The role of information technology in business process reengineering

The development of IT is largely determined not only by internal factors, scientific and technical research and development, but also external, for example, dominant management theories, which are designed to theoretically substantiate practical measures to improve the performance of organizations of various profiles. One of the latest trends in this area is called “Business process reengineering”. The English term “reengineering” into Russian is “perestroika”, but due to the specific “loading” of this concept for the Russian reader, in my opinion, it is preferable to leave a direct tracing-paper from English “reengineering”. The content of this concept is quite capacious and is deciphered on many pages of publications on this topic on management theory.

According to the author of the term, "reengineering" M. Halemer, the modern business world is transforming too quickly. Companies are not able to adequately rebuild their strategy and tactics in response to changes in the field of technology, the marketing framework for customer needs, based on the principles of organization set forth by the classic of bourgeois political economy. A. Smith in the work “The Wealth of the Nation” (1776). The division of labor, as the basis of the labor process, was later embodied in the conveyor of Henry Ford and the principles of managing large companies by Alfred Sloan. The conditions of rapid growth of the first decades of industrial development in Western countries corresponded well with the pyramidal structure of the organization with numerous levels of management. This kind of structure assumed a steady, growing demand for products (automobiles, household appliances, etc.). ) by a consumer who does not have much choice. However, today the situation has changed dramatically. Nothing can be predicted for a sufficiently long period - neither the emergence of new technologies, nor the life cycle of products and services, nor the nature of competition. In developed countries, the buyer-seller relationship has changed significantly. The seller no longer dominates. It is consumers who tell suppliers what and when they want to receive and how much they will pay for it. There is no longer such a thing as a “client in general”, there is only “this client” with which you are dealing at a particular moment. The mass market was divided into parts, some of them are so small that they can accommodate only one customer. Many factors contributed to the change in the balance of power in favor of the consumer. The consumer today has a much wider selection of similar goods and services, including due to the information saturation of the market. In addition, a large consumer can acquire the technology he needs (for example, a desktop publishing complex) and not go anywhere. The principle begins: "Do as I need, or I will do it myself." Intense competition has changed almost the entire market. The same goods compete on completely different grounds: in one market - on the basis of price, on the other - on the basis of choice, on the third - on quality and additional services. With the resolution of border trade barriers, this kind of competition has become international. as I need, or I'll do it myself. " Intense competition has changed almost the entire market. The same goods compete on completely different grounds: in one market - on the basis of price, on the other - on the basis of choice, on the third - on quality and additional services. With the resolution of border trade barriers, this kind of competition has become international. as I need, or I'll do it myself. " Intense competition has changed almost the entire market. The same goods compete on completely different grounds: in one market - on the basis of price, on the other - on the basis of choice, on the third - on quality and additional services. With the resolution of border trade barriers, this kind of competition has become international.
Thus, the world of modern business has changed so significantly that organizations created to work in the former stable conditions cannot adapt to the new environment without improving the principles of activity and structure. It is in this context that reengineering can be interpreted as “a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of the business process to achieve radical improvements in today's key performance indicators, such as cost, quality, services and speed”. One more definition of reengineering is “the ways in which an organization can achieve radical changes that affect the cost, life cycle of products, services, quality, methods and technologies that regard a business as a series of consumer-oriented processes, and not as a series of oriented functions. "
Process change is made possible through the use of information technology (IT). However, a company in which they first look for problems, and then look for technologies to solve them, doomed to lag IT in reengineering requires inductive thinking, the ability to first recognize the right solution, and then look for ways to implement it. The main mistake of most companies is that they view IT through the prism of existing processes. They ask: “How can we use new technological opportunities to improve what we are doing now?”, Instead of asking: “How to use technology to do things that we haven’t done yet?”. Indeed, reengineering is the use of the latest technical innovations to achieve completely new business goals.
Naturally, IT plays a role in changing business processes along with other important factors that determine the business development strategy - administration, pricing policy, technological innovation, etc.
Examples of how new ITs are changing forms of work are given in the table:


The following can be attributed to the positive conditions for the effective use of reengineering:
- The probability of success of reengineering largely depends on the commitment of all senior managers of this company to this idea. The project should be implemented under the supervision of the chief manager;
- there is more chance of not success in those organizations that realistically evaluate the goals of reengineering and the expected results, have an idea of ​​the terms, efforts and finances necessary for its implementation;
-the composition of the team that prepares the reengineering project and then monitors its implementation should include employees with the authority and ability to create an atmosphere of cooperation;
- projects that are considered in terms and extensions are more likely to succeed because they generate more enthusiasm and less resistance;
- The success of reengineering also depends on how much management and ordinary employees of the company understand how to achieve strategic goals;
- very important solid and skillful management;
- The project should have its own budget, especially if intensive use of IT is planned.
Any restructuring can be used to accept their own idleness and incompetence. Reengineering itself is by no means the first technology, the use of which serves as a salvation from unpleasant worries. Reengineering is spreading as it meets the many desires and needs of more people.

Literature
Popov E.V., Shapot M.D. Business Process Reengineering and Intelligent Modeling - materials from the seminar “Dynamic Intelligent Systems in Management and Modeling” - M: TsRDZ, 1996.
Shapot MD Tools for supporting the reengineering of business processes. - Materials of the workshop. M: TsRDZ, 1996.

An article 2-3 years ago was published in a book (one of the collections of articles by students of technical specialties). To my shame, I do not remember the exact name. Author V.V. Terekhov

Thanks for attention!