Reference:
Subject: IT – a necessary tools for BPR implementation?
In Lecture 5, we have learned the basics of
BPR, the definition, rationale, properties.
All these are really basic information of BPR, which can be found on web
or reading extra materials. After the lecture, it gives me an insight that BPR
is quite similar to the stuffs in business studies, where its objective is to
enhance the efficiency, reduce cost, and add-value to the business products and
services. After a deep thought, the lecture
has brought me a question, is IT a must in BPR? And to what extent does IT
help?
Actually, I have found that most of the
cases of BPR are with the assistance of IT, as this can be carry out
holistically among all the business process.
However, there are still some cases which IT is not involved, while the
change is still call BPR.
Therefore, IT
is not a must in BPR.
For example, use a queuing system as an
example. Long time ago, Banks used one
queue to handle all customers’ queries and requests, which mean all counters
serve one queue. Since the time spent on each operation is uncertain, the
average waiting time cannot be estimated and banks received many complaints for
long waiting time. With Customer dissatisfaction, the banks change the queuing
structure, where they divided the counters into different functions, such as
normal class and advanced class. This
helps to reduce the waiting time for privileges, who have higher time cost. The reengineering process does not
incorporate with IT equipments, while it still can serve the purpose of
BPR.
However, with advanced technology nowadays,
BPR which incorporated with IT can streamline the whole business process. For example, the invoice system in a company
may involve many sub-processes, such as backup, verification, cost analysis. Since each process needs some time for
process the invoice, one have to wait the other process before it can process
the invoice. If backing up the invoice
needs 2 days, verification needs 4 days, cost analysis needs 4 days, then the
total processing time will be 10 working days.
(AS-IS)
As the work actually do not require such a
long time, the 10 working days mainly involve the waiting time between each
process. Therefore, to carry out BPR by
using an enterprise resource planning or database, the processes can work at
the same time so that the time can be greatly reduced and reduce the
probability in losing customers With the database and ERP assistance, the efficiency
can be enhanced, the operating cost will be lowered, and fewer mistakes due to
inconsistency during the processing.
(To-Be)
