Key reengineering roles for the successful implementation of business process reengineering projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

To be highly competitive in present globalised economy, there is a decisive need for organisations to rethink and transform the prevailing business processes for improved quality and efficiency, reduced costs, and increased profitability. This leads to the introduction and evolvement of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects in various organisations over the past decades. Since BPR facilitates the organisations to enhance the performance of their business processes, despite the complexity and riskiness of BPR projects, it has spanned numerous industries. Regardless of the extensive adoption, in many instances efforts of BPR implementation has proved unsuccessful. BPR projects often tend to be large with long durations and tend to involve numerous stakeholders. It has been asserted that the selection and organisation of the people, who really do the reengineering, is key to the success of the endeavour. Accordingly, there is a necessity to identify the key stakeholders who should get involved in BPR projects to assure their success. Since the key stakeholders involved in each reengineering project may differ based upon the process being selected for reengineering, this study is aimed investigating the key reengineering roles for the successful implementation of BPR projects. Altogether, four (4) BPR projects implemented within the last two years in four different organisations in the Western Province of Sri Lanka were selected as case studies to investigate the BPR roles. Findings revealed eight (8) reengineering roles that is needed to facilitate successful implementation of BPR projects in the Sri Lankan context. The functions to be performed by each role during the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation phases of BPR projects were also identified. The study revealed two reengineering roles: i.e. ‘initiator’ and ‘reengineering facilitators’; not identified in literature, but were recognised as important in BPR implementation in the Sri Lankan context. In doing so, the paper brings forwards the findings with respect to the key reengineering roles to be involved throughout the BPR projects in the Sri Lankan context.