The significance of BPR is radical : not just to change but to re-invent, acknowledging that implications of e-commerce are so widespread as to necessitate starting all over again from scratch. The idea is not just to look for cost savings or speed or quality improvement in current operations but to question why things are being done at all, and to re-design the whole process.

More than half of Europe's top corporations have been engaged in a BPR restructuring project since 1990. In the UK for example, the largest management consultancy, Coopers & Lybrand, says that in 1994 BPR assignments represented the biggest source of consultancy income. For the smaller business, there may be less problem cutting away dead wood, but still the need to be radical can exist.

Varying descriptions of BPR

As with almost every new management technique or concept BPR has been described in a variety of ways: 

• a revolutionary approach to the management of organisations that uses e-commerce and human resource management to dramatically improve business performance.
• the analysis and design of work flows and processes within and between organisations using e-commerce to create a new type of organisation
• the transformation of a company from one based on functions such as accounting, marketing etc. to one based on e-commerce processes such as order processing, fulfilling customer expectations etc.
• a way of transforming the business, which frees it from the restrictions of the traditional approach by cutting across functional divisions. The transformation is based around newly created e-commerce systems.

Whichever definition of BPR is taken, a large-scale redesign of jobs is implied. In many cases this means that workers will be able to have access to information from a variety of places including their homes. BPR usually leads to a reduction in the total workforce, but the originators of BPR say that this should not be the primary reason for implementing BPR. A lot of companies that have decided to cut their workforce have done so under the banner of BPR, but in such instances the result is that the company's management approach remains the same. The raison d'etre of BPR is to imbue an organisation with a completely new philosophy. This philosophy combines responsiveness to the customer with a management approach that is based on processes which are continually improved to raise their efficiency, and these two features in turn are supported by enhanced worker flexibility and responsibility.

Evolution and Revolution

Implementing BPR in a business as a process of continuing revolution can be very damaging, not only from the H.R. point of view (where there will inevitably be casualties) but also from the customer/client viewpoint, where relationships can easily be de-stabilised. Best practise in BPR implementations of electronic commerce necessitate

• carrying the staff of the business along with the changes, and convincing them of the benefits
• creating better relationships with clients and customers as well as enhancing performance levels and competitiveness

The following case studies, although large corporate based, illustrate the same general principles that apply as BPR moves down-scale into smaller businesses

Case Studies