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Management Information Systems

Notes study conducted in 1993, at the height of the BPR fad, discovered BPR projects that are broadbased
and in-depth generate the highest business unit benefits. This study analyzed the BPR
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 reengineered. 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
reengineering 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
reengineering. The seven aspects of reengineering 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:

 Identification of BPR opportunities
 Project preparation
 Analysis of existing process
 Development of process vision
 Technical design

 Social design
 Process transformation
 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.

Task What are the reasons of using automation tool in the organization

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