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Enterprise Resource Planning
notes implementation results of 20 companies. It found that 11 of the 20 projects achieved performance
improvements of less than 5 percent. The performance measure evaluated was earnings before
interest and taxes, or reduction in total business unit cost. These results hardly show the massive
improvements BPR gurus had in mind. However, six of the 20 projects achieved an average
of 18 percent in business unit cost reduction. The authors investigated these six projects and
discovered these projects were more radical (in terms of breadth and depth) than the rest of the
20 projects. Breadth is defined as the number of key processes that have been re-engineered.
Depth is defined as the number of the six organizational elements (roles and responsibilities,
measurements and incentives, organization structure, IT, shared values and skills) that are
included in the re-engineering projects. In their study, the six successful projects include all the
key processes and organization elements in their BPR implementations. The authors conclude
the degree of radical change is proportional to the business benefits that BPR projects generate.
Perhaps it is important to remember that this study profiles successful implementations rather
than all implementations and was published during the height of the BPR craze. Teng et al.
published another study that profiled successful BPR projects in 1998. This was a broad-based
survey of 105 firms that completed at least one BPR project. The authors discovered there is a
strong correlation between the degree of radical change and the level of success at responding
firms. The degree of radical change is determined by respondents’ perceived level of change in
seven aspects of re-engineering. The seven aspects of re-engineering are similar to those of the
McKinsey study: process work flows, roles and responsibilities, performance measurements and
incentives, organizational structure, IT, culture and skill requirements. Other interesting results
from this study are, the importance of process evaluation, process transformation, and social
design. Respondents rate these three stages as most important to success among the eight project
stages. The eight stages in sequence are as follows:
1. Identification of BPR opportunities
2. Project preparation
3. Analysis of existing process
4. Development of process vision
5. Technical design
6. Social design
7. Process transformation
8. Process evaluation
Respondents rated analysis of existing process and technical design as least important to
perceived success. The two studies discussed here illustrate that successful BPR projects share a
high degree of radical change. We can also conclude from the second study that existing processes
and technical designs are not important factors in BPR success. However, social design, execution
of process transformation, and the ability to evaluate reengineered processes are important to
the success of the BPR implementations. These results correlate to the contention that change
management and the human side of implementations are more important than the solutions
themselves.
Early BPR results led to the formulation of a new generation of BPR rhetoric from its founders.
This revisionist BPR thinking increasingly focuses on the cultural context of the organization. The
founders no longer stress the radical approach that was in the original BPR thinking. The new
rhetoric of BPR emphasizes the importance of people and the change management aspects of
implementation. Instead of dramatic and wideranging process changes, revised BPR thinking calls
for a holistic approach to re-engineering that involves business processes, technology, and social
system issues (including culture). Revisionist BPR thinking looks to redesign critical business
processes that will confer the most value through targeted changes to organization, processes,
technology, and culture. The aim is no longer to change the organization’s entire culture but only
64 LoveLy professionaL university