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Business Process

Re - engineering

The Roleof

Information Technology

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Hammer (1990) considers IT as

the key enabler of BPR, which

he considers as "radicalchange."

He prescribes the use of IT to

challenge the assumptions

inherent in the work processes

that have existed since long

before the advent of modern

computer and communications

technology.

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Davenport & Short (1990) Information Technology (IT) refers to the capabilities

offered by computers, software applications, andtelecommunications. (Davenport&Short, 1990).

They argue that BPR requires taking a broader view of

both IT and business activity, and of the relationships

between them.

IT and BPR have recursive relationship.IT capabilities

should support business processes, and business

processes should be in terms of the capabilities IT can

provide.

Davenport&Short (1990) refer to this broadened, recursive

view of IT and BPR as the new industrial engineering.

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Business processes represent a new approach to coordination across

the firm; IT's promise -and its ultimate impact- is to be the most powerful

tool for reducing the costs of coordination.

Finally, Davenport&Short (1990) outline the following capabilities that

reflect the roles that IT can play in BPR:

Transactional

Geographical

Automatical

Analytical

Informational

Sequential Knowledge Management

Tracking

Disintermediation.

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Application of shared computing resources

and telecommunication technologies,

workflow software, and CAD/CAM systems

are powerful enablers of process change.

Finally, Attaran (2003) categorized IT rolesin BPR into three phases I,II,and III

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Phase I

Phase 1: Before the process design (as an enabler)

Create infrastructures and manage information that support evolving

organization

Foster process thinking in organizations

Identify and select process for redesign Participate in predicting the nature of change and anticipate the

information needs to support that change

Educate IT staff in non-technical issues such as marketing, customer

relationships, etc.

Participate in designing measures of success/failures of

reengineering

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Phase II Phase 2: During the process design(as a facilitator)

Bring vast amounts of information into the process

Bring complex analytical methods to bear on the process

Enhance employees ability to make more informed decisions with less reliance on

formal vertical information flows

Identify enablers for process design

Capture the nature of proposed change and match IT strategy to that change

Capture and disseminate knowledge and expertise to improve the process

Communicate ongoing results of the BPR effort

Transform unstructured processes into routinized transactions

Reduce/replace labor in a process Measure performance of current process

Define clear performance goals and objectives to drive the implementation

Define the boundaries and scope of the process

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Phase III During the implementation (as an implementor)

Create a digital feedback loop

Establish resources for critical evaluation of the reengineered

process

Improve IT processes to meet increasing needs of those divisions

that have gone under reengineering processes

Institute a program of cleanup and damage control in case of

failure

Communicate ongoing results of the BPR effort

Help to build commitment to BPR

Evaluate the potential investment and return of reengineering efforts

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IT Current State Many companies considered reengineering to be

the productivity breakthrough of the 1990s. American businesses spent more than US$ 30

billion on reengineering projects in 1994, and asmuch as US$ 50 billion in 1995 and 1996.

Reengineering efforts have produced a wide

range of results.

Some users achieved large cost reductions,higher profits and throughput, etc.

In many of these firms, IT played an importantrole in process redesign.

Many innovative IT applications stem from acombination of breakthrough ideas and frommodifying the ideas that have succeeded orfailed in other companies

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THANK YOU