Advantages of Business Process Re-engineering - Case Study Example

Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Advantages of business process re-engineering Business process reengineering is the process of redesigning the strategies of a company, examining the existing designs and processes with the aim of improving the outcome of the plans. The aim of BPR is to improve the performance of an organization inn terms of satisfying the customers and also the stakeholders (Eneka et al 2004). Abu Dhabi Municipality of late has improved its performance by effectively applying the business process reengineering. The advantages of BPR include the following; To start with Salah Al Sarraj the town planner responded that business process reengineering has enabled the Abu Dhabi Municipality to cut down on the costs which the municipality has been experiencing (Majed & Mohamed 1999). The city chairman introduced new designs which helped the company to redesign its strategies for housing, transportation network and also the sewerage system. The functions of the municipality are to provide services to the public and also coordinate various projects of the government in the municipality. The municipality has managed to reduce the costs by eliminating tasks which could not value to their processes or tasks. This led to reduction in operational costs which could otherwise lead to losses. Further Salah Al Sarraj responded BPR on the other hand helps to improve the performance of an organization. This is because all the processes are redesigned with the aim of improving their effectiveness (Gerald 2002). The services which are provided by the company are of good quality which leads to customer satisfaction. Abu Dhabi Municipality has managed to improve its performance by redesigning its plans. For instance, the municipality management decided to introduce automation of services instead of using human skills. This improved the delivery of services to the customers as it enhanced the speed hence the municipality was ranked as among the best performing municipalities. In addition, Salah Al Sarraj said business process reengineering also helps an organization to find new business dimensions. Through business process redesigning, the employees become creative and innovating and in the process, they find new opportunities with the company can raise extra revenue (Siew & Boon 2008). The municipality of Abu Dhabi is among the examples of municipalities which have greatly benefited from BPR. The employees of the municipality are encouraged to be creative by applying various tools which can promote BPR and in the process; they have invented alternative ways of raising capital for the municipality. The municipality introduced projects like power generation which will help to supplement the revenue collected by the municipality (Fereshteh & Mehdi 2012). Finally, Salah Al Sarraj concluded that BPR further helps to improve the quality of services offered to the public. The municipality of Abu Dhabi introduced alternative ways of treating the sewerage wastes. The municipality introduced automated treatment in their plants which led to efficiency in the treatment sector (Thomas & Joseph 1998). The municipality also redesigned the infrastructure in the city by constructing superhighways and by passes and this led to improved service delivery to the public. Disadvantages of BPR According to Salah Al Sarraj business process reengineering on the other hand has the drawbacks which make it a complicated system to introduce in an organization. To start with, BPR can be very costly to an organization. This is because huge financial resources are required to introduce the resources (Suvojit 2000). For instance, the municipality of Abu Dhabi has to allocate additional financial resources to hire new skills and equipment in order to implement the system. This can be costly to the municipality because other services will be affected as huge sum of money is directed towards introducing the BPR system. Moreover, it is also time consuming. This is because research has to be done to find out the best ways to improve the processes of the company (Neda et al 2008). It may take long time like years to complete the whole process if the redesigning process needs to be properly designed. This will consume much of the top management’s time to concentrate on other core activities which may lead to poor performance of the municipality before the new system is introduced. Another disadvantage of BPR according to Salah Al Sarraj is that it may lower the morale of the employees. This is because when the change is being introduced, some employees feel insecure with their jobs hence they will tend to resist the change (Adesola & Baines 2005). As a result, the productivity of the employees will decline due to insecurity and this will lead to poor productivity of the municipality. Through BPR some companies may focus much on the internal processes and fail to focus on the external competitive strategies. Some companies may concentrate much on the internal systems and fail to cope up with external changes (Al-Mashari & Zairi 2000). This aspect will make the organization incompetent in the market as it may not focus on the external demands. Critical success factors In order for BPR to succeed, there should be some critical factors of success which should be taken into account according to support services officer HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani. Discussed below are some of the critical success factors which should be considered. First, there is need to change the management and its strategy (Aversano et al 2002). Different managers have different policies and how they approach their tasks. In order to achieve the success of BPR, the municipality should change the management so that the incoming management team is interested in thee BPR hence provide support for the implementation of BPR. Another key success factor for BPR is the organizational culture according to HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani. BPR will succeed if the organization has been involved in redesigning the processes in the past. This is because the employees will be encouraged to implement the change as they understand from the previous experience how the change will influence their wellbeing (Dennis et al 2003). The municipality of Abu Dhabi has been adopting various changes in the past for the benefit of the organization and the public. In this regard, there is some likelihood that the change will be accepted by the employees. HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani added that, there is also the factor of enhancing the processes. When introducing BPR, all the processes of the company should be enhanced. This will help to improve the efficiency of the change because the processes will support the implementation of BPR (Grant 2002). If the processes are too rigid to accommodate the change, BPR may not succeed as it will be hard to incorporate the system into the processes of the company. Customer satisfaction on the other hand will promote the success of BPR. When the customers are satisfied, they will provide a feedback of satisfaction but if they are not satisfied, they will provide a negative feedback (Grant 2002). Through customer satisfaction, an organization will be encouraged to implement the systems as it helps to meet the demands of the customers. HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani further responded that ntegrity and agility should be observed when implementing BPR. This is because they will promote transparency and effective utilization of the resources of the municipality (Green & Roseman 2000). Effective utilization of resources will promote successful implementation of the BPR because the allocated resources will be adequate and the organization will not run short of the resources. Inadequate resources will hinder the implementation of BPR due to stoppages in the implementation process. Another key success factor is the automation of the systems according to HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani. BPR should be implemented using the most appropriate technology. Through automation of the system, the municipality will be able to cut down the costs and also improve the efficiency of the processes (Green & Roseman 2000). This will help to increase achievement of BPR of increasing the performance of the organization. Automation of the services is also faster and accurate than when the processes are manual. Collaborative working environment will also determine the sauces of BPR. Employees in the same department should work together in teamwork spirit to ensure they achieve the objectives of the department (Green & Roseman 2000). In addition, the various departments need to work together and coordinate various activities well thus improve the communication which will in turn enhance good relationship between departments. Finally, HE Mubarak Saeed Al Sulimani said that the impact of the system on the objectives of the organization is also another key success factor. It is more often than note that the system will be implemented in phases. The success in the first phase indicates the success in the next stage (Grant 2002). If the system enabled the organization to achieve its goals and objectives, the municipality management will be encouraged to implement the system effectively in the subsequent phases. In this regard therefore, success of BPR depends on the ability of the change to enable the municipality to achieve its goals and objectives. References Adesola, S & Baines, T 2005, “Developing and evaluating a methodology for Business process improvement”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 37-46. Al-Mashari, M & Zairi, M 2000, “Revising BPR: a holistic review of practice And development”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 10-42. Aversano, L. Canfora, G. Lucia, A.D & Gallucci, P 2002, “Business process Reengineering and workflow automation: a technology transfer experience”, The Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 63, pp. 29-44. Dennis, A.R. Carte, T.A & Kelly, G.G 2003, “Breaking the rules: success and failure in Groupware-supported business process reengineering”, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 31-47. Eneka, A. 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