Process change projects: a study of Norwegian practice

Process change, in various incarnations, has been a central topic in the IS field for several decades. This paper presents an overview of Norwegian model-supported process-change practice, based on in-depth interviews of 33 informants, each describing a different process-change effort in one of 30 Norwegian enterprises. The overview focusses on use of process models, present versus future focus, ICT as enabler of change, participation, resistance to change and process ownership. Norwegian practice is then compared with the predominantly North-American process-change literature from a national-culture perspective. In particular, we find that stakeholder participation is high in Norwegian process-change projects and that resistance tends to be low, a finding consistent with theory on national-culture differences. The paper presents the first results from a larger project that aims to contribute towards a theory of model-based process change

Value, Kaizen and Knowledge Management: Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for Southampton Solent University

The process of development of the strategic plan for Southampton Solent University offered a vehicle for the development of kaizen and knowledge management (KM) activities within the institution. The essential overlap between the methods offers clear benefits in the HE environment. In consideration of the aspects of KM and kaizen, various potential opportunities were identified as targets for improvement, and clarified by knowledge audit as to value and viability. The derived outcomes are listed along with some of the principal factors and perceived barriers in the practical implementation of the outcomes. Knowledge audit applied here focused on the identification of where value arises within the business. Resource constraints and the practicalities of a people-centred system limit the permissible rate of innovation, so precise focus on the areas of business activity of most significance to the mission and client base is crucial. The fundamental question of whether such a strategy should be developed as a separate strand or embedded into existing strategies is discussed. In practice, Solent has chosen to embed, principally for reasons of maintenance of ownership and commitment. Confidence in the process has been built through prior success with trialled activities around retention, where an activity-based pedagogic framework was adopted to address issues with an access course. Other areas of early intervention include the development and reengineering of recruitment and admissions processes, and the development of activities and pedagogy based on the virtual learning environment as exemplars of the importance of cyclical feedback in continuous improvement. The inherent complexity of processes running across the university as an organisation offers opportunities for benefits from the through-process approach implicit in kaizen. The business value of the institution is in the skills of its employees and its deployed intellectual property, and thus the importance of the enhancement of both tangible assets and intangible processes is critical to future success

Business Process Management Education in Academia: Status, challenges, and Recommendations

In response to the growing proliferation of Business Process Management (BPM) in industry and the demand this creates for BPM expertise, universities across the globe are at various stages of incorporating knowledge and skills in their teaching offerings. However, there are still only a handful of institutions that offer specialized education in BPM in a systematic and in-depth manner. This article is based on a global educators’ panel discussion held at the 2009 European Conference on Information Systems in Verona, Italy. The article presents the BPM programs of five universities from Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America, describing the BPM content covered, program and course structures, and challenges and lessons learned. The article also provides a comparative content analysis of BPM education programs illustrating a heterogeneous view of BPM. The examples presented demonstrate how different courses and programs can be developed to meet the educational goals of a university department, program, or school. This article contributes insights on how best to continuously sustain and reshape BPM education to ensure it remains dynamic, responsive, and sustainable in light of the evolving and ever-changing marketplace demands for BPM expertise

BPR initiatives: The impacts of IT and organisational customs and practices

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 28/02/2002.This research is designed to investigate the relationship between IT and Organisational customs and practices in Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects based on a research framework, which consists of organisational culture, IT and the outcome of BPR initiatives together with the inextricable interdependence between them. The focus is on developing a process oriented, context-based description and explanation of the BPR phenomenon in Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) countries. The study strives to describe and explain the process of adopting and implementing BPR initiatives in petrochemical and utilities industries in AGCC countries in terms of interaction of contextual conditions, actions and consequences. The research methodology of this thesis focuses on the pragmatics of conducting case studies as a rigorous and effective method of research. The study emphasises on conducting positivist inquiry of three case studies' data to deductively test the researcher's understanding on BPR and her assumptions of 'Blueprints' for successful BPR in AGCC countries. Two of the case studies organisations are sister companies operating in the oil and gas industry, whereas the third case study organisation is a utility company operating in the field of water and electricity generation and supply. This study resulted in a framework that could serve as a prescription to achieve a successful BPR initiative. It has identified a number of organisational elements that emphasised the necessity to pay attention to cultural and IT issues prior to undertaking BPR projects. These include the development of strategy and sound stimuli for the project, the availability of leadership, top management vision, availability of required skills and expertise and the maturity of the IT infrastructure. In addition, the study has empirically emphasised a number of BPR project implementation elements that should be in place to ensure successful implementation and management of the project including: the availability of an appropriately composed project team, continuous communication, users' involvement and usage of communication technologies

Reengineering Corporation Street : an empirical study of business process

This study was focused on Business Reengineering (Hammer, 1990; Hammer & Champy, 1993); aka Business Process Reengineering (BPR). The main aim of the study was to test the authors' (2001) claims that BPR was 'alive and well, ' and that'in fact' it had been 'one of the success stories of business history, ' but in this case within the context of local government organisations (LGOs) within the UK public sector. Throughout the final decades of the 20th Century, and continuing to date, there has been a relentless pace of change within the public sector during which managers have been under constant pressure to improve performance within their organisations (McAdam & Mitchell, 1998; Zeppou and Sotirakou, 2003). This pressure was increased in 2004 with the publication of Sir Peter Gershon's 'Spending Review 2004: Efficiency Review - Releasing Resources for the Frontline: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency. ' By 2007/08 Gershon was looking for 'auditable and transparent efficiency gains of over £20 billion, ' and 'a gross reduction of over 84,000 posts' across the military, civil service and administration. Councils across the UK have responded to these demands in differing ways, but some chose to adopt 'reengineering' as part of their range of change management strategies. This study has focused on two such LGOs over that 4-year period. The study commenced by reviewing the literature surrounding reengineering - or BPR, as it has become more widely known - including as appropriate other approaches to quality and change management. Focusing also on critical 'success' and 'failure' factors (CSF & CFF; Al-Mashari & Zairi, 1999), two key issues emerged that were relevant to BPR's potential for success in such organisations; the concepts of 'Organizational Readiness' (Hammer & Stanton, 1995), and that of 'degrees' of BPR, or 'Project Radicalness' (Kettinger et al., 1997). A qualitative research approach was adopted, with 28, semi-structured, in-depth interviews held with 29 participants from the two co-operating LGOs. 'Purposive sampling' (Saunders, et al., 2000) was employed with participants selected from those organisations' BPR training cohorts and those involved more directly at junior, middle and senior management levels. Access was also granted to meetings and organisational documentation. Impact analysis was undertaken with group and individual interviews as necessary. The study's contribution to knowledge is firstly in the combination of the two concepts mentioned above, to create a more comprehensive 'self-diagnostic' mechanism by which UK LGOs might assess and increase their 'readiness' to undertake change of this nature, and/or modify the 'ambition' level of their change projects prior to embarking upon them, thereby greatly improving their likelihood of success. The research therefore has important findings in the areas of diagnosis, planning, implementation and performance measurement, and will be of significant interest to academics and practitioners engaged in understanding or implementing change within the services sector generally and public sector and LGOs in particular. Secondly, the research will also be of wider public interest revealing substantive issues for the future effective management and use of public finances. Whilst some change has been noted, real change does not appear to have yet been achieved, particularly at more senior and organisation-wide levels, and a more concerted and serious approach is necessary based on this new, composite, self-diagnostic process. There are indications that some of the change agencies themselves may be guilty of adding to further waste creation, and the evidence of low levels of 'understanding' of the true meaning and portents of 'reengineering' draws into serious question the oft- stated 70W failure rate of BPR

Developing competitiveness of a company using a new business process engineering concept

Suomessa ja muissa länsimaissa yritysten toimintaympäristössä on tapahtunut 2000-luvulla kaksi laajaa ja merkittävää muutosta. Ensinnäkin länsimaiset yhteiskunnat ovat siirtyneet jälkiteollisesta aikakaudesta kohti informaatioajan aikakautta, ja toiseksi yritysten välinen kilpailu on muuttunut laajempien kokonaisuuksien, verkostojen väliseksi kilpailuksi. Näiden muutosten voidaan nähdä kulkevan rinnakkain toisen suuren yhteiskunnallisen muutoksen, globalisaation kanssa, jossa suuryritykset toimivat maailmanlaajuisesti yli maanosien ja valtioiden rajojen. Tämä tapaustutkimus luo taloudellisesti ja teknisesti kilpailukykyisen liiketoiminnan hallintajärjestelmän tehokkuuden ja laadun suorituskyvyn parantamiseksi keskikokoisessa elektronisia tuotteita valmistavassa yrityksessä. Tutkimus keskittyy yritysten kilpailukyvyn tutkimiseen ja tutkimustulosten pohjalta kehittää kohdeyrityksen kilpailukykyä toteuttamalla prosessijohtamisen lähestymistapaa haastavassa ja dynaamisessa globaalissa liiketoimintaympäristössä. Teoriaosassa käsitellään liiketoimintaprosessien kehittämiseen liittyviä menetelmiä yrityksen strategisesta, asiakkaan kokeman laadun ja asiakkaan saaman lisäarvon näkökulmasta. Teorian pohjalta laaditaan liiketoimintaprosessien kehittämiskonsepti, joka koostuu vaiheittain etenevistä kehitystoimenpiteistä kilpailuedun kehittämiseksi ja ylläpitämiseksi case-yrityksessä. Tutkimus vahvistaa olemassa olevaa teoriaa liiketoimintaprosessien kehittämismenetelmästä (business process reengineering, BPR) ja sen toimivuutta kilpailukyvyn parantamisessa yleisesti. Sen lisäksi tutkimus vahvistaa liiketoimintaprosessien kehittämismenetelmän toimivuutta 2000-luvun kilpailussa dynaamisessa ja verkostoituneessa toimintaympäristössä.In Finland and other Western countries, companies’ operating environments have faced two broad and significant changes in the 2000s. Firstly, Western societies have moved from the postindustrial age towards the information society age and, secondly, for larger entities, competition has changed from that between enterprises to that between networks. These changes can be seen to run in parallel with another major social change, globalization, under which large enterprises operate on a global scale across continents and state borders. This case study involves the creation of an economically and technically competitive operating management system so as to improve efficiency and quality performance in a midsized electronics manufacturing company. The study focuses on enterprise competitiveness and, based on the research findings, develops the case company’s competitiveness by implementing a process management approach to its challenging and dynamic global business environment. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with business process development methodology for the company's strategy, the customer's perception of quality and perspectives on added value creation. On the basis of the theory, a process development concept is drawn up, comprising a number of sequential stages for developing and maintaining the case company’s sustainable competitive advantage. The study confirms the existing theory of business processes development (business process reengineering, BPR) and its functionality for improving competitiveness in general. In addition, the study will strengthen the BPR’s functionality in the competitive, dynamic and networked business environment of the 2000s.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

BPR and ERP: A Chinese Case

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is defined as the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes. BPR is also known as a major approach widely used in facilitating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems implementation. In addition it has been suggested that an awareness of cultural differences is critical to ERP success. In this paper we examine the impact of human and management organizational subsystems on business process change and performance. We use a comparative study of four Chinese organizations with and without ERP systems. The findings of this study prove the importance of soft aspects in business process change through implementation of ERP systems

Information systems evaluation: Navigating through the problem domain

Information systems (IS) make it possible to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness, which can provide competitive advantage. There is, however, a great deal of difficulty reported in the normative literature when it comes to the evaluation of investments in IS, with companies often finding themselves unable to assess the full implications of their IS infrastructure. Although many of the savings resulting from IS are considered suitable for inclusion within traditional accountancy frameworks, it is the intangible and non-financial benefits, together with indirect project costs that complicate the justification process. In exploring this phenomenon, the paper reviews the normative literature in the area of IS evaluation, and then proposes a set of conjectures. These were tested within a case study to analyze the investment justification process of a manufacturing IS investment. The idiosyncrasies of the case study and problems experienced during its attempts to evaluate, implement, and realize the holistic implications of the IS investment are presented and critically analyzed. The paper concludes by identifying lessons learnt and thus, proposes a number of empirical findings for consideration by decisionmakers during the investment evaluation process

The legal and contractual aspects of networked cooperation for the building and construction industry

The construction industry is a project-based business bringing together many different organisations to complete a desired goal. The strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has enabled the goal to be completed more effectively. Two issues require addressing, the technology itself and the implementation factors of the technology. Such implementation factors should consider, among other factors, the legal and contractual issues associated with the use of ICT, training requirements and its effects on the organisational culture. To date the legal and contractual issues have not been extensively covered, and it is recognised that the technologies have not been properly covered by any recognised legal and contractual practices. This in turn is threatening to inhibit the growth and prosperity of the use of the technology on construction projects. This paper discusses these legal and contractual issues and describes methods and tools that can be used to enable the growth of technology to be used in a legal and contractually valid environment