Already mature companies are thinking about reengineering – when the processes are described and built, there comes a stage when the existing model should be used for the development of the enterprise. Reengineering is understood as a wide range of possible changes related to business processes and enterprise organization.
The Essence Of Business Process Reengineering
Reengineering is a step-by-step change in a company aimed at improving performance, produced and measured in terms of business processes and their indicators. Often, the definition of reengineering includes only fundamental changes, complete redesign ,and reworking of activities, but this is not true – it is quite normal to produce and record results at the level of individual processes and even their sections. Moreover, you can also find expert information on the software reengineering process on the HuffPost website.
Methods Of Business Process Reengineering
Software reengineering is done in different ways depending on several factors. First of all, the methods differ from the situation in the enterprise:
- Crisis reengineering is a radical reworking of a large part of the process network in conditions when a company needs to radically change the current situation;
- Development reengineering – smooth changes and study of the results to keep the company in good condition, not forgetting its development.
In addition, the level of change is also important:
- Operational – changes in the zone of 1-2 indicators, to improve the situation in one of the sections of the business process;
- Process – “classic”, affecting one process;
- Systemic – when the entire business system is involved in the changes, i.e. the entire enterprise is measured and re-engineered.
Who Needs Business Process Reengineering?
We can identify several types of organizations for which it will be relevant and appropriate to rethink a lot of processes (for example, document management). First of all, these are companies that are on the verge of ruin due to higher product prices or lower quality indicators. Decisive transformation may be the only way out for such an organization.
Redesign activities may be relevant for companies that do not experience difficulties, but according to market analysis, they are quite likely. These are the risks associated with the emergence of new competitors, changes in customer requirements, or the economic environment.
For the next group of enterprises, transformation serves as a tool to reach new heights and goals. These are the industry leaders who do not experience any difficulties and they are not expected in the future.
Stages Of Business Process Reengineering
Without a doubt, business reengineering is a creative work for experts, but there are clear stages in it:
- Formation of a system of indicators – without measuring the current state, it is pointless to start development, and everything starts with indicators;
- Creating a TO-BE picture – what should the process look like after transformations? What is the purpose of reengineering – i.e. what values should the indicators reach?
- Reengineering activities – implementation of the planned changes: processing of documents, information systems, personnel changes;
- The final stage of the transformation is summing up – what did the transformation lead to? Have the indicators reached the planned values? How is the process working now?
Business Reengineering – Key Features
For a better understanding of such a transformation and its differences from other ways to radically improve the position of the company, it is worth decomposing this concept into its components. Thus, RBP includes four key characteristics, let’s look at each of them:
- Radical. Reengineering business management processes involves building a business anew. Changes affect all areas.
- Fundamental. Reengineering business processes in an organization involves drawing up an ideal picture of the work of the company, abstracting from the already established order in the company.
- Business process. The result of transformations in the company should be the transition to a process approach, since such a reboot is based on the business process.
- Essential. The goal for the company should be significant transformations, if this did not happen, then we can conclude that at some stage the wrong step was taken.
Business Reengineering – What Affects
The following factors can have a significant impact on conversions:
- Leadership team. Reengineering and business process management should be carried out under the control of the head of the company. This provides not only responsibility but also readiness for possible difficulties, including the resistance of employees.
- Motivation. To achieve the ultimate goal, it is necessary to clearly identify the motive for the changes. First and foremost, senior management must be aware of the goals of the transformation project and understand what results it will lead to.
- Personnel. The team working on the transformation in the company must be competent and aware of why this is necessary, that is, to objectively assess the existing problems. Communications. Employees must be aware of the goals of the ongoing changes and understand how they will directly affect them.
- Budget. Enterprise process engineering provides its own budget, in particular for the involvement of IT.AC
Profitability Of Reengineering
More often than not, software reengineering is more expensive than software development. The reason for this is that it is necessary to observe the compatibility of the new version with the old one or to implement a converter of old data to new ones, as well as the need to bypass the restrictions imposed by previous versions of programs.
Consider an example of reengineering from life.
Example: At one large enterprise with a large number of branches, a program developed by a full-time programmer was working. At some stage, this programmer was unable to continue working. As a result, the enterprise had 2 versions of the program: one old version running on BDE and one new one, but not fully working, and access to data that was completely different: direct access components. They tried to install the old version on the branches, but without success, and at the central office it worked with big errors. Because of this, there were large queues of customers and as a result, the company suffered heavy losses. The program was developed in Delphi, using the Interbase 6 database server. There were 10-11 tables in the program, and stored procedures and triggers were practically not used.
Objective: To develop a new version of the program in which the new needs of the company would be implemented, errors that occurred in the central office and branches were corrected, and which would be able to work in branches. It is also important that the program works quickly and does not create a queue of customers. Provide much larger software reengineering services than is available in this program, and further ensure the security system at the proper level of the program and data exchange between branches.
Conclusion
Software reengineering is a fundamental step for an organization that ensures the competitiveness of the company and, as a result, the survival of the organization. Successful implementation of transformations entails comprehensive changes in the organization’s management system.
Certain mistakes and risks can lead to the fact that the goals set for the organization will not be achieved. These factors include non-systematic changes, inaccuracies in assessing the work of the enterprise, inconsistency, and lack of necessary resources.
Such transformations involve the rejection of inefficient approaches, a radical change in the principles of work, and the growth of all significant performance indicators. The essence of transformation can be boiled down to two main questions: how business principles can be revised and what changes need to be implemented in order to achieve growth? If you have your own answers, please share them with us.
About the author:
Janet Polson is a graduate of George Washington University in International business. She is an unspoken expert in the study of science and philosophy. Janet is also a blogger, author of tech articles and she works as business analyst at Computools.