Week 5 - Basics of BPR(1)

Source / Reference:
1) Davenport-BPRCritics-ComputerWorld-2003
2)  GroverMalhotra-BPRTutorial-JOM-1997

 Subject:
What is BPR and what is the importance of BPR?

 Response:
BPR stands for business process reengineering. It mainly analyzes and designs the workflows and processes within the organization. Business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management.

Firstly, the companies need to identify all the processes and prioritize them according to the urgency. Then the companies need to review the update to see whether their processes have met the business objectives. After that, they start designing the models to fit their goals. Finally, tests and implementation will take place. If it cannot satisfy the original goals, evaluation will start and improve the existing strategy.

Business process reengineering is very importance. From the article of GroverMalhotra, they have told that in the past, companies need to have plenty of paper works that need to perform when running their business. Information is not shared and it is inconvenience for them to have the information. However, after the implementation of BPR, there are many improvements. Data and information are shared within the company and they can eliminate a lot of intermediate steps. That means a lot of precious time can be saved to do other stuff. The information will routinely update and staff can seek for the information whenever they are needed.

To conclude, BPR plays an important role in the company, it can help reduce operation cost, fulfill more customers’ needs and eliminate intermediate steps. It is a good try for company to start to have reengineering to take place.

In the recent years, a lot of companies start to reengineer in order to survive in the competitive society. Many changes need to be made such as shifting the traditional shops into internet which can reduce operation cost. Therefore, BPR is used to guide the company to set strategies to take advantage of IS developments.