Business process reengineering (BPR) sounds esoteric best, and perhaps a bit pretentious. Would not it be simpler to say the business process change?

Most people understand what a business process is, but when combined with the reengineering of a sudden sounds vague.

The sponsored ProSci BPR Online Learning Center calls a business process "a set of activities that transform a set of entries in a range of products (goods or services) for another person or process using people and tools."

It's simple. The way we interpret it is:


There are many ways of doing business,


when one of these ways do not work or is considered to be ineffective improve


some elements are introduced to make it better ("inputs")


these elements translate into a better product or service


the product or service must serve another person (a customer, supplier, partner)


That's pretty elementary, but why business processes must be re-engineering?

It's all about the customer (and competition)

The philosophy behind business process reengineering is to please the customer. By delighting him, get to have it, making it a faithful disciple.

The rivals have a sneaky way to snatch customers away from us. It is because this world is full of cunning and evil people, is because we tend to sit on our funds and I think we finally did it. We have become lax.

business process improvement, according to ProSci, not to be confused with business process reengineering. Instead of improving existing processes, the concept of re-engineering, says that because the technique is no longer viable, it must be replaced, abandoned. There is a need for a clean slate, as the BPR Online Learning Center teaches.

business process reengineering, as well as the Six Sigma DMAIC presupposes a series of stages: Phase 1 consists of a definition of the project - its rationale, objectives and scope. Stage 2 covers the entire learning process where you get as much information as we can about our employees, customers, suppliers and competitors - including non-competitors and adapt this new information technology.

Armed with this knowledge, the next stage - Stage 3 - is the creation of our mission. Others call it a vision of the future. This requires a new set of business processes. Once you have determined the desired outcome of this transition, moving on to the next stage which requires an action plan that allows us to measure the gap between the current state of our company and where we want to go.

When we got to this stage, logical solutions.

If you're still wondering what separates the business process improvement business process re-engineering, think about the starting point: are you from an existing process and want to improve it, or want to start from scratch?

Through Information Technology

Jump to globalization. We are ushering in new technologies that are coming faster than we can learn. Also there's all this talk about the new relationship management (CRM) strategies. We are puffing and bursting at the seams. Companies that have not adapted to global trends and introduced new technologies into their operations will beat the competition. Companies today can not afford to sit back and watch, while others struggle with the changes in the industry.

Thanks to information technology and creating new business models, the world of electronic commerce has given new meaning to the way we do business. As Hui-Liang Tsai says, "electronic commerce is no longer a way to gain a competitive advantage is a competitive imperative." (Information Technology and Business Process Reengineering: New Perspectives and Strategies, Praeger Publishers, Connecticut, 2003). While companies are trying to keep up with technology, customers are also changing. They are more demanding and never satisfied. Fall in love, and do not necessarily have to explain why.

Image of the speed with which information is transmitted with a simple mouse click. Used to be that urgent documents had to be mailed by special messenger or by fax immediately, now, are portable electronic documents. Mr. Tsai says that this phenomenon occurs only a new crop of workers - which he calls knowledge workers. We are seeing the transformation of industrial society to an information society.

Advances in information technology is just one of many reasons why companies have adopted business process re-engineering. If organizations want desperately to succeed, they first need information - the same truck. Second, we need to know how to convert that information to their advantage. The practice of business process re-engineering can refine much of that information into digestible parts.