BP1 Blog 1

BPR

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is an approach used by management to increase efficiency and effectiveness within an organization.
BPR became popular in the early 1990’s when two men by the names of Michael Hammer and James Champy published a book called, Reengineering the Corporation. They expressed in their opinions that an extreme redesign of an organization was essential to decrease costs and increase the quality of the business processes. They also said that Information Technology was the key reason for the change. In the book Hammer and Champy provide a list of what they call “the seven principles for reengineering,” which are the key ways to improve quality, time management, and cut costs considerably. These principles are:
· Organize around outcomes, not tasks.
· Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
· Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information.
· Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized.
· Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating the results.
· Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build the control process.
· Capture the information once and at the source.

There are many different guesses why BPR became so popular in the early 1990’s, but the most common idea was the fact that many businesses were spiralling into debt as the United States had to deal with a recession. The recession caused many managers to adopt new ways to cut costs, thus began the Business Process Reengineering. Another reason why BPR was popular in the early 1990’s was many thought that it was being used because it focussed on white-collar processes at a time when white –collar employees was at an all-time high.

The events that took place in the 1990’s that gave BPR a bad name is implementing the BPR system caused a lessening of workloads which caused many organizations to lay-off many employees. Some companies layed-off up to 21% of its employees. Along with this came several more problems closely related to BPR, they include:
Lack of management support for the initiative and thus poor acceptance in the organization.
Exaggerated expectations regarding the potential benefits from a BPR initiative and consequently failure to achieve the expected results.
Underestimation of the resistance to change within the organization.
Implementation of generic so-called best-practice processes that do not fit specific company needs.
Overtrust in technology solutions.
Performing BPR as a one-off project with limited strategy alignment and long-term perspective.
Poor project management.
Due to these concerns or problems related to BPR the use of BPR systems began to decline. However, this is process is still recognized, as it is used as a starting point for business analysis and redesign, and is a main part of the change methodology portfolio, and although it is still used it is being utilized in less radical ways.
Since the declined use of BPR, another process has become quite popular; it is called Business Process Management. Business Process Management strives for process efficiency with the help of information technology. However, this process has also faced a vast majority of critiques because it focuses on the technology aspect and disregarding the human element.
Sources Used:
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci536451,00.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=4zWACat367MC&dq=+history+of+business+process+reengineering&pg=PA143&ots=PRPXYzE11P&sig=sDTHWTEufTY389kIHvrqEtDfOZw&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3D%2Bhistory%2Bof%2Bbusiness%2Bprocess%2Breengineering%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1T4ADBS_en___CA212%26start%3D0%26sa%3DN&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1&cad=legacy#PPA2,M1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering

PM 1

I do not foresee myself with a career in project management in the future. There are several reasons for this decision. The first and foremost reason for this is I do not like or perhaps am too afraid to voice my opinion or expressing myself in front of others on important matters. Another reason I do not see myself as a project manager is a project manager must feel comfortable in front of a group of people with many eyes focussed on them, and I do not feel comfortable in front of a group of my peers let alone strangers. And the final reason I do not see a career in project management in my future is a manager must be well spoken, presentable, know exactly what they are talking about, and must have the ability to answer many different types of questions about a wide majority of topics, and when making a presentation I stutter lose track of what I am to talk about and on more than one occasion I have had no idea what I was talking about.
However, since many of the careers in the business field require management skills it is best to acquire at least some of the essential skills needed for business. The skills that I find to be most important to being a project manager are being able to budget, acquiring good presentation skills, being a positive team motivator, being able to resolve conflict, and being an able-bodied communicator. The preceding qualities are the qualities that I would most like to have if I ever were to become a project manager. These are also the qualities that I would prefer a future project manager of mine to display.
After looking at some of the project management jobs listed on monster.ca I have learned what companies are looking for in a project manager. The abilities they must display are strong oral and written communication skills, strong people and team skills, must be highly motivated as many times they will be working by themselves, must be able to demonstrate strong supervision skills, must display organizational capabilities, must be a good problem solver, must be a multi-tasker, a self starter, must display strong leadership traits, and must be able to manage time relatively well on projects. Many of these project management positions require people to have between 2 to 7 years of management experience to apply for the position. Post secondary school applicants are preferred, however, is not mandatory. The one thing I did not like is the fact that most if not all of the positions require anywhere from 2 and up to 7 years of prior experience as a project manager for the prospective applicants whom do apply.
The job titles I researched were Project Coordinator, Project Manager, Program Manager, Account Coordinator, and IT Project Coordinator.

Business Process Integration Blog # 3

Since you first heard the term XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) you have wondered if you should have it implemented into the business. So you asked me to learn more about XBRL, so now I am going to relay to you the information that I have learned about XBRL.

XBRL is an electronic language that has begun to revolutionize the way that business and financial data is being prepared and reported. It is quickly becoming the standardized channel of communication between businesses and through the use of the internet. Although it is a new process it already being put to practical use in many other countries and is continuously growing rapidly throughout the rest of the world.

There are many reasons why it would be a good idea; however, I will provide you with what I believe are the three most important reasons for the implementation and use of this system.
The first and the most important reason for the using XBRL is it allows us use the XBRL tags which allows an XBRL supported computer software to purely cutting costs and eliminating the laborious tasks of manual entry and re-entry. This software is can treat XBRL intelligently, meaning it can recognize the information in an XBRL document and then select, analyze, store and exchange the information with other computers which can then present the information in a variety of ways.

The second reason for using XBRL allows companies to cut costs drastically by streamlining the processes used for collecting and reporting the financial information. This allows financial advisors, analysts, etc. to receive, find, analyze, and compare data much more efficiently if it is in an XBRL format.

And the third reason for using XBRL is it enables producers and consumers of financial data to step away from costly manual processes, usually entailing time-consuming comparison, assembly, and re-entry of data. This allows the users of this data to concentrate most of their energy towards the analysis which is supported by the computer software which authenticates and manipulates the XBRL information.

If we were to begin using XBRL with our company we would first of all need to join XBRL International, which carries the most up-to-date version of XBRL. We would then have to have somebody who knows how to operate the software to come in and set it up on the companies’ computers. Then we would have to have that person in for one or two weeks to teach us how to use the XBRL software which will provide the most reliable information to our consumers.

Accountants do not have to stay up-to-date with XBRL standards as the use of XBRL does not enforce a standardization of financial reporting. The XBRL language is flexible which is intended to support all aspects of financial reporting in different countries and industries. This allows the XBRL to meet certain business requirements no matter what type or level of the organization uses the information