decisions (Choo, 2002).

The Role of Information Technology in Business Processes

Information management involves all management functions including planning, organizing, processing, controlling, evaluating and reporting information, which is required by those with organizational functions or roles that depend on relevant information.

New organizational strategies are to be considered to encourage globalization initiatives. Globalization leads to a change in the management process, leveraging new technologies, coordination and control system, and organization structures.

For an organization, to coordinate and control their activities across the world markets. It is essential to compete effectively at the home or globally. A clearly stated strategy in evolving business strategy and the evolution of information technology and is important for global firms (Judith & Steven, 2002).

Information is needed for the endurance of organization in the global competitive market. Organization leadership and top management use stored information, which must be a recall and distributed. If relevant information is not available with the management, it could lead to inappropriate decision-making, poor organization planning, and defective programming.

Middle-level managers use the information to make strategic long-term decisions and tactical short-term decisions. Management information system provides appropriate information based on internal and external data (Whitaker, et al., 2017).

• Trust: There are many attackers to harm information system. In order to maintain security in the system, it requires a number of safeguards for system components.
• Isolation: highly restricted information must be isolated from public systems. It can reduce attack chances and can manage information flow in the independent system.
• Compliance: in the development of an information system, in the planning phase, itself requirement for the compliance should be identified. Some of the examples of compliance are, “FDA(The Food and Drug Administration)”; “FISMA(The Federal Information Security Management Act)” in the USA; “FIPPA(The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act).
• Accountability: proper controlling must be done in order to secure information system. The system should authenticate users and to conduct an audit, recording of the system must be appropriate.
• Data management: for managing data need for data classification, minimization and protection is essential.
• Change: unplanned and untested changes if not properly managed, can make a negative impact on integrity, availability, and confidentiality of information(Stair & Reynolds, 2017).

Fred Emery and Eric Trist gave this term in the 1960s. As per this approach, joint or overall optimization of a system is important rather than optimization in a single dimension. It considers people and technical aspects of the organization and focuses on both, technical performance and people’s quality work.

One of the significance of this approach is ‘People transformation’, this increases the trust level among teams and team members constantly try to improve performance through goal setting, monitoring and analyze the process, and identify and solve problems regularly.

Another significance is ‘process transformation’, it uses process transformation methodologies to empower team and their capabilities to initiate innovation and gain a competitive advantage for the organization (Mumford, 2000).

Business process modelling is an analytical or graphical representation of organizational processes. It is one of the critical components in process management. It helps to create a baseline for improving the process of a business and help business managers and IT members to understand these models and make a decision regarding improvements accordingly (techtarget, 2018).

It is a method of describing the business process in a graphical model similar to flowcharts. Object management group is currently maintaining BPMN (Dijkman, et al., 2008).

Depictions of shapes in models are:

Circles describe events; rounded corner rectangle represents activity; solid line with an arrow represents sequence flow; dashed line with an arrow describes message flow; a participant in a graphical container is ‘pool’; sub-partition within a pool is a ’lane’.

Models, which describe CC Music business process, are:

I. Collaborative B2B process (public)

It defines connecting between two or more parties. This model simply shows the interaction between the two parties. Here, one party is clients for which CC music is playing in the event. This business model will depict the current business process of CC music.

Here, this model explains the transactions and interactions among CC Music and the clients. This model has depicted their previous business where Chris and Clive use to play in events and parties and use to handle studio and receive payment through cash or cheque through the post.

Operations Management and Its Significance

Internal Business process (private)

The internal business process generally describes interactions held within an organization and with external participants but not shown to the public. This considers private activities of the single business. With reference to the CC Music case study, this process model will elaborate proposed business process of CC Music of forming into an agency that includes signing and promoting other artists (Stephen, 2004).

Here, this model showed the proposed business process of CC Music to act as agents as well. It depicts the interaction within CC Music agency and the bands, which were linked with CC music. CC Music business will be bifurcated into three departments, back office, artist manager, and booking agency. The back office manager will handle marketing, accounting, and calendar of events updating tasks; artist manager will handle other artists promotion, and managing things with bands; booking agent will be directly in contacts with bands, signing bands with CC Music, booking them for events will be handled.

SWOT analysis of CC Music

Strengths · Experienced members · Strong management · Large market · Democratic style partnership	Opportunities · More often promotions · More time for networking · Good business approach · Promote other artists
Weakness · Technology upgradation · High-risk industry · Piracy · Lack of discovery	Threats · Music value to the consumer · Government regulations · Competition · Volatile costs

Experienced members: For many years, Chris and Clive played in bands and were session musicians.

Strong management: Chris and Clive always use to manage all aspects of the band like playing at events, parties, studio work, radio programmes, and T.V. They use to publicize the band online via a website, book deals over the phone, and receive contracts and cheque payments through the post.

Large market: the music industry is large and the market is extended across domestic boundaries.

Democratic style partnership: business decision power is equal with both the partners; this would lead to not only quick but also the right decision for the company.

Technology upgradation: Chris and Clive need updated technology in order to start an agency. Technology plays an important role in their business.

High-risk industry: the music industry is very risky in nature due to the problem of copying

Piracy: piracy is copies of a piece of music, which is distributed for which a company haven’t given any consent.

More often Promotions: Chris and Clive need to make more efforts in the promotion of their agency.

More time for networking: to run a music agency, Chris and Clive need to do networking and make more contacts in the industry.

Good business approach: They will be responsible for keeping business accounts, social media marketing, keeping track of the communications between themselves, the clients who want to book bands and the bands who are signed to CC Music, and providing an updated calendar of events.

Promote other artists: for an agency, it includes another duty for CC to promote other artists linked with CC Music agency

Music value to consumers: since music is copied and distributed, the value of music for consumers decreases.

Government regulations: rules and regulations of the country in which the agency is serving need to be understood and followed accordingly.

Competition: national as well as international competition is a lot in the music industry like in Afghanistan Kabul music agency is one of the competition.

1. Political

• The tax system: the countries tax system must be followed and it also affects the working of the organization
• Trade barriers affecting the business
• Global industry: since music is served globally, many political environments affect CC Music workings.
• Intellectual property: for protecting intellectual property across the world, there must be a legal development.
• Piracy of music: Employment in the music industry is decreasing due to piracy of music.

1. Economical

• High costs: the Economical environment of the country affects the cost of the company.
• Economic growth: economic growth of the country in which CC Music is working affects a company’s decisions.
• Globalization: it can be beneficial but on contrary, it can also bring competitors.

1. Social

• Cultural values: cultural values where the company is working need to be studied
• Social media
• Controlling market
• Change in consumer habits

1. Technological

• Access to globe
• Technological development
• Piracy system

1. Legal

Industry’s laws and policy: CC Music need to study and apply music industries laws and policy in its working.

1. Environmental

• Environmental issues
• Trade regulations
• Safety issuesOpen Source Software Comparison Table

Globalization and Strategic Analysis

Open source products, projects, or initiatives celebrate collaborative participation, transparency, community-oriented development, open exchange principles, rapid prototyping, and meritocracy.

Open source software is which is publicly accessible. Software with source code, anyone can modify, enhance and inspect is open source software. Since early inventors usually built the internet itself and on open source, the Linux operating system is benefited from open source software.

People usually prefer using such software because they have more control in such kind of software; since it is easily accessible by students, it helps them to learn more and improve their programming; it is considered to be more secure (Feller & Fitzgerald, 2002).

Business software	Usage / features	Benefits
Customer relationship management software (freshworks, 2018)	· Prioritizing leads · Managing sales team · Contact management · Making calls · Sales processes are establish · Email management · Creating reports · Tracking client activity · Tools customization · Cross-selling · After sales activities · Data access can be controlled	· Increase business opportunities · Communication clarity · Utility after sales as well · No more data entries · Happy customers
Enterprise resource planning software	· Financial management · Customization · Human resource management · Customer relationship management · Integration (financesonline, 2018)	· Improve planning and reporting · Improve visibility · Improve satisfaction level in customers · Reduce costs · Data unification · Improve the quality of data and its accessibility · Improve collaboration · Better supply chain management · Reduce efforts as well as time · Standardized business · More simplified business
Enterprise performance management software	· Budgeting · Forecasting · Planning · Modelling · Reporting · Consolidating · Performance analysis · Aligning strategic goals (hostanalytics, 2018)	· Improve speed of accounting · Improve recording speed · Capturing process speed will increase · Increase organization efficiency · Process control · Improving the planning process
Content management system software	· Format management · Publishing functionality, to create and modify content · Intuitive indexing · Revision features · Multiple language support (TechTarget, 2018)	· SEO friendly · Customizable templates · One to one marketing · Full template support · Easy installation · Integrated audit log · Integrated file managers

As per CC Music requirements, recommended business software is “Enterprise resource planning software,” since this is best-suited software for small-scale business. ERP software is easily available and benefited with open source in order to keep the cost minimum. Therefore, CC Music for their current and proposed business, this software is recommended.

Music production software	Operating system	Usage	Suitable user	Features
Audacity (Audacityteam, 2018)	· Linux ·  Mac OS X · Windows	· Audio recording · Audio editing	· Music recorders	· Export and import files in different sound formats · Easy editing available · Keyboards shortcuts are of large range · Sound effects can be added · Live audio can be recorded through a microphone · Various plug-ins can be extended
Cecilia (ajaxsoundstudio, 2018)	· Linux · Windows ·  Mac OS X	· Sound exploration · Music composition	· Sound designer	· Add sound effects through inbuilt modules · With simple syntax, a customized GUI can be created
Mixxx (mixxx, 2018)	· Windows · Mac OS X · Linux	· Mixing of audio files	· Sound producer · Professional DJ	· Sound effects are in-built · Designer skins · Record and broadcast · Four decks are with advanced controls · Quad sampler decks · Hardware support for DJ
Ardour (Ardour, 2018)	· Linux · Mac OS X	· Record · Edit · Mix · MIDI projects · Master audio	· Musicians · Soundtrack editors · composers	· Multichannel tracks are unlimited · Audio files can be export and import in different formats · In-line plug-in controls and plug-ins can be extensible · Automation · Flexible recording
Rosegarden  (rosegardenmusic, 2018)	· Linux	· Composing music · Editing	· Small-scale  Musicians · Music composers	· Digital audio support · Understanding music notations

Here, from the above table, there are five alternatives for open source software, which are best suited for CC Music. Most suited among these five, which is recommended to CC Music in its, proposed business is “Ardour.” Reason for choosing Ardour among these is, ardour can be used in a various task like a recording of music that CC Music do in their studio, editing, mixing and master audio of music that will be used once it will become agency (Tecmint, 2018).

Conclusion

To summarize CC Music case study, Chris and Clive were former music and music technology teachers, they wanted to become a full-time small business of music agency that is CC Music, for which they will be requiring a professional consultant who can advise business process models for their recent and proposed business activities. They also need technical support and require professional business information technology advice before making any final decisions about investing funds in business software. Since they are starting an agency, now, the company will be responsible for, providing an updated calendar of events, keeping business accounts, social media marketing and keeping track of the communications between themselves, the clients who want to book bands and the bands who are signed to CC Music. For this, the new business approach is needed. And effective strategic implementation is to be done for CC Music.

Business process models following BPMN notation were created using MS Word, those were collaborative business process models and internal business process models. The first model describes the interaction between clients and CC Music and another model shows interaction with participating bands and departments within CC Music business.

Strategic analysis of CC Music was done using the two-analysis technique. Firstly, SWOT, that explains the strengths, Opportunities, Weakness, and threats to the company. Secondly, PESTLE, that explores the external environment and since a company exists in its environment and a particular industry, it is important to study those factors in order to take the right decisions for the company.

For CC Music, the software was recommended, for that open source software comparison table was created. For handling business, business software that is “Enterprise Resource Planning software” was recommended due to its benefits of handling work with ease, it would not only help in improving collaboration, integrity, and viability in business but also reduce supply chains, efforts, and cost to the company. For handling studio, music production software that is “Ardour software” was recommended.

Socio-Technical Approach to Information Management

Before initiating an online discussion for my consultancy work for CC Music, I had to understand their current situation and their proposed situation of becoming full-time small business and starting agency. They needed a new business approach and successful implementation of the strategic changes. Being an organization and information management consultant, I was responsible for researching this business and providing consultancy report. I was not sure I would be able to make the best recommendations for CC Music. Since their success depends on my decision, the pressure for accuracy was on high in my mind.

When this discussion initiated, I realize that Chris and Clive need business process models for their proposed business process. I created two business process following BPMN notation. The collaborative business process, showing clients and CC Music interactions; and internal business process model, showing propose a business process that is signing with bands and activities within the business. For strategic analysis for CC Music, I was using SWOT and PESTLE analysis technique. PESTLE analysis was quite challenging because the Music industry is globalized and where CC Music is serving, that country environment is to be studied. Moreover, I was conducting research for a suitable software solution for CC Music. For this, I studied business software and music production software. Out of 4-5 suitable software, I recommend one business software and one music production software for CC Music.

After the online discussion was over, it feels good to complete my job task for CC Music and implementation was successful. They accept what I recommend to them.  They finally decide to initiate their business.

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