Page 90 - DCAP306_DCAP511_E-COMMERCE_AND_E-BUSINESS

Mithilesh Kumar Dubey, LPU Unit 7: Basics of Business Process Reengineering

Unit 7: Basics of Business Process Reengineering

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction
7.1 Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
7.1.1 Concepts of Reengineering
7.1.2 Technological and Organizational Enablers of BPR
7.1.3 Examples of BPR

7.1.4 Issues in BPR
7.2 BPR Approach
7.3 Summary
7.4 Keywords
7.5 Self Assessment
7.6 Review Questions
7.7 Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

• Define Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
• Discuss the BPR approach
Introduction
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a concept that helps in bringing significant improvements in
the key processes of an organization. It plays a vital role in the business world today.
BPR is also known as Business Process Change Management and Business Process Redesign.
Hammer and Champy in 1993 defined Business Process Reengineering as “the fundamental rethinking
and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary
measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.”
Along with that, Davenport points the major variations between Business Process Reengineering and
other kinds of organizational development approaches, when he describes, “Today organizations must
seek not fractional but multiplicative levels of improvement – 10x rather than 10%.”

Did you know? BPR as a terminology and practice has a tarnished history. In the early 1990s,
reengineering became popular but the approach and methodology was not
understood completely nor appreciated. Most of the times, improvement projects that
were labeled “BPR” were poorly planned and executed. The term BPR itself was less
used or altered to ensure that they were not linked with the BPR of the past. Despite
this kind of abuse of practice, the redesigning practice for business processes and its
associated technology is becoming more popular today than before. Organizations
continue to fundamentally alter the way they conduct trade. Hence, reengineering
remains an effective tool for organizations that strive to function as efficiently and
effectively as possible.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 83