SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42,

HTTP://INFOSYS1102014SSGROUP42.BLOGSPOT.CO.NZ/
TUTOR: YVONNE QINGQING, TUESDAY AND FRIDAY 3-4PM
WORD COUNT: 1473

INTRODUCTION

Bandway.com is a new website aimed at removing the traditional barriers to creating new
relationships and networks for musicians. This is to be achieved primarily through a filtered
search function, and other secondary functions similar to social media besides.

Initially

Bandway is intended to be aimed at the wider Auckland area to establish a solid base
community, and will expand to wider New Zealand, and then Australasia and the world.
3. BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision

Bandway.com exists to facilitate collaberation between musicians.

3.2 Industry Analysis:

Force:
Buyer power:

High/Low
:
High

Supplier power:

High

Threat of new entrants:

Low

Threat of substitutes:

High

Rivalry among existing Low

competitors:

Justification:
As a website that caters to a somewhat niche
market, people paying Bandway for ads will be
somewhat limited and accomodating them will
be a priority in order to secure the ad revenue.
Suppliers will come in the form of web
designers, and other sorts of IT specialists, who
will be critical to establishing and maintaining
operations.
The industry has little barriers preventing
others from entering as little revenue is
required to set up. However it is not a
profitable industry to operate in and as such
will not attract many new entrants.
While the specialised sites are weak, other
established medium such as soundcloud and
youtube currently have the greatest market
recognition.
Currently the alternative sites to bandway are
weak, and the 'market' has yet to be established
or reach mainstream recognition

Overall attractiveness of the industry:

3.3 Customers and Their Needs

Patrons will undoubtably not be proffessional musicians, as they tend to have already
established the networks that Bandway seeks to create through working in the industry.

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

Instead, Bandway will be catering towards less experienced musicians who are yet to have
the adequate connections to make their desired creations. These connections are necessary
because without the co-operation of others, the scope of what is possible is severly limited.
For instance a producer without an MC can only really create original beats, and
instrumentals, but cannot create an original song. But with Bandway, finding such partners
will be easy.
3.4 The Product and Service

Bandway is intended to perform in two primary ways. One will be that of a search engine,
and the other a quasi-social media platform. The search engine will work around user
information submitted at the time of search. Such information includes, the skills needed, the
genre/s of interest, and the general area in which the group regularly meets. The search
engine will then refine the search by matching the search data to the corresponding Bandway
profiles, in order of relevance. This will be the main method of finding new people to
collaberate with. However as the success of Soundcloud.com has shown, being able to listen
to people's music and then being able to comment on the song or privately message the
artist/s is a great way to form connections. Furthermore, by having an artists works easily
accessable, Bandway's users are able to judge the compatiblity of any potential grouping with
much more detail and insight. In providing these services, Bandway hopes to solve any issues
a musician might have in findingthe right musical talent.

3.5 Suppliers and Partners

Two partners are immediately obvious for Bandway. First of all, the University of Auckland,
and Soundcloud.com. The University of Auckland is suitable as it has an established
community of mature people, who hold a diverse range of interests. While the people who are
actively studying music may not benefit from Bandway, there exists a large number of people
who pursue it as a hobby, rather than a career path. Furthermore, laisoning with UoA will
give Bandway a huge amount of quick exposure to the public, rather than having to rely on
word of mouth.
Souncloud is 'an online audio distribution platform' that reached 1 million users back in 2010
(1) and currently reachers 200 million listeners (2). By partnering with Soundcloud, Bandway
utilises an embedment format that is free from buffering issues and regional inaccessablity
experienced by the ilk of Youtube. Furthermore, people that use both Soundcloud and

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

Bandway, could use links to peoples Soundcloud accounts, and view their existing work,
saving effort from re-uploading any existing songs.
One key supplier that Bandway would benefit from working with would be NetCo New
Zealand Ltd, whom specialise in web design and maintenance (3). Both of which are
extremely important to any web based venture or company in order for them to be created
and maintained over the years.
Another supplier is 95bFM. As a new formed website, advertising via bFM would be hugely
beneficial. 95bFM is often regarded as a trending radio station, in fact it's slogan is 95bFM:
The Originator (4), and as such attracts trendy people. Based on T. Levitt's model of a
product life cycle (5), trendy people or early adopters, are exactly the type of people we want
to expose to Bandway in order to promote growth.

3.6 Strategy:

Bandway.com wishes to be a useful tool for all musicians. Within the industry, this engages a
broad market as a part of Porter's competitive scope. Furthermore, to create a service that is
both appealing, useful, and distinct to it's competitors, Bandway will have to spend a large
amount in funding the creation of the site, site maintenance as well as advertising. These high
costs put Bandway in the high cost section of cost strategy.
Hence overall the strategy is differentiation.

3.7 Value Chain Activity:

The key value chain activity for Bandway is design and maintenance for the search engine.
Without this Bandway simply does not exist in a meaningful manner, and cannot perform to
achieve it's vision.
3.8 Business Processes

One of the key business processes is that of website maintenance. Errors or malicious attacks
can cripple businesses if left unattended to. Even if error free, if helps hold user interest if the
site is well maintained and has new features introduced or refined on a periodic basis.

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

BUSINESS PROCESS 1 MODEL

Start

Monitor Website Performance

Error or Area for Improvement Identified

Alert Relevant Personal

Fix Issue

Send Payment for Job

Resume Monitoring

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

A secondary business process of importance is that of advertising. As a company that does

not charge it's users a fee, advertising revenue is essential to creating enough funds to pay for
necessary services such as site maintenance. Without an income, Bandway would be liable to
fail.
BUSINESS PROCESS 2 MODEL

Start

Recieve ad and bid for advertising space

Marketing Manager approves/declines bid.

Declined. End.

Approved

Recieve Payment

Place ad in advertising space for approved time

Remove ad.

End

SAM BOGUE, SBOG807, GROUP 42

3.9 Functionalities

3.9.1. WEBSITE MAINTENANCE PROCESS

Recitifies Errors
Creates new functions and improves them
3.9.2. ADVERTISING REVENUE PROCESS
Online transactions
Personalised Ads
3.10 Systems

3.10.1, WEBSITE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

Again web site maintenance is critical for the performance of the business as it is the key
stone of all operation. By improving and adding functions, Bandway ensures it is at the
cutting edge of it's industry. Additionally, by correcting errors, it makes sure that these key
functions can be used and enjoyed in an ongoing basis. In doing so Bandway ensures that it is
successful in not only in providing it's service, but making people want to use and facilitating
growth. All of which are essential to supporting Bandways vision. This would come under
ERP, enterprise resource planning system.
3.10.2, ONLINE ADVERTISING AND TRANSACTIONAL SYSTEM
The two key functions of the Advertising Revenue Process are personalised ads, and online
credit transactions. Ads have to be personalised in order for them to be relevant to the
customer. If they do not achieve the desired effect/function, then customers will simply stop
advertising with Bandway. This is undesirable as Bandway needs that ad revenue in order to
facilitate it's Website Maintenance System, which again is needed to function and achieve
Bandway's vision. Furthermore, this system is needed to receive the funds transferred to
Bandway in exchange for placing the adds. Again in order to support the Website
Maintenance System. This comes under TPS, transactional processing system.

3.11. Summary Table: Value Chain to Systems

Value Chain
Activity

Processes
1. Website
Maintenance
2. Advertising
Revenue Process

Functionalities
1. Recitifies Errors
2. Creates New Functions
1. Online Transactions

2. Personalised Ads

Specific Information
System(s)
Web Maintenance System
Web Developement System
Online Advertising Credit
Transaction
Ad Design System

Broad Information
System(s)
Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning
Transactional Processing
System
Customer Resource
Management

CONCLUSION

In summary, Bandway.com is a quasi-social media site aimed at connecting musicians in

order to facilitate their musical needs and projects. The industry is not particually attractive as
suppliers and buyers have a large amount of leverage over Bandway, and the profits will
likely be aimed at continuing operations. Partners and suppliers that would benefit from cooperation are the University of Auckland, Souncloud, 95 bFM and NetCo. The Porter's
generic strategies used are high cost and broad market, making it a differention strategy
overall. The main value chain activity is that of the maintaining and improving the search
engine, which is supported by the key processes of web design , maintenance and the
advertising process.

REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia, (2014), Soundcloud, retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundcloud
2. USA Today, (2013). Who's Listening To Soundcloud 200million, retrieved from
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/07/17/whoslistening-to-soundcloud-200-million/2521363/
3.
Net Co., (2014). Website Maintenance, retrieved from
http://www.netco.co.nz/websites/website-maintenance/
4. 95bFM, (2014). About, retrieved from http://www.95bfm.com/default,about.sm
5. Charlie Said That, (2011). The Social Media Platform Lifecycle, retrieved from
http://charliesaidthat.com/digital/social-media/the-social-media-platform-lifecycle/