Week5 - BPR and As-Is To-Be Model

Lecture 5: Basics of BPR (1)

BPR

From the lecture this week, we know that the BPR is the way of transforming the business from the restrictions of the traditional approach by cutting across functional divisions while Information system are the fundamental ingredient of redesigned business processes.

What is B?

B stands for business. It focuses on end-to-end business process which adds business value to customers. For the mean while, more value to customers would results more profits to the organization. It helps to maximize the effective activity coordination between each tasks. Outside-in perspective would be used to think more about customers through their eyes.

What is P?

P stands for process. It is the essential processes in the workflow of an organization. The process provides the output by processing the input.Business Process is the collection of business activities that creates value to the customers. It ties to functional area, even cross-functional area to fulfill customer needs. The traditional business process model is hierarchy-based with top-down approach. This means that the business process is from the top management to operational management. It breaks down the processes and decomposes into sub-processes. Each is responsible for a specific task. It is a scientifically-based management approach provided by Frederick W. Taylor.

But now, business process is a horizontal organization process which starts and ends with customers’ needs. The business structure is more flexible and customer-centric, which means that the process will more focus on the needs of customers and the customer responsiveness will therefore be enhanced. It also increases the productivity and competitiveness of an organization.

What is R?

R stands for reengineering. It gives out quantum improvements with the support of IT  to maximize the value adding in the process. The changes of working environment, such as people skills, organizational design and structure, should well fit the reengineered processes.

                                                                                                                                         

The main idea of BPR is the transformation from the current process (AS-IS) to an improved process (TO-BE).It is is an iterative process that starts during software selection. Transforming from your current state to your future state requires planning and adjustments. 

As-Is Business Processes

This is the important part of BPR. It helps to align and understand on how things currently operate. Documenting As-Is business processes helps develop clarity on what is working well and what is broken with the current business processes. It also helps define how employees are doing their work now and the gaps between the current and future states.It helps to discover the operational pain points with a lot of analysis [1].

To-Be Business Processes

This defines your future operational model and business processes base on how you want your business processes to look in the future. In conjunction with the as-is processes, it helps you identify the gaps between the current and future. This helps to drive business improvements and accountability [1].

Eric Kimberling have mentioned 4 Key steps between As-Is processes and To-Be processes [2].

1. Software Selection. The first step is ERP selection based on business requirements. The evaluation may depends on how you understand the current business states and how the ERP can improve the business.

2. ERP Business Blueprint. After the software is selected, it is important to design the business blueprint providing the first real tangible views of how future to-be processes will look by defining new model.

3. ERP Implementation and Configuration. After the ERP business blueprint is built, the software can help to implement and customize to meet the defined business process workflow. 

4. Organizational Change Management and Training. The final stage is organizational change management and training. It provides the tools that will enable employees to bridge the gap between the as-is and to-be processes. And the change management would help in the migration by conducting organizational impact analysis, stakeholder analysis, change agents, communications, and training.

                                                                                                                                         

Reference

[1] http://panorama-consulting.com/erp-and-business-processes-as-is-or-to-be/

[2] http://panorama-consulting.com/to-be-or-not-to-be-answers-to-the-long-standing-controversy-about-erp-system-business-processes/

                                                                                                                                         

Comment on http://chankl-2107.blogspot.com/2012/02/lecture-4-business-and-isit-strategies.html


"In my opinion, there is no definate universally superior perspective for all businesses in general.  Whether certain perspective is appropriate or not for particular company depends on many factors such as the structure, culture, targets and rules of the company itself and also the industry and global environment.  In fact, the situation varies from case to case, it is hard to select the most outstanding perspective which is expected to overwhelm the others.  And each perspective does have the unique advantage, as a result, managers have to evaluate and compare carefully before making the decision of adopting which approach for their firms.
 "

I agree with you that the selection of the perspective depends on many factors like the structure, culture, targets and rules of the company itself and also the industry and global environment. Just like what I think that the selection should be based on the analysis of the current situation, the expected outcome and the requirement of the business.