Business Change and Re-engineering最新文献

This article examines the use of groupware to re-engineer a business process. The process concerned is the claims handling process within a large insurance organization. The benefits of the new process are quantified and the project is placed with in the context of recent discourses on the role of IT in re-engineering projects. A simple framework is proposed as an analysis tool and the article concludes that the project has delivered considerable benefits to the organization albeit with the benefit of certain circumstances.

This paper attempts to define what is meant by the term virtual business, and suggests that what are currently held to be examples of virtual business activity do not in fact constitute a new business model. Many of the practices considered components of the virtual business organization, are in fact currently performed by many business organization and will shortly be accepted as standard commercial practice for successful companies. The paper will suggest the level of transformation that a conventional business organization will need to undertake to adopt the working practices of the virtual business organization. The paper concludes by emphasizing that the success of the virtual business will not be solely through defining the correct or ganizational structures or technology platforms. The successful virtual business will only come through creating and maintaining an appropriate culture that motivates workers, customers and commercial partners to be a part of the enterprise.

This paper describes an attempt to re-engineer a large public sector organization in Brazil. The organization, a civil engineering company, had a major role in a large government construction project of high political relevance, by the time the re-engineering attempt was started. As a result of the re-engineering attempt, the organization had its IT infrastructure significantly improved. The access to IT was decentralized by the downsizing of the applications from a mainframe to a local area network. The large construction project for which the organization had been hired by the government was successfully completed. However, no radical changes in the organization's business processes had resulted, despite the US $8 million invested in the re-engineering attempt. Moreover, even though some processes had been automated, almost no staff reduction was effected. The lack of layoffs meant that even the increase in efficiency in those processes, which by no means was radical, was not realized. This paper analyses this case of ‘successful failure’ and its implications for re-engineering in the public sector.

The introduction of Product Data Interchange (PDI) in an organization generates the need for change. In this paper, the results of a case study analysis of PDI projects on Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) approaches are presented. The projects have been positioned in existing BPR frameworks and classified according to scope within a single department or organization, within a value system and within a value system introduced by support organizations. Success factors for PDI are comparable with those for BPR and include clear agreements regarding standards and software, the involvement of end-users, and the ability to perform quantitative (cost/benefits) analysis. In addition the redesign of activities, the value chain, or the value system should be considered. Our conclusion has been that the introduction of PDI should go hand in hand with BPR and thus can lead to a profitable relationship.

A key question facing the analysis of small/medium sized businesses is how the complexity of the business can be appreciated in a clear and incisive manner. Adoption of too simplistic a view can obscure issues, whilst an oversophisticated view can confuse.

A framework has been developed which supports a clear understanding of the business. It commences with the view of the business as regulated process composed of four variables: people; transformation; interaction; technology. Consideration is given to the difference between what is thought to happen and what actually happens. The meaning a person attaches to an event can be viewed either from a performance stance (i.e. what is achieved) or from a conduct stance (i.e. the acceptability of what is done). When an explanation for events is sought reference is made to the underlying structure of the situation in terms of interactions and transformations. This is developed to reveal the contribution of the Visible System Model to understand the structural complexity of a viable business. Finally, technology is recognized as a device to amplify the variety that a person can handle.