Business process reengineering is the radical redesign of business processes.

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Business process re-engineering (BPR) is the redesign of fundamental aspects of business processes. 

The objective of BPR is to achieve improvements in performance measures, such as cost, quality, service and speed.

Business process re-engineering(BPR) is the radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical aspects like quality, output, cost, service, and speed. Business process reengineering (BPR) aims at cutting down enterprise costs and process redundancies on a very huge scale.

Is business process reengineering (BPR) same as business process improvement (BPI)?

On the surface, BPR sounds a lot like business process improvement (BPI). However, there are fundamental differences that distinguish the two. BPI might be about tweaking a few rules here and there. But reengineering is an unconstrained approach to look beyond the defined boundaries and bring in seismic changes.

While BPI is an incremental setup that focuses on tinkering with the existing processes to improve them, BPR looks at the broader picture. BPI doesn’t go against the grain. It identifies the process bottlenecks and recommends changes in specific functionalities. The process framework principally remains the same when BPI is in play. BPR, on the other hand, rejects the existing rules and often takes an unconventional route to redo processes from a high-level management perspective.

BPI is like upgrading the exhaust system on your project car. Business Process Reengineering, BPR is about rethinking the entire way the exhaust is handled.

Five steps of business process reengineering (BPR)

To keep business process reengineering fair, transparent, and efficient, stakeholders need to get a better understanding of the key steps involved in it. Although the process can differ from one organization to another, these steps listed below succinctly summarize the process:

Below are the 5 Business Process Re-engineering Steps:

1. Map the current state of your business processes

Gather data from all resources–both software tools and stakeholders. Understand how the process is performing currently.

2. Analyze them and find any process gaps or disconnects

Identify all the errors and delays that hold up a free flow of the process. Make sure if all details are available in the respective steps for the stakeholders to make quick decisions.

3. Look for improvement opportunities and validate them

Check if all the steps are absolutely necessary. If a step is there to solely inform the person, remove the step, and add an automated email trigger.

4. Design a cutting-edge future-state process map

Create a new process that solves all the problems you have identified. Don’t be afraid to design a totally new process that is sure to work well. Designate KPIs for every step of the process.

5. Implement future state changes and be mindful of dependencies

Inform every stakeholder of the new process. Only proceed after everyone is on board and educated about how the new process works. Constantly monitor the KPIs.

A real-life example of BPR

Many companies like Ford Motors, GTE, and Bell Atlantic tried out BPR during the 1990s to reshuffle their operations. The reengineering process they adopted made a substantial difference to them, dramatically cutting down their expenses and making them more effective against increasing competition.

The story

An American telecom company that had several departments to address customer support regarding technical snags, billing, new connection requests, service termination, etc. Every time a customer had an issue, they were required to call the respective department to get their complaints resolved. The company was doling out millions of dollars to ensure customer satisfaction, but smaller companies with minimal resources were threatening their business.

The telecom giant reviewed the situation and concluded that it needed drastic measures to simplify things–a one-stop solution for all customer queries. It decided to merge the various departments into one, let go of employees to minimize multiple handoffs and form a nerve center of customer support to handle all issues.

A few months later, they set up a customer care center in Atlanta and started training their repair clerks as ‘frontend technical experts’ to do the new, comprehensive job. The company equipped the team with new software that allowed the support team to instantly access the customer database and handle almost all kinds of requests.

Now, if a customer called for billing query, they could also have that erratic dial tone fixed or have a new service request confirmed without having to call another number. While they were still on the phone, they could also make use of the push-button phone menu to connect directly with another department to make a query or input feedback about the call quality.

What is the radical redesign of business processes?

What is radical redesign in BPR?

Why is business process reengineering BPR seen as a radical change effort?

What is known as business process redesign business transformation?