Enhancing Scalability of CC Music's Software

The assignment content discusses the development of business process models for CC Music using BPMN diagrams, SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and a comparative analysis of cloud services, free storage, and self-hosting options. The software is selected based on this analysis, with experts' reviews also considered. The assignment highlights the importance of analyzing business processes to identify drawbacks and take necessary actions. An action plan is proposed if CC Music needs to change its business model again.

OPERATIONS AND
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
1

Contents
Part A: Analysis of Business Process Models and Strategy............................................................3
1. Business Processes...................................................................................................................3
Current Business process.........................................................................................................3
New system..............................................................................................................................4
Part B: Open Source Software Comparison Table......................................................................8
Part C: Report................................................................................................................................11
Introduction................................................................................................................................13
The current situation in CC Music.............................................................................................13
Roadmap to the changes............................................................................................................14
Conclusion and Recommendation.................................................................................................16
Part D: Reflection on Contribution................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18
2

Publicising the band via website
Show decided
People interested in the show
Booking arrangements through phone
Receiving contracts and payment
Management Management
Audience
Part A: Analysis of Business Process Models and Strategy
1. Business Processes
Current Business process
CC Music currently uses a simple business process model to arrange the band shows. The
process involves some key steps. When CC Music is informed about an event, it starts
publicizing the event through the website. Promoting the band through the website is effective to
inform a large number of people about the event (Morgan-Thomas, 2016). After the potential
audience is informed regarding the show, the agency starts making booking arrangements over
the phone. On completion of the booking arrangements, the organization starts receiving
contracts and payments through cheque.
3

Figure 1: Current Business
Process Model of CC Music
Source: Created by Researcher
New system
4

Software
Management Obtained a New client
Shows are Scheduled
Identifying the target audience
Deciding promotional strategies
Social media marketing E-mail Marketing
Collecting responses
Online Booking
Identifying the needs of contract
Negotiating Terms and conditions Considering compliance and other legal aspects
Finalizing contract Receiving Payment
Service Delivery
5
Website Marketing

Figure 2: New Business Process Model
Source: Created by Researcher
Difference between Old and New business model
The agency is currently heavily reliant on the manual work and so; the use of information
technology is quite limited. Use of manual effort to do most of the tasks reduced the
technological cost for CC Music. However, reliance on manual effort increases the time to
deliver services (Ross and Blumenstein, 2015). In addition, extensive use of manual effort
increases the risks of error in the services (Kurnia et al., 2015). It, in turn, degrade sthe service
quality. The analysis indicates that the new business model needs to be based on advanced
technology. The new business model also needs to be able to improve the time-efficiency and
quality of the services. The new model is heavily based on the advanced technology. The use of
automation in the business processes is making the services more accessible (Eggers et al.,
2017). The systems like online booking and online payment are effective to enable the
organization to serve several individuals simultaneously. The increased use of technology also
reduces the time to service delivery to the clients. Finally, the use of the technology can reduce
the number of errors in the services and so, the quality improves. The old business model was
able to serve limited number of clients. The new business model is scalable due to use of
technology and the model is also effective to accommodate the potential growth of the
organization.
6

The strategic analysis of CC Music is done using SWOT in this section.
Strengths
1. Experience of dealing with bands
2. Brand Reputation
3.Strong knowledge on all aspects of show
organization and other activities
4. knowledge on promotional activities
through website
5. Existing supplier network for
organizing show
Weaknesses
1. Lack of advanced infrastructure
2. Lack of technological knowledge
Opportunities
1. The high number of potential clients
Threats
1. High competition in the Event
Management and Music Industry
Table 1: SWOT Analysis of CC Music
Source: Created by Researcher
CC Music has experience in organizing shows of bands. The long experience of dealing with
bands can help the organization to serve the clients effectively. The brand reputation of an
organization helps it to new customers. The brand reputation helps CC Music also to attract new
brands. Analysis of the current business processes of CC Music indicates that the organization
does not possess advanced infrastructure and technology. The business posses strong knowledge
on all the activities required for organizing a show. The strong knowledge on business activities
can help the management to provide the clients with quality services. The organization also has
done booking arrangements for a band for several years. So, the organization already has a
supplier network and the existing network can help the organization to arrange show effectively
in future as well. Conducting the promotional works is necessary for organizing the shows
successfully. The business has experience in promoting the bands using the website. The
knowledge on promotional activities is effective to provide the organization to promote the
future clients effectively.
7

The lack of infrastructure can restrict the organization from offering quality services to the
clients. CC Music is already attracting a large number of clients because of the brand reputation.
The large base of potential clients can help the organization to get new business opportunities.
Finally, the level of competition is significantly high in event management and the music
industry (Guidolin and Guseo, 2015). So, the organization might face problem to expand the
business.
Part B: Open Source Software Comparison Table
The Open Source Software facilitates users to get customized solutions easily (Udell, 2015). In
the current section, a number of open source software which can be used by CC Music, are
compared. Analysis of the current status of CC Music indicates that the organization needs an
open source software for managing the customers. The CRM software are analyzed on basis of
several evaluation criteria including -- the number of free users, a number of free contacts,
upgradation cost, free storage, level of support, presence of cloud-storage, self- hosting and e-
mail marketing opportunities. The evaluation criteria were decided as per the business
requirements.
The number of free contacts indicates the number of people an organization can reach using the
software (Udell, 2015). When the number of free contacts is high, the organization can reach a
larger amount of audience using the software. CC Music also needs to promote the bands to
larger number of audience. The Free contacts can enable the organization to reach the large
audience.
While running the business, an organization may need to upgrade the solution as per business
needs. The lower upgradation cost helps the business to make the solution highly scalable and
customize it according to the business requirements. CC Music may need to serve higher number
of clients in future. The high scalability can enable the organization to upgrade the infrastructure
with the increasing client base.
The amount of free storage enables the organization to store important information. The high
amount of free storage facilitates the organization to store a higher amount of data. The
businesses can need additional support to use the software effectively (Krawczyk-Dembicka,
2017). So, the level of support offered by the software provider is also important to choose the
8

solution. Presence of cloud storage enables an organization to store huge amount of data.
Therefore, the presence of cloud storage is also considered while choosing software solutions.
While serving new clients, CC Music will need to deal with huge amount of data and it can be
done using the cloud storage.
Finally, the facility of e-mail marketing enables an organization to promote the services
effectively. So, the opportunity to conduct e-mail marketing is also considered to choose the
software. Currently, CC Music executes the promotional activities through websites only. The
organization needs to use other promotional strategies as well to serve the new clients
effectively. The provision for e-mail marketing is effective for CC Music to promote the client
bands.
Name of
software
Number
of free
contacts
Number of
free users
Free
storage
Cloud
services
Upgradation
cost
E-mail
marketi
ng
Free
support
Hubspot Limited Unlimited 5 docs Not
Availabl
e
Charged on
monthly basis
for every user
Availabl
e
Through
Forum
SuiteCRM Unlimite
d
Unlimited Unlimited Availabl
e
Fixed
charge+VAT+
fixed hours of
support
Availabl
e
Through
Forum
BitTrix 24 Unlimite
d
Limited Limited Availabl
e
Charged on a
monthly basis
Availabl
e
Not
Availabl
e
Agile CRM Limited Limited Limited Availabl
e
Charged on a
monthly basis
Not
Availabl
e
Through
E-mail
Table 2: Comparison of different open source software
(Source: Hubspot.com, 2019; Agilecrm.com,2019; Bitrix24.com,2019; Horstink and Nicolson,
2019)
9

The above table includes a comparison of different open source CRM software. The Hubspot
provides the users with the facility to add a limited number of contacts. The other three
softwares, on the contrary provide the facility to add an unlimited number of contacts. The
number of free users is restricted in case of BitTrix 24 and Agile CRM. In the case of the other
two softwares, there is no such restriction on the number of users. Unlimited free storage is
available in case of SuiteCRM only. The cloud services are not available in Hubspot only. The
other three applications provide cloud services. The facility of E-mail marketing is not available
in case of AgileCRM. All the software solutions offer the opportunity of self- hosting. The free
support is not provided in BitTrix only.
10

Part C: Report
Proposed Changes in CC Music
11

Contents
Part C: Report..................................................................................................................................9
Introduction................................................................................................................................11
The current situation in CC Music.............................................................................................11
Roadmap to the changes............................................................................................................12
Conclusion and Recommendation.................................................................................................14
12

Introduction
CC Music is an agency which has arranged several shows and addressed other technical needs
for a band. The organization follows simple sequential steps to make arrangements for the
shows. The organization also uses technology to a limited extent for promoting the bands. In
recent days, the client base of the organization is going to increase. So, the business needs to
improve the existing infrastructure to serve a larger number of clients. The issues in the current
business processes of the organization are identified in the report. The potential areas of
improvements in the existing business processes are also identified in the current report. Finally,
the report includes a discussion on the strategic direction for CC Music.
The current situation in CC Music
Issues and potential areas of improvement in current business process
Analysis of the existing processes of CC Music is identifying the following issues of the
organization—
1. The organization does not use technology to execute the tasks. Use of technology is necessary
to make the services time-efficient (Quinton et al., 2018). Use of technology is also necessary to
improve the quality of the services (Andersson et al., 2016). The lack of technological
infrastructure is affecting the time efficiency and quality of the services. The technology also
enhances the organizational capacity to serve a large number of clients. In the current scenario,
CC Music needs to incorporate the technology for improving the organizational capacity to serve
multiple clients.
2. The SWOT analysis of the organization indicates that the level of competition is quite high in
the music and event management industry. In a highly competitive environment, businesses
require providing high quality products and services to attract and retain customers (Moeuf et al.,
2017). CC Music also, needs to improve the quality and speed of service delivery to attract and
retain the customers. The existing infrastructure of the organization is based on manual-labour.
The existing infrastructure is not capable to provide high quality and distinctive services. In other
words, the existing infrastructure is not capable to provide a competitive advantage to CC Music.
Clearly, the organization needs a new system that can provide a competitive advantage to the
business.
13

3. The SWOT analysis also indicates that CC Music does not have technical expertise. The lack
of technical expertise is restricting the organization from upgrading the infrastructure (Mian et
al.,2016). The lack of expertise is another issue of CC Music. The organization needs to develop
a system that provides support to the organization to incorporate advanced technology.
Roadmap to the changes
The following areas of improvement are identified to address the above-mentioned issues.
Online promotion: Identifying the inefficiencies and the potential areas of improvement is
necessary to develop a new model (Peter et al., 2016). In this case also, the current practices of
the agency area analyzed and the potential areas of improvement are identified. Firstly, the
agency conducts all the promotional tasks through the websites only. As the agency is going to
deal with multiple bands, it is supposed to communicate with diverse groups of audience. So,
promoting the events through the website only may not be effective in this case. The
organizations need to choose the communication channels as per the preferences and nature of
the audience (Nguyen et al., 2015). While dealing with new clients, CC Music can use a number
of communication strategies such as social media marketing, e-mail marketing and online
advertising to communicate with the audience.
Online Booking arrangements: Currently the business makes booking arrangements over the
phone. In recent days, the customers demand easy accessibility of the services. Use of phone-
based booking system prevents CC Music to improve the accessibility of the services to the
audience. In addition, the use of phone-based booking is not effective to manage multiple shows.
Clearly, the agency needs to scale up the booking system and improve its accessibility to the
target audience. Use of the online booking system is effective in this case. Implementing the
online booking process can enable the organization to increase the accessibility of the services
(Mahmood et al., 2018). Implementation of an online booking system is also effective to increase
the capacity of the organization to serve the clients.
Contract management through databases: In the present system, the business manages the
contracts manually. However, the manual contract management system is not effective when the
number of contracts is high. After the agency starts serving the new clients, it would need to
14

manage multiple contracts and also require considering different legal aspects. Therefore, the
business needs to maintain a database to meet the diverse needs of stakeholders.
Online Payment: As per the present system, the business makes payments through cheque. Use
of the online payment system makes the entire process less time-efficient. The speed of service
delivery is an important factor that attracts the modern consumers (Mas-Verdú et al.,2015). In
the current case, the incorporation of the online payment system can enable the organization to
provide faster services to the clients.
Use of CRM software is an effective solution to meet all the improvement needs. The CRM
software provides the organizations with the opportunity to manage the key tasks such as
managing the contacts, deal, pipelining the processes and managing the tasks. In the current
scenario, CC Music also needs to use effective CRM software to improve operational efficiency.
Inthe section B, a number of CRM software which can be suitable for CC Music are compared.
The analysis of the softwares indicates that the CRM software provided by Hubspot is the most
suitable for the organization. Hubspot’s CRM software possesses the key features such as the
dashboard, contact management system, deal management system and processing the tasks. The
Dashboard in Hubspot’s CRM helps the users to identify the status of deals, scheduled meetings
and tasks, achievement of goals and productivity of the organization (Hubspot.com, 2019). The
client base of CC Music is going to increase. So, the dashboard is helpful for the organization to
manage meetings with multiple clients and track the productivity of the organization
continuously. The contact management system in Hubspot’s CRM helps the organization to sort
the individuals and other organizations from a number of sources and analyzing those. The
contact management feature can help CC Music to analyze the clients as well as the potential
audience for a band effectively. Increased knowledge of the target audience is effective to
develop right promotional strategies. The CRM software possesses e-mail marketing features and
it can be used a new communication channel to the customers. The deal management system
enables the user to identify and process every task required to be done for serving a customer. In
the case of CC Music, the deal management system helps the organization to identify and
manage the booking arrangements that need to be done by the organization. The task
management system helps the users to identify the status of different tasks and manage those
effectively. Finally, the Hubspot’s CRM system helps an organization to integrate online
15

payment systems with the CRM software. So, with help of the software, CC Music can provide
online payment solutions for the clients as well.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The discussion in the research indicates that CC Music is facing difficulties to expand the
business due to a lack of technical infrastructure and expertise. Use of open source CRM
software can enable the organization to provide the customers with quality services. The below
recommendation can help CC Music to sustain in the competitive environment—
Invest in market research: The organization should invest in market research to know the recent
technological trends and demands of the customers. The knowledge of market trends can help
CC Music to improve its infrastructure to meet the customers' needs.
16

Part D: Reflection on Contribution
Scope of the current section includes reflection on the findings by the researcher after completing
the research.
Description of the findings:
In the research, analysis of the current business process indicates that CC Music needs to
incorporate e-mail marketing for promotion along with other changes such as online booking and
payment. The SWOT analysis indicates that the lack of technical knowledge is one of the
weaknesses of CC Music. On basis of the identified issues, the open source software provided by
Hubspot can be the perfect option for CC Music. The software offered by Hubspot includes e-
mail marketing which meets the promotional needs of CC Music. In addition, the software
offered by Hubspot also provides supports to the users through the forum. So, using the software
is not difficult for the businesses which lack technological expertise. Finally, the upgradation
cost in Hubspot CRM software varies with the number of users. CC Music is an organization
which is growing rapidly in recent days. So, the upgradation cost for each user makes the
software more economic. The software also provides the opportunity to add unlimited users
which enhances the scalability of the software further. The other facilities of Hubspot such as
cloud services, free storage and the opportunity of self-hosting make the software more suitable
for CC Music.
Feelings: In this study I developed the business process models. Developing the business process
models using BPMN diagram helped me to identify the business processes of CC Music along
with the interrelationship between different processes and their accountability information. I also
did SWOT analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. I found the
SWOT analysis effective to form the future business strategies.
Evaluation: I am using BPMN diagram for the first time for this study. I found it effective to
describe the business processes using the BPMN model. I am already familiar with the SWOT
analysis. However, using the technique to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of a new business was interesting.
17

Analysis: Solving issues faced by CC Music made me realize the importance of studying
business processes closely. When the business processes of an organization are analyzed, the
drawbacks in the existing processes are identified and necessary actions can be taken.
Conclusion: In the research, the software for CC Music is selected on basis of comparative
analysis only. The review of experts on every software could also be taken to choose the right
one.
Action Plan: If CC Music requires changing the business model again, I would suggest to follow
the same procedure. The business needs to identify its business processes, identify the problems ,
conduct SWOT analysis and developing the strategies accordingly.
The online resources that helped me to make the suggestions are-
https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm
https://www.agilecrm.com/
https://www.bitrix24.com/
https://suitecrm.com/
18

References
Agilecrm.com (2019). CRM Software | Customer Relationship Management System | Agile
CRM. [online] Agilecrm.com. Available at: https://www.agilecrm.com/ [Accessed 12 Feb.
2019].
Andersson, U., Dasí, Á., Mudambi, R. and Pedersen, T., 2016. Technology, innovation and
knowledge: The importance of ideas and international connectivity. Journal of World
Business, 51(1), pp.153-162.
Bitrix24.com (2019). Bitrix24: #1 Free Collaboration Platform With CRM, Tasks, Projects,
Documents, Messaging And Much More. [online] Bitrix24.com. Available at:
https://www.bitrix24.com/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].
Eggers, F., Hatak, I., Kraus, S. and Niemand, T., 2017. Technologies that support marketing and
market development in SMEs—Evidence from social networks. Journal of small business
management, 55(2), pp.270-302.
Guidolin, M. and Guseo, R., 2015. Technological change in the US music industry: Within-
product, cross-product and churn effects between competing blockbusters. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change, 99, pp.35-46.
Horstink, L. and Nicolson, A. (2019). SuiteCRM, Open Source CRM for the world. [online]
SuiteCRM. Available at: https://suitecrm.com/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].
Hubspot.com (2019). Free CRM for Small Businesses - HubSpot. [online] Hubspot.com.
Available at: https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].
Krawczyk-Dembicka, E., 2017. Analysis of technology management using the example of the
production enterprise from the SME sector. Procedia Engineering, 182, pp.359-365.
Kurnia, S., Choudrie, J., Mahbubur, R.M. and Alzougool, B., 2015. E-commerce technology
adoption: A Malaysian grocery SME retail sector study. Journal of Business Research, 68(9),
pp.1906-1918.
19

Mahmood, K., Lanz, M., Toivonen, V. and Otto, T., 2018. A Performance Evaluation Concept
for Production Systems in an SME Network. Procedia CIRP, 72(1), pp.603-608.
Mas-Verdú, F., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Roig-Tierno, N., 2015. Firm survival: The role of
incubators and business characteristics. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.793-796.
Mian, S., Lamine, W. and Fayolle, A., 2016. Technology Business Incubation: An overview of
the state of knowledge. Technovation, 50, pp.1-12.
Moeuf, A., Lamouri, S., Pellerin, R., Eburdy, R. and Tamayo, S., 2017, October. Industry 4.0
and the SME: a technology-focused review of the empirical literature. In 7th International
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Systems Management IESM.
Morgan-Thomas, A., 2016. Rethinking technology in the SME context: Affordances, practices
and ICTs. International Small Business Journal, 34(8), pp.1122-1136.
Nguyen, T.H., Newby, M. and Macaulay, M.J., 2015. Information technology adoption in small
business: Confirmation of a proposed framework. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1),
pp.207-227.
Peter, B., Julian, M.S., Georg, R. and Felix, S., 2016. Processing document collections to
automatically extract linked data: semantic storytelling technologies for smart curation
workflows. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Natural Language Generation
and the Semantic Web (WebNLG 2016) (pp. 13-16).
Quinton, S., Canhoto, A., Molinillo, S., Pera, R. and Budhathoki, T., 2018. Conceptualising a
digital orientation: antecedents of supporting SME performance in the digital economy. Journal
of Strategic Marketing, 26(5), pp.427-439.
Ross, P.K. and Blumenstein, M., 2015. Cloud computing as a facilitator of SME
entrepreneurship. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 27(1), pp.87-101.
Udell, G.F., 2015. Issues in SME access to finance. European Economy, (2), p.61.
Udell, G.F., 2015. SME Access to intermediated credit: What do we know and what don't we
know. In Small Business Conditions and Finance Conference Volume.
20