Define business process reengineering and explain how an organization can use IT to transform its business.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A business process is a standardized set of activities that accomplishes a specific task, such as processing
a customer's order. Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflow within
and between enterprises. In business process reengineering, the project team starts with a clean sheet of
paper and redesigns the process to increase efficiency and effectiveness. The project team does not take
anything for granted and questions all the aspects of the process and the business. The reengineering
project team obtains dramatic process improvement by redesigning processes that cross departments.
Most of the major opportunities for process improvement exist in cross-departmental processes.
Information technology usually plays a key role in process improvement by making possible a radically
faster and almost paperless process. However, IT is only an enabling factor.