Week12 - Process Redesign(3) and Implementation

Source / Reference:
1)  "The new and old of business process redesign" by Michael J Earl 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0963868794900035

Subject:
In Lect 12 - The new business process redesign

Response:

BPR was defined in 1990 as the analysis and design of work flows and processes within and between organizations. There are different types of business processes affecting internal or external customers including the core processes, support processes, business network processes and management processes. All these types of business process redesign satisfy the requirements that tradition or status quo be challenged which information technology makes new process designs possible.

The fundamentals of BPR can be portrayed as a star. It is derived from a deconstruction of the phenomenon influenced by the existing literature, field studies of BPR in practice, and the experiences reported by leading edge companies. The model of two triangles representing the new BPR concepts also the old elements which are in practice. 

From the new triangle, 
1. Transformation
The promise of BPR is to redesign to achieve the goal of improving performance. A comprehensive and one-step turnaround is suggested. The planning of transformation through BPR can be found in several forms, in terms of understanding important research questions - BPR strategy linkage, and examining appropriate models of strategic change. That is, BPR lies in the resource or capability conceptualization of strategy.
2. Process
Process is the distinctive element of BPR. It focused on activity and is an organizational unit of analysis. It is a central concept of BPR. It represents a natural way of thinking how business works and forces into sharp relief the poor performance. Now some new processes are emerging which may be more complex construct than it first existed.
3. Information Technology
Different business process redesigns have depended on information technology in various level. Applications of IT may be crucial to redesigned process as it provides us a way to integrating functions, enables both collection and dissemination of data through process. However, sometimes it could be a constraint on BPR as the legacy of architectures built to serve the past which may be limits on process integration.


Conclusion
BPR projects are strategic change projects. Each of the elements of the BPR star suggests where the IT may be or may not be.  Although there is a slightly different between the old business process redesign, BPR is still aimed at same goal, to enhance the performance of the business. The added element are the new concepts of BPR. Some of the practical challenges in the old triangle may complicated by the new elements in the new triangle. Although the new elements of BPR do not make the old challenges easier, some organizations have proved that it is worth picking up the challenge of BPR.