It’s a common trap.
Organizations become enamored with information technology and see it as the remedy for all their problems. They hear that implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or a customer relationship management (CRM) package will boost productivity and increase sales. Expectations are high.
But an IT solution, on it own, often fails to deliver the anticipated miracle cure. Here’s why: the technology-besotted business fails to assess the underlying business processes it seeks to automate. A business that ends up automating broken, inefficient business processes won’t realize the promised benefits of IT. An organization may layer the latest and greatest technology on business processes that have persisted for decades. Adding new technology to the same old processes, however, will never yield the hoped-for technology return on investment.
Any company looking at a major IT implementation should first examine its business processes. Here are four signs that you need to embark on business process reengineering program:
