Business Process Reengineering

In today’s environment, with the emergence of different technologies, new products are introduced in the market which has caused the shift in the control to the customers; products and services are now designed according to the customers’ needs. Competition is also growing due to the existence of wider choice of the customer; products and services choices are not based on price anymore but on quality and pre or post-sale services. Changes as well are continuous, for instance, customers’ needs and technologies are constantly changing. In the business environment though, every business has the same goals which are to increase their market share and obtain the maximum of profits possible. To be able to realize those goals, every business must keep up with the changing environment, and undertake some business methods changes. One of those business method changes is the Business Process Reengineering or BPR which is not an easy change to implement. According to some studies, 70 percent of all BPR projects fail (Kliem 71), thus BPR is a high risk change as pointed out in our text book. Even though it is a high risk change, when it is well implemented, it can be really successful but its success depends on many factors such as “clear definition of objectives and methods; realistic expectations about results and requirements; appropriate sponsorship; a project scope commensurate with the sponsorship; adequate resources; speed in execution; and balance” (Infor 1). Kliem in Risk Management for business process reengineering stated, “BPR promises to improve the competitive position of the marketplace, offer service and process breakthroughs, provide customer satisfaction, provide greater understanding of the business, renew the organizatio...

... middle of paper ...

...ion of BPR is the reason of its failure while Chamberlin thinks that it’s the executives’ way of thinking. In my opinion, those two are both important reasons of failure of BPR.

Works Cited

Chamberlin, John, “Business Process Reengineering. A retrospective look. Part one.”,

Management Services; Winter2009, Vol. 53 Issue 4, p38-43

Grant, Delvin, “A Wider View of Business Process Reengineering”, Communications of the ACM;

Feb2002, Vol.45 Issue 2, 6p

Olalla, Marta Fossas, “Information Technology in Business Process Reengineering”,

International Advances in Economic Research; Aug2000, Vol. 6 Issue 3, p581-586

Kliem, Ralph L., “Risk Management for Business Process Reengineering Projects”,

Information Systems Management; Fall2000, Vol. 17 Issue 4, p71-73

Wright, Mina; Adams, Peter, “Business Process Reengineering”, INFOR; Feb1996, Vol. 34 Issue 1, p1-2