70% of the BPR projects fail. Biggest obstacles that reengineering faces are:
(i) Lack of sustained management commitment and leadership;
(ii) Unrealistic scope and expectations;
(iii) Resistance to Change.
Based on the BPR consultants' interviews, Bashein et al. (1994) outline the positive preconditions for BPR success as: Senior Management Commitment and Sponsorship; Realistic Expectations; Empowered and Collaborative Workers; Strategic Context of Growth and Expansion; Shared Vision; Sound Management Practices; Appropriate People Participating Full-Time (cf: CIGNA: BPR as a way of life); and Sufficient Budget. They also identify negative preconditions related to BPR as: The Wrong Sponsor; A "Do It to Me" Attitude; Cost-Cutting Focus; and, Narrow Technical Focus. The negative preconditions relating to the Organization include: Unsound Financial Condition; Too Many Projects Under Way; Fear and Lack of Optimism; and, Animosity Toward and By IS and Human Resource (HR) Specialists. To turn around negative conditions, firms should: Do Something Smaller First (CIGNA's pilot); Conduct Personal Transformation (CIGNA's change of mindset); and Get IS and HR Involved (CIGNA's CIO initiated the change and HR factors were given due emphasis).
King (1994) views the primary reason of BPR failure as overemphasis on the tactical aspects and the strategic dimensions being compromised. He notes that most failures of reengineering are attributable to the process being viewed and applied at tactical, rather than strategic, levels. He discusses that there are important strategic dimensions to BPR, notably, Developing and Prioritizing Objectives; Defining the Process Structure and Assumptions; Identifying Trade-Offs Between Processes; Identifying New Product and Market Opportunities; Coordinating the Reengineering Effort; and, Developing a Human Resources Strategy. He concludes that the ultimate success of BPR depends on the people who do it and on how well they can be motivated to be creative and to apply their detailed knowledge to the redesign of business processes (cf: Davenport & Stoddard 1994, Markus et al. 1994).
Where is BPR Headed?
Over the last few years, the reengineering concept has evolved from a "radical change" to account for the contextual realism (Caron et. al 1994, Earl 1994), and to reconcile with more incremental process change methods such as TQM, towards a broader, yet more comprehensive process management concept (Davenport 1995).
Implementation Problems
Scott & Kaindle [2000]: at least 20% of needed ERP functionality missing from vendor practices
Many reports of missed deadlines, excessive costs, employee frustration in ERP implementation
Taylor [1998]: need more participative design in implementing ERP
If adopt vendor system in total, can assure timely implementation within budget
Also disregard organizational needs
Training a key part of ERP implementation
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