BPR Students Slides Ch.

6
Enablers and
Tools of BPR
Why BPR fail
According to Hammer and Champy (1993) and Marjanovic (2000), around 70
percent of the organizations fail in Implementing BPR successfully.
Important reasons behind BPR failure are

 Lack of a holistic implementation approach to exploiting BPR

 Lack of a vision, under communication of the same and not removing obstacles
to the new vision
 Lack of customer focus
 Lack of enough sense of urgency
 Not systematically planning for, and creating, short-term wins
 Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture.
Why BPR fail (2)
Apart from the above list, there are some additional reason that prevent reengineering
from succeeding.

 Some companies try to fix a process instead of changing it, hence not reengineering
at all, but rather conducting process changes and just calling it reengineering

 Some other try to make reengineering happening from the bottom up. Frontline
employees and middle managers are unable to initiate and implement a successful
reengineering effort, since they lack the broad perspective that reengineering
demands. Also, they may fear that dramatic changes to existing processes might
diminish their own power, influence, and authority.

 Often companies quit too early: either they abandon at the first sign of a problem,
when losing their nerve, or they call off their reengineering effort at the first sign of
success
Why BPR fail (3)
 Improper monitoring of reengineered processes: Even though a process or system
can be dramatically improved initially, it has a tendency to deteriorate if adequate
efforts are not put to maintain and improve the process further. If this does not happen
 there could be an adverse impact on the reengineered process and the eventual benefits
may not be significant

 Limited employee awareness: Communicating the message of the need for

reengineering the business processes to all the employees of the organization is very
important. The employees need to understand their roles in the whole process and also
their roles in implementing the new process.
Improvements and timing in reengineering
Why BPR fails : the case of SMEs

Five most important factors seem to impede BPM implementation

for the SME sector as a whole. These can be summarised in the
following list:

• Absence
 of Cross-Functional Mindset amongst Senior Executives
• Lack of Support from Senior Management

• Lack of Clarity on a Strategic Level

• Lack of Information Technology Expertise

• Poor Knowledge of Process-Oriented Approaches

For more description on the above listed factors refer to Fu et al. (2001), Hale & Cragg (1996), Raymond et al. (1998) and Riley & Brown
(2001)
Why BPR fails : the case of small wine
industries*

 1. Lack of Financial Resources

 2. Lack of Time
 3. Lack of Support from Senior Management
 4. Lack of Information Technology Expertise
 5. Poor Knowledge of Process-Oriented Approaches

*Reserach conducted between 2000 and 2005 in Western Austraila Wineries

Why BPR fails : SMEs vs Small Wine
Industries
The most prominent area of divergence of previous SME studies when compared to the
findings of the SW Industries is the absence of the two most important factors that inhibit BPM
implementation in the wine industry: (a) Lack of Financial Resources, and (b) Lack of Time

Thus, the most likely explanation for the prominence of the mentioned factors as the most
important factors inhibiting BPM implementation in the wine industry is the fact that most of
the firms in this study were very small (< 20 employees on their payroll)

This precludes them from having a sophisticated capital structure flexible enough to
accommodate IT-driven BPM tools. It also precludes them from having a pool of permanent
employees sizable enough to allow the reallocation of a sufficient number of workers to carry
out BPM-specific tasks.
Why BPR fails : Small Wine Industries

 The Australian wine sector is a world-competitive industry with a strong growth in

export. Despite the fact that quality and premium branding are the basis of its competitive
advantage, it exhibits some significant weaknesses in cost and resource management

 The eraler mentioned research has some lessons to offer to other wine companies that
desire to utilise BPM to achieve quality production and to become world-competitive
companies. If the industry could move towards better planning and management of its
business processes, it would further secure its position in the international export market
How to reduce chances of failure
At times BPR only achieves marginal results, well below initial expectations

 Two factors may help avoiding the risk that reengineering ends up with marginal
results well below the expected ones: the breadth and the depth of the process to
be redesigned
 The processes must be broadly defined in terms of costs and customer value in
order to improve performances across the company
 The redesign must penetrate the core of the organization, hence changing its
depth levers such as roles and responsibilities, measurement and incentives,
structure, shared values and skills, therefore the overall organizational structure

How to make reengineering really work, HBR, Nov-Dec 1993

How to reduce chances of failure
Breadth: identifying the crucial activities that would deliver critical value for the
company is mandatory in order to avoid that eventually the BPR only delivers
marginal improvements

Reengineering of a single process or function could be important for companies that

have specific issues in those. However, a narrow approach in redesign cannot
produce the widespread results that companies are usually looking for

On the other hand, a too broad approach may lead to failure due to lack of focus
and too many disruptions. Therefore, the diagnostic phase is critical to ensure that
BPR delivers in the right way and as per expectations

How to make reengineering really work, HBR, Nov-Dec 1993

How to reduce chances of failure
Depth: the successful redesign requires the restructuring of the key drivers of
behaviors

Depth implies changes in the depth levers (roles, responsibilities, shared values…).
It has been ascertained that companies that manipulates all levers are bound to have
more significant results in terms of process-cost reduction

A ‘clean slate’ approach avoids that the BPR only focus on fixing the status quo,
hence failing to exploit the larger benefits of the processes redesigning

How to make reengineering really work, HBR, Nov-Dec 1993

Enablers of successful BPR

Some organizational factors can play the key role of enablers for
successful BPR programs. Among these are:

 Management commitment
 IT infrastructure
 People management
 Change readiness, formalization and centralization
BPR enablers– Management Commitment

 The management has a leading role in organizational change and

implementing new programs within the organization, by
establishing the unity of direction and the proper internal
environment in which people and systems can become fully
involved in achieving the BPR program

 Management has also the main responsibility for making decisions

and allocating resources regarding BPR implementation.
BPR enablers– IT infrastructure

BPR requires the concurrent examination and redesign of

the information technologies and organizations that support
such processes
BPR enablers– IT infrastructure

 IT infrastructure is considered a vital component for organizations operating in

a dynamic ever-changing environment, since it can be used effectively in order
to improve current processes and/or to support introducing of new ones

 IT supports business processes in different ways such as, supporting process

functions, supporting decision making, facilitating communication, controlling
business tasks, and improving manufacturing and delivering quality products
and services

 IT infrastructure plays a key role in implementing BPR within organizations

through providing consistent and timely information for the decision-making
process and enabling coordination and communication across the entire
organization
BPR enablers– People Management

 Adopting any new system or program, especially BPR, depends on

better utilization of the skills and abilities of the workforce. Hence,
people management is considered an important factor in the
development of employees’ skills in an organization, which is needed in
in order to support BPR efforts

 Employee involvement and empowerment, team working, training and

reward and recognition are considered important success factors of
BPR; when employees feel connected and involved in a BPR program,
they are committed to achieving success in the implementation
process.
BPR enablers– Organizational Readiness

 Employees’ resistance can be triggered from different sources such as fear of

unknown, fear of personal loss, threat of discomfort, lack of coordination and
cooperation, and lack of understanding and trust. Consequently, it is
important for organizations implementing BPR to have their employees ready
for forthcoming change through embracing positive perceptions and
attitudes toward the need for organizational change

 Readiness for change is a multidimensional construct influenced by beliefs

among employees that they can implement a proposed change (i.e. change-
specific efficacy); the proposed change is appropriate for the organization (i.e.
appropriateness); the leaders are committed to the proposed change (i.e.
management support); and the proposed change is beneficial to
organizational members (i.e. personal valence).
BPR Tools
Several Tools are used to make the BPR implementation smoother. Here below some of
those typically used

business-process-reengineering.pdf - Google Drivebusiness-process-reengineering.pdf - Google Drive

 BPR Tools

business-process-reengineering.pdf - Google Drivebusiness-process-reengineering.pdf - Google Drive

Inductive
thinking
  Information technology plays a crucial role in
business reengineering, but one that is easily
miscast. State-of-the-art information technology
is part of any reengineering effort, an essential
enabler, since it permits companies to
Learning to reengineer business processes
think
 However, to paraphrase what is often said about
Inductively money and government, merely throwing
computers at an existing business problem does
not cause it to be reengineered. In fact, the
misuse of technology can block reengineering
altogether by reinforcing old ways of thinking
and old behavior patterns
 Learning to think Inductively

 Companies use a form of thinking that businesspeople usually don’t learn and
with which they may feel uncomfortable. Most executives and managers know
how to think deductively. That is, they are good at defining a problem or
problems, then seeking and evaluating different solutions to it

 But applying information technology to business reengineering demands

inductive thinking , i.e. the ability to first recognize a powerful solution and
then seek the problems it might solve, problems the company probably doesn’t
even know that it has.
Learning to think Inductively

 The fundamental error that most companies commit when they look at
technology is to view it through the lens of their existing processes. They
ask, “How can we use these new technological capabilities to enhance or
streamline or improve what we are already doing?” Instead, they should be
asking, “How can we use technology to allow us to do things that we are not
already doing?”

 Reengineering, unlike automation, is about innovation. It is about exploiting

the latest capabilities of technology to achieve entirely new goals. One of
the hardest parts of reengineering lies in recognizing the new, unfamiliar
capabilities of technology instead of its familiar ones.
Thinking Inductively
 The true power of technology is to offer
answers to problems one does not know he
has

 Needs, as well as aspirations, are shaped by

people’s understanding of what is possible.
Breakthrough technology makes feasible
activities and actions people have not yet
dreamt of

 The challenge that most corporations fail to

meet is recognizing the business possibilities
that lie latent in technology. This
shortcoming is understandable if not
excusable
Thinking Inductively: Sony
Walkman
 Sony Corporation has achieved a good measure of its
success by paying attention to this fundamental precept
—that market research done for a product that does
not yet exist is useless
 When Sony developers first envisioned the Walkman,
management did not order up a market research survey
to see if the product would be embraced by consumers.
Realizing that people are unable to conceptualize what
they do not know, Sony gave the Walkman the green
light based on developers’ insights into people’s needs
and the capabilities of the technology
 The Walkman transformed, rather than responded to,
people’s ideas about where and how they could listen
to music.
 Thinking Inductively
 Teleconferencing. Is a good example This technology
allows people located in specially equipped rooms in
remote locations to hear and see each other and to
work together almost as though they were in the
same room
 Initially, most organizations saw the value of
teleconferencing as a means of reducing travel costs;
people would be able to meet without having to fly
 In this respect, teleconferencing has, by and large,
proved a failure. People travel to be with other
people for many reasons. A trip, in its very
undertaking says something about the importance
attached to the message ultimately delivered, of the
subject eventually discussed
 The nonverbal communication that takes place in a
face-to-face meeting is probably more important
than most of the words actually spoken. No surprise,
then, that teleconferencing has had little effect on
corporate travel costs.
Non inductive thinking: IBM

 Thomas J. Watson, Sr., one of the first Presidents of IBM, fell victim to this
common shortsightedness when he proclaimed that the worldwide
demand for data-processing computers would come to fewer than fifty
machines
 Twenty years later, mainframe computer makers and corporate computer
managers both dismissed the minicomputer as a toy
 Ten years after that, the personal computer received the same reception:
“We’re already meeting our needs with large machines,” the conventional
thinking went, “so why would we need small ones?”
 The answer, as we can see now, was that the great power of
minicomputers, and then of PCs, did not lie in doing what larger machines
already did but in giving birth to entirely new classes of applications.
Non inductive thinking: IBM and Xerox
 In the late 1950s, when Xerox was performing the basic research on the 914, its
first commercial copying machine, the company was hard-pressed for money and
wanted to cash out of the project. It offered its patents to IBM, which hired Arthur
D. Little (ADL), the to do a market research study
 ADL concluded that even if the revolutionary machine captured 100 percent of
the market for carbon paper, dictograph, and hectograph—the techniques used for
copying documents at the time—it still would not repay the investment required
to get into the copier business.
 IBM, on the best evidence available, decided to turn down the Xerox patents and
stay out of copiers
 Despite the downbeat forecast, Xerox decided to persevere, on the assumption
that someone would find a use for the machines
Non inductive thinking: IBM and Xerox

 Xerox copier did not thrive thanks to its ability to replace carbon
paper and other existing copying technologies, but rather thanks to
its ability to perform services beyond the reach of these
technologies. The 914 created a market for convenience copies that
had previously not existed

 Thirty copies of an existing document to share with a group of

coworkers was not a need people knew they had before the
invention of xerography. Since people couldn’t make thirty copies
easily and inexpensively, no one articulated doing so as a “need.”
Artificial intelligence
What is Artificial Intelligence
 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an interdisciplinary science with
multiple approaches: there is no singular definition of AI that is
universally accepted

 It may be thought as many different technologies capable of

performing tasks requiring human intelligence

 Such technologies can learn, act, and perform with human-like

levels of intelligence. In summary AI simulates human intelligence
in machines

 AI landscape include machine learning, knowledge processing, AI

hardware, natural language processing, evolutionary computation,
computer vision, speech recognition, and planning/control.
What is AI

 Machines are trained to be able to think like human beings or even surpass
them. This would also include judgement and decision making
 As of now there are three types of AI : A. Narrow I., A. General I. and A. Super
I.
 In the first one the machine ability is limited to one single field or area (e.g.
image recognition)
 AGI will be more versatile and able to think and perform in multiple areas
 ASI will imply machines outlearning and outperforming human beings, in all
areas, and independently (without human intervention)
 These last two may take some decades to happen
What is AI

 Others define the dufferent forms of AI in a different way

What is AI

 Others define the dufferent forms of AI in a different way

 Assisted Intelligence improves what people and organizations are currently doing, by amplifiing the value
of existing activities It involves clearly defined, rule-based, and repeatable activities. Its applications also
include modeling of complex realities, so that organizations can test decision and scenarios with less risk

 Augmented Intelligence enables people and organizations to do things they otherwise couldn't do, by giving
new capability to human activity. To develop applications based on Augmented Intelligence, we need to
imagine products, services, or processes that would not be possible at all without AI. Unlike Assisted
Intelligence,Augmented Intelligence fundamentally changes the nature of the task. Business models thus
change accordingly

 Autonomous Intelligenci is the highest state of AI. It creates and deploys machines that act on their own.
Only the most advanced tech companies have started utilizing some part of AI. A great example of
Autonomous Intelligence is self-driving vehicles.
 Artificial Intelligence in business

 Artificial Intelligence is leading the way in almost every industry it is adopted. The latest
statistics show that current AI technology can boost business productivity by up to 40%

 Amid the rapid dissemination of new technologies recently, many market leaders have
been stimulated to step up in a more advanced and efficient area, in which AI has
demonstrated to be a very powerful weapon

 Businesses that have AI under their power have more chances to stay ahead in the
competition in many ways. More and more are investing in AI marketing - a great
adoption to revolutionize the way marketing is done.

AI Marketing: What, Why & How to use Artificial Intelligence in Marketing – Mageplaza
Artificial Intelligence and BPR
 Many roles today performed by humans may tomorrow be replaced by machines, thanks to AI

 AI will be the best approach and scope of automation of Software Engineering Management
processes for software development organizations

 There are new Business Processes Reengineering methodologies modeling systems based on
Artificial Intelligence

 One of these is called Tropos and is used in risk management for multi-actors dynamic
alignment modeling. It is based on the fact that AI can combine strategic intention with risk
management processes deriving from basic business processes among multi-actors, and it can
solve semantic gap between multi-agents and information system in dynamic alignment

(PDF) Business Process Reengineering: A Scope of Automation in Software Project Management using Artificial Intelligence (researchgate.net)