Harmon_chapter1 summary.

After reading this I decided to write my summary of this pdf, so I could get one blog entry done ;P
Here it is:

Business process change summary.
Main idea of this text is to show managers different point of views on business process change in order to give everyone idea what is available to them today.
In the beginning we can read about significant examples from history how some processes were improved. Conclusion here is that new technologies often led to new business processes.
Then we are getting into details.

Organizations as Systems.
Basicly everything is connected to everything else and that it is often worthwile to model
business and processes in terms of flows na feedback loops.

Systems and Value Chains is getting more concrete. First thing is diagram published in Michael Porter book and that as a result of Porter's work new approach to accounting "ABC" has become popular. The second big name mentioned is Geary Rummler who stated that the only way to overcome interdepartmental problems was to conceptualize and manage processes as wholes. One of the most important thing is that Rummler with Brache made framework that showed in a single diagram how everything is related to everything else. Basicly three levels of performance: organization, proces and job/performer level. Prior to Rummler and Porter's work most companies had focused on dividing processes into specific activities that were assigned to specific departments, which ended up with departments working on their own aka "silo thinking". Because of their work in 80's and 90's we could observe emphasis on value chains and systems and business process reenginering.

The Six Sigma Movement.
Organization that follows Six Sigma learn to use variety of Six Sigma tools and also embrace a whole culture dedicated to training employees to support process change throughout the organization. What we got out of this is international standard ISO9000:2000.

Business Process Change in the 90s.
1. BPR theorists urged companies to define all of their major processes and then focus on the processes that offered the most return on improvement efforts.
2. Business process reengineering was more than an emphasis on redesigning largescale business processes. The driving idea was that information technology was now capable of creating major improvements in business processes. Michael Hammer claimed that large companies had become more inefficient by becoming larger and more specialized. The solution was: processes needed to be conceptualized as complete, comprehensive entities that stretched from the initial order to the delivery
of the product. Second, Information Technology (IT)1 needed to be used to integrate these comprehensive processes.

The Role of Information Technology in BPR.
Here we can see that early 90s BPR theorists underestimated problems related with integration of corporate systems and IT technologies available at that time. Basicly some BPR ideas worked fine but many failed.

Misuses of BPR
Another approach on BPR was downsizing mid level management structure in organizations. Sadly many staff reductions were justified as BPR so in the end employees concluded that BPR is just staff reduction.

Other Process Change Work in the 1990s
During the 90s new systems were introduced. Vendors started to organize their products so that they could be represented as business process. Systems allowing one to diagram a business process by simply deciding how to linka number of application modules were called enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. ERP provided small scale improvements rather than radical redesigns like BPR.
What is more software engineers of this time have developed modeling languages for modeling
software applications and tools that can generate code from software models.

The Internet and Y2K
Introduction of internet solved many problems caused by hard to install and expensive to maintains systems like EDI which allowed companies to link themselves only with largest suppliers or customers.
During that period many “dot.com” companies sprang up were promising to change the way companies did business by Internet but most simply disappeared introducing nothing special.
The technology gurus warned about approach of Y2K bug but in the end it has been peacefully solved by IT resources checking existing software.

A Quick Summary
Here we are given nice diagram providing us with overview of the historical process technologies described up to now.

Business Process Change in the New Millennium
Combination of workflow system, software applications integration systems, and Internet Technologies aka Business Process Management System (BPMS) was introduced. All of those technologies were tried before but in 2003 it seemed that they are actually working together. Suddenly all the big companies were investing money into business process architecture. Process redesign and improvement have also enjoyed a renaissance and Six Sigma has expanded from manufacturing to every possible industry while simultaneously incorporating Lean.

What Drives Business Process Change?
Here we are a bit back in the past.
Most of all – money. Simple as that in bad times companies are trying to save some money. US took more part in world’s trade while other companies entered US market and started to compete.
During this same period, IT technology was remaking the world. The first personal
computers appeared at the beginning of the 1980s. In 90s world saw internet. Amazon.com revolutionized the way books are bought and sold for example.
Worldwide communication is less expensive than before what ended up with production movements to other places like from UE to China.

Notes and References
Simple as that. Info about books worth of reading.