What is Business Process Reengineering (BPR)?
Business process reengineering is the fundamental redesign of business processes, often undertaken alongside an ERP implementation, to improve performance.
Definition
Business process reengineering (BPR) is the practice of rethinking and radically redesigning core business processes to achieve significant improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed. In the context of ERP, BPR addresses the question of whether to change processes to fit the software's standard best-practice flows or to customize the software to fit existing processes. Most modern ERP guidance favors adopting the system's standard processes where possible, using ERP as a catalyst to eliminate inefficient legacy practices. BPR can deliver major benefits but is organizationally disruptive, since it changes how people work and often who does what. It is closely tied to change management, because reengineered processes only deliver value if users actually adopt them.
How Business Process Reengineering Works in ERP
During an ERP project, BPR typically happens in the design or blueprint phase, where current-state processes are mapped, compared against the ERP's standard capabilities, and redesigned to a future state. Decisions to standardize on the software's flows reduce costly customization and ease future upgrades. Because reengineering changes day-to-day work, it must be paired with organizational change management and training so the new processes stick after go-live.
ERP Vendors with Strong Business Process Reengineering
SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud
Fully customisable managed-cloud ERP for complex enterprises
Oracle ERP Cloud
Enterprise cloud ERP with deep financials and analytics
Workday
Cloud HCM + financials for services and people-centric orgs
IFS Applications
ERP + EAM + FSM in one platform for asset-heavy industries
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I reengineer processes to fit the ERP or customize the ERP to fit my processes?
Prevailing best practice is to adopt the ERP's standard processes wherever they are competitive, reserving customization for genuine differentiators, because heavy customization raises cost and complicates upgrades. ERP implementations are often used as the trigger for this kind of process reengineering.
Why does BPR need change management?
Reengineering alters how people work and sometimes their roles, so without communication, training, and stakeholder engagement, users may resist or revert to old habits. Change management ensures the redesigned processes are actually adopted and deliver the intended benefits.