IEE paper: business people reengineering

The reliance of a reengineered process upon yet-to-demonstrated and in some quarters undesirable IT capabilities is a major source of resistance and doubt, given the perceived history of overpromised and late or underdelivered IT solutions from MRP to Windows 95. The sense of loss of control already inherent in BPR is exacerbated by the perception that it is the IT itself and not the needs of the business which is driving the process redesign. To counter this perception, the common advice is to ensure that the effort is led and seen to be led by “business” rather than “IT” personnel which is itself an invidious if none the less meaningful distinction. The separation of business knowledge from IT knowledge is at the root of many disasters, not least among BPR initiatives. While IT is the great enabler which allows all other varieties of business expertise to be shared across the organisation, IT itself paradoxically remains a bastion of specialisation, with a vocabulary and an image which deny access to outsiders more effectively than the most rigorous confidentiality policy. Yet so long as “business” and “IT” professionals alike perpetuate their ignorance of each other´s work, a BPR team will experience difficulties internally and with the organisation at large, no matter who is the leader. Reengineering the relationship between IT people and the rest of the organisation is an essential prerequisite for successful BPR